Cool dog of the day

I sometimes take photos from a pedestrian bridge that crosses a busy road in Handen. You don't have to wait long before something interesting comes by. Like this cool dog riding shotgun in his humans Harley. It says Kastro on the sidecar so I'm guessing that is the name of the cool dog.

But my car is in the garage!

There was a lot of smoke. That usually means a fire. Then the fire fighters passed me on the road so I followed them to see if I could get a few photos, (I was on the steel horse). It was a car fire in a multi story car park near the commuter station in Handen. Fire fighters from two stations were busy dealing with the fire when I arrived. I figured I could snap a few quick photos and send them to the local paper, but their photographer were already at the scene! Police were busy closing off the roads. As far as I know no one was injured. One car was destroyed and two there were damaged. I'm guessing the guy on the top photo is a student from the KTH school and that his car was parked in the garage.

Sixteen Recent Snaps

I can be picky sometimes. These sixteen recent Spring photos from around Haninge didn't make the cut on their own. Female cyclist riding down the Mulsta road, she spotted me. Everything is turning green now, shot this while sitting at the cafe. Viola tricolor near the old tree shot using an extension tube. Snake enjoying the sunshine by the side of the path in Jordbro. Blooming wood anemones behind a fence near the Björklund farm. Blue tit at the veranda at home. Funny sign at a horse farm in Österhaninge. It says Crawl Speed. Jeep on a tow truck at a roundabout in Handen. Female biker on a colorful Harley-Davidson. The farm house at Björklund. The magnificent tree turning green among a few rusty barrels at the Nödesta farm. The view fro the bridge at the Slätmossen nature park. Common brimstone on a dandelion in Österhaninge. More bird houses every year at Söderby Gård, I met the guy who makes them a few years ago. Tulips in a roundabout in Handen. Farming at Nödesta.

Ye Old Farm Building

Eight months done in this project now. The trees are turning green and a horse decided to pose in the corner.

Cherry Blossom

The rule says that if you own a camera you have to take at least one Sakura photo per year, so here is mine. Found a couple of blooming threes next to the fountain at the Eskilsparken in handen on friday.

A guy walks up the stairs

So this (dumb), guy (me), wakes up in the middle of the night. And he needs to use the bathroom downstairs. For the last few weeks he has been busy (off and on), refurbishing the rooms on the second floor, and because of that there's a very hard steel ladder in the middle of the staircase. The dumb guy manages to walk down the stairs without any problems. But then, a minute later, walking up the stairs, he has completely forgotten about that steel ladder.

That Old Tree

The old tree is as always a slow starter and isn't going green just yet. But the fields on both sides of the path are much greener than a few weeks ago.

Lotus Evora

Another sign of Spring. More and more sportscar out on the roads. Spotted this Lotus Evora in Handen yesterday. If you want one be prepared to cough up around 800 000 SEK, or around $70,000.

Columns

This is yet another building site. At Tuvvägen, Söderbymalm in Handen. When they are don there will be two hundred new apartments here. Plus of course a few shops and what have you. A first structure is already up, just to the right of this photo. Interesting how they are using the hill with the pillars like this. Not a bad location. The nature park Slätmossen is just a short walk from here as is the Rudan nature reserve and the big mall is also close.

Bird Sanctuary

This is the Skutan bird sanctuary in Handen. The wetland is a bit messy at the moment as you can see. I have been here a few times and I have rarely seen any birds. If you have good eyes you might spot the bird tower. The lack of birds was something that the municipality also figured out and they are now trying to fix that. The big float seems like an impressive machine to do the job. It's an amphibious excavator. There's also a nature promenade here and I was standing on that path when I shot the top photo.

Myrstack

Swedish word of the day. Myrstack. Anthill. This is a grassy hill near the Snörom farm. Normally there's horses here but they were still at the farm so I walked up for a look around. I try to do that a few times every year and I have shown you a photo or two before. The tree fell a few years ago and has now been turned into a busy anthill.

Styvmorsviol and Svalört

I took a walk at Kapp-Ekeby byväg (byväg means farm road), a couple of days ago. A rural landscape just outside Västerhaninge. There used to be two farms in this little village, one was called Sandviken, but they were abandoned back in 1877. All that remains visible today is the old road. But if you look closely you can find remains from the Iron Age here so this is a place where people lived for a very long time. On this visit I decided to look for signs of Spring and this was the result. Top photo shows a Styvmorsviol. Second snap is a Svalört. To get this close I used an extension tube and the trusted pancake lens. And I might have to go back as I lost yet another lens cap!

The Man With The Orange Hat

I hadn't taken a street portrait for a few eons when I spotted a orange hat in Handen yesterday. It was Zebastian's. He was out on a health promenade, (a school thing), and he was on the clock, but he did have time for a few quick portraits. Where do you want me to stand, he asked, I looked around and figured that the green from the trees by the side of the walkway would match with the orange hat. And that was that. Then two funny coincidences happened when I uploaded the photo to flickr. One of my contacts, Magnus, a commuter train driver told me that he had also seen Zebastian that same day when he (Zebastian), entered the train at the Gröndalsviken station in Nynäshamn. That was the first coincidence. The other is that I first met Magnus when I took his somewhat unusual street portrait one Summer day nearly five years ago.

