Personal Space at the Beach

It hasn't been this warm in Stockholm in the month of May since 1990. I had to make another stop at my favorite beach Årsta Havsbad on Monday and it was warmer there than it was at the Mediterranean if you want to believe the meteorologist, and yesterday that is what I wanted to do. It really was my kind of weather. There are different types of beach people and here is the proof. You can either go all in and press as hard as you can on the grass like the topless woman in the first photo. Or you can bring a chair, find the middle of the beach, sit down, relax, enjoy the sun and the breeze and whenever you feel like it pick up your smart-phone and see if anything has happened in the world. I did it a third way. I rested on a bench overlooking the beach, ate my lunch, took the above photos, chatted away with the man sitting on the next bench before walking down to the water to see if it was warm enough for a swim. It wasn't, I'm guessing around 12C so I just took off my shoes and socks and walked out into the sea for a minute.

Roundabout Tulips

The roundabouts in Västerhaninge and Handen are quite colorful at the moment. Lots of tulips to thank for that. Haven't heard about any tulip-related accidents so far although I have crossed one or two roads to get to a better shooting position.

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

Part 13. Year 2. Early Summer. First one with the Canon 6D, but still with the nifty fifty. More photos here.

A Vehicle Inspection of sorts

I noticed an unusual van parked at the vehicle inspection site at Port 73 in Handen so I stopped for a few photos. Looks like it must belong to a dedicated surfer with a lot of humour, the pin-up girl was unfamiliar to me, but a flickr contact told me that it is Carol Doda. Not sure about the bullet holes! As I took the photos another guy (third photo), came up and started taking photos of his own. He turned out to be a real Francophile, owning no less than ten French cars. He gave me a tour and pointed out was what original and what was not, he didn't actually own this van or even know the owner ,but he had one himself, and according to him there are only five Peugeot J7 in Sweden.

Under a pink sky

It's official, Summer has arrived to Stockholm, and the meteorologist agree with me now. I was out riding yesterday and it felt like a real Summer day, although a bit windy. Still not up to par after the cold so I have to take it easy out on the roads. I knew that I would be able to take this photo at the bike path at Vendelsövägen in Handen, the cherry blossom always look great here and I didn't have to wait long for the cyclist to ride into the photo. My flickr friend Uli came up with the title so thanks for that!

Out on the water

Summer is here. Maybe not if you ask a meteorologist, but just give them one more day and they will agree with me. Here are three water photos to cool you down a bit. I spotted the canoeist as he paddled past my favorite beach Årsta Havsbad at Horsfjärden a couple of days ago. The snake swam past me as I was eating a lunch while sitting on a pier at the Lower lake at the Rudan nature reserve yesterday afternoon. When it was gone I zoomed in on the fisher sitting in his inflatable boat. All photos taken with the "old" Canon and the silent zoom lens.

Bring Your Own Anvil

Are you a licensed Blacksmith? Looking to rent, or even buy, your own smithy? Well, if so, this could be your lucky day because no one is currently using the old forge at Stadsberga in rural Haninge.

An illiterate did this

I biked through some of the rural parts of Haninge yesterday, on what must have been the first day of Summer. If you ride right through the old village of Stadsberga, the road turns into a gravel path and if you continue over a little hill and down on the other side, you will be at Beteby, and that's where you can find this runestone of sorts. It has been suggested that an illiterate person, possibly called Björn,living at the farm here a few eons ago had the runestone made. The runes doesn't really say anything understandable. But it does have the familiar snake and also a cross. Maybe he, and I am pretty sure it was an old Viking, just wanted to have a runestone at his home to feel more important.

Cherry Blossom

The rule says that you have to take one photo like this one every Spring. And this is it. From Eskilsparken in handen yesterday afternoon.

Stop and smell the fumes

The month of May started with sunshine and warm weather in Haninge. It was around 13C when I spotted an old A Ford parked on the side-walk near the legendary Vegabaren in Handen. Meet Christian Stadius. Owner of the 1928 Roadster. The car have No 3 written on the door and that's because Christian was the third member to join the RCS, short for Roadster Club Scandinavia. He bought the car five years ago and have been busy ever since fixing it, and now it is ready for the roads. I was a bit lucky to get this portrait as Christian had to pause and park when the motor was a bit too warm. After taking a few photos of the roadster I asked him if he could move it a bit so that I could get a few shots of the front not facing the sun, and after a few seconds hesitation the old Ford started and that's when I came up with my title for this photo at my blog. Stop and smell the fumes! Theme Day, Smell.

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.