The Ghost Who Walks

They say that the Phantom moves faster than lightning flash. That could be the reason why no one noticed him arrive to where I found him yesterday, at the bus and commuter train terminal in Handen. I asked him for a portrait, but he didn't respond, he just stood there eyeing me. No sign of Devil or Hero. When I asked The Man Who Cannot Die if I could have a look at his two rings, he didn't say no, so I took that as a yes and took a few photos.

It's déjà vu all over again

It has happened again. For the fifth time! I see someone I'd like to photograph. I approach, and we start to talk. I explain what I want. I write down a few facts. Like that the girl to the left is called Josephine, and that she is a student. And that the cool dude next to her is called Fredrik. And that the redhead is called Christine, and that sleeping in the stroller, is her baby daughter Joline. And also that this is the first time that Fredrik and Christine have met each other.At this point I realise that I have probably met either Josephine, or Christine before, so I ask Josephine about that, and she says, no, we haven't met before. OK, my mistake. I then take a couple of photos, and that is that. A few minutes later it hits me. I have met Christine before, when she was pregnant. A little later I see them in Västerhaninge and tells them about that, and by then Christine have told the others about that meeting.

A Future Police Officer

Spring is here, and with it the sunshine, so all the cool kids are wearing sunglasses. This pretty girl is nicknamed Karro. I spotted her in Handen yesterday and moved in for a chat and a portrait. Karro works at the veterinary clinic in Kolartorp (Jim has a photo of the clinic).Karro comes from Rangsta in Nynäshamn. Her big hobby is horses which isn't all that surprising as she grew up on a horse farm. So you are a future veterinarian then I asked? But that wasn't the case at all. In stead she wants to become a police officer. That was all we had time to talk about as Karro was late for her train.

A Familiar Face

Walking down the snowy path, that leads down to the old tree this afternoon I met the very photogenic Patricia and her horse Raven, who didn't like having it's portrait taken. Last time I met Patricia she had returned home from a lengthy visit to Spain. Now she is saving up for a possible trip to India.

She's in Fashion

That old Suede song will work fine for today's poladroid photo as I attended a fashion show at the Haninge mall yesterday. All the models that participated were locals that had auditioned for their chance to appear on the catwalk. It was a crowded affair and impossible to get close enough for any really good photos of all the different models. The fun thing was that we saw both men and women and also one or two older models.

Haninge Earth Hour

There was an open house in Handen today because of Earth Hour. I visited City Hall and listened to a music concert performed by the young students from the Haninge Music School. A few organisations were at hand to inform about easy ways to save energy. The woman in the collage is Karin who runs a environmental blog called Karins Miljöblogg. She handed out an Everyday Green Ideas questionnaire that I forgot to fill in. You could travel in style between City Hall and the Cultural Centre. With horse power if you were a kid, and with pedal power if you were a bit older. The guy on the rickshaw is Josef. He runs a company called Euro Rikshaw. I thought he looked familiar and sure enough I have a photo of him taken in Stockholm a few years ago.

The Swedish Whitebeam

I walked down to the old tree yesterday. Some of the snow has melted away, which is nice. I noticed a few common cranes on the meadow. Unfortunately they were too far away for my camera, despite the fact that I had the zoom lens mounted. And this somewhat different view of the old tree was tricky to shoot. It is six photos shot with the zoom lens, which I then stitched together and turned into a black and white photo.

Scary accident at the Mall

I have heard before about accidents were people have been killed by falling flagpoles. It has been very windy in Haninge this week, and earlier today this flagpole broke and fell to the ground near one of the entrances to the Haninge mall. The ambulance arrived just a few minutes before I took this photo. A group of people had gathered, and this police officer was trying to remove the heavy flagpole. Someone must have been badly hurt. Not sure who is responsible for looking after the flag poles, has to be the municipality or the mall. I stopped at the cafe after taking this photon where two of my friends were busy working on their laptops, so we searched online for news about this incident, but didn't find anything.

Voff!

I found another Roundabout Dog yesterday. Which was a bit of a surprise as the dog wasn't standing in a roundabout. So the question is, is it still a Roundabout Dog? No idea what I am going on about? Try one of the links after looking at the slideshow. Oh, and the cow in the set was made by a man who told me that he was inspired by the Roundabout Dog movement.

