No more bird seeds?

My photography is on hold at the moment. I can't cope with the Winter we are having. I am sure this squirrel feels the same. It is the same one that I showed you a couple of days ago. Even sitting in the same tree. Just photographed from another angle. I had to wade through the snow as I made my way up the hill at home to get the shot. Snapped yesterday.

!&?@#!#%&!

I waded into Old&Grumpy this morning and asked him about the weather. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Ljuspunkt

Yet to use a camera in December, but after lighting a candle yesterday, I snapped this photo using my macro lens on the old Canon 77D. And then someone at Flickr pointed it out that it is första advent today. First Sunday of Advent, so why not. Back when my mother was still around she always asked me to fix a Chandelier de l'Avent, and I would then go for a walk in the forest at home picking up some vitmossa, also known as fönsterlav for that. I can't do that today because of the snow, so this will have to do.

Hazelnut Lover

A squirrel up a tree enjoying it's lunch on a cold Winter day.

Winter sculpture

A sculpture in the park in Tungelsta. Rörd av blommor. Made by Klara Kristalova. The name of the park is Tungelsta trädgårdspark. The garden park. Named so because of the many greenhouse nurseries that made Tungelsta at least a little famous back in the day. There have been more than 100 family owned and operated greenhouse nurseries here. The first one opened 115 years ago, by my great-grandparents, btw. It was called Bergdalens Handelsträdgård. It is still here today, but under a different name and with a new owner.

The bridge

During my promenade through the park I noticed that no one had walked over the bridge crossing Rocklösaån, since the latest snowfall, so I walked around it to get a "clean" shot from the other side, because why not. The yellow house is where the local bands play their music. Before that it was a privade recidence. One of the kids that grew up there, Birdman, also known as Jocke became a musician and have played at the local rock festival several times.

Winter Problems

This is bus 835 stopping at the commuter station in Tungelsta yesterday.Winter arrived as per usual with chaos in the traffic. Accidents. Cancelled public transport. Planes not able to fly when and where they should. Long queues. More accidents. So, a normal first real bad Winter day in the Stockholm area.

Vinterbänk

Winter is here to stay. Snow everywhere during my walk today. This is a bench in the park in Tungelsta. As I took the photo, I was reminded about of the time when I sat down on this actual bench during the rock festival held here every Summer. There was a guy sitting next to me. He was enjoying the music, and we started to talk. After a few minutes of chit-chat he gave me a funny look, like he knew who I was, and that's when I realized that I had known him since we were teenagers. We were also classmates in secondary school. Sorry about that, Per, but people can change quite a lot if you don't see them that often.

My Sunday

I looked at the thermometer as I walked down the stairs to prepare my breakfast. It read -6C. Normally I don't think that is too cold for a Winter promenade, but I did yesterday. So when a ski race got under way on TV I stood ready on my trekkrunner and as the skiers made their way around the ice-cold course over in Finland I took an indoor promenade! Not much fun, but I needed the exercise. I also watched some biathlon because why not. After lunch, I read a few chapters in the latest Stephen King novel, Holly. And then at 1500 hours it was time for the sunset. I am not a fan of early sunsets, but there's not really much you can do about it, so I took this photo. After an early dinner, I watched some alpine skiing from the US, followed by an episode of Who Shot Otto Mueller? Oh, and I also uploaded a bunch of portraits of pretty girls to Flickr as I will often look through my Canon archives when I have nothing better to do.

Snow apple

I heard noises from the veranda. A few birds flying in for a treat that wasn't there as I am all out of bird seeds. So I cut up a few apples and also placed one apple on the table, because why not. I guess I could use it to see the Winter progress.

Woke up this morning...

...and noticed that Winter had arrived. Snapped this photo ten miutes ago from a window on the second floor. -5C at the moment.

Ice Cycling

Swedish word of the day.Iscykling. Ice cycling. Not something I really enjoy. And usually the municipality will keep one walkway/bike path in Haninge clear from ice and snow at all time, but not yesterday when it was non-stop bone breaking cycling for most of the way. This is particularly bad here in Handen as this stretch was redesigned and made narrower a number of years ago when a new bus stop was temporarily moved here during the construction of a new underground bus depot closer to the commuter station. And then when all that work was done they somehow forgot to change this stretch back to how it used to look.

Autumn scenes

Horrible weather here for the last couple of weeks. Rain. Snow. Cold. Windy. Not my favorite. So here are a couple of colorful Autumn scenes from a recent bike ride through Kungsholmen. Top photo shows Eden, (restaurant at Smedsudden), and Marieberg, with the accordion building as a nice backdrop. Second photo taken at "Rålis", a popular park. There is a bridge/bike path that I often use hidden behind the trees. There'a big green lawn at Smedsudden and also a sandy beach where on a sunny Summer day you would find hundreds of sunbathers. This time of the year, you will only see dog walkers and runners, and that is where I stood when I snapped the last photo.

