The Neasden Temple

Or more properly the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple. I was delighted to go there ysterday on a trip from work. It is absolutely beautiful

Friday I'm in Love

(remember The Cure? where did they GO?)

Shaky shaky due to instability and bad light conditions, but I think the message is clear.

I love my cat, and I think she at least LIKES me :)

I love details, as in...

...a beautiful tree in the botanical garden, close to the library

...the mosaic on one of the library walls

...an ornate fence on Engelbrektsgatan - "this is as far as you get, enjoy the view"

Bumble Bees

Bubmle bees tucking in to Echinops flowers

...so, we DID harass Näcken

Apart from being an electric engineer I also gladly take part in health related work. I guess that's me making up for not completing my studies to become a medical doctor :)

This Friday we wandered around Uppsala for more than three hours, talking to teenagers (mostly) and trying to get them to understand that veneral diseases are once again spreading rapidly, that some of them (for instance Chlamydia) sometimes are hard to notice but that they still can harm your body causing sterility among both men and women.

At midnight we set out to harass Näcken (as portrayed by Swedish artist Bror Hjorth). He is (ahem) big, but finally one of the participants managed to cover his private parts with a condom.

Simba

I found the original owners today! Amazing. I am SO happy, and calm now that I know he's well taken care of again.

(a naughty little runaway, that one!)

"His name was SIMBA? My GOD, I understand that he ran away" said one of my friends. *lol*

Compare his body shape today with the initial picture, at least I got him a little less skinny during the time I fed him. Apparently he was a HUGE cat before he ran away. His owner was stunned at the sight of him now - "well, you should have seen him two weeks ago" I told him.

Bebe

Looking angelic as ever

Speaking of Izzy...

...she used to be a deserted, skinny street-cat too, but she seems to have forgotten that by now. This picture was taken quite shortly after she moved in with me, she had stayed (and got well fed!) with Fredrike for a while, but she was still CRAZY for food, she always seemed to think that every meal was the last one to get served.

(I try to tell her that she ought to remember how tough it was to be deserted, but she simply wont listen - "That Fredrik is NOT going to take ANY of your attention away from me, I've served my hard time in the streets, I deserve full attention from my Human Being by now" she claims. Well well...)

Fredrik

This little guy breaks my heart. I found him huddled under a balcony (it was raining) a little more than a week ago when I went to get my bike outside my house. At first he ran away, frightened, but then he came back to me.

He is so beautiful, and such a nice cat, but painstakingly skinny. I've been feeding him since, and I try to find him a new home (no, Izzy didn't accept him so we can't adopt him, I tried twice already). He waits for me everyday now. Yesterday evening I came home 11.15 pm - I parked my bike and "tip tip tip", there he was, softly purring and telling me "Welcome home (and, by the way, I'd like to get some dinner now)".

I named him Fredrik, for certain reasons. Ahem.

Thalictrum

Live Earth - this is my contribution, this is what I want to show people to motivate them to think about the future. Ironically, it's the past.

This is my favourite picture from midsummer - Länsmansgården (the house of the local police a couple of hundred years ago) in Fatmomakke, Swedish Lappland.

It's perfectly normal for the mountains to sport some snow in June. Climate changes might cause a change, it's getting warmer and that would mean catastrophy even for the unique flora and fauna found here as well as in so many other places on earth. The water in the lake is still squeaky clean, fresh from the mountains.

Fatmomakke village is lovingly saved as is - I hope that's a spreading trend all over. Save things. Look after them. Take care.

Fatmomakke

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Which picture would you choose? Post it here (or, visitors, post a link as a comment)

rapture

It's almost impossible to describe the kind of quiet but indeniable rapture (quiet rapture - now that's an interesting contradiction for you :)) that I feel when I face the mountains close to Ormsjö (ths is about 60 kms away frpm our house there).

It has been less than two weeks, and I already want to go back.

