The Swing

Lucky kid who can use that swing. Growing up in the tiny village of Ormsta must be great. A beautiful rural setting in the middle of nowhere. Ask anyone in Haninge and chances are no one can tell you were to find this place. Just three or four houses. No traffic at all if you don't count the farmers wehicels. In fact, the gravel road ends here, and you can only continue on foot or bike and if you do you will travel on the road less travelled and I will show you that tomorrow.

A New Way of Living

Not the Riviera. But the Bovieran. A play with words.Bo means Living in Swedish. It's a new concept. And it is being built in Ribby in Västerhaninge at the moment. Three buildings with 48 apartments. Built in the shape of a horse shoe. Three stories high. Nothing special there, but then there's the huge glassed-in garden with different themes. Including a Mediterranean garden. A Japanese garden, a Scandinavian garden, and one tropical garden. Perfect for Scandinavian people who are tired of the long Winters. The garden is the heart of the concept. It is where you meet your friends and where you can play boule or just relax together. There's ponds and citrus trees, palm trees and olive trees. And you walk directly from your apartment to the garden. All apartment here are already sold. More facts in Swedish here.

Seen any birds ?

The view from the new bird tower at the wetland in the Tyresta National Park. It was my first visit to the tower. I was hoping to get a few snaps of some interesting birds, but I counted zero (0), birds. Better luck next time I guess. But the panorama came out nicely. Seventeen photos stitched together. Shot in the portrait mode (upright), using the pancake lens. To see the original sized version press here.

Road To Tyresta

This is the road to Tyresta National Park. I took the bike for a visit on Friday. The colours are slowly changing here. I visited the new bird tower in the wetland and I will show you a panorama from there in my next post. My Interenet has been down for a few days but I have a temporary mobile connection at the moment.

Rain drops

The weather forecast "promised" 17C and sunshine come the end of the week. Hasn't happened yet, and at the moment we have a blueish sky, but no more than 7C. It rained all day yesterday and I only took two photos. This is one of them. A plant by the side of the road near Hanvedens IP.

Free Apples

Hammarbo stands empty at the moment, so if you want an apple, just walk in and grab one. Snowy version from December of 2012. Apple blooming photo from earlier this month.

Autumn Colors

Biking down the 200 year old tree lined avenue that is Allévägen in Tungelsta I spotted a bit of autumn color and combined with the blue sky I figured that would make for a fine photo.

Autumn Equinox

Höstdagjämningen happened earlier today. Hösten/Fall/Autumn is officially here. The colors are changing quickly now. The temperature have dropped significantly. Stockholm got a new rain record earlier in the week. It is very windy most days. The mornings are cold as are the evenings, and it's getting darker earlier and earlier. But come Thursday the warm weather is said to be returning again. At least for a few days. Hurrah! Today's photo shows an old warehouse at the Välsta farm. Many years ago before I even started the That Old Tree project I had this view in mind for a weekly photo project. It never happened, but I have taken one or two photos here over the last few years. And who knows, this might be the start of a new monthly series.

Autumn Forest

I took a walk in a forest at Välsta in Tungelsta yesterday. Before the rain. Autumn colors all around. The fence to the right is because of the horses that you would normally find here.

Farewell To Summer

Para-gliding is a popular Summer sport/pastime in Sweden. And in Haninge. I often hear them before I see them. One good spot for take off and landings is actually the fields near the old tree. Today is supposedly the last warm day for us. The Summer has been much warmer than usual, and longer. The only bad weather was during the World Cup when people were indoors watching the football. I got this shot earlier in the week on a warm late Summer evening. Shot from the hill at home.

Tree Lined Avenue

This is one of those places that I always return to with my camera. The tree lined avenue leading op to the 700-year old farm at Nödesta. One or two leaves have changed colors, but green is still the dominating color.

A Helping Hand

Out on a walk near Kalvsvik in rural Österhaninge looking for early signs of autumn I found this plant on a field. A closer look told me that the well dressed plant was comforting his or her friend!

Grass straw update

I wonder if anyone will believe this. On July 1st I was on my way to old tree for my weekly photo, when I spotted a funny looking grass straw by the side of the path. I had my pancake lens with me and it was windy so it took a while, but in the end I got a real good photo of the straw. Anyway, on my way to the tree 10 weeks later, I noticed that same grass straw! It was still there. And this is it. I didn't know what it was so I asked at a forum called Odla.nu where Sylvia answered my question in just a couple of minutes. It is a Timothy-grass, or Timotej as we call it here.

Body Ink

David's body is turning into a work of art. I noticed his head tattoo and decided to ask if I could take a few photos when I noticed him on a walkway in Jordbro. He was on his way to work but had time for a chat and a portrait. David has two big interests. Rock 'n' roll and tattoos. I was very impressed by the quality of his tattoos. He told me that he is far from finished when it comes to his body art. On his legs you can see Alice Cooper and Lemmy. A few more photos of David at flickr.

That Old Tree

We have enjoyed Summer temperatures for a long time now. This trip to the old tree the other day was no different although the wind cooled me down a bit. As you can see the now dead branches that broke off during the thunderstorm is still there.