Dark

Two photos from yesterday evening. Top photo shot with the mirrorless Canon. It shows the commuter station in Tungelsta, snapped from a walkway in Lillgården. Second photo taken from the commuter station, showing Gröna Huset, a popular restaurant. I shot that one with the Canon 77D. Both handheld, so I had to use the burst mode, IE take a lot of photos, and then use a script in Photoshop to stack the images together and get rid of the noise caused by high ISO. Less of a problem with the newer camera, of course.

Window shopping

Back in the old town again, because why not. Pashmina Stockholm. Red scooter. Happy Socks store, I wear a pair most days. A bistro. Stutterheim, for rainy days.

In a row

From a promenade around Klarabergviadukten in Stockholm. Where you will find the Central Station. The World Trade Center. Stockholm Waterfront, and more.

Gamla stan

Another promenade in the old town. Window shopping this time. Corner Bar. Walk in, dance out. Polkagrisar, anyone? Or perhaps a fika at Café Cronan?

Ոdsᴉpǝpoʍu

I rarely do this, but it does happen. Shoot a reflection photo and then in editing turn it Ոdsᴉpǝpoʍu. But here I did it twice. I was on the bike, of course, on my way to Hornsberg at Kungholmen in Stockholm. The first photo shows apartment buildings at Rörstrandsgatan where you probably can't afford to live. The second photo shows part of a glass building at Klarabergsviadukten near the Central Station, that I have shown you before.

Drevviken

Cycling home a few days ago, I made a pit stop at the circular pier near the beach at Hökarängsbadet. I often do that as I like the views over lake Drevviken year round. This time it was just me and a guy fishing. He had no luck at all, but I came home with a couple of okay photos.

Where is the ice princess?

She and others will be out figure skating here any day now. As seen at Kungsträdgården a few days ago.

Happily Ever After

Cycling for home via Kungsholmen and City Hall I spotted a photographer shooting wedding photos of this couple, so I stopped, reached for the camera, grabbed a quick photo and continued my 33 km bike ride home. Oh, and as I am typing this my brother is getting married to his girlfriend Marci on an island in Denmark. So congrats to both couples.

Café Söderberg

This is where Doctor Glas poisoned Reverend Gregorius. Sort of. Café Söderberg is a very popular place at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm, year round.

How to build a Christmas Tree

This is Sweden, so we obviously create everything IKEA-style. Like with this huge Christmas Tree currently under construction at Skeppsbrokajen in Stockholm. As seen and photographed on Saturday. In the background, Grand Hotel.

Lyko Chaos

Lyko, named after the guy who came up with the idea, Rickard Lyko, opened a new store in Stockholm yesterday. Promising free goodie bags to the 500 first customers. Supposedly worth several thousand kronor. So guess what happened, a thousand or so teenage girls showed up near the store the day before. They then spent the evening there. And the night. In the cold Swedish weather. Parents kept them company here and there for an hour or two. One or two security guards dropped by. But no assistance from the store whatsoever. Then, when the store opened on Saturday morning, chaos followed as no one had set up any queuing rules. People jumping the queue. Fights erupted because of that. Girls crying left and right. Police showing up. Parents calling the media. Journalists writing articles. Parents now angry. The teenage girls missing out on the goodie bags even angrier. The owner of the store realizing their mistake now trying to please everyone. So I had to drop by for a look, everything a bit calmer by then. But I am guessing the girls will remember this for a while, as will Lyko.

That time of the year again

It's official, the Christmas season has arrived. As I am typing this the city have turned on all the official Christmas lights in Stockholm, but this is not part of that, this is outside a big department store. I took this photo a couple of days ago, but I was back there earlier today to watch some chaos that I might tell you about tomorrow.

Ten flea market scenes

Back at the weekly flea market at Hötorget, Haymarket in English. Always fun to do some people watching. I never buy anything, I am happy enough walking around with my Canon snapping away left and right.

The bike path

One of the classier streets in Stockholm, Norr Mälarstrand. Next to City Hall, and close to the water, parks and a beach or two. Also a pretty good street if you are a cyclist.

Weather Report

November Rain. I bike past this green field at Gubbängen a few times every week. There's often people here walking their dogs. Or sunbathing. Also, a golfer working on his putting, he is here almost every day. I have seen a few kite-flyers here. Two times every year, the field becomes a parking lot when thousands of people show up for the annual football and handball tournaments held further down the field. Never seen a lake here before, that was new.

Allhelgona

Swedish word of the day. Allhelgona. Short for Allhelgonahelgen. All Saints' Day. We celebrated this last weekend. On Saturday people visited cemeteries all over the country to light a few candles. Quite a spectacle in the dark, and I had planned to visit Skogskyrkogården but couldnt do it. But I was there on Sunday, but too early in the day. So I tried again yesterday afternoon, and that's when I took these photos, still a little too early so I underexposed the photos a bit, sorry about that!