A quiet talk

Shot at a cemetary in Ludvika, Dalarna, Sweden on June 20th. My girlfriend Anna is having a quiet chat to her father, seven years after his passing.

(It's only fair that you get to see her too, after seeing her cat in the last post.)

Introducing: Titan

Titan, affectionately known as "Fur Bomb", is actually my girlfriend's cat but as we now live together, he is eligible for submissions as well. He is a Turkish Van (with two yellow eyes(!)) and his hobbies include chasing hair bands (He plays fetch with them. Do normal cats play fetch? I think not.), drinking water from the shower nozzle until he throws up, sleeping on top of Anna's old rickety display case (one of these days he's gonna fall through the top, I swear) and shedding. All the hairs you see on the carpet, he put there. He is petrified of the vacuum cleaner and he absolutely hates the dish washer. He is very chatty and loves it when you brush him.

Everybody say Hi to Titan!

Dactylorhiza maculata

Small but beautiful orchid that grows wild close to our summer house in Lappland.

my precious

NFOs are really really meant to sit like this, outside, with the wind teasing their whiskers and ears.

midsummer 2007

Yes, that IS snow. Yes, it was hot. Yes, we had a LOVELY day!

(with mom in Swedish Lapland at midsummer, about 200 kms nw from our "summer house" in Ormsjö)

Tree

Test post.

off we go, part two

Joy and HAPPINESS! Alison Lapper was still in Trafalgar Sq!

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Ambulance on a bike. Really smart thing! Bonus: the guy was really cute too.

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Pure happiness. BLT and beer. Picnic on the sidewalk, since all the parks in the area was private - i e locked - and we got really really hungry :) Beer out of a plastic bag, to avoid attention from the police. We are sooo posh :-D

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I would hire them any day!

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Trust the electrical engineer to find an old (1868) hydropowerstation. It resides close to The Tower.

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"They promised me half a mile of humping, but all I got out of it was blisters on my feet"
(from the upcoming super success novel "Memoirs of a Spinster" ;))

a weekend off

So where did I go? Of course: to London!

Being the Tudor-fan that I am, I was happy to find the Tudor Rose, close to Baker Street.

Great set of triceps. This guy guards the Buckingham Palace.

Swedish bike in London? Is that supposed to be a sight worth a photo. Naw...

...but I loved the irony. I shot it through a bus window, kind of blurry.

Best friends, at Portobello Road.

"OH, nice ASS! Oh, sorry, it's not an ass, it's a lion..."

(Ass = åsna ;))

MI6, unfortunately Mr B was nowhere to be seen.

Ongoing installation, an artist (forgot his name . Shaun, do you know?) molded a statue of himself (ugly guy, really) ans placed it in 31 places - on rooftops etc. This one on the west side of Waterloo Bridge.

Alium

I thought I'd sneak in with the 100th post with a photo I took a few days of an alium starting to come into flower. I've just bought a macro lens and am playing with this new toy!

daily work

My pride and joy :)
I make them for a living - although a more modern model.

ray of light

Astor. He IS a beauty.

Evil Mimi

Mimi

The essential Ted

Hover fly on enjoying the Spirea

Spirea is one of those bushes that has thousands of tiny flowers - like the Photinia I suppose. I suppoe these sort of bushes offer small portions but many courses!

Aquilegia

Another flower that came into bloom this week

royal update

Um. National overload?
Well. It WAS the king's birthday (April 30th)

...and back at our place we enjoy our new leather-couch. Queen Izzy even lets me sit in it from time to time.

Bluebell field

In a woodland about 15km away just outside a secret nuclear bunker that has been turned into a tourist attraction (honest!)

Not a garden...

... just a window sill. My new orchid which, although quite lovely, didn't turn out to be as red in the center as promised. Bah.



Tristan is not very interested in orchids, but spends his time on the sofa looking grumpy.

Mimi yawns

Again cross posted from teh Poor Mouth. I was lucky to catch Mimi mid yawn earlier on