Stina

On my way to the national park today I spotted this babe on the pedestrian bridge at Jordbro. Her name is Stina. She lives in Handen and works at Coca-Cola in Jordbro, and was on her way to work when we met. She was up for a portrait and a little chat in the spring sunshine. I asked what she did for fun and Stina said she would try any sporting activity as long as it's a challenge and a physical experience and would never go to a gym to lift weights, something I can totally agree with. For the moment she likes indoor climbing and inline skating. She's the second person named Stina that I have met, and the second person to work for Coca-Cola. After our talk I took a bunch of photos and we both agreed that this was a good one.

We love it when you talk garbage!

That is the slogan used by Big Bag. A company in the recycling industry that truly loves garbage. You can buy big recycling bags from them. And when you have filled the bags, you give the company a call, and they will pick it up and send it to one of their recycling stations. Their biggest bag, the XL will hold 1,7 dm³. And if that's not enough, you can rent different type of containers for pretty much anything you need to throw away.Big Bag will also take any major appliance you need to get rid off. I spotted one of their orange trucks at a truck stop in Jordbro today.

Hello, any sugar?

A while back I met this horse at a pasture near the Mulsta stable in Tungelsta. It is probably a friend of Gná. Don't know the name of this horse yet, but I'm sure Malin will tell us, if and when she reads this. And no, I didn't have any sugar or carrots to offer the horse.

A Viking Cross

Out on a a bike ride recently, I stopped near Svensro in Handen. On a hillside only meters from the busy Dalarö road, there's a runic inscription. Made one thousand years ago when the Vikings ruled. The inscription was forgotten for many centuries, only to be found again in 1964. On this visit I only took a few zoomed in photos. Here you see a Viking cross with two rings around it. Which is very uncommon. To see the whole runic inscription and read the translation follow this link. The runes used on the runestones are called fuþark. The name comes from the first letters in that alphabet. In total around the world there are around 6000 known runic inscriptions. 2500 of those can be found in Sweden.

View From A Bridge

This is the view from one of the wooden bridges at the Nature Park in Handen. Whenever I'm at the park, I always take a photo from this exact point. This photo was taken yesterday, and it was my 42th shot. The park called Slätmossen, opened in 2001 and is very popular with people, and the local wildlife, especially birds. Several ponds have been dug to collect the 300 million litre of surface water that pass by here every year. The purpose being to clean the water in the old wetland. The water will then find it's way to the Baltic Sea via the Husby river. During the cold winters of the 1940ths, peat was extracted from here to be used as fuel, which have made for an interesting landscape with a very rich fauna.

Skywatch Friday.

Relaxing on a bench

I was eating a light lunch in the spring sunshine yesterday. Sitting on a bench outside the Coop Forum supermarket in Handen, when Nils joined me. He was smoking a cigarette and asked if the smoke bothered me, and we started talking. Nils lives here in Handen at Kolartorp. He used to work with building maintenance but eight years ago he was diagnosed with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I said you better quit smoking then, and he said he couldn't. But at least he didn't smoke as much as he used to. Originally from Finland, Nils moved to Sweden with his mother back in the 1960ths. He is divorced and has a son. We had time to talk about the shipping industry and a few other things before it was time for Nils to go shopping.

The Long Winter Continues...

As the long and cold winter doesn't want to let go, I gave in and went out for another winter promenade. This is a little house at Ålsta in Tungelsta where one of my readers, Kristin Julber grew up back in the 1940ths. She moved to the US many years ago, so this photo is for her, and anyone else out there who enjoys a winter scene.

Winter Again

Spring is on hold for a while. All of a sudden it started to snow. Again. So I had to go out and shoot a few winter scenes. Again. This is a photo from Lillgården. It shows a typical Swedish house. It's the home of the artist Christina Hassila.

Whooper Swans

From a couple of comments, from Malin and Linda, I knew that I might find a flock of whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus), close to the old tree at Välsta. And sure enough, I counted around 80 swans on the field on my visit yesterday. As I walked closer I could hear their deep honking call. And then, as I got the camera ready, I managed to scare away a flock of Canadian Geese, but I did get a decent shot of the birds as they flew away. Read more about the swans on wikipedia.

Vulcan Rider

This is John. He was out on a spring ride on his Kawasaki a couple of days ago when I saw him standing by the side of the road in Handen. Unfortunately for him he had some engine problems. So as he was waiting for the engine to cool down, we talked for a bit. John is from Skåne in the south of the country, but love, (and work), made him move north and he now lives in Jordbro. His interest covers everything with horse powers. He enjoys harness racing and used to have his own race horse. Today he is a member of the Vulcan Riders and is often out on his motorcycle. I tried my best to guess how much he paid for the bike, but missed with 50 000 SEK. It's not a Harley, he said, It's not like I'm paying that much extra just for the brand name. Unlike some people I have met. It was just down the road from here I ran into The Harley Man.

