Lake Reflection

A house with a view. From Upper Lake Rudan in Handen. Ice is beginning to form at the lake. Last time I took a photo here was in late summer, two boys were out canoeing. This is a very popular recreational area minutes away from central Handen. My aunt and uncle lives on the other side of the lake and has a great view of this house from their balcony. I'm guessing that the poeople living in this house will see a lot of fireworks over the lake tonight as we say goodbye to 2006 and welcomes the new year. See you all in 2007. Bigger photo.

Santa is dead

I read in the paper that Santa was missing. No one had seen him for a couple of days. I decided to track him down. Today I'm sad to report that he could be dead. After a long search I found what looks to be Santa on a roof in Fors, Sweden.



I zoomed in for a better look. It looks like he has been up there for a few days at least.

Fire in the Sky

This time of the year the sunset can be fantastic (if you like that sort of thing), around here. Over the last couple of weeks I've been ready with the camera most afternoons. Normally I climb up on the hill here at bergdalen for the best view. That's what I did on this occasion. Bigger photo.

It's the off-season

Not that many athletes out practising here today. This is Torvalla in Handen. The Track and Field club here is called Österhaninge IF. My brother was a member here for a few years. He was a sprinter, even quicker than I was! That's a great band btw, check them out!

The old Alehouse

This is "Sotholms Härads Tingshus" in Västerhaninge. Built between 1731 and 1734. Then a pub (until 1844) and the district court, which it served as until 1916. It was also used as a post office, shop and as a private recidence. Today it is a museum, library and meeting place for the local historical association and a few other groups.

Linie Aquavit

On the dinner table tonight. Norwegian snaps. Skål. This bottle has been to Australia and then back to Norway before finding it's way to Tungelsta. The story behind this says that a schooner "Gymer" some 200 years ago, for some reason couldnt deliver the booze and when they came back to Norway it had aged well in the old sherry-casks and then someone came up with the new name. Linie means the Equator. And since then all bottles have to pass the equator twice before being sold

This view will be gone soon...

...as this field is part of the new Ålsta Trädgårdsstad in Ålsta, Tungelsta. This area has been filled with greenhouses for the last century. They will (almost all) be gone soon. I have been documenting the change here over the last two years of construction. You can see more photos in my Kryddgården Set. I took this photo and a few more on my Christmas Day promenade. On last years promenade, I walked up to an old oak and that walk turned out to be a one year long photo project! Not sure that will happen here, but I will be back every now and then for updates.

Bigger photo.

Red Reflection

Todays photo comes from my promenade around Lake Rudan in Handen. One of the older buildings reflected in the water. Today I will be eating a lot of christmas food, like swedish meatballs, salmon and of course the traditional Julskinka. And drink a few glasses of Glögg and Snaps. Bigger photo.

Icy Pier at Lake Rudan

I took a few steps on the icy pier but quickly turned around as it was very slippery. Ice forming at Lower Lake Rudan in Handen. Probably still some time before the Ice fishers return.

Winter Solstice

Sunset seen from Bergdalen in Tungelsta on the shortest day of the year, Winter Solstice. From now the days will be longer and not so dark!

Birthday Girl

My mother is 68 years young today. Congrats! From left to right, My aunt Kerstin, my uncle Åke, me, and the birthday girl all having coffee and cakes at Bergdalen in Tungelsta.

Wiger's old barn has collapsed

Two years after I took the first pictures here, something is happening again. This is Aspnäs. The Wiger family had their greenhouses here for many years. They closed two years ago. The greenhouses disappeared quickly, but then nothing happened. Two days ago a few machines arrived and the workers started removing the old foundation. Today I noticed that the old barn had collapsed. A norwegian company has bought the land here. They will put up new houses here soon. Bigger photo.

Fireworks!

Schools Out For Christmas on Vimeo

Here's a bonus post. I was sitting in front of my computer when I noticed that the soccer pitch at the school was filling up with happy kids. The winter holiday was being celebrated with some fireworks. All I had to do was open a window and start filming.

Feeding the birds

This guy knows how to get popular with the birds. Bird feeding at the nature park, Slätmossen in Handen. He said it was his good deed of the day. These birds never leave, they stay here all year. Which I can understand because there's always someone here feeding them. Bigger photo.

Coca-Cola ®

Are you like me? If so you will go nuts whenever there's a blue sky. I always try to find a "Blue Yonder" shot on days like that. This time I found it at the Coca-Cola plant in Jordbro. It was a cold day with freezing temperatures and we havent seen that in a while here in Haninge. Blue Yonder is a fun flickr group with a few rules. A clear blue sky with one object against that sky.

Car Crash

I found this car upside down at Allevägen in Lida. It's a long straight stretch here. The accident happened late on Saturday. It was a cold night and the road was probably very slippery. I met the owner/driver and his friends when I shot this photo on Sunday. They didnt feel like having their photo taken for some reason. I asked the very young driver a few questions but he didnt say much. They asked me not to show the licence plate but you can never stop me. I saw a police car in the area a little later and will keep an eye on the local papers in the next few days. Bigger photo.

