Monday, January 31, 2022

Progression

Progression
Sculpture by Arne Jones at Skinnarviksparken. There are around 70 Arne Jones sculptures at public places around the country, and there is even a Arne Jones society. This artwork dates back to the late 1960s. It has been in the park since the mid 1970s. The nice backdrop is Norr Mälarstrand at Kungsholmen on the other side of the Riddarfjärden bay, and that view was the reason for my visit, better views tomorrow!

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Ekermanska Malmgården

Ekermanska Malmgården
Ekermanska Malmgården dates back to around 1750 when this was a very poor part of Stockholm. Built by Adolf Ludvig Ekerman. It was an Inn many years ago, called Lätta Lifvet. It was also used as a grocery store. The building had no running water before the 1950s. Today owned by the city, who leases it to the local historical association. There is also a café here. I sometimes come this way going to or from the big Tantolunden park at Södermalm.

Saturday, January 29, 2022

JJ's Thai To Go

JJ's Thai To Go
Thai takeaway at Zinkensdamm. Never tried it, but I kinda like the artwork here.

Friday, January 28, 2022

BigBelly

BigBelly
Theme Day at CDP. Power. Solar-powered trash-compacting from BigBelly at Skinnarviksparken. They are also connected to the web I think.

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Half Way Inn

Half Way Inn
The Scottish pub, Half Way inn, at Swedenborgsgatan on Södermalm. The street is named after the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Come Spring the street is turned in to a walkway. There are flowers, artworks and benches everywhere. Most of the restaurants, pubs and cafes moves out onto the street until early Autumn. It is quite a spectacle, feels a bit like Rome or Barcelona. In the Winter, not so much. I will try to remember to go back in early May.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Yttersta Tvärgränd

Yttersta Tvärgränd Yttersta Tvärgränd
Back at Södermalm for another Winter promenade with interesting views. I decided to walk up to the top of the Skinnarviksberget hill for a look at the view over Stockholm. To get there, I used this street. It is called Yttersta Tvärgränd. It is a very short street, no more than 140 meters. The buildings near Ringvägen are from around 1880. The buildings at the North end,(second photo), higher up, dates back to 1750 and 1770. Back then, this was a very poor area of the city. All the houses here were renovated in the early 1980s.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

A colorful sky

A colorful sky
Cycling home yesterday afternoon, the sky turned into a photo opportunity, so I stopped for a photo at Lillgården in Tungelsta.

Monday, January 24, 2022

Architectual Detail

Window
One of the more impressive buildings at Mariaberget is a house called Mälarborgen. It is a five-story building from 1890. Designed by the architect Gustaf Hermansson. This is a nicely deorated window, seen from the entrance at Timmermansgatan. As it is built on the hillside you get a much better view of the building from the Riddarholmen bay below, so I will try to get that photo next time I'm in the area.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Thor slaying Jörmungandr

Thor slaying Jörmungandr
It is Norse Mythology Sunday! And here we have the god Thor in the dramatic moment when he has just caught Midgårdsormen, or Jörmungandr if you like, and is using his hammer Mjölner to slayer the sea serpent. You can find the sculpture, Tors fiske, made by Anders Wissler, in the fountain at Mariatorget on Södermalm in Stockholm, where it has been since 1903. No water in the fountain during the Winter, so I might go back come the Spring to show you that.

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Sixteen Recent Photos

Sixteen recent snaps
Sixteen recent photos from my walk at Mariaberget. A ferry at Riddarholmen. Stadshuset. Stockholm Waterfront. Is it a plane? Yes. It can be tricky driving a delivery truck on the old cobblestone streets. A view through the trees towards Mälardrottningen. The path to Monteliusvägen. The Bishops Arms Pub. The path. Besvärsbacken, very steep it is. Love locks. Puckeln. The hump at Brännkyrkagatan. I will show you the sculpture tomorrow. A woman enjoying the view and a bite to eat. Old Stockholm architecture.

Friday, January 21, 2022

From Above

From Above
You can get a fun perspective from the scenic path if you decide to aim the camera down towards the walkway along Söder Mälarstrand, so that is what I did here. A couple out on a Winter promenade with the broken-up ice on the Riddarfjärden bay as backdrop.

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Monochrome Stockholm

Mälardrottningen A scenic walk Blecktornsgränd
Three monochrome images from my visit to Mariaberget at Södermalm in Stockholm. The top photo shows the ship Lady Hutton, anchored at Riddarholmen, or The Knights' Islet, but everyone knows the ship as Mälardrottningen, a fancy restaurant. The second image shows the scenic path Monteliusvägen, with a couple of visitors looking at Stockholm City Hall and Stockholm Waterfront. The cobblestone street in the third photo is called Blecktornsgränd.