Bicycle Art

More and more sidewalk art in Haninge these days. Kids using their crayons to colorize the walkways and bike paths. Found this work of art at the Disappearing Path a few days ago.

Are you going to shoot me?

Yes I am, but only with the Canon. And it is nice to be able to get so close to them. The silent zoom works it's magic again. The Roe deer was enjoying lunch in the forest at Bergdalen yesterday. The rest of it's family was nearby.

Book Swapping Bus Stop

What a great idea. Bring a book with you when you walk down to the bus stop. Leave it on a bookshelf there for anyone to take. Book swappping bus stop at Runda plan in Årsta Havsbad (my favotire beach).

Hovercraft

Took a bike ride down to my favorite beach at Årsta Havsbad yesterday. Too early for the sunbathers, but I did count three cyclists, myself included. The military at the amphibious battalion will be busy with a war game here at Horsfjärden over the next two weeks. Chasing submarines. I noticed a few ships and one plane during my visit. This is a Griffon 8100.

Bird House Collective

A new (at least to me), high rise condo at Runstensvägen in Handen. Not sure how many bird families have moved in yet. Very low rent here I think, and with a good view so I'm thinking it will filled up rather quickly.

Pick a door

Two blue doors at the old Fredrik gymnasium school in Handen. The real name of the school is Fredrika Bremergymnasiet, named of course after the famous author. The name Fredrik is a play with words of sorts as the students in this part of the school were usually male, although that has of course changed today. Anywho, a new "Fredrik" school is currently being built across the road from here next to the "real" Frerdika Bremer school.

Pucko

Pucko is a Swedish slang word. It means dumbass. But, and this is the funny part, it is also a popular chocolate drink. And I'm guessing that if you drink too much Pucko you will become one and then you will no doubt start tagging the walls around you with the word. Just like a pucko did here at a pedestrian tunnel in Handen.

Hagaberg

The farmhouse (Mangårdsbyggnad), at Hagaberg in Tungelsta was built in 2002 in a style that has been used for hundreds of years in the North of Sweden. This is a little horse farm a few kilometers from where I live.

Not so quiet now

It was nearly six years ago that I stumbled upon a woman playing the flute while sitting on a rock in a forest in Västerhaninge. A little path will take you from the central parts of Västerhaninge to the forest via a tunnel under the motorway. It used to be a very quiet place near the old hamlet Ormsta. All you would here were natures own sounds. That is not the case today and these photos shows you why.

More signs of spring

I decided to take the steel horse through the nature reserve Gullringskärret yesterday. The reason for that this time was that every Spring millions of wood anemones turns the green fields and pine forest white here. It's always a spectacle to see and there's even an organized tour for people who wants to do just that. But I was a few days early and although I did find a few flowers, this was the scene that awaited me. A stolen, dumped and burned car. I reported it to the municipality and have already got two answers so I'm guessing the wreck will be gone later today.

Scilla

Glory-of-the-snow. But I like the Swedish name better. Vårstjärna. That translates to Spring Star. Originally a plant from Turkey but today it grows wild at Bergdalen in Tungelsta and it is another sign of Spring.

That Old Tree

It was a very cold weekend. And rainy. I could probably keep complaining but let's leave leave it there. I did manage to get one or two fine photos and this is one of them. A young girl out horse-back riding at the old tree.

Photos from Bovieran

Two more photos from Bovieran at Ribby in Västerhaninge. Still a few months before the apartments will be ready, but it's easy to see how it will look now. There's also a number of smaller houses on two sides of the big glassed in building.

A Huge Window

Yesterdays window was big. This one is huge. It's what will become the big tropical garden feature at the Bovieran that I told you about a while back. I figured it would be a good idea for a visit yesterday when most of the workers had the weekend off and i was right. It was a tricky shoot. I stood with my back up against another building. Nine photos stitched together. Shot with the 18-55 mm lens.

A Big Window

A newish house at the old village Alby in a rural part of Österhaninge. Sure is a big window, especially if you look at that little greenhouse. Shot this a few weeks ago when I was out testing the silent zoom lens. The guy that lives there is an entrepreneur. He owns a few local eateries in Haninge.

Big Project Time

This is a part of Nynäsvägen (Nynäs Road), in Handen. It looks a bit messy here and the reason for that is a new project called Haningeterrassen. The Haninge Terrace. It will take ten years to finish. Yep, ten years of construction work, smack in the middle of central Handen. Apartments, a hospital (maybe),a cinema and lots of stores of course. And roads and bus stops that will have to move. Pedestrian tunnels that will close, sounds very messy to me but it will of course give me a lot of photo opportunities in the coming years.

My Camera

Theme Day at CityDailyPhoto. My Camera, Shy Self Portrait. My Canon 550 and a bunch of Steffe reflections from pens in a desk pen holder.