Scott Genius

One of the regulars at Malmens konditori is Rolf von Steinhausen who lives just across the road from said cafe. He is a real tough guy, in his early sixties now. Used to drive motorcycles for a few decades. Also a keen mountain bike cyclist who have competed,(and won), in world championships. Had an accident a couple of years ago. Injured himself real badly. Took some time for the doctors to figure everything out. Last year he got a brand new knee. It was a painful affair, despise the drugs and we heard all about it. But now he is back in the game again. This is his latest bike, a Scott Genius. Rolf loves to climb steep hills, and he was out on a few tough rides last week when the weather was great, today it snowed this morning. I shot this as a bokeh panorama so it is eight photos stitched together. Shot with the full frame canon using the nifty fifty lens.

One whisky please

Lets say that you are thirsty for a glass of whisky. And I mean the really good stuff. Which you don't have any at home. So you pop over to Jujja for a glass at his place. If that ever happens, whatever you do don't open this bottle. At least not if you don't want to pay for it. One bottle of this whisky will set you back some serious money, or at least £3,750.

One Suicide Is Too Many

They are changing the fence along the Nynäsbanan railway line after one too many suicides. I took these two photos between the Krigslida and the Västerhaninge stations. After removing the old fence they put this one up and went home. I should of course have waited a few minutes and taken the photo as the commuter passed by, but there's always tomorrow. I hope no one decides to use this new "shortcut" over the weekend.

Swedish Bikini Team

It must be Summer already. I biked past these two bikini babes at Nedre Rudasjön in Handen yesterday. I was so surprised to see them there that I turned around and asked them if it was okay if I snapped a few photos of them from the next pier. I told them to wave to me, which they did, and then they had a long laugh, so I probably made their day! This was the warmest day of the year so far, but I don't want to tell you how warm it was because I don't want Grace to start laughing as well.

Cherry Blossom

If the meteorologists are right this Friday will be the warmest day of the year, so far. It's been a warm few days, at least in the sun and out of the wind. A friend that headed out for a long and hard mountain bike run two days ago wearing bike shorts and a t-shirt told me yesterday that he didn't think he would make it home alive that's how cold it got in the shade of the forest. I try to shoot at least one Cherry Blossom photo each year and here is the 2017 version. Taken at Eskilsvägen in Handen.

Fluffy Clouds

Fluffy clouds over Christina's place at Välsta in Tungelsta. It is slowly getting warmer, I have been able to sit outside at my favorite cafe enjoying coffee and chat and listening to different Spring reports. I think it will be Summer before you know it!

Yarn Bombing

Fences are never much fun, always trying their best to keep people in or out. But they can be fun to photograph and I have a whole set at flickr with such photos. I spotted this street at fence in Västerhaninge a while back.

Going Macro in May

May arrived with warmer weather. Much appreciated. By both men and beetles. I am currently refurbishing the living room so I don't have many new photos to show you but I did take these two macro photos yesterday afternoon when I was done with the days paint job. The ladybird gladly posed for me before flying off. The flower is a "Flocktulpan". It grows wild in Kyrgyzstan something I didn't know before Googling the flower to see what it was.

Hungry?

Theme Day. Let's eat. This was my dinner a while back. I even tried to get one of those internet memes going by creating a twitter tag namely #highcholesterolfriday but it didn't

Cigarette Butt Pier

Ah, how lovely, nothing better than the smell of toxic waste when you visit the lakes! Left there by the anglers who seems to be very environmentally friendly. This was the smell at one of the piers at the Lower Lake at the Rudan nature reserve a couple of days ago.

Power line inspection

I noticed a new helipad at Vattenfall,(state owned power company),in Jordbro a while back. That day maybe fifteen technicians stood around the machine so it was tricky to get any photos of it. A bit easier this time around. I sat on a bench near the power plant, eating a light lunch while keeping an eye on the helicopter. I'm guessing that the pilot from Helicoptertjänst have been hired to do some power line inspections.

Doll & Lantern

I noticed an old caravan parked near the Rudan nature reserve last year. Illegally of course and I guessed that the area would soon fill up with garbage so I informed the municipality with a photo. They answered that they would look into it. But they didn't take any action so after a few months I sent them an updated view of the place, by then it was filled with garbage. They answered again saying that they couldn't find the caravan as the road where it was placed didn't exist. So I sent them the GPS data, and lo and behold, two month later the caravan has been removed and a big rock is now blocking the road, but as I nice touch they left all the garbage where they found it.

