Abandoned car

The Mellanberg farm in Handen was bought by the municipality recently. By then it had been closed for many years, but the last owner still lived at the farm. The farm dates back to around 1770 and has had a lot of inhabitants during the last two hundred years. If you understand the local lingo you can read an article about those people at Haninge.org. I am not sure what will happen to all the old buildings now so I have decided to photograph them whenever I am in the area so that is what I did yesterday I found this old car behind the big barn. I have an album with Mellanberg photos at flickr and I will add more photos there in the days to come.

A selfie and a few books

Still mostly in bed because of a cold so here are two recent photos from home. Found an old camera, can't remember where I got it. Decided to take a photo of it and it came out as a fun selfie. Westex was a medium format 120 roll film folding camera made by Beier for Westminster Photographic Exchange, London, UK back in 1939 so now you know that. The three books have a fun story to them. Years ago at a car show I met a guy who was there with a Corvette. I took a few photos of the car and we talked for a bit. Met him again the following year at the same event, that time he was dressed like an old time American gangster! I told him to set up a flickr account that first time we met so I have seen a few photos from him over the years. What I didn't know then was that he was a forensic scientist, working for the Swedish police. Now, a few years down the road he can also title himself crime writer. In the mail a while back was a package from the author himself. Three signed copies of his crime novels. Could come in handy as I am recovering from the cold.

A visit to the national park

Earlier in the week, before the cold took hold of me, I visited the Tyresta national park. I walked over to the newish bird tower, for a bit of bird spotting. All I could report in the visitors log was Canada Goose and a few different types of ducks. To get to the tower you have to walk through a muddy pasture filled with chillin' cows. I did another stop at a horse pasture and took a close-up of a "mule", or snout as it is called in English. For a larger view of the panorama head over to flickr. All the animals lives in the working farm that you can see to the left in the panorama.

The beaver started it

And then the municipality finished it. As seen in the nature park Slätmossen earlier in the week.

Ford Taunus

I took this Brenizer method photo with the worst lens on the chart recently made by Ed Noble, my nifty fifty, but I still managed to stitch the photos together. The 1966 Ford Taunus spends most of it's life hidden away in a garage, but the owner enjoys working on it most weekends so I can often spot it parked near my favorite cafe.

New Houses at Ribby

New houses being built at Ribby Allé in Västerhaninge. The new project is called Ribby Ängar. In total 232 apartments. This is next to the Bovieran project that I told you about in a few posts last year.

Do Not Disturb

Out walking in a forested area in Jordbro recently I suddenly heard a bird chirping, it sounded a bit like a warning. Took me a while to track the sound down but then behind a few thick branches I found her. A female fieldfare brooding in it's nest built on a tree stump. I didn't want to disturb her so I took a quick photo and walked away. A few days later I checked up on her again and took this photo with the new Canon 6D with the nifty fifty lens. I'm hoping there will be more family members present on my next visit!

Undervattensbåt

Swedish word of the day. Ubåt, Submarine. Met a photographer on the day that i took this photo. We talked about zoom lenses. He owns a 500mm lens. I don't. But such a lens would have been useful during my Sub spotting at Hårsfjärden. Shot this with the silent zoom lens while eating a meatball sandwich sitting on a bench down by the beach at Årsta Havsbad.

Modern Construction Technique

The progress have been slow at Skarplöts Allé in Västerhaninge, but I did spot one new house currently being set up there earlier in the week. This used to be a big field until a few years ago when IKEA and Skanska started the BoKlok Concept. The name Skarplöt comes from the nearby farm. If you want to see a few photos from that farm, check out this post from a few years ago.

That Old Tree

Last time I showed you the old tree Jack figured we would see it greening the next time, well it didn't happen.I had a close look on this visit but the Swedish Whitebeam is a slow starter so maybe next time. Anyway this is my 467th photo of the tree, but the first one with my new camera, the full frame Canon 6D. It's not the newest model on the market, but for it's price one of the best. I have three lenses that work with it. The pancake lens. The nifty fifty and the 85mm lens. All I have to do now is to decide what zoom lens to buy.

Redesigned & Soon Gone

One of the two redesigned water towers at the industrial area in Handen. I try to shoot them from all possible angles when I'm in the area so feel free to look through the slideshow. The building in front of the tower is part of the "Fredrik" secondary school. It will be gone soon as a new modern school has been built across the road from here. The industrial area is situated in central Handen and I think it's days are numbered as the politicians would like to see apartments here in the future especially when the new Albyberg industrial area a few kilometres from here is ready.

Vegastaden Commuter Station

This is the future Vegastaden,(Vega City), commuter station in Handen. I was here one year ago and it looked pretty much the same back then, minus all the blasted rocks and what have you. The station will open in 2019. At the moment around three thousand people live in the Vega City area, but a few years from now that figure will be more like ten thousand.

Bird Song

This is Knut. He is a colorful little Bofink. You might know him as a Chaffinch. He is a really good singer and as I took this snap with the silent zoom lens he gave me a performance.