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

The best view over Stockholm

Riddarholmen Gamla Stan
Monteliusvägen is a four hundred meter long scenic path at the Mariaberget hill on Södermalm. It gives you a spectacular view over Lake Mälaren and Riddarholmen, Gamla Stan and Kungsholmen. From the promenade, you can find your way in to a couple of small parks, named after a poet and an author. You will also see a lot of beautiful old buildings on the hillside. There are park benches and terraces along the way, and you are never alone up here. There is always another photographer trying to shoot the best Stockholm view ever.

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Mikael Blomkvist's place

Bellmansgatan Vindsfönster Bellmansgatan 1 Bellmansgatan
The Millennium series was a worldwide hit. I read the first three novels about the hacker Lisbeth Salander and the journalist Mikael Blomkvist and really enjoyed the books. The author Stig Larsson passed away before he could finish the planned ten books series, and he newer knew how popular they became. Then came the Swedish movies, followed by the Hollywood version. I saw them all. And then another author took over the writing. David Lagerkrantz. He wrote three books and made a fortune from them. I photographed him by chance last Summer, btw. I read those books as well. But, what I am yet to do is to take The Millennium Tour. If I ever will this is where it starts. At Bellmansgatan, high up on the Mariaberget hill at Södermalm in Stockholm. Because this is where the journalist Mikael Blomkvist lived, in the attic apartment of this beautiful building from 1888.

Monday, January 17, 2022

Mariahissen

Mariahissen
An elevator was needed to connect the Mariaberget hill with the Riddarfärden shore at Södermalm in Stockholm. It was constructed in the mid 1880s. Before the work on the elevator began, 22 500 m³ of rock side was blasted away. When finished the elevator was 28 meters high and 3000 people used it on a daily basis. It is hidden inside a beautiful building that back in the day also housed a pub. The elevator was closed in 1937 when no more than 50 people a day used it. The city bought the building in the 1960s, and it is today renovated. There is a new elevator in place, but it is not open to the public. Today you will find a number of different companies here, including an architect firm and an ad agency.

Sunday, January 16, 2022

Lilla Skinnarviksgränd

Lilla Skinnarviksgränd
This is a famous hill in Stockholm. It is called Mariaberget. You will find it on Södermalm. It is my favorite island in the capitol. This building dates back to around 1860. Most of the buildings in this area are today owned by the city. And they are all listed. The reason for my visit was to go for a walk along Monteliusvägen. A very scenic promenade with the best view over Stockholm, and you can see some of it to the left here. I am yet to go through the photos, some of which were panoramic images, so it might take me a few days to process them. Luckily for you, I shot a lot of images nearby as well, so I will show those to you in the coming days. Oh, and the name, Skinnarviken comes from a time two centuries ago when there lived and worked a lot of tanners here.

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Ice skating on a warm day

Ice skating on natural ice
Cycling home from Stockholm on Thursday afternoon, I once again decided to stop by the beach at Hökarängsbadet at Lake Drevviken. It was a warm day, 7C, most of the snow gone, but it takes a bit longer for the ice to melt on a frozen lake, so I figured I would see one or two ice skaters out on the ice. My biggest problem was to navigate safely down to the beach, as the walkway was very icy. All in all, I saw three ice skaters. One guy was too far away. Another man was sitting on the jetty removing his skates, but then this guy showed up, also heading for the jetty, and I managed to get a few quick photos of him. When I got back home, I went online to see how thick the ice was, but all the ice report from this lake said was that it had been measured the previous day.

Friday, January 14, 2022

The obligatory snowman

Snögubbe
Cycling past a man made mound at Ribby in Västerhaninge, that serves as a sound barrier, I realised that I was yet to photograph a snowman this Winter so I decided to sort that. I snapped this two days ago when we did have snow. Yesterday the temperature rose to 7C, and most of the snow melted away. Then, yesterday afternoon we had a very colorful sunset and someone pointed out that a storm were coming and it has been very windy ever since.

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Winter Minimalism II

Blue Hut
Today's Winter Minimalism photo comes from Fors, just outside Västerhaninge. A scene I just had to capture. Oh, and I would also like to thank Pixsy that sent me $470 today after someone used one of my flickr photos without my consent.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Winter Beach

Hårsfjärden Winter Beach The bay
I noticed a very dark, blue gray sky and figured a visit to the beach at Årsta Havsbad was in order. No real problem riding the e-bike on the roads, despite a bit of ice here and there, at least if you don't consider the cold. Top photo shows two islets where the ferry passes almost every day on its way between Årsta brygga and the archipelago. In the background, a bit of a golden sky at the Gålö peninsula. I took the second photo down at the beach, which is a bit more crowded in the Summer, always fun with a snowy beach. The third photo shows the Hårsfjärden bay towards Muskö in Nynäshamn, and it got me really confused, as I couldn't figure out why I was seeing the big cranes at the port in Nynäshamn. And I'm still unsure what, or where, those cranes are.

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Winter Minimalism

White & Yellow
Park bench along a walkway in Västerhaninge. The yellow fence made me take the photo.