Meatball Sandwish Anyone?

The top one is with beetroot salad and meatballs from the convenient store. Second photo shows home made garlic meatballs with gherkins.

Pick Your Favorite Movie Series

Will it be the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series? Or maybe a Superhero from Team Avengers? It's your pick.

Boston Pickles Anyone?

Back in the early 1950s the founder of Felix, Herbert Felix decided to come up with a product made of the end pieces from pickled gherkins. His employee Sixten Holmquist came up with the recipe for the pickle mix that was going to be used with fast foods like hot dogs. They didn't know what to call it so the company employees took part in a naming contest and in the end it was Herbert's secretary Wivi Peving that came up with the name, Bostongurka.

Leasehold estate

Another photo photo from the construction site at Lillgården in Tungelsta. Been having a hard time figuring out what this building is supposed to be. Looking at the illustrations on the builders website i drew a blank. So I did the second best thing. I emailed the guy who did the architectural plan of the area. Rikard Lundin. And the cool thing is that I took his portrait for this blog nine years ago! Anywho, Rikard told me that this building is a leasehold estate three storey high apartment building, and that the builder have changed a few things from his original plan.

That Old Tree

Stormy weather this week. With lots of rain which I have biked through and that is never much fun when it is as cold as it have been lately. This was the scene at the old tree a couple of days ago. Luckily for me it didn't rain as I took this photo but it sure did when I biked home later that same day.

The Pier in April

Six months in to this photo project and still a long way away from any naked sunbathers.

Le Quattro Stagione

A new housing area at Nedersta in Västerhaninge, just behind the old Nödesta farm. It is called De Fyra Årstiderna, or Le Quattro Stagione, supposedly a new living concept if you want to believe the builder, and it is already sold out! The different parts are called Vårkanten, Sommargården, Höststigen och Vintergatan. This is a nine photo panorama. Shot from far away, standing out on the fields close to Stabergsvägen. Zooming in to the maximum at 250mm with the silent zoom lens.

Aprilväder

The last time I posted a photo showing you the Hårsfjärden Bay, at my favorite beach, Årsta Havsbad, we still had some snow and ice left. That was back in February. Since then the weather have been very unpredictable with Spring like temperatures followed by snowfalls, strong winds and then warmer weather again just to give you a little hope of Spring. Now it's mid-April and Spring feels a long way away. Yesterday it cleared up and the sun came out so I decided to take the fixie down to the beach and have a look for any sign of that elusive Spring. But just as I parked the bike the clouds moved in and the wind picked up again. The place was deserted, well almost, I spotted one guy out on the pier, fishing. He must have been prepared because he was out there for at least half an hour and it was bitterly cold. I had brought a light lunch and was planning to eat it down by the water but gave up on that idea as I walked down to the beach. After a promenade I walked up to the hill overlooking the area and snapped a photo of a couple that had just walked out to another pier. Twenty minutes later I sat on a bench near Årsta castle. By then the sun was back and it really felt like Spring again, I ate my lunch as I watched a few golfers making their way around the golf course at the old castle. Aprilväder translates to April weather and that means that you can expect anything from Summer to Winter, sunshine and hail storms at any time.

A Changing Skyline

Thirteen photo panorama. Shot from a wobbly pier at the lower lake, (Nedre Rudasjön), at the Rudan nature reserve. Taken at 250mm with the silent zoom lens yesterday. The yellow crane is used for the construction of an 18 storey apartment building. They are five storeys up at the moment, so it will be some time before you can see that building from my vantage point.

Tuggummiautomat

Swedish word of the day. Tuggummiautomat. I made a pit stop at my barber's place today. The saloon is called Olympiasalongen and can be found at Åbyplan in Västerhaninge. The barber is Mikael Lindström, who took over the saloon after his dad retired many years ago now. I have cut my hair here since the mid 1980s. Mikael have remodelled the place to look like a 1950s barber shop, and there's always something new (or vintage), to check out and today it was this gumball machine.

Vitsippa

I had just packed the camera bag and was heading out for a walk as it looked like the sun would peek through the heavy clouds. But instead it started to snow again.

Building Site Photos

The building site at Lillgården in Tungelsta is always busy so it's tricky to walk in and grab some photos during the work day, but as I walked by there yesterday no one seemed to be around so I walked in for a closer look. Two row houses and what I call The Prison is what you can see so far, but work have started on a few more row houses. The last photo is from a visit two weeks ago.