Keeps Your Head Warm

If you own a fine convertible you obviously have to use it. No matter the weather. Driving with the hood down can be a chilly experience in Sweden but there are ways around that. You can do like this fellow did in his Jaguar. Might not be the sexy look he is going for, but it will keep his head warm.

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

Part 13. Year 2. Mid-April. Still there, but you can't read the label any longer. More photos here.

Giveaway of the Day

Spotted at a recycling station at Nederstaleden in Västerhaninge yesterday. I didn't take one, but they look like the IKEA mugs that they use at my favorite cafe.

A grass-straw

Timothy-grass from above. Found next to a stream at the Rudan nature reserve on the disc golf course. Shot with the nifty fifty and two extension tubes and it was windy so it took some time.

Monochrome Hillside

I walked up a hill and in to a pasture the other day. You can see the opening here, there's a path to the left, it follows the fence. I knew that the pasture was empty of horses so I sat down on the top of the hill with my back against the big birch tree and ate a light lunch consisting of a meatball sandwich a banana and some yoghurt. You have a decent view from the hill. You can see a small farm Snurrom, that I have visited with my camera once. The busy motorway to Stockholm. Kalvsvik, which is another horse farm. The high-rises at Jordbro and the forests at the nature reserve next to the medieval burial ground.

No Gloves

Sure, it was a warm day, at least for this cold Spring, but no more than maybe 10C and I had my winter gloves on me on my bike ride, but this guy just needed to show off or something so he took out his bike and he figured who needs gloves on a day like this!

The Stuntman

This is The Stuntman, AKA Jan Klintberg, from Nynäshamn. A keen photographer for most of his life, and a long-time member of the local photo club, His preferred camera was always a Hasselblad. I was taking photos of a few classic cars at Vegabaren in Handen (you saw them in yesterdays post), when "Klintan" walked up beside me and promptly informed me that his grandfather once owned that particular model Ford that I was then shooting. Klintan (who is very talkative), did a few stunts in his youth. And he proudly told me about the time when he performed the stunt of cycling on water! Word got around about that and later he was asked to do that same stunt in a movie. The film in question was Åsa-Nisse i Rekordform from 1969. Easily the worst of all the Åsa-Nisse movies according to the stuntman. As we continued to chat it started to rain, and before we knew it we were standing in a hail storm and that's when we decided to call it a day.

The early Ford v8 club of Sweden

Biking past Vegabaren in Handen yesterday I noticed these old Fords parked next to each other. Turned out to be a few members from the Ford V8 Club Sweden that had met up for their annual meet. I just had time to take these photos before it started to rain. Among them are a 1946 Ford Super Deluxe. A 1929 Ford Model A. A 1939 Ford Pick-Up and a 1937 Ford.

Rock Cat

Spotted this heavyweight rock cat a couple of days ago in Handen. It securely blocks vehicles from driving on the lawn at the apartment building where it most likely lives.

"Lights over Haninge"

Possible UFO sighting in Haninge earlier this week.

That Old Tree

Been a very cold Spring so far this year and yesterday was on exception. No more than maybe 5C as I made my way towards the old tree.

Underpass

The most recent post I shoved you from the construction site that is the future commuter station in Tungelsta was a photo I called the hole on the ground. This is how it looks today. You can start to see the outline of an underpass. The underpass will be one of two way to get to and from Lillgården, on foot or by bike in the future when the old crossing closes and the new station opens. Both photo shot as panoramic images with the nifty fifty.

Waste Materials

Or, garbage if you like. If you need to get rid of old stuff you can either order a big container, or a big bag from Sortera.se, or go to their place of business in Jordbro where it sometimes can look like this. Oh and have anyone seen my old record player?

An apple a day

Remember that frosty apple I showed you back in December of last year? Well here it is again. The Spring version I guess. The apple tree grows close to a water protection area at Hanveden. But I don't think I will take a bite of this apple despite the good water, which is used as drinking water and also by Coca-Cola Sweden who has their Swedish plant just a few hundred meters from here. The good people over at Utata liked my photo so much that they used it at the front page, always great when that happens.

The Fugitives

After spending several years standing outside a hamburger joint in Handen, Clovve and his girlfriend Clovina finally had enough. No more advertising for fast food and ice creams. So late one night they left. I caught up with them yesterday in a forest. They seemed genuinely happy.

Waterproof receptacle

It wasn't too long ago that I posted about having to run away from a blasting site at the new industrial area Albyberg. This time I took the safe but trickier route. To get to this vantage point overlooking Albyberg you have to trek through a forest on a winding path before walking along a fence for a bit. The only new structure since my last visit was this cistern, one of the workers managed to walk out of the photo in the last second. The road to and from the site passes below the blasted area and I am standing on the other side of that road zooming in.

The Beauty of Simplicity

Theme day at City Daily Photo. The Beauty of Simplicity. I knew that it had to be a photo of a Spring flower. This is one of the first wood anemones, (or Vitsippor as we call them inSsweden), to bloom at the Gullringskärrets nature reserve in Jordbro. In total I counted maybe ten vitsippor there today. A few weeks from now the fields and forests here will be filled with millions of white flowers.