Mandarin Orange Monday: Church Window

 

Mandarin Orange Monday

Weekend Reflection

One of my favourite reflection views in town :)

“By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest;
and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
~Confucius~

Weekend Reflections # 187

Oldest Building – Hedared Stave Church

Friday My Town Shoot Out

On our way to Nääs Castle last summer (see FMTSO posts Frozen in Time and Windows and Doors) , we also passed a candidate for the FMTSO theme “oldest building”. It is in fact the oldest surviving building of its kind in Sweden: Hedared Stave Church from 1506.

Landscape photo from the neighbourhood of Hedared.

Friday My Town – Get High

… with your camera, as in shoot from above.

 

Next to our railway station, there is a high rock.
So I decided to do a bit of climbing…

… On second thought, better use the stairs and path!
But I did go up there, and here’s what I saw:

Looking west: The railway station – and a bit beyond…

And a rainbow in the clouds (cut and enlarged from the photo above) – I actually didn’t see that until I got the photos up on the computer!

Zooming in the buildings on the other side of the tracks.

 

South: There’s the tornado sculpture from the first photo again. To the right is the “travel centre” for the long distance busses. In the background to the left is a school, and to the right a spectacular triangular office building.

 

East: Towards the town centre. You can see both church spires in this photo.

 

Lots of red roofs…

 

… and other colours, too.

 

* * *

 

The day after I’d been up to the top of the Rock, I thought of another high place I’d never been to with the digital camera. So off I went… up to the old Water Tower.

Built in 1900 and looking like a little fairy tale castle, surrounded by a little park on the top of a hill.

 

  

I’ve been up to the top of the tower once, but it’s not usually open to the public. So the entrance gate is as high as I got this time.

The view downhill towards the town centre.

 

The other side of the hill.

 

* * *

 

On my way back downtown, I passed the Gustaf Adolf Church which was built around the same time as the water tower…

I’ve never been up in the tower…

… and I didn’t go that high this time either.

But I did go up on the balcony where the big organ is.

▲ Looking down … and looking up ▼

 

 

 

 

 

Friday My Town: Black and White

 

 

 

 

The FMTSO theme this week is Black & White. I haven’t really been in the right kind of mood though. I tried a few shots outdoors earlier in the week, but all looked better in colour… (I’m so not looking forward to winter…)

But then today I re-visited this sculpture (entitled House 18) inside a church, and against the black background here, I quite like the B&W effect. The sculpture is cut out of blocks of alabaster and marble. The name of the artist is Lars-Åke Åberg; and the sculpture has been part of this summer’s sculpture biennal in my town.

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See more ‘black and white’ here.

Friday My Town: Interiors

 

In the Borås International Sculpture Biennal 2012, which opened last weekend, most of the new sculptures are on display in and around our town’s Cultural Centre (including Art Museum, Theatre and Library) and the nearby Gustav Adolf’s Church from 1906.

This gave me a good opportunity to also take some interior photos.

Let’s start with the church:

 

The pulpit and the baptismal font

The big church organ at the back

A smaller organ, drums, and a piano…
And the possibility to light a candle as expression of prayer.

A votive ship

Votive offerings also called ex-votos are given in fulfillment of a vow or in gratitude, to a church where the worshipper seeks grace or wishes to give thanks. In Scandinavia, model ships were common votive gifts from sailors.

One of the sculptures included in the 2012 Biennal,
on display in the church: ‘House 18’ by Lars-Åke Åberg.

I like how they placed this with the light coming in
from above through the church windows.

And it fits in beautifully with biblical images of the Church:

“you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5)”

The exterior – just so you know where you’ve been!

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Close to the Gustav Adolf Church is our Cultural Centre,
including Art Museum, Theatre and Library

The entrance hall facing the church is extra interesting just now
because of this work of art by Alyson Shotz, USA, entitled
“The Shape of Space” – which is part of the Sculpture Biennal.

With this sculpture, you’re supposed to also explore the interior…

 

Looking out from inside the “Shape of Space” sculpture.
(Do you recognize the church?)

 

Interior from the Art Museum

 

Interior from the entrance to the theatre

 

Interior from the Library

 

The new automatic Book Return Machine
Ugly, but saving the staff a lot of manual lifting of books.

 

From what I understand, the books get automatically sorted in the machine and then the staff can just pull a trolley out and roll that away to the right section of the library, to manually sort the books into the shelves.

 

Visit Friday My Town Shoot Out
to see more interiors from around the wordl