Friday My Town: Stairs

‘Up and down’ was one of the themes included in the local photo
marathon I took part in a few weeks ago… So I took a number of
shots of these spiral stairs outside a building. We were only allowed
to submit one photo per theme though, so the collage was made later!

 

  

A waterfall and a narrow set of stairs running down/up
the same hill in a large modern cemetery park.

 

At this spot in the river, the water descends down ‘stairs’ as well.

To see more stairs … ‘going up, coming down, from behind’ …
go to My Town – Mr Linky!

… ‘Whisper to the Wild Water’ …

For Watery Wednesday

I borrowed the post title – Whisper to the Wild Water -
from a song/album by Maire (Moya) Brennan:

… … …

Around, around
Around I turn
Around I turn
In time

I heard Your name
Whisper to the wild water
I’ll be strong
I will survive

… … …

 

This is just a very small waterfall…
Still, standing close to it, the other sounds of the city
are drowned by the roar of the water.

Ruby Tuesday: Changing Colour

For Ruby Tuesday

Mosaic Monday: Autumn Colours

Autumn colours from the past weekend.

See more Monday Mosaics at Mary’s Little Red House.

 

PS – On request:

Friday My Town: Black & White & Sepia

… at the Zoo …

Artful imitation of The Thinker …

 

Oh please, leave me some dignity, will you…
Someone might take me for a zebra!

 

Some of us have got it natural!

 

 

Well… Almost, anyway… (wink, wink)

 

(the photo to the right is the original colour photo!)

 

Greyscale, sepia… Why not just keep to the natural look?
(What do you mean, what am I? Blame that photographer…
Fancy leaving my trunk out of the picture like that!)

 

I take my pride in always wearing formal dress,
thank you very much! No special effects needed!

 

Oh, do whatever you like, just let me sleep, will you…

 

Personally I think I look much wilder in colour.
After all I’m a WOLF, you know - not just any old dog…

 

- Did someone say wolf? I’m out of here!!!

                            ~ ~ ~                              

For more sepia + black & white, visit My Town Shoot Out

Watery Wednesday–Raindrops Keep Falling…

It is a Watery Wednesday indeed. Not sure my camera is waterproof enough for it, so I picked a picture from my archives… Lupin leaves. And just in case you’ve forgotten what the flowers look like, here is a collage to cheer you up and remind you of ‘the greens of summer’:

♫ Now where did that phrase come from… Oh yes:

Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

Paul Simon

Ruby Tuesday: May I Tempt You…?

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch,
you must first invent the universe.
~ Carl Sagan ~

 

It’s Ruby Tuesday

Mosaic Monday: Crabapples

Around the housing estate where I live, there are quite a few of these decorative trees. Beautiful both in spring and in autumn.

For more Monday Mosaics visit Mary’s Little Red House.

Friday My Town: ‘T’

This week’s theme for the My Town Shoot Out is the letter T.

  

Tortoiseshell butterflies on Thistles

For those who don’t follow my blog regularly… We had quite an
overwhelming invasion of the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly
in ‘my’ Butterfly Park at the beginning of September.

In spite of mostly rain and wind since then, there seems to
be at least two or three dozen of them still hanging around...
(The sun came out for a while yesterday, so I went to check!)

 

Temptations displayed in the window of my favourite Tea Shop.

Last Saturday I took part in a local photo marathon in my town.
One of the ten themes given was one word that can be translated
into English as ‘Temptation’. My choice to represent this
theme was these bowls of tea blends with exotic names:
… Tristan and Isolde … Lovers’ Dream …
… (One) Thousand and One Nights …

 

Ruby Tuesday: Dianthus in the Rain

This is from last week. The last couple of days it’s been raining so much I don’t even want to go out on the balcony! The scattered remains of hurricane Katia is raging outside my windows and she might well finish off the last of these flowers before she’s done…

For Ruby Tuesday

Shadow Shot Sunday: Sunflower

In some gardening program on TV recently, there was a tip about planting things in old gutters. Coming out to my dad’s old place one day this week, I found that we’re very trendy!

Although I’m not sure sunflowers was what they had in mind ;)

Must have been some bird that did the planting for us…?
(It’s growing in the gutter of the outbuilding, not on the main house.)

For Shadow Shot Sunday

Friday My Town: Grandparents’ Day

The Friday My Town Shoot Out theme this week is either Grandparents’ Day or Patriot Day (September 11).

We don’t have a special Grandparents’ Day in Sweden; neither do we have a Patriot Day (even if September 11 and the events in New York 10 years ago will no doubt be commemorated in the media here too).

I did, however, have grandparents. And as they lived in or near the town that is now My Town, that should qualify them for this post ;)

I cannot, of course, take credit for the original photos, though…

   

Left: My maternal grandparents, married 1928.
Right: My paternal grandparents, married 1930.

~ ~ ~

If you want to read a bit more about them,
there will be an extended post in my other blog,
Beyond the Lone Islands.

~ ~ ~

See others’ interpretations of the themes of the day here.

Watery Wednesday: Feeding the Birds

Mallards and Swan Geese in a town lake which is also a bird sanctuary.

“Hey… Nothing left for me??”

Watery Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday: A Bicycle for Two

I have seen the occasional tandem bicycle before,
but never one quite like this.

For Ruby Tuesday

Mosaic Monday: Butterfly Invasion

The collage above may seem exaggerated, but actually it represents ‘the truth’ better than any of the individual pictures:

 

In my ‘Butterfly Park’ yesterday, there must have been at least around 70-80 Small Tortoiseshell butterflies fluttering around. (Perhaps even more. Not an easy task to count them!)

Their most popular landing places were these blue flowers, which also provide excellent camouflage for these beautiful creatures.

I’ve never seen so many butterflies at the same time. ‘Someone’ must have been busy laying eggs in the neighbourhood of park earlier in the spring/ summer…!

The caterpillars feed on stinging nettles. I suppose there may be a good supply of those along the railway close by. From Wikipedia I also learn that how many survive to be butterflies may often depend on the status of the common wasp in a particular season, since the wasp is known to feed on the Tortoiseshell's pupae.

Come to think of it, I’ve hardly seen any wasps at all around this August! - Good! - I much prefer the butterflies! :)

See more Monday Mosaics at Mary’s Little Red House.

Shadow Shot Sunday – Tree Shadows

For Shadow Shot Sunday

For A Moment

For a moment today in my ‘butterfly park’, not one but two butterflies decided (at the same time) to rest for a while on my shoulder (upper arm): One Red Admiral and one Small Tortoiseshell. In fact, I think at least the Admiral was the very same specimen as in the photo above. (The Tortoiseshells were so many today I could not keep count of them.)

I’m pretty sure they cannot have take me for a flower, since I was wearing a plain grey jacket! I guess I’ll never know what they were thinking… But it was a rather awesome experience and it reminded me of this ‘Irish blessing’ that I read recently:

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, Tomorrow and Beyond.

Two butterflies at the same time must mean double luck, mustn’t it??

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta)