I have fine memories from visits to the Danish beaches in Jylland and Sjælland last July. To drive around the islands by car was a very nice and peaceful journey. Computer-tired eyes could find some rest  in the immense green fields, the sea and the sky, and there were many B&B:s in the villages along the road.

The wind in this flat, woodless landscape was hard, and it wasn’t very warm (+20 C) – but sunny and incredibly beautiful. If you dress yourself up in a good windproof jacket and something to protect your ears with there are fantastic walks to do, and fantastic views to see.

The last two pictures show British sculptor Bill Woodrow’s concrete bunkers transformed into mules, in Blavand.

A spectacular and charming place is Bovbjerg. (First picture). Later, I’ll try to put together a special blogpost about that…

This week’s Word Press Photo Challenge is Patterns.

Temperature, colors, sounds and traffic – everything was different from my everyday life in Sweden. An overwhelming experience of new people and circumstances. And plenty of photos. It will take some time for me to edit my impressions and pictures for publishing. Meanwhile, I will try to keep up with my normal activity on vackrare.com

The vibrant pink beanie is a gift that I had very good use for this cold spring. The mirror with the painted man hung on the wall in a shop for african handicraft. The colorful cupboards can be found in the cloakroom at Fotografiska –  a huge, private museum of photography in Stockholm. And Ollio’s street art in Göteborg is something I’ve mentioned here earlier. Color is essential to me.

Morgnar av is, kvällar av ljus och oändlig rymd. Samtliga färger ska nu byta namn, det är inte längre som det brukade.

Lately, I have made a lot of pictures of dolls and toys. My favorites are the two yellow wooden figures from the second hand store. Were they made in the 1960′s to be used as salt- and pepper shakers? I don’t know, but I regret I didn’t buy them.

My entry is a photo I’ve published here before, from Jylland in northern Denmark last summer.

My entry is a photo I made some years ago, from Oslo, Norway. You can see the City Hall in the puddle. “Inaugurated in 1950, Oslo City Hall is the city’s administrative body and the seat of the City Council.”

To see more of my reflection-images, please look here.

Light has returned to Sweden, but we have had temperatures below zero for weeks and months now. We need to be reminded of what is waiting ahead. For the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge Future tense I’ve picked an old photo of mine, probably from May. The tree outside my window,  the mild air arriving, a blackbird on a twig – finally. I added another May-photo (or perhaps June) with rhododendron plants – I just had to.

There are very few links to music/youtube-videos in this blog. But there is a poetic, delicate young Swedish singer named Laleh (Pourkarim), who grew up in Göteborg. Here she sings about spring. The video is lovely, I think.

While the the sun drops, painting it all red, the jackdaws are crowding in the tall trees, warming themselves. When it starts to get dark, they fly in swarms to the trees where they are going to sleep. They cackle and flap before it finally becomes silent.

My part of Göteborg, is situated close to the river  with ferries to Denmark/Germany, and a fish market. The area is called Majorna and was built for workers with little money and spare time. It is not sophisticated, but has a character of its own. Nowadays it’s a popular place for young families. There are cafés and pubs, and parents with prams and dogs, but the area is calm and silent. It’s about 20 minutes by tram from the central station.

The biggest road is oriented east-west and completely straight, which gives it a fantastic light that is accentuated by the shiny tram rails.

Actually, the main content of this blog is about the place where I stay. For more examples, please look here.

For all women and men on the International Women’s day.

A turned-on printer in an empty room at night. Its green light lit. Everything was quiet. When I watch the pictures now, I realize that it might have been a dream.

Re-publishing… A gallery of happy-color-details.

It is a hectic period of working for me, and there is not much time for neither editing images nor publishing them here – although I return home with many pictures in my camera every day. In a week or two, there will probably be more time for blogging.

It’s cold. But there is light again!  The wind is fierce and the small birds are eating, constantly. A few of them are exploring their special spring-vocalizations, perhaps for the first time. After months of darkness, the light is suddenly back. It dazzles and hurts, my eyes are watering, my nose is runny. It all starts now.