My grandfathers old school

This was once the Church School in Västerhaninge. Built in 1861. My grandfather Harald Fredrik Jansson was a student here for a few years in the beginning of the last century. Today the building houses the local handicraft boutique annd association, and it's also a private home.

The world's tallest Christmas Tree

I took a photo promenade in Stockholm yesterday and decided that you have to see this. It's the big Christmas Tree at Skeppsbron in Stockholm. It's the biggest in the world. It's a Norwegian Spruce, from Uppland, 38 meters high with 5000 christmas lights. The tree is sponsored by Kinnevik. The tree is so big that it usually arrives on a huge truck in the middle of the night when there's less traffic. From Skeppsbron you can take the ferry to Djurgården. If you wanna see more photos from my visit there's plenty more in my Stockholm Set.

Santa on the roof...

This is the roof of the Antiques Barn at Åby in Västerhaninge. They sell, you guessed it, antiques here. Mostly furniture and paintings. I have never bought anything here on my visits. I take pictures.

Streetlights in a row

A straight stretch. This is Nederstaleden in Västerhaninge. I used to jog here many years ago. It always felt that the road would never turn. Now I take photos, much easier. This is shot just after lunch. It gets dark very early this time of the year. To the left is the railroad and to the right you can see the lights above the walkway. The straight ends up at the commuter station and mall.

Are You Looking At Me?

There's plenty of wildlife to see in my neck of the woods. Here's proof. I was on my way to Västerhaninge on bicycle when I arrived at the railroad crossing at Nedersta. On the field stood this Moose. It was eating lunch and didn't seem to mind me or the two workers that walked towards it for a closer look. I managed to get eight shots, slowly walking closer and closer to the big animal. Then came a car from Stabergs Road. They stopped and took some photos and then the Moose decided that the photo shoot was over for this time. The rest of the photos can be seen in my Moose Encounter set.

Spaceman!

Todays photo is a bit different. It's a photo mosaic made from pictures from my Canon Library. All photos taken by me of course. A few thousand of them can be found at my flickr site. This is swedens first astronaut. His name is Christer Fuglesang. Later today he is going out on his first spacewalk, how cool is that? If you follow this link you can look at the mosaic in the original size and see how it was made. There are many good mosaic programs. If you want to test one, I can recommend Andrea Mosaic.

Advent Candle Light

I'm not religious in any way and not a big fan of traditions but I do like this one. Advent.



During the dark month of December these lights can be seen in every home in Sweden. This is just one window (it's my living room window), imagine seeing hundreds at a time. Looks even better when there's snow on the ground, but you can't have everything. Bigger Photo.

Spot the Woodpecker

I could hear the drumming of this Woodpecker as I opened the door this Sunday afternoon. Here it is high up a Norway Spruce at Bergdalen. Looks quite good with the blue sky as a backdrop. Bigger Photo. I was going out because I was told that the Forsythia was blooming which is a bit odd for the middle of December. If you don't believe me press here.

At The Christmas Market

Today was the annual Christmas Market in Tungelsta. This is the greenhouse at the park. Many years ago Tungelsta had more than 100 greenhouse businesses, today there's around 10 left. My great grandfather was the first gardener to set up his greenhouses 100 years ago. This greenhouse was built by the members of Föreningen Folk och Trädgård and is often used for occasions like this.



This is Allevägen outside the Coop Store. They close off the road and set up a bunch of tents to lure people to buy a lot of crap. I didnt buy anything I take pictures! The statue to the right is off an old famous writer Ivar-LO Johansson who lived here when he was young.

Santa Claus Delivering Gifts

Looks like Santa and one of his helpers are visiting Jordbro today.It's a busy month for them I guess... Bigger photo.

Lake Reflection

The lake is Lillsjön or Little Lake. A long time ago there was a bridge not far from the lake called Jordbro and that's how Jordbro got it's name. Back then there was an old pub next to the bridge. Both pub and bridge are long gone. Bigger Photo.

See where I shot this photo from. [?]

View from a bridge

There's a path in the forest between Jordbro and Handen. Popular with joggers and dog owners. If you follow that path you will find a nature park. It's called Slätmossen and I have blogged about it a couple of times before. It's an old peat swamp turned into a bird park. This is the view from a wooden bridge. I always take this photo. It looks a bit different compared to my last post back in September. I never get bored with this view. I have taken some really good shots there, here is a link to the best one.

Full Moon

There's a hill at Bergdalen in Tungelsta where I live. I often go up there to capture the sunset. This time it was a few hours later and the moon was full. I find it very peaceful to sit up there in the dark and look at the stars, or as in this case earth's natural satellite.

One year ago

Digging in to my flickr archives. This was the scene exactly one year ago. A red cottage with a blue door in a snowy landscape. Shot at Stenvägen in Lida. I was going to go back there today for the 2006 version but it was raining to hard. Weather permitting I will try again tomorrow. I have been on flickr since May 2004, and I always check in the archive every morning to see what I did this time one or two years ago. If you havent yet opened a flickr account, do it now. It is without doubt the best photo site in the history of the web.