A Cup of Chicory Coffee Anyone?

During WWII from March 1940 you couldn't get real coffee because of the rationing. So people drank this stuff. Kaffesurrogat. Made from Chicory. So did I yesterday. At the old alehouse/district court building in Västerhaninge. These days that building is used by the homestead society, Haninge Hembygdsgille. I also enjoyed Kronans kaka. The recipe dates back to 1903, ingredients includes potatoes and almond. Served with lemon sauce. I also got a rye biscuit. All for 20SEK. Why? Because yesterday was a European Heritage Day.

A little scandal

Election Day. Sure is glad that it will be over soon. I have been trying very hard not to see all the election posters. That type of propaganda always get me angry. Locally and nationally it looks like a Red/Green coalition will take over, but you never know before that fat lady turns up I guess. I leave you with a local scandal. Everything was looking good for top politician and Social Democrat Robert Noord (blue shirt to the left). He was on his way to become the next Mayor of Haninge. But it's an election year and if there's something in your closet, chances are that it will come out. And it did, with just a week left to the election and today his career is history. So what did he do? He used his phone too much. He had the hots for a much younger woman in another political party (M), and in the end he sent her one too many text messages talking about how much power he had and what he could do for her if she just...

Poisonous Toadstool

That time of the year again when the photogenic mushrooms can be seen. This is a "Röd Flugsvamp". Or fly agaric.

Street Protest

The general election takes place on Sunday. The ruling Alliance are predicted to loose the election, but it's not much between them and the Social Democrats that have a loose alliance with The Green Party, supported by The Left Party and perhaps FI. One party that no one will do any deal with is the Sweden Democrats (far-right, anti-immigration party). They held a rally in Handen yesterday. The party secretary Björn Söder and a local representative tried their best to be heard, but as per usual there was also a street protest by a few left wing parties, including the Socialist Justice Party. Fifteen police vehicles and fifty police officers surrounded Poseidon's Square during the rally. I decided to stay and document the event. Police arrested one protester from the Socialist Justice Party, but other than that there was not much to report. In the slideshow you will find some of the photos I took during the one hour long rally/street protest. On the top photo you can see two members from The Left Party demonstrating against The Swedish Democrats.

Green Alley Road

Happy to report that we still have summer temperatures and that most of the Summer green is still around. But the evenings are getting a bit colder and it is getting darker a little earlier than I like. This is Allévägen in Lida. The trees were planted 200 years ago by the family that still owns the estate that you will find at the other end of the alley.

Emerging Patterns

A couple of years ago while taking a winter promenade around Lower Lake Rudan I found a tree branch stuck in the ice. One month later I took another photo when the ice had melted. Last week on another promenade I found what was left of the tree branch, and this is how it looks today.

Ye olde tractor

They have been harvesting hay at the Nödesta farm recently. They use modern machines most of the time, but I noticed this old Ferguson? out on a field. It is used to transport the hay. Figured this might be a fun Brenizer Method photo. It is 22 photos stitched together, shot with the 85mm lens at f/1.8. Almost looks a bit like a miniature tractor.

A Portrait and a slideshow

This portrait of Gumilla De luxe was the last photo I took at the Grand Prix Raggarbil this year. Gunilla arrived as I was leaving, so this slideshow with 163 photos will show what she missed. Enjoy!

Nice Tats

Two post today as I was out with food poisoning over the weekend. I still have a few photos to go through from the big greaser meet. First photo shows Anna's latest tattoo. A frog. It's because of her mother who is nicknamed Grodan the Swedish word for frog. Second photo shows a very tired raggare taking a nap in his car. Notice the cassette tape tattoo.

Babe of the Day

One or two hot girls at the big "Raggarträff" (Greaser meet), at Vegabaren. Weirdly enough I felt the urge to photograph them. And here is one such photo.

Someone is getting married

Suddenly a double-decker bus showed up at the big Greaser meet (still a few more photos to show you). It stopped at a pedestrian crossing, and it turned out to be a hen party. The bus comes from a company called Partybussar.

Americana

Raggare loves everything American. At least if it dates back to the 1950s. And possibly to the 1960s. Especially cars. Elvis. Rockabilly. And more.

Vintage Cars

Hundreds of classic cars at the big Greaser meet at the famous Vegabaren in Handen last Saturday. Cadillac Eldorado. Ford Edsel. 1960 Buick Le Sabre. 1956 Chevrolet.

Pretty in Pink

Every year at the Grand Prix Raggarbil you can vote for Best Looking Greaser Girl. This is Petra Nyman. I don't know if she won, but I think she was in with a good chance with this pink polka dot dress.

Rusty but Loved

You can be sure of one thing. No matter how a "raggarbil" (car owned and used by a member of the subculture), looks or sounds, it is loved. Seriously loved. A raggare lives for his car. And the 1950s music. And the greaser girls. There were many rusty American cars at the big meet, and here are two of them. Theme Day. Rust and Ruins.