Winter Glow

A sudden change in the weather. Two days ago it was -15C. Today it is 4C and snow snow is slowly melting away. Took this snap at home yesterday afternoon. The glowing greenhouse, today owned by Blomorado was built back in 1991.

Vinterbild

So I was hoping last week for a bit of sunshine, and maybe the sky was blue for a few hours but I must have missed that. Back to the gray skies once again. Really depressing weather. Got a thin layer of snow a couple of days ago, It is still around and as I'm typing this it is raining a bit. The temperature is hovering around 0C. The photo here is from the hill here at Bergdalen in Tungelsta.

Bullfinch

Very cold here at the moment with -12C, and even colder weather tomorrow if the meteorologist is correct, they are predicting -21C. Not good news for the birds that hang around my bird feeder. This is a Domherre, or Bullfinch.It was enjoying some seeds at the veranda yesterday when I snapped this photo with the silent zoom lens.

The Northern Lights

I have to confess to not knowing what I was doing. Closing in on Midnight we could see the Northern Light at home. So I took the wide angle lens with me and tried a few different settings from a few different places at Bergdalen. I wasn't all that happy with the result. But it was an unusual feeling sitting on the top of the hill seeing it for the first time.

Tree stump

There's a steep hill behind the house where I live. It's next to the school. As a kid, I'm guessing we were around 12 years old, we stole the flat and circular plastic lamp posts at said school and used them as sleds to go down that hill. It was kinda tricky because of all the trees. But great fun until you crashed into my parents living room wall. I walked up that hill yesterday and noticed that the neighbor had cut down a few trees on the top of the hill. Shot this with the new Canon zoom lens. Oh and an alternative title should of course have been Devils Tower!

Rent-a-container

Been busy the last few days filling this container with old furniture and a lot of other things that should have been dumbed a long time ago. I have until tomorrow to fill it up. As I'm typing this I am waiting for a delivery of 12 liters of paint. That should be enough to freshen up the interior walls in three rooms on the second floor. Oh, and you can't use the old bathroom as it is currently filled with old computers and CD players and what have you. Will get rid of those in a few days time. And another oh, the veranda is now filled with different types of cardboard. They will either burn soon or find their way to the recycling station in Jordbro. I shot this photo using the Brenizer method.

Munching Away

This Roe deer was busy eating windflowers when I spotted it a few minutes ago. Supposedly poisonous, but not if you are careful apparently.

Got Any Bread Crumbs?

I was busy in the kitchen doing the dishes just now when I noticed a movement in the back garden. It was a blue tit (Blåmes), landing on a tree branch. It sat there for a while trying it's best to make me toss out some bread crumbs. Instead I fetched the camera.

Woke up this morning...

...to more snow, and complete chaos in the traffic. All bus traffic cancelled, most commuter trains delayed indefinitely. We are still waiting for the snow plougher to fix the road leading up to Bergdalen. To the left you can see my morning workout. I shovelled snow for a few minutes so that I could get the morning paper from the letter box, but the letter box was empty. Hurrah! More news in English here.

Any Nuts to Spare?

One of the local squirrels (we like to call them ekorrar), came over for a visit today. There's an empty bird feeder on this birch tree next to the veranda at Bergdalen. That can be very upsetting for a hungry squirrel, hence the stare down, which was won by the squirrel I might add, as I have now refilled the feeder. As I took this photo it started to snow and I'm guessing we will get a few centimetres of snow now.

The April Weather

Perhaps not the photo you were expecting to see after what I posted yesterday, but there you go. This is a busy bumblebee pollinating a crocus at Bergdalen in Tungelsta. And I actually shot this one the day before the winter chair photo. Another fine sign of Spring. We have a word for this type of quick changes in the weather. Aprilväder. Translated to English: April Weather. More scientifically it is spring when the average temperature rises above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. During the month of April you are likely to see this type of quick weather changes, but if you don't live here, I guess it can be a bit confusing with Spring one day, followed by Winter, and then back to Spring again. But it's interesting from a photographers view, that's for sure.

Bergdalen over the years

Change is the theme for January. This is Bergdalen, the place that I call home. On the first photo you can see how the house looked when it was new back in 1912. Three years after my great grandparents bought Bergdalen and started Tungelsta's first plant nursery.The greenhouse business is still around, although the owners have changed. Tody it is called Blomorado. The people standing to the left are my great grandfather Johan Fredrik Jansson. His wife, my great grandmother Hilda Charlotta Jansson, born Eriksson. The young kid is my grandfather Harald Fredrik Jansson, he should have been nine years old when the photo was taken. The second photo shows Bergdalen as it looks today. Some exterior changes has obviously taken place in the last century. For starters, the color has changed. The house was red back then, today it's a creamy yellow. The veranda and living-room area dates back to the 1970's. Some of the birch trees in front of the house are gone, due to a few powerful storms. Other than that the place looks the same a century later!

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03:35 P.M.

Not even time for afternoon coffee and it's already dark. The view from the veranda a few minutes ago. Greenhouses filled with poinsettia plants (but you already knew that).

Glowing in the dark

The Blomorado greenhouses at Bergdalen glowing in the dark late in the afternoon. Bigger photo. The greenhouses are filled with some 30 000 poinsettia plants. Photos taken from the hill, 30 meters from my home. My family used to own the greenhouses, but we sold a few years ago and now the business are run by our neighbours Ingemar and Danuta.

There's a troll in the garden

Not my garden of course. The troll here looks like it is thinking" what am I doing here". And that's a very good question. In this particular garden there are three more trolls. But not for much longer. They could be liberated any day now, or night...

Roofing Around

My great grandparents (on dad's side of the family) built the house some ninety five years ago. Bigger photo. Back then it was red. These days it's yellow. It's been that color for many years. With a red roof. A few years ago we had the house painted with a slightly different yellow. And the roof painted black. Now it's time to grind and paint again. Starting with the roof. Here you see two workers, Edek and Slawek (both from poland), normally they work at Blomorado but sometimes they get to other tasks as well.

Blooming Chestnut Tree

I have shown you this before and here it is again. This is my grandfather Harald Fredrik Jansson's tree. It's a Common Horse-chestnut. He planted it on his twentieth birthday back in 1922. I take a photo here every now and then. Bigger photo. Or the slideshow.

My Grandfathers Tree

This is my grandfathers tree. It's a Common Horse-chestnut. He planted it on his twentieth birthday back in 1922. I take a photo here every now and then. Try the flickr slideshow.

Bigger photo.

Crocus

More proof of spring. 10 Celsius today. The day started with a clear blue sky in Tungelsta. Now it's early afternoon and you can't see the sun for all the clouds.

Macro Mode

I woke up to a blue sky today. Nearly all the snow is gone and it was 6 C here today. I went down to Blomorado to shoot some spring like photos at their greenhouses and realised tha the ice cream truck had been there. So I just ate my first ice cream of the season. And here is another proof of spring. The fire bugs are here again. Here they are with my ice cream stick that I put there to show you the size of the bugs.