Bugs en masse

In It For The Kids

This is Saga and Ilja.They are lovers that sort of live together at Ilja's place in Haninge. Saga works at a kindergarten, and Ilja is a teacher. He passed the exam only two day ago. Both like to draw and paint. Saga used to compete in show jumping, so I told her that moving to Haninge could be a good move, as there are horse farms all over the place here. Ilja sees himself as a future Doctorate in pedagogy. He is currently working on a new art project where he will make a large sized deck of cards with video game characters. Saga is a keen photographer and has taken a few good ones over the years so I told her to set up a flickr account. I met the couple at Poseidon's Square in Handen yesterday.

The Daily Commute

A cross country skier at Lake Rudan this warm and sunny (Spring?), afternoon. Possibly the last weekend for skiing here as it was 8 C today, and the snow is quickly melting away. In the background the commuter train leaving the Handen station heading for Jordbro.

Breakfast on the Veranda

The photogenic squirrel has been back for a few more photo shoots. Here he is enjoying breakfast on the veranda table.

Summer vs. Winter

This cottage in Tungelsta is known as Håkanstorp, or Håkstorp. It dates back to 1690. It is located on a hill near the Haga farm, that I showed you in a slideshow last summer. Håkstorp is mentioned in one of Ivar Lo Johansson's auto-biographies. The famous author lived down the road at Djurgårdsgrind when he was a school boy. One day he visits the cottage and buys his first ever rifle, from the blacksmith Anders Peter Andersson, that lived here 90 years ago. In the book Johansson describes how he spends the night at Lake Tornberga hoping to shoot something. In the end he kills a grouse.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

No St. Patrick's Day Parade in Haninge, so here is my favorite Irish dry stout, Guinness. Skål!

Johanna

This is Johanna. I first noticed her at the bakery and cafe this afternoon where she was applying for a job. A bit later I saw her again near a Supermarket and decided to ask her for a portrait. Johanna is a student at the Riksäpplet secondary school, where she is reading studying the hotel and restaurant programme. Johanna told me that she is a good baker and is always experimenting with different cake recipes, but that she will never eat the cakes, she leaves that for friends and family! The reason for that is that she wants to stay fit. She used to compete both in horse riding and tennis, but for now she only works out at the gym. I hope Henrik will give her the job so that she can serve me coffee and one of her cakes at the cafe this spring!

At Winters End

If you want to believe the meteorologists spring is now officially here. So when I noticed this digger on top of a snow mound at Nedersta Gärde this afternoon I figured it would be a good way to say goodbye to this long and cold winter. I have created a flickr set with my 2010/2011 winter shots, so feel free to have a look at those.

Feed Me, Feed Me, Feed Me!

One of the squirrels at Bergdalen trying it's best to hypnotize me so that I would fill up the bird feeder. It worked according to plan.

The future's so bright...

This is AC, which is short for Anna-Carin. She's a 9th grade student from Vendelsö. I spotted her in Lida yesterday as she and a friend came walking down the Mulsta road. Her camera shy friend was carrying a camera of her own which was why I decided to stop for a chat. Turns out that Anna-Carin's big hobby is horses. The girls had been up to the stable at Mulsta where AC keeps her horse Ella. Her friend with the camera, Elin, had been busy taking photos of Ella. And as I started taking photos AC started to giggle and had a hard time keeping a straight face all thanks to her friend Elin who was doing her best to unsettle AC!

A Real Honey

This is Melis. I met her in Handen yesterday. The name Melis comes from the Mediterranean region and in Greek it means honey. Melis was born and raised in Haninge, but these days she's a globetrotter. She spent one year in Canada, working at many different places, including hotels and shops. She speaks five languages. Swedish, English,Turkish, German and Spanish, so there's no surprise that she has also worked as a translator. She told me that she finds it easy to learn new languages, and is planning to learn Russian next. The last two years she has worked her way around Turkey. I have probably lived in all the major cities she told me. One place she worked was the five star luxury hotel Gloria Serenity in Belek. Guests there included the jet set, local celebrities, Swedish golf tourists and also wealthy Russian men who arrived with their mistresses! In the future Melis sees herself working as a history teacher at University level.

Autumn vs. Winter

As you know by now I always return for another photo to some of my favorite places in Haninge. So this might look familiar to you. A red cottage overlooking Upper Lake Rudan in Handen. I shot the Autumn half of the diptych in October of last year. The winter side of the photo is how the red cottage looked yesterday.

