Friday My Town: Fences And Gates

For a change, I decided to actually go for a camera-walk with the specific Friday Shoot Out theme for this week in mind: Fences and gates!

You’ll be following me on one of the routes I walk quite frequently.

First, we cross this footbridge over the railway.
It has fences or railings too high to lean out over.

 

Getting off the bridge, we turn right and walk along the railway. They put up this fence some years ago to prevent people (mostly school kids) from using an unofficial shortcut path to cross the railway. Of course that section of the fence didn’t last more than one day… I don’t think anyone even made an attempt to replace it, as it would no doubt just be taken down again the next day night. Putting up the fence was an offical statement: “We don’t want you to cross here because it’s dangerous.” Leaving the gap in the fence is an unofficial statement: “At your own risk!”

(I’m old enough now not to be too fond of steep and slippery paths… So I do take the longer way round!)

 

 

As a contrast, on the opposite side of the road, there is a gate without a fence, leading into an old cemetry. (They’ve just been taking down the old fence and hedge, and are planting a new hedge.)

 

 

A bit further on, we turn right and take a footpath between some apartment buildings down to the river. Along which there is a rusty metal fence.

 

There’s also a footbridge across the river...

 

… just beneath the railway bridge.

 

Reaching the end of the footbridge, there is a kind of gate to slow us down and stop us from rushing out in the street without looking.

 

  

Across the road from the supermarket, they’re building new apartment houses. The building site is surrounded by fences and gates.

 

Let’s take another route back, so that I can show you this impressive old iron gate set in a stone wall.

 

And on the other side of the road, an elaborate iron fence topped with barbed wire. The building is an old factory, nowadays offices. The sign over this entrance says “The Migration Board”. Can’ help but think the fence might feel a bit intimidating for immigrants approaching the building from this direction…

 

When they put up this fence and got to the end, they got creative…

 

This time we cross the river by the ‘big’ bridge.

 

There is a dam with a waterfall beneath this bridge; and on both sides there are steps leading down to the water. There are fences to keep you from falling in, of course!

 

On the other side of the road, they’ve recently built a new playground, with a net fence to stop the kids from running out into the street.

 

Walking along the railway again, approaching home… The footbridge from the first picture is just behind those bushes.

 

 

 

Friday My Town: Public Transportation

“In the good old days…”

 

In the winter we take the bus.

 

 In fine weather we walk – and that includes the
King and Queen! (from their visit on Sept 1, 2011)

 

I wouldn’t normally include motorcycles in “public” transportation – but when there are hundreds of them together in the town square on one occasion, I do think they must count!

 

 

 

Friday My Town: Paths, Steps and Walkways

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

---   ---   ---

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~

Watery Wednesday: Immigrants

Swans or Geese? Actually these are Swan Geese – I think… They come from Siberia or China; but live in a bird sanctuary lake here in my town (in south west Sweden).

The lake is a beautiful place and serves as a sort of sanctuary to a lot of human hearts as well. Not far from here, there is a residential area where a lot of immigrants and refugees from other cultures live. On my walk around the lake, I met several women wearing veils, which indicates that they came here from some other part of the world.

Ruby Tuesday: Twins

Young mother (I suppose!) with red twin pram,
walking in the park on a winter afternoon.

I just happened to be walking behind her,
couldn’t resist picking up the camera…

For Ruby Tuesday