Through the eye of the needle. What can you see.
Through the eye of the needle. What will fit.
Through the eye of the needle. What will thread.
Through the eye of the needle. What’s on the other side
Through the eye of the needle. Camel or man.
Sometimes better not knowing, ha de Gött!
This weekend was the start of the moose hunting season. Better stay out of the forest for a while. My father-in-law told me there was a veterans tractor day not far from home. I grabbed the camera and joined him.
It was a pleasant surprise to see all the tractor models from my childhood. Some in mint condition and some very much in daily use. There was the Volvo BM 230 with its characteristic sound from its two cylinder diesel engine, “ti-to, ti-to. Hence it got the nickname “Tisdag-Torsdag”, Tuesday-Thursday, but it doesn’t make any sense in English, sorry.
There was also Volvo BM 430 and Volvo BM 350. The 350 was also called Boxer from its three cylinder boxer diesel engine. I remember the acrobatic struggle to get in and out of the Boxer. The smell of wet soil and diesel filled the air in the mild autumn weather as the sound of strong diesels rang in my ears.
Grounded in dirt, ha de Gött!
On the lichen covered rock it waits
Waits to be tossed by the wind
become once again part of the soft soil
Carried away by an ant
Winter anthill shelter building lock
become once again part of the soft soil.
But, be careful where you place it, ha de Gött!
Popping out in the lawn like umbrellas in a rainy outdoor concert. The Ink Cap “Coprinopsis atramentaria“. In Swedish “Bläcksvamp”, that translates to “ink mushroom”. It’s edible but don’t mix it with alcohol, then it becomes poisons. Because of this effect it is sometimes called Tippler’s bane. So make sure what’s in that mushroom stew before washing it down with beer or wine.
Just remember there is always a non alcoholic alternative, ha de Gött!
Alone on the beach the little Herring Gull chick. Limping on his injured leg. Deserted by his parents and kind. Looking back with fear in the eyes. To young or scared to make any sound. Unable to open its wings and fly to safety. Little Herring Gull chick stuck in the open field.
I took this picture some weeks ago walking to the boat. First I was glad I could get so close and take a picture without my zoom lens. Then I realized it was a Herring Gull chick that was hurt. Clearly the parents had given up on it as there was no gulls in the air shouting and attacking me. An hour later when I came back a couple of feathers moving in the wind revealed that nature’s taken its course.
Sometimes mother nature is harsh, ha de Gött!
There on an old oak pole it hangs, the old rusty horseshoe. Was it dropped by a horse passing on the road to Havstenssund? Perhaps it was simply removed by the blacksmith and replaced with a new one. Tossed away in the corner of the stone fence in a pile with other scrap metal. Was it made in the blacksmith’s workshop I found in december. (Find the story here). Somebody much later picked it up and hanged it on the pole. Now from history to the future it goes on to the world wide web.
Ride on, pilgrim, ha de Gött!
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!
UlleHaddock 