Monday, January 10, 2022

Seasonal lighting

Seasonal lighting Library Window
Walking through the shopping center in Västerhaninge yesterday, I noticed that they still had the Christmas lights up, so I snapped two different photos of them. The window photo looks into the library.

Sunday, January 09, 2022

Elephants at play

Elephants at play
Bror Marklund sculpture outside the library in Västerhaninge. The sculptor had a studio in Tungelsta when my dad was a teenager. He would often sculpt naked female figures. Marklund sometimes used the neighbor's daughter, a real beauty, as a model, and for some reason my dad and his friends typically found themselves near a studio window when that happened. Oh, and I was at school with the model's granddaughter, and she would also easily have qualified as a model. On a side note, this sculpture was vandalized a while back when someone broke off the tusks. It has since been repaired, but whoever fixed it used the wrong material, so when you look at the elephants a little closer you immediately spot that.

Saturday, January 08, 2022

A chilly day at the lakes

A chilly day at the lakes
I counted fifteen ice fishers at the lower lake at the Rudan nature reserve yesterday. Cold, -7C. The sun was out for an hour or so, but with the wind chill factor, it was just a tad too cold for my liking. No real fish luck either, according to one of the guys out on the frozen lake.

Friday, January 07, 2022

Park Animals

Park Animals
The sculpture park in Västerhaninge. Fifteen sculptures at Åbyparken in Västerhaninge, made by Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren from the design group Front. Snapped this photo yesterday. The park opened in June of 2018, and I remember being late to the official opening. When I got there on that day nearly four years ago everything looked brand new, even the grass, but now, on this Winter day the wildlife, (almost), looked like they belonged there. Click here to see 40 photos from the park on the opening day.

Thursday, January 06, 2022

Picnic Cancelled

Picnic cancelled
I just came home from a chilly bike ride. The temperature read -7C. Add the wind chill factor according to SMHI and it felt like -12C. It snowed for a bit last night so it looks like Winter again. This is a picnic table in the park next to the library in Västerhaninge.

Wednesday, January 05, 2022

That Old Tree

That Old Tree
A woman out walking her dog at the old tree yesterday afternoon. It was a chilly day, around freezing when I snapped this photo.

Tuesday, January 04, 2022

Ice skating on natural ice

Drevvikens Sjöisbana Hökarängsbadet Lake Drevviken Drevviken Getting ready Ice Skating Drevvikens Sjöisbana Skating on natural ice
Cycling home from Stockholm, I will often make a little detour to a beach at Lake Drevviken. It is called Hökarängsbadet. The beach is popular in the Summer. There is a boardwalk promenade here with benches, and I will typically take photos from the boardwalk. There is a lot of construction going on nearby, and in a few years time thousands of people will move into this area. During the Winter the place is a lot quieter, at least until the lake freezes that is. When the ice is around 15 centimeters thick, the municipality will plow it for the ice skaters. The track is six kilometers long and will take the skaters through four municipalities. Stockholm, Huddinge, Tyresö and Haninge.

Monday, January 03, 2022

A Red Rose

A red rose The Chapel
At the end of the 888-meter-long The Seven Springs Way at the Woodland Cemetery, you will find the Chapel of Resurrection, designed a century ago by Sigurd Lewerentz. The sculptures in the tympanum were made by the sculptor Ivar Johnsson. I found the red rose on a pillar next to the chapel. I was thinking about going in, but I think there was a service in progress.

Sunday, January 02, 2022

A Stone in the Forest

A Stone in the Forest The Final Entrance
Two photos of the new crematorium at the Woodland Cemetery, at Enskede in Stockholm. Designed by renowned architect Johan Celsing. He won the right to build the crematorium in a big international contest back in 2009. He named his entry, A Stone in the Forest. In Swedish, En sten i skogen. The brick building is connected underground to the old crematorium, a few hundred meters away. It was finished around a decade ago in a forested area. It won a big Swedish architectural award before it was found out that it was water damaged from a leak in the roof. The City and the architect firm then spent several years, and millions of kronor, fighting over whose fault it was. In the end, the only one that came out as a winner here were the lawyers.

Saturday, January 01, 2022

Photos of the Year

Stockholm Waterfront Keeping the streets safe Almhöjden That Old Tree
Theme Day. Best photo of the year. Not easy to pick just one photo, so I decided to go for a few categories. I'm a big fan of symmetry, facades, and windows, so this photo showing Stockholm Waterfront was my best Windows photo of the year, shot from across the water at Riddarholmen. Street photography is the most fun category if you ask any real photographer. Back in the early Autumn while cycling through Stockholm I noticed the long arm of the law hard at work, so I jumped off the e-bike for a few quick snaps. I managed to get two categories in one photo in my third shot. It was only in September of last year that I decided to explore the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Skogskyrkogården with my trusted canon cameras, so this photo of the Meditation Hill takes care of both Autumn and Favorite Place. And to finish off, two more categories in one shot. My long time project, The Old Tree seen here in Monochrome.