To see lots of other contributors, visit this page and follow the links.

Saturday at 5:00 p m, I’m waiting for the tram.

Apartment blocks contain various life-stories. The small studio facing the courtyard or the sunny three-bedroom apartment with a view – creating different living conditions.
Yet I see her raise the cup to her mouth at the very moment I’m drinking my coffee. In the other house.

Nya hyreshus ska växa när vårljuset tilltar. Men ännu är jorden frusen. (Några tidigare bilder finns här. )

Stockholm: An apartment building/ youth housing from the 1960s was demolished some months ago, while the oldest building in the same block was allowed to remain – – and is presently wrapped up, neatly.  Who made that huge dress?

New residential buildings will grow when the spring light increases. But still the soil is frozen. (Earlier pictures here. )

The Woodland Cemetery in the southern part of Stockholm is a Unesco World Heritage. “A cemetery that focuses on the process of mourning”

It is a graveyard and a park, famous of its serene beauty. Currently all colors are gone and winter seems endless.

On the website of Skogskyrkogården you can read:

“Strolling around the Skogskyrkogården landscape and visiting the different chapels offers a unique experience that combines art, architecture and nature. Some of Sweden’s leading architects and artists were involved in the creation and artistic decoration of the cemetery.

Everything has been carefully thought out, down to the smallest detail. Cremation was gaining widespread acceptance during the early 20th century, and architects Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz took as their remit the design of a cemetery fit for this new age.

Taking the landscape and pine forest as their starting point, they designed a cemetery that focuses on the process of mourning. Their aim was to support the mourners in their moment of need – stirring feelings and thoughts and allowing them to give full expression to their emotions.”

Late winter. Tram ride through the city on a sunny afternoon. (Some of these photos were published earlier)

To see another interpretation of Home, please look here; something I posted for”Mine”.

Today, the world outdoors looks washed-out and I allow myself to be inspired by the roses in my window. The necklace and the scarf from Turkey, and the mittens my friend made for me will add some color to my everyday-life. I remember the light over the lagoon at Ölu Deniz last summer,  and the little girl fishing. But now it’s time to go.

A gorgeous dress I saw on display, years ago. The most exclusive silk, brilliant color and a striking shape. It was really The Dress Of My Dreams. Unique! I couldn’t forget it. I had to go back to the store again and look closer.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dress at all – only some very expensive metres of fabric that were folded and pinned on a mannequin. The dress still belongs to my dreams and it will probably be the only one lasting a lifetime.

Friends in the darkness, a January-evening at Nordhemsgatan in Göteborg. A tiny foretaste of spring.

It was a rainy, gloomy day. I decided to feed the blackbird with some leftover dried fruit from my breakfast cereals. Two minutes after I put it on the windowsill I had a visitor. Not the timid blackbird, but a huge gull with big appetite. When he had finished the sweets, he continued with peanuts. While he had his lunch, I had the opportunity to take some photos.

One evening, I listened to  the Norwegian singer  Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer. Her peculiar vocal art sounds primeval and powerful, yet she is sophisticated. As I walked home, I saw Orion’s belt high above my neighborhood. The songs and sounds of Ruth are more connected to the sky than to the city, she is a star.

Afterwards I nevertheless recall the long-legged hare across the snow, that night as we walked home in silence through the park.

Medan snö och vintermörker fortfarande ligger kompakt över gator och hus och en ensam koltrast på fönsterblecket är den enda som rör sig därute, hör jag morgonens första flygplan passera högt ovanför. För oss på marken är ljuset fortfarande utom räckhåll. Vi måste vänta.

While winter’s darkness still is dense and a solitary blackbird on the windowsill is the only one moving outdoors, I hear the morning’s first south-going airplane passing high above. Down on the ground, the light is still beyond reach. We have to wait.

Just behind the moon a giant spaceship had landed. It was huge, it towered up a good bit above the highway. The vessel was beautifully illuminated, beaming of thousands of lights. But it looked abandoned. Nothing was moving and the silence was palpable. 