Winter Leaf

A thin layer of snow covering the ground this morning. More snow expected this afternoon. Hurrah?

That Old Tree

The old tree again. No real sign of Spring on this visit. And maybe I should have waited a day with another photo of the Swedish Whitebeam as we are two hours away from a snowfall, at least if you want to believe what the meteorologists at SMHI are saying.

Phots from a recent walk

Sixteen photos from a 90 minute promenade around Tungelsta earlier in the week. Showing Houses at Stavshöjden in Tungelsta, built mostly for horse people. Vitsippor! Bird on a rock at Välsta. Bark. Graffiti through a fence. Field at Välsta/Mulsta. Rock near the Krigslida commuter station. Girl out jogging. Blue flowers in a ditch. Cone on a walkway, ( I placed it there myself). New houses at Nedersta. Dry land. Helmet up a tree at Mildens väg. The old tree from another angle. Toy horse. Demolished hunting tower at Mildens väg.

Leaf on dry land

People probably wondered. What is that guy doing on all fours in the middle of that field? There's nothing to see there. I beg to differ!

In a row

I heard them before I saw them. Three cranes flying overhead as I made my way to the old tree earlier today.

Full Moon

My first real test with the "you get what you pay for" crap lens. The Kelda 420-800mm manual focus. Taken with the 6D Canon at 800mm using a tripod of course. You don't have any control over the aperture and I shot this at ISO 100 at 1/50 sec. My tripod is not the best, it is a bit wobbly so I used the 10 second delay timer for this shot. It is a very inexpensive lens, it costed me less than a taxi ride to and from my mothers care facility!

Bug me not

The firebugs are back. They usually come out when it is a bit warmer, and we have 13C at the moment and that was good enough for them.

Fence Posts

Sometimes when I don't know what to photograph I end up at the old tree, which is of course very photogenic. But I don't always photograph it, instead I will walk around the fields and hill and aim the camera elsewhere. Many years ago there was a house near the tree, all that is left today is a cellar and a few fence posts, two of which you can see here. Both photos shot with the 6D using the nifty fifty lens.

A Sad Day

Terrorist attack in Stockholm today. I was listening to a radio show when it was all of a sudden cut short as the news desk took over the broadcast with breaking news. So I have spent the last three hours listening to the radio, watching the Swedish networks, as well as CNN and BBC. There has been a lot of horrible photos on social media. Up to five dead and many more injured. No one arrested yet. The photo I used here is from a promenade in Tungelsta earlier in the week.

The Golden Egg

There's a book with that name, at least in its original Dutch language. The English title was The Vanishing. A great read. The movie is very good as well, it is called Spoorloos and it is a scary one. There's also a Hollywood version with Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock. All of that came to mind when I snapped these photos in Västerhaninge earlier today.

Commuter Station Remodelling

The remodelling of the Tungelsta commuter station continues. Still a few things to do before they are done, but it's getting there. This is how the entrance to the tunnel looks from the "Lillgården" side at the moment. You have been able to bike through it for a few weeks now although there's still some work left on the walkway that leads to the tunnel. I took the photo with the 6D using the nifty fifty lens just as the commuter train left the station heading for the Hemfosa platform.

Dynamic

A member of Swedish Ultraflyers flying over my head the other day. The plane is an Aerospool WT9 Dynamic. They have their base at Frölunda gård near Kungsängen, (North of Stockholm).

One Tree Hill

The hill at Snurrom that I walked up a while back. The fallen birch trees have been there for a few years now.

Sixteen Recent Spring Photos

Enjoying lunch on a hill overlooking parts of rural Österhaninge. By accident I stepped on this viper when I was out shooting Spring flowers. Swedish word of the day, Livboj. Worker trying to move a big beam in place at Lillgården. Two birds on a rock near the old tree. The row house that the beam guy was working on. Failed landscape stacking test photo. V8 boat at Håga. Bare birches waiting to go green in Jordbro. Traffic sign at Fors. The last sign of Winter? Ladybug on my thumb. Dead tree at Välsta. New housing area at Nedersta. Blue tit. The spring flowers I were shooting when I stepped on the snake.

Scilla

It was silly of me I know, but I had to try. I had spotted another sign of Spring and did my best to get a few macro photos of the scilla, but it was snowing so I gave up. But this morning it worked. Although my hands felt like I had been biking without gloves for a few miles, it was that cold. Theme Day. Wet.