Shadow Shot Sunday: Wood, Windows and Cobble Stones

For Shadow Shot Sunday 2 

Photos from outside the main building in our Museum Park

See more pictures from the Museum Park here:
http://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.se/2013/06/another-fairytale-wedding.html)

Friday My Town: Tour Guide

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

Friday My Town: Time

 

Somtimes, Time rushes by incredibly fast!

At other times, it seems to go round in circles …

… or just stand still.

We do our best to measure it

and keep it

and preserve it

It keeps slipping away from us when we don’t notice

… and we’ll probably never quite understand it.

♫ Can you imagine us years from today,
sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends, memory brushes the same years,
silently sharing the same fears ♫

(Simon & Garfunkel: Old Friends)

 

“Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you.”

(Simon & Garfunkel: Bookends)

 

*Most of the photos are from the Open Air Museum in my town.*

 

Friday My Town Shoot Out: Time

Friday My Town: Front Doors

 

If you don’t think your shop has an inviting enough front door,
you can try putting an extra one on display outside.
(Found this week on a street in town.)

 

Old cottage with keyhole-shaped doors in our Open Air Museum. This kind of cottage was common in these parts of Sweden from the Middle Ages until the mid 19th century.

 

The door on an old wooden church, also in our Open Air Museum.
If you go inside, you’ll find (among other things) an even older door:

 

Cinema/movie theater ‘Moulin Rouge’ built 1914, preserved as notable building.
Below, the same building seen from the back

Knock on more doors at Friday My Town Shoot Out

Friday My Town: Rust–Rusty-Rustic

Clematis on rusty trellises in a little park beside the river.

 

Rusty rustic piece of art – at the entrance of a multi-purpose exhibition hall, former engine shed, still retaining the rustic style:

… where this old engine (no longer rusty!) also still proudly resides:

(Yes, those last two shots above are archive pictures from winter...)

 

Moving on to our open air museum with its collection of old buildings:

Rustic and somewhat rusty old cellar door.

(And don’t you start muttering about that pile of rubbish in front of the house, because that’s an old barrow - or at least a copy of one. Doesn’t really get much more rustic than that!)

 

Rustic kind of fence around old-fashioned vegetable patch

17th century cottage.

To see more things rusty and rustic from around the world, visit
Friday My Town Shoot Out 

My Calendar 2011 *October* + Shadow Shot Sunday

Old wooden church in the Museum Park.
Photo from October, 2010, with glowing autumn colours.

This is the last of my Calendar shots.
To see the rest of them, scroll back over the past two weeks.

~ ~ ~

Adding a few interior shots from the Museum Church
(I might have shown some of them before):

  

The museum church is popular for weddings and also used on other
special occasions, but regular Sunday services are not held here.

The objects within the church come from different old churches.

Shadow Shot Sunday

My Calendar 2011 *August* + Ruby Tuesday

Photo from the Open Air Museum, August 2010.

The gate in the foreground may seem a bit oddly placed, but it was
part of an exhibition of (new) garden gates, spread around the park
among the old buildings. If you’d like to see more of that exhibition,
click here to go to the first post in a series from last summer.

And aren’t I lucky… A young couple with a pram
in the picture, too, to fit the Valentine’s theme!

♥ ♥ ♥

To see more RED visit Ruby Tuesday

Friday My Town–Collections

The FMTSO theme for February 4 is What I Collect by  ‘Collectin Texas Gal’ (Sue).

Myself, I’m not really the typical collector. Books I suppose, but not very systematically. Since this is a My Town Shoot Out challenge – I decided to think instead of what the Town might be said to collect. (Borås, Sweden – you will find a map if you click on the About Me tab at the top.)

Most of these pictures are from my Archives; but what else can you expect when the theme is Collections!

 

The Open Air Museum, or Museum Park – collecting Old Buildings!

The old buildings in this park have all been moved there from other places, instead of being torn down. In the main museum they also have permanent and temporary exhibitions of ‘this and that’ connected to local history and culture. In the winter the main building is only kept open on weekend afternoons, but in the summer tourist season it is open all week, there is also a café in one of the buildings. (The park is always open, to look at the buildings from outside.)

 

The Art Museum – collecting Art! 

The Art Museum normally shares a building with the Town Theatre, and the Town Library. (Photos from an art exhibition last winter by Swedish water colour artist Lars Lerin. That book-case is a painting!)

The Town’s collection of Art also includes a lot of sculptures around town. Quite a few additions have been made over the past few years.

At present, the Library and the Theatre are temporarily housed in another building (an old textile industry building by the river, see below), while the usual premises are being repaired.

 

The Town Library – collecting Books!

Actually we even  have a Library Museum; perhaps because we also have the main Librarian education in the country. That museum is rather small though and I think not open to the public except on special occasions. I have visited a couple of times. It focuses on the history of the first public libraries; including old card catalogues etc.

 

Textile Museum – collecting Fashion, Fabrics and Machinery.

This town used to be and is still a centre of textile and fashion industry and several mail order companies. We also have a Textile Museum. The photo was taken at a temporary exhibition in other premises last summer, combined with a fashion outlet with modern clothes for sale, but with things borrowed from the museum as background.

 

Hospital Museum –
collecting things to make us thankful for progress made…

Old syringes and pill bottles.

Once upon a time a highly fashionable equipment for dental care.

 

And finally, The Zoo – collecting Rare Animals

It all started back in the mid 1950’s with one abandoned lion cub brought home from Africa by Swedish engineer Sigvard Berggren. The zoo was founded in 1962. One of the main attractions is still the “African savannah” with several African species together (not the lions, though… they’re kept separate…) Note the apartment buildings in the background in the first picture!

♥ ♥ ♥

Have A Nice Weekend!
Monica

♥ ♥ ♥

PS. You’ll find an afterthought at my other blog:
Beyond the Lone Islands, A Nice Pot Of Tea – Or Two