See more of this steam train here: Steam Train Nostalgia
Below I’m playing around a little for Mandarin Monday ▼
The text on the back of his vest says “engine driver”
I like how the features of the people inside the train stood out more when I turned the photos into “drawings”. The man leaning out of the window in the first picture; and the woman standing in the doorway in the second one.
Netherlands (Holland)
![Location of the Netherlands (dark green)– in Europe (light green & dark grey)– in the European Union (light green) — [Legend]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/EU-Netherlands.svg/250px-EU-Netherlands.svg.png)
The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 20% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level.
Artist: Lieuwkhe Loth
(Not the same artist and bear as on the BB homepage)
Egypt
Artist: Raouf Simaan
(Not the same artist and bear as on the BB homepage)
(Even though I think this one is quite good, I like the Pharaoh bear of the Paris show even more… See it here.)
is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar.
Artist: Nigel Henri
“The Seychelles bear reflect the aspiration of the people and its environment. Nature plays an important role in our lives. As an artist my environment gives me all my inspiration to work. I have done the Seychelles in a way that reflect both the beautiful environment and nature the Seychelles posses.”
officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country located in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east.
While Kyrgyzstan is not by the sea, it does have the tenth largest lake in the world by volume, which is also the second largest mountain lake in the world behind Lake Titicaca in South America and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea – Issyk Kul. Although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes. Lake Issyk Kul was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for travelers from the Far East to Europe.
I have to confess, before looking this up, I would not have been able to say more about Kyrgyzstan than to vaguely place it somewhere in Asia…
Artist: Yuristanbek Shigaev
The Buddy Bears are here, and I went to attend the opening of the exhibition in the Town Square today.
“The United Buddy Bears – The Minis” will be visiting us during the month of December 2012.
The exhibition includes 108 bears from different countries, each painted by an artist from that country.
The proceeds from connected activities will go to charity organisations that help children in need.
Die goldene Regel: Behandle jeden anderen Menschen wie Du selbst behandelt werden möchtest. (German text)
The Golden Rule: Treat every other person as you yourself would like to be treated.
The locally painted Big Buddy Bear (I showed you the artist at work in a recent post).
This one will be staying in our city after the exhibition.
My Advent Calendar * this year will be to present one Buddy Bear every day until Christmas on this blog – with their countries of origin. As there are a lot more bears than there are days in December, I’ve decided to start with some countries where I know I have friends and fellow bloggers; and then we’ll see… Maybe I’ll also include some countries that I know very little or nothing at all about!
Wishing you Happy Advent Time with Big Bear Hugs…
Monica
*Traditional Advent calendars here take the form of a large rectangular card with 24 windows; one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. Each window opens to reveal an image or poem, or lottery number. Some calendars have a small gift concealed in each window, such as a toy or a chocolate item.
Street artist painting a Buddy Bear in the shopping mall.
I swear I could hear the Bear say:
- Hey, buddy, you’re tickling me!!!
An exhibition of over 100 Buddy Bears will be coming to town in December, and you’ll be seeing more of them then!
If you’re wondering about the pattern on this particular one, it’s obviously inspired by the Swedish Dalecarlian Horses (link goes to an older blog post of mine where I explain about those). And I suspect the artist must be the same man who did this street mural back in the summer:
Linking to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House,
Ruby Tuesday 2 and Our World Tuesday
At the Art Museum, June 2012:
Exhibition - Selected Works by Alison Shotz
An old favourite from December 2010: Facing the “Barcode” mirror artwork on a wall in town, also reflecting the town park on the other side of the river.
Self portrait taken with the camera’s self timer, July 2012.
Edited in Picasa 3 (+ PicMonkey to add the floral symbol)
“Never was there any shadow”
From an outdoors modern art exhibition in the Open Air Museum park. (A more suitable title this summer might have been “never was there any shelter from the rain”.)
Linking to Shadow Shot Sunday
A couple of weeks ago my brother and I went out into the countryside for a bit of touristing. One day we had lunch in a café at an old mill, and there we found these two bridges leading into the world of fairytales.
Näcken, the Neck, the Nix… A kind of water spirit; in this part of the world often taking the shape of a violin-playing man appearing in lakes, streams or waterfalls, playing enchanted tunes on the violin and trying to lure especially women and children into the water to drown… While a man taught by Näcken to play the violin, might get so enchanted by the music that he could not stop playing until he lost all control of his senses.
A tale I remember well from my childhood is that of the Three Billy Goats Gruff (Sw: ‘Bockarna Bruse’) and the Troll living under the bridge that they had to pass.
In the village where I grew up, a shortcut road to the village centre included crossing three narrow wooden bridges over a winding little river. Every time I walked that way, my thoughts went to the billy goats tale (even though in the story, there was only one bridge).
On the way up was a bridge over a cascading stream they had to cross; and under the bridge lived a great ugly troll , with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker.