It's Still Winter

It hasn't been easy to get around as a pedestrian or a cyclist this winter. Walking on the snowy and icy sidewalks have been scary to say the least. I am still amazed that I haven't broken any bones this winter. This week I have been playing Kamikaze cyclist as I have navigated the walkways. All of the roads are fine, there's no snow or ice on them, but no one seems to care much about the sidewalks.

Summer vs. Winter

Time for another diptych in my Different Seasons series. And what a difference it is. This is the grassy beach at Upper Lake Rudan in Handen. The summer part of the photo is from June of last year. The winter half, where you can spot a lone ice skater out on the frozen lake is how the beach looked yesterday.

Akira Powwie

This is Sam. She's a secondary student at the Fredrika Bremer- school in Handen where she is studying music. And of course photography. When I met her in Handen today she was out taking winter photos for a school project. Sam is a musician. She plays the guitar and is working on her debut album at the moment. Her showbiz name is Akira Powwie. Remember where you heard it first!

A truck on the railtrack

I heard on the radio just now that there was no commuter trains running between Nynäshamn and Västerhaninge. This is probably one reason. A Volvo truck from Infranord at the Krigslida level crossing on the Nynäsbanan railtrack. I had to wait for several minutes as two of the workers tried to manually lift the barriers. There are lots of work going on here now as a new railtrack is being built between Tungelsta and Västerhaninge.

The Anchor

This is Ankaret. It's a housing cooperative along Allévägen in Tungelsta. It consists of four apartment buildings and was built in 1963. Before Ankaret was built there stood another property here called Skogshyddan, where the veterinarian Henrik Torsten Wanselin lived. Skogshyddan was built in 1903 and you can see a photo of it if you press here.

The old Stationhouse

The old Station House in Tungelsta (it dates back to 1902), is always fun to shoot, so here is another look at the building that was designed by Ferdinand Boberg. I recently listened to a recording made with my grandfather Harald Fredrik Jansson, where he described a few winter journeys to Stockholm back when the rail-road was new. His father Johan Fredrik Jansson opened the first plant nursery in Tungelsta 100 years ago (it is called Blomorado today). Back then the first steam train of the day left for Stockholm from the station in Handen, ten kilometres from Tungelsta, which meant that the women that sold the vegetables, fruits and flowers at the Haymarket had to walk for two hours every morning in the snow. They wore long dresses that quickly became wet from the snow and by the time they had reached the station their dresses was heavy with ice. Back then not everyone owned a truck or a car so sometimes they travelled back and forth to Stockholm with a horse drawn vehicle. That took four hours one way. It's a bit easier to get around these days!

Professionals at Work

I have never used a chainsaw in my life. There's professionals you can hire for that sort of thing. Like the ones here at Hammar in Tungelsta. These guys are arborists, or tree surgeons, if you like that title better. There's lot of construction work going on around Hammar at the moment with the new rail-track, the bridge over the commuter station, and the work on the road that passes by the estate. I'm guessing that the Swedish Transport Administration have hired these guys to fix Charlotte's 200 year old tree lined avenue. She had to sell some of her property and I think the STA have promised her that they would help her with the impressive entrance.

Snow Rose

Someone has left a bunch of red roses in the snow next to the execution rock in Jordbro. Not sure why. I can't remember if I have posted a photo of the rock on the blog, but here is a related story from the Summer of 2009.

Poseidon's Square

It's starting to look like a real building site at Poseidon's Square in Handen now. Six apartment buildings will be built here next to the cultural centre. As I took a few photos one of the workers, a truck driver, came up to me. He waited for me to finish shooting, and then asked me if I worked there. Nope, I'm just taking a few quick photos. He then informed me that I couldn't stand where I was shooting, as I was maybe two steps in on the building site, where absolutely nothing was happening. I answered, no worries, I know the building site manager. The truck driver wasn't too impressed by that and responded in Moronic (is that a language?), I really don't give a shit about that. So I told him, also in Moronic, that I don't give a shit about anything he has to say to me. And that was that. I was done, so I took two steps back and was on my way as he took off in his truck.

Lakeside

Theme day. My favorite part of town. Has to be the lakes at Rudan. A recreational area only one minutes walk from the commuter station in Handen. If you like the outdoors this is the place for you. In the summer time people come here for a swim, or sunbathing on the cliffs, or at the beach. In the winter you can go ice skating on the frozen lake, or try ice fishing .It' s also very popular with skiers. I am here on a weekly basis. I usually go for a walk or a bike ride around the lower lake. It's also one of my favorite places to shoot portraits as there's often some sports activity here and this is also one of the places used for the Haninge Day celebrations.


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