It is not always easy to see clear. Like looking through a old glass window. When the eye can’t clearly identify things our brains gladly fills in the blanks.
This picture is taken through a window in Göteborg city’s oldest building, “Kronhuset”, and in the forefront it’s quite clear but…. What do You see?
See the light, ha de Gött!
I promised in a comment to write about the three additional letters we have in the Swedish alphabet, so here it is. Yes it’s true we have three more letters after A to Z as in the English alphabet. Åå, Ää and Öö. Not to be show off’s, they have these with a different spelling, and pronunciation, in Danish and Norwegian also. Let’s just say it’s a Scandinavian thing.
Lets start with Å. A friend of mine tried to explain this in a London pub when we were young backpackers. “It’s an a with a prick on”, he said. Took a while to figure out why the men laughed and the girls blushed. Dot is in Swedish “prick”. It is pronounced as ooh. Even for native Swedish it’s sometimes difficult to know when to use O or Å.
Moving on to the A with two pricks on, Ä. Pronounced eah. If you have sheep close by listen to them, they go bäää. Use Google translate to listen. Just copy from this text and paste in Google translate. Very common use and a real struggle for all English speakers moving to Sweden.
So the last letter the O with two pricks on, Ö. This is actually also an entire word that translates to island. You just have to listen to this on Google. There is nothing even close in English that I can think of. I think this is a happy little letter. Used to drive my teacher crazy when I made a smiley of it.
Just remember that sometimes less is more, ha de Gött!
Adam the adventures ant Left with a bold chant Walked out the anthill Fearlessly into the evening chill Strongest of animals I am Six times my size, god damn He ran out of luck Six legs was stuck Had to succum' To a chewing gum
You never know what to ant-icipate, ha de Gött!
Sometimes Forestry Ulle dress in civilian clothes and walk the city streets like a normal person. Last Friday was such an occasion. The city was Göteborg a two hour drive from the meadows of home.
You see “Stora Hamnkanalen” or “Main Harbor Canal” in the photo. City hall with the German Church behind on the right side. If some of my Dutch readers feel at home you’re probably not mistaken. City planners and engineers was hired to build the city and gave it the nickname “Little Amsterdam”. Later during the industrial revolution many British entrepreneurs found their luck here, so the nickname changed to “Little London” and that remains still today.
The city was founded in 1621 by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf. With its strategic position as a wedge to the west and the North Sea between Norway and Denmark, it was built as a fortress. Surrounded by high walls and canals in a marshland with the river Göta Älv on one side. From there ships could unload goods to smaller boats that then was rowed in to the Hamnkanal.
You can often hear my catch phrase “ha de gött” in Göteborg when people leave a shop or a tram. Stay tuned for more pictures, ha de Gött!
Sometimes feel like a shadow a fraud bleak reflection of the beautiful and bright against the wall but sometimes in the setting autumn sun the shadow is the center center of the stage
We all depend upon the sun, ha de Gött!
Song lyrics to the music of Queen’s “The great pretender”. Inspired by Hobbo and Out-of-the-cave blogs, click on the names to see their excellent blogs.
Oh yes, I'm the great procrastinator (ooh no-o) pretending that I get things done (ooh no-o) my need is such I postpone to much I'm slow start that no-one can help Oh yes, I'm the great procrastinator (ooh no-o) adrift with a list of to-do's (ooh no-o) I make the plan but to my real shame I just can't get things to move on Too real is the scene kicking cans down the road Too real is my tactics delaying stuff Oh, yes I'm the great procrastinator (ooh no-o) just keep's putting things on hold (ooh no-o) I seem to be stuck, sat on my butt stalling my actions like a fine statuette Pretending that I can get things done Too real is the scene kicking cans down the road Oh yes, I'm the great procrastinator (ooh no-o) just sitting around on my ass (ooh no-o) in my head you see a magical spree but I'm just wearing my sofa down procrastinating to see the truth Pretending I that can get things done
I hope I don’t offend any fans to the fantastic band Queen and the singer Freddie Mercury. As a band aid I also put up the official Freddie Mercury video from Youtube. The song is originally written by Buck Ram (1907 – 1991). Buck Ram was from Chicago, Illinois. Composer, band leader and also the Platters manager. Also the Platters recorded the Great Pretender. Ha de Gött!
A rainy day I will sort things postponed and neglected A rainy day I will get down to it long awaited A rainy day I will sort it all out structure and shape A rainy day I will let it all flow symphony of keys A rainy day I will bloody well will write that novel
But today sun is shining, ha de Gött!
after covid months of home working crowded tight together, no joking family sat down, had a voting daddy won, let's go boating out to the free, wide blue recharge energy, need this true now they sit leeward, close together caught by the harsh windy weather either way you choose you can win and, or loose
Like a white beacon in all the green. The hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) got my imagination going with its many English names. But first the Swedish name, “Snårvinda”. Connects to its growth place in bushes where it twines around another plants. Reaches up to four meters. It can be found all over the world in tempered climate in several sub species.
The English names is like a smorgasbord. Rutland beauty, bugle vine, heavenly trumpets, bellbind, granny-pop-out-of-bed and, according to Wikipedia, many more. Please drop a comment if you know any more. Heavenly trumpets seems a fitting name with its innocent white and trumpet shape flowers.
Granny-pop-out-of-bed. In my head plays out the scene with granny jumping out of bed. Dressed in her long white night dress. Hair all white from age and fuzzy from sleep. She dances around like a teenager in the bedroom with the radio playing loud. The song is the Beatles “a hard days night”. Sweeps across the hall to that handsome widower’s room. He wakes up mumbling something about ghosts. He finds his glasses, and his teeth. Puts them in to give her a Liberace smile. They dance all night and just before the staff enters her room she slips back into bed. The staff helps her with the morning things. While wheeling her out to the common room for breakfast they ask if she had a good night. Sure did, she answers and give the widower across the hall a wink of the eye. Now then, ready for pills and bridge thrills before the heavenly trumpets sounds.
Angels sound your horns, Ha de Gött!
What if there were no name to places? All positioning was mathematically. Where do you live? Oh, I live at N58°, E11°.
Would all territorial wars end? Or would we just fight over squares.
What language would be? Or would we only communicate mathematically like computers. In ones and zeros, or hexadecimals.
How about our names? Just a series of numbers, date of birth and a serial number like our social security number. “Happy birthday dear 20210710-0001”.
If we only worked with numbers would all scores be settled?
Did you meet all your numbers? Yes, we had a large family dinner.
Marriage an addition, divorce a subtraction. Making children, multiplying. Would then giving birth be a division?
Genealogy just a matrix.
Sometimes my thoughts don’t add up, ha de Gött!
UlleHaddock 