So first of all came the youngest Billy Goat Gruff to cross the bridge.
"Trip, trap, trip, trap! " went the bridge.
"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll .
"Oh, it is only I, the tiniest Billy Goat Gruff , and I'm going up to the hillside to make myself fat," said the billy goat, with such a small voice.
"Now, I'm coming to gobble you up," said the troll.
"Oh, no! pray don't take me. I'm too little, that I am," said the billy goat. "Wait a bit till the second Billy Goat Gruff comes. He's much bigger."
"Well, be off with you," said the troll.
A little while after came the second Billy Goat Gruff to cross the bridge.
Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap, went the bridge.
"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll.
"Oh, it's the second Billy Goat Gruff , and I'm going up to the hillside to make myself fat," said the billy goat, who hadn't such a small voice.
"Now I'm coming to gobble you up," said the troll.
"Oh, no! Don't take me. Wait a little till the big Billy Goat Gruff comes. He's much bigger."
"Very well! Be off with you," said the troll.
But just then up came the big Billy Goat Gruff .
Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap! went the bridge, for the billy goat was so heavy that the bridge creaked and groaned under him.
"Who's that tramping over my bridge?" roared the troll.
"It's I! The big Billy Goat Gruff ," said the billy goat, who had an ugly hoarse voice of his own.
"Now I 'm coming to gobble you up," roared the troll.
Well, come along! I've got two spears,
And I'll poke your eyeballs out at your ears;
I've got besides two curling-stones,
And I'll crush you to bits, body and bones.
That was what the big billy goat said. And then he flew at the troll, and poked his eyes out with his horns, and crushed him to bits, body and bones, and tossed him out into the cascade, and after that he went up to the hillside. There the billy goats got so fat they were scarcely able to walk home again. And if the fat hasn't fallen off them, why, they're still fat; and so,
Snip, snap, snout.
This tale's told out.
This post will be linked to
Friday My Town Shoot Out: Bridges of ________.
This mural in central town was painted by graffiti artist Shai Dahan especially for this year’s Sculpture Biennal.
A Dalecarlian horse (Swedish: Dalahäst) is a traditional carved wooden horse from the Swedish province of Dalarna, decorated in the kurbits style (a kind of folk art from that part of the country). It has become not only a symbol for Dalarna but for Sweden in general; it is a very typical souvenir for tourists to bring back home.
The mural is just so not how we are used to seeing the sturdy carved wooden horses. I find the mix of Dalecarlian horse and ‘Wild West’ quite amusing. Here is my own wooden horse to compare with; standing steadily on its four legs, without even a hint of movement:
To see them galloping about in Shai Dahan’s paintings really messes with the mind!
Friday My Town Shoot Out – Public Art
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PS. In case anyone gets a Deja Vú feeling here and feels spooked by that …
I did have a similar post on my other blog last August. ;)
This should be easy, but considering I’ve been blogging continually about my town for about three years now, I’m finding it kind of hard to come up with something “new”.
However, it may come as a surprise to some bloggers who have been following me for a while now… that THIS is where most of my Swedish visiting friends have wanted to go in the past:
The shopping mall/district ‘Knalleland’ (well, part of it)!
Borås is an old textile and mailorder centre; and even though nowadays there are less actual ‘factory outlets’ than there used to be, we still have a reputation for cheap (or supposedly cheap) shopping - especially clothes.
Actually some people travel for hours to get here, only to spend hours going from shop to shop at this mall, and that’s pretty much all they see of the town.
People with small children who aren’t fond of shopping, usually bribe them by also throwing in a visit the zoo.
The zoo was founded in the 1960s and specializes in African endangered species - and our own Scandinavian ones (like wolves):
A place I like to suggest to visitors is the Textile Museum, which is unique in Sweden. They have a permanent exhibition of old machinery etc reflecting the textile history of the area; and seasonal exhibitions of varying kind. I’ve blogged about this museum before on several occasions.
Another favourite spot of mine is the Open Air Museum, a park with a variety of old buildings which have been moved there. In the main museum there is usually some current exhibition of local history or crafts. In the summer you may also find modern sculptures on display in the park. In the tourist season there is a café.
I also like our town centre where besides shopping you can go for a stroll along the river and in the town park. The riverside restaurants and cafés are popular in the summer.
In later years, Borås has managed to build a reputation as a town of many sculptures. We got a boost in 2008 with Jim Dine’s 9 m high broze sculpture of Pinocchio:
This summer we’re having our third sculpture biennal with some extra sculptures on loan in addition to the permanent ones. This time many of the new works are displayed in and around our newly renovated Cultural Centre; in which building you’ll find the art museum, library, and theatre.
‘Pose Plastique’ by Cajsa von Zeipel
For more interiors and sculptures,
see last week's FMTSO post.
…
To take a tour of the highlights of some OTHER places around the world, go visit Friday My Town Shoot Out
