{*Moulin Rouge [mu.lɛ̃ ʁuʒ], French for Red Mill, a cabaret in Paris, France.}
This old mill is found in the village where my parents lived in their retirement years (and before them, back in my childhood, my grandparents). These photos are from Easter, when my brother and I went for a walk there. As you can see, there was quite a bit of ice in the river – probably still is. Even though the sun has kept on shining, the nights are still cold with temperatures well below zero.
For Ruby Tuesday
Below is the same site a year ago:
Visit Wordless Wednesday to see more photos that “speak for themselves”.
The demolition of the old factory building down by the river is progressing slowly. I guess they intend to reuse some of the material – probably not in this spot, but somewhere.
▲ Above: Rusting iron fence around an old grave
▼ Below: Not “neglected”, but abandoned for the sake of “progress”…
▲ A year ago I took this photo of an old wooden house with outbuilding across the street from a modern supermarket. (1.3.2011) Still people living there then I think, but I knew there were building plans for the area around it, and I was wondering whether the old house would be spared or not.
▲ ▲ 10.3.2012 – Obviously NOT!
24.3.2012 – Not a trace left!
30.3.2012 = today
The first of the new apartment buildings is rising
▲ There are two church towers in my town (Borås) which can be seen from various places in the city. One of them in the background to the right, and reflected in the river. The curved building to the left is an old textile factory. This is an old textile industry area.
Caroli church is from the 17th century and is the oldest building in town, the only one that (with some repairs) stood through three major town fires in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
▲ Seen from the town square, with a cinema in the foreground.
▲ At the beginning of the 20th century, as the town kept growing, another church was built ▼
▲ Gustav Adolf’s Church ▼
▲ This belltower belongs to the old wooden church that now resides in our Open Air Museum (originally it was built somewhere else) ▼
And below a modern bell-tower belonging to a church in a suburban area that arose in the 1960’s. Fitting right in with with all the grey concrete apartment buildings… ▼
There are several proud old buildings in town with towers and turrets and weathervanes and whatnots without being churches. ▼
▲ This one is known as “The Palace”. It’s an apartment building.
▲ A financial palace (a bank)
▲ Hotel or apartments or both, not sure.
▲ Shops on the ground floor. Not sure if offices or apartments upstairs.
Another old factory – now a bank. They do like their towers!
▲ Electricity company. Like to think they’re powerful, too! (haha)
▲ Old railway station from 1863, nowadays offices.
▼ In 1894 another railway station was built, still used as such.
Magic shadow on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
A nice sunny day for a walk yesterday afternoon; and walking into town with the sun behind me, I noticed these tree-shadows climbing up the house-walls. There is an interesting mix of buildings in the neighbourhood – some old, some modern. Here one of each! I can’t imagine myself living in the one with all the long windows (it’s just along the street) – I don’t think I’d be able to get over the feeling of living in a show-room!
Starting off with couple of favourites from my archives.
▲ Above: A footbridge across the river.
▼ Below: The stairs to Heaven…
▼ Sorry, actually it’s just a footbridge over the railway
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But let’s go in another direction, because this theme also fits in with some other photos I have been meaning to post anyway.
About 10-15 minutes walk from where I live, there is a little park which I have come to call (in blogging context) my Butterfly Park – because I often go there in the late summer/early autumn to look at (and take photos) of butterflies attracted to the flowers there. Occasionally also to the walkways! ;) ▼
The flowerbeds are surrounded by yew hedges;
below that area there is an open lawn for croquet.
Well – depending on time of the year! ▼
Copied from my old blog The Island of the Voices. Can’t find the original photo.
▲ Croquet lawn in the winter! (Good luck to you!)
▼ Now, this is how the park used to look. ▼
The trees along one side of it offering shadow on a hot day.
And seasonal colour changes in the tree tops.
▲ In the background above, if you look closely, you see just a glimpse of the roof of a building behind the bare trees in winter. That’s an old military regiment building, nowadays used for other purposes. Between that and the park runs a railway, and between the railway and the park also a road, which used to be lined with trees and bushes on both sides. BUT…
▼ … in the late autumn, 2011, things started to change… ▼
And over winter they’ve kept on changing! ▼▼▼
▲ New view from the croquet lawn
▲ New view when walking through the Butterfly Park.
Help! I can hardly believe it’s the same park! Was all this necessary?
I know they are going to build houses for people to live in, on the area on the other side of the railway, below the old regiment. (Some of those old buildings have been turned into apartments as well, and others into offices and school premises.)
I suppose they wanted to open up the view… But walking in that park won’t ever be quite the same again! (Oh, I guess I’ll get used to it…)
Maybe they’ll be planting new trees, in a more orderly fashion. But I’m still a little concerned for my butterflies! Even if they keep the flowerbeds among the yew hedges, with all the ‘yummy’ butterfly favourites there… I still fear the butterflies might miss the wilder environment nearby. Last autumn, I got to enjoy the miracle of seeing about a hundred newborn small tortoiseshell butterflies simultaneously in that park. Those caterpillars feed on nettles; and my guess is the eggs were laid and the butterflies “born” in the wild area of trees and bushes and weeds along the railway... With that gone, I wonder if I’ll still be seeing the park crowded with butterflies this summer???
Anyway… I thought I’d document the changes going on!
Wishing everyone a Happy Friday My Town Shoot Out!
~Monica~