The Smiling Jogger :)

We really enjoy the outdoors in this country. Jogging and running are popular ways to stay fit. On my way home the other day I met a smiling jogger at Krigslida and figured she would be up for a portrait. This is Tina. She lives in Tungelsta. She was very happy about the arrival of spring, as you can tell by her big smile. Tina works as a medical orderly at Stockholm South General Hospital. We talked a bit about spring and photography and then I snapped a few shots before Tina jogged away.

The Coffehouse Girl

This is Malin. I met her at the new coffehouse at Åbyplan in Västerhaninge the other day. The café, called Kaffebönan (The Coffee Bean), is owned by one of her friends, and Malin has been working there for a while. She lives in Västerhaninge and is the mother of two children, which takes up most of her time. I talked to Malin and one of her friends about this and that before taking a few shots. So if you live nearby (and I know that many of you do), and feel like a cup of coffee and a pastry from PAUS, give Kaffebönan a try why don't you.

Spring is here!

Swedes are obsessed with the weather. It has everything to do with the long and cold winters we get up here. So when spring finally arrives we do our best to enjoy it. And yesterday spring did arrive to Stockholm! And here is proof. This is Charlotta, Madeleine and Anki, who is kissing Charlotta's baby, Molly on the head. I met them at the Kaffebönan café at Åbyplan in Västerhaninge. It was only 6°C but the sun was shining from a clear blue sky and that's all we need!

Fred, the tennis player

by Steffe

Meet Fred. He lives in Jordbro. Fred is retired and is often out on his bike, and as I'm a keen biker myself, I decided to ask him if I could take his portrait. Cycling is a good way to stay fit he told me, much better than running, which I will have to agree with. Fred is also a pretty good tennis player, and so he should be, with a name like that. Think Fred Perry and Fred Stolle. This Fred plays for Spårvägens Tennis Club. I asked him if he knew Tore Wiger (tennis player from Tungelsta), and sure enough, they had met a few times over the years. Tore had his own tennis court at Aspnäs for many years but it's gone now. After this short conversation I took a few quick shots, showed them for Fred and then we both continued on our bikes.

The Rocking Truck Driver ♫

This is Gert. He is a truck driver and lives in Skogås. I asked him if he knew Johnny, (the most famous blogger from Skogås), and he said he had heard about him. Gert can drive almost any truck there is. Together with two friends he takes different types of truck driving jobs. At the moment he is working for SRV. That's the local recycling company, and when I met him today he was driving one of their trucks. As you can see on his shirt, Gert a big AIK fan, just like Barbie that I met last year. Gert is also into music. The band is called Farbror Gert, (Uncle Gert), and they have a MySpace site if you wanna have a listen to some Swedish rock music. Or have a look at a youtube video.

The Color Boxes

This is The Color Boxes, or Färglådorna. Not the official name of course, but that's what we called this housing area in Tungelsta when I grew up. They were built in the seventies and many of my friends lived here. The row houses come in all colors. The next alley, in case you are wondering have red houses, and looks like this. I saw in the paper a while back that one house was sold here not that long ago. It went for 2 Million SEK. With six rooms on 143 m², and with a small garden at 254 m². Before this housing area was built, there was a number of plant nursery's here. This is probably my last winter photo of the season. It looks like spring has arrived finally, so I will try to find some spring like photo for tomorrow!

Blue is the color

All the snow from last week is almost gone now, but I still have a few winter scenes left to show you. You don't see that many houses around here painted in this blue color. One of Tungelsta's few remaining gardeners (eight out of ninety-five), live here. Rolf Andersson. Looking through my photos I found at least one photo from his plant nursery at Södertäljevägen.

That Old Tree

Last week when we all thought that spring had arrived to Haninge there was a comment on a previous post on my blog, from Linda who I have met near the old tree. She told me that she had observed 10 whooper swans on the field behind the old tree. So naturally I decided to head back to capture that spring sign. Unfortunately the return of winter beat me to it, and this was the scene a couple of days ago, as I took my 172th photo of the Swedish Whitebeam. Sadly there was no sign of the swans.

A White Winter Sky

We have had a white winter sky in Haninge for the last few days. And with that I mean a snow fall or two. Which makes for good photo opportunities. This is a place called Sveaborg. It's located next to the runestone I showed you yesterday. The property was built back in the 1920ths when Josef and Henny Emanuelsson started a greenhouse business here. Later the Roos family bought the plant nursery and they built a new home closer to the greenhouses that are just down the road. This is one of those places that I often photograph, and on this occasion it was the Swedish flag that brought some extra color to this beautiful scene and I decided it would be perfect for Skywatch Friday.

Skogsekeby Runestone

There are 23 known runestones from the Viking Era in Haninge. This is the Skogsekeby runestone at Skolvägen in Tungelsta. The inscription reads: Vigils and Gerhjälm had this stone raised in memory after their brother Gudbjörn- björn cut the stone.

Or as it's written on the stone: in uik-l(s) : a-- kiRhimR : litu : ri(s)- stin : iftiR : burþur sen : kuþbiarn : --biarn : hiuk : stin.

The three brothers Gudbjörn, Virgils och Gerhjälm all lived at Tuna in Tungelsta one thousand years ago. Every time I walk by a runestone I start to think about how it must have been to live here back then.