I roamed around for a while. The air was cold and there was going to be frost. As no one came, I finally walked away. It turned out to be a nice evening.

(This is an edited version of a post in Swedish from april.) To see the WordPress blogger community’s interpretations of “Illumination”, please look here.

This cozy street, Haga kyrkogata,  is very close to the beautiful house I posted the other day, and one of my favourites.  The University of Göteborg is located in the area. In this part of town there are lots of cafés and bars. Students are continously crossing the street with their takeaway-coffees, trying to avoid  the heavy trams frequently rumbling down the hill. 

A beautiful house: In some areas, Göteborg is gorgeous and fanciful even in early January. I admired this building since I came here, and I would love to stay there! It is located in Annedal, in the middle of town, and is pure joy to watch. When I googled the house, I realized that the architect, Franz Louis Enders (1855 – 1924) designed several of my favorites around town, including Stigbergsliden 3-5 (a former textile mill).

Foggy Saturday night: Of course, things had happened during the day. But when I squeezed my two Spanish oranges and drank, at last I could feel the sun rise.

The theme of this year’s first WP Weekly Photo Challenge is Resolved. New Year’s resolutions are foreign to me, but I would like to expand my professional activities this year, using my own material. Several ideas are waiting to be explored, in solitude and collaboration. And I do wish my personal speed was more like the train’s.

(These photos were all taken from the train, through the window.)

I accept, and I am honored, thank you! 

I hardly read books or newspapers anymore. I don’t watch television regularly. But I spend much time looking and reading on Internet. There are numerous blogs, an immense amount of human beings who – like myself – can spend hours and days to let unfamiliar others know what is important to us, as if Facebook wasn’t enough.

When I grew up I had 20+ penpals all over the world. Most of my pocket money were used for stamps. It was a thrill coming home from school, seeing letters from Indonesia, Ireland, Portugal, USA or France waiting for me. Beautiful airmail envelopes and stamps, thin foils of handwritten paper with news and confidences –  sometimes folded in incomprehensible ways.  

I learned about distant places, exchanged gifts and photos, dreamt about traveling. It was a very positive experience in all ways. I never met any of my penpals, but still consider our relations as very important.

Blogging is similar to that experience, although there is a major difference. It is public. I have NO idea who is the receiver of my posts. Is it my neighbor, on the other side of my living room wall? My old friend from work? A retired journalist in Australia,  a professional blogger in England or the woman I talk to when I go swimming? Only when someone writes a comment or pushes the like-button I get a hint of who my readers are. If some of those find my blog inspiring, I’ m really happy! So thank you,  Mannalexandra for nominating me.

My list of inspiring blogs/ nominees

Vardagsbubbel – Swedish illustrator Kati Mets writes something short worth considering every weekday. Often accompanied by her own pictures. In Swedish.
Throbbings of noon tide  Interesting topics, good photos. And fun!
The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things is an online collection and discussion of art, objects, ideas and history which are ridiculously interesting.
Sketches and Jottings. . . looks inside the journals, diaries, sketchbooks and notepads of artists, writers, travelers.
Draw and shoot Canadian professional photographer. Delicate pictures, mostly nature.
Yi-Ching Lin Waking up new. Poet/photographer/musician, living in New York.

Empire of lights Graphic photography from Germany.
A remark you made  French blog with simple, yet dramatic photos. 
Insanity at its best  Exotic architecture, recipes, ideas and stories from Dubai, Pakistan, Japan.
Johan Steller Photography  Photography, dramatic land- and cityscapes.
lagottocattleya Chronicles, reviews and short essays, photography and dogs. In Swedish and English.

*The rules for accepting the award are as follows Display the award logo, link back to the person who nominated you, state 7 things about yourself, nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

With these pictures I wish all my fellow bloggers and followers a very merry christmas. I look forward to seeing you again. / Nina

(Nääs is a castle, situated 30 kms east of Göteborg)

The Parliament and Riddarholmskyrkan, Stockholm

Haga, Göteborg