7 Bohemian Waxwings

I could here the birds chatting away up the tree in Lida, and decided to stop and take a few photos. I was on the bicycle so it took a minute to get the camera ready. After I took this, I was going to zoom in and get a close-up, but the 7 Bohemian Waxwings or Sidensvansar as they are known in swedish decided that the photo shoot was over and flew away...

A Wild Duck

I often visit the nature park Slätmossen in Handen. A great place to sit and read, go for a walk or go for a photo shoot. That's what I normally do. Here's todays photo from the park, a Wild Duck, or Gräsand as we call them.

A Leaf Picker!

I didnt know that they existed. But here's proof. A leaf picker! She walked around the bus terminal area in Västerhaninge yesterday with her leaf rake, looking up for any remaining leaves to collect.

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Shop 'Til You Drop

The welcoming sign at the big shopping mall in Handen. I hate shopping, so I tend to avoid this place. But it has all the stores that you will ever need, including the Systembolaget, the most important of all Swedish shops. Handen is the seat of the Municipality of Haninge and 12 000 people call it home.

Redpoll up a birch tree

This is a Redpoll, Carduelis flammea or Gråsiska in Swedish. I didnt know that when I uploaded the photo to flickr, so I posted it in a few bird groups and it was identified whitin a couple of hours. It is very unusual for this finch to be seen in this part of the country. Normally they stay up North and when winter comes they migrate to Germany. For the last month I have had a few hundred of these birds flying around the birch trees just outside my window. It is a small bird, ca 12 cm long, and it weighs no more than 12 gram. There's more info at Wikipedia.

Reaching for the sky

Something's up at the Supermarket Coop Forum in Handen. Hard to miss this big crane! No idea what they will build here, this is the parking lot. I googled it and found an aerial photo.

Waves rolling in

The waves rolling in from Hårsfjärden, in the Baltic sea at Årsta havsbad in Haninge. From my Sunday visit. 10C, a few people out walking. And me with camera. A nice day.

Sunny November Sunday

A roller skier at Fors in Haninge enjoying the fantastic weather this Sunday. Guess what I did? That's right, I took a bike ride. It was around 10 C, not much wind, and a clear blue sky. I made another visit to my favorite beach. I rested on the big bench down by the water before starting to take photos. Not a bad day.

November Rain

I took one of my MP3 Players for a walk in the rain. Because it was Saturday I stopped at Välsta for my weekly shot of the old oak. The rain started to pick up so I decided to turn back home after a visit to the old barn at the Nödesta Farm. Not that many people around, but a few of the sheep greeted me.


The same sheep that I met last week btw.

Distant Heating Pipeline

A truck arrives at Nederstaleden in Västerhaninge with pipelines for the distant heating project. Short explanation:
The idea behind distant heating is that one big source will be used instead of many smaller ones. From the power plant the water runs via the pipeline to the houses. After warming up the house the cooling water goes back to the power plant and the process is repeated. The Power Plant in Jordbro uses renewable fuel.

SILVER BULLIT

This is the tamper Plasser & Theurer Stopfexpress 09-3X. Top performance, precision and reliability are everyday demands placed on modern maintenance machinery. In rail construction, Plasser & Theuerer has developed an asynchronous balanced-pressure tamping system for tamping at a frequency of 35 Hz that assures precise geometric positioning of the tracks and the efficient manufacture of tie supports.The Stopfexpress 09-3X three-tie tamping machine works more uniformly by processing a longer length of rail per tamping cycle. It is also 40 percent faster than the previously fastest machines. So now you know that. I shot this in Västerhaninge. The railway line is the Nynäsbanan.It goes between the nation's capital, Stockholm and the port city of Nynäshamn.

What did you buy today?

This is what I came home with from my local grocery store, Konsum in Tungelsta. One Heineken beer, some milk and cream. Filmjölk (see link) and Orange Juice. Two Marsan Vanilla Sauce and some apples for tonights pie. Omega 3 Butter. Yoggi yoghurt. Shower Gel. Tomatoes. Echalots de Tradition. Rye Bread. In all it cost me 248 SEK. What did you buy today?

Moose Encounter

I met a moose (Alces alces) today. I was on my bike and noticed the moose on a nearby field. He was heading for a garden with apple trees at Hammarbo. I took a few photos and a video. There's around 400 000 elks or älgar in Sweden. Every year 100 000 elks are shot during the hunting season which is now over. You can read more about hunting here. I don't hunt btw, I only shoot with my camera.

That Old Tree

Only one month left on this photo project now. I've been walking up to this old oxel for eleven months now. Shot this at the weekend. A very misty day.

Revolving Gate

Zooming in on the revolving gate at the industrial park in Jordbro. One of the companys on the other side is Recip AB a pharmaceutical company in. They focus much on the environmental issues. One popular product is Glucosine.

At the farm

A very misty day in Tungelsta today. I headed up to Nedersta and the old farm there. So today's photos comes from Nödesta, the farm has been here for 700 years.