Roses

An old shot of mine has been at the back of my head for a while - I took this one in November 2005(!). Through a stroke of luck (or possibly conspiracy), a tip in a Photoshop book I received from Amazon last week combined with an impromptu competition on a Swedish Photoshop blog made me finally sit down with this one and finish it off, once and for all. (Click it to view the larger size.)

Bikers

In the fifties and sixties, when ABB was still known as ASEA, very few workers (many of them early immigrants from Italy and former Yugoslavia) could afford a car. Most of them went by bike, and all of them going to work at the same time early in the morning was said to be a sight of its own - such a sight that it generated a monument fifty years later.

Gotta love it! Both the phenomenon itself, but also the fact that someone actually appreciated it enough to realise that it's a "working class hero"-kind of city history well worth to preserve and honour with a monument.

Better not forget the lunch box.

"I simply GOTTA get ahead of that guy!"

Bye bye Fjant, I'll MISS you, mis(s)ter

I've been swamped too, work and work related problems, a terrible flu, a visit from mom (that was nice, though) and even some interacting with FRIENDS :-D

My mother + Fjant = PURE love!

Unfortunately Izzy had some problems accepting this, so last Sunday my mom awoke around five o'clock in the morning - hm, a wet sensation... heeeeey, waittaminute, there was IZZY, balancing on the couch above mom, PEEING at (on?) her head :-O

Oops. Well, laugh or cry? We decided to laugh.

A few days ago Fjant moved back to his old home in Stockholm. He will stay with Henrik's (his owner) girlfriend, this is a great solution. I miss him. Izzy is happy. Overjoyed. Silly old bitch ;)

(the cutest bitch ever, though)

Spring

Alright, so I have been totally snowed under (not by real snow though) by work and work related anxieties. Big conference coming up next week, but also in the span of 4 days I went from the shock of hearing that my boss is taking her lab and moving half way across the continent July 1st and although she would love for me to come rather than letting me go she understands that that would not be realistic since R has a job here and not in Jersey, through a couple of days when I was seriously thinking about either moving to NJ (and totally ruining our economy and possibly our private life) or trying to get a job with very high-flying and rather scary lab here on campus to being recruited (head-hunted!) by the lab next door! I read about the new project and I think it will be good so I am accepting the job and just heard that the visa will not be a problem. I deserve a weekend of rest!

Anyway, two weeks ago we went to a lovely garden (Bayou Bend, run by the Museum of Fine Arts) here in Houston where among all the lovelies I spotted the flowers Shaun showed in the last post. I mainly photographed azaleas and magnolias. The latter are my favorites since living in London, but here the season is really brief and I caught it late. Glad to report that although the garden was in full swing the mosquitoes were not present yet.

Mimi in winsome mode

More signs of Spring.... WOOHOO!

This is Leucojum vernum (aka the Spring Snowflake . Its a bit like a cross between a snowdrop and a lily of the valley and some anabolic steroids - they are about 30cm tall). I gave my mum a load of of them when we reworked our garden a few years ago. Hers are now in bloom as you can see here. Ours have still to get their act together, sadly

Tracing a new (?) trend

Mom sent me an article from the local newspapper of my old hometown (Karlstad), obviously pepole care for statues there too.

Swedish speaking blogreaders might be able to read the article if you click on the picture.

The statues? From top to bottom:

"Sola i Karlstad" (rougly translated "the sun of Karlstad"), legendary - always sunny-happy - waitress some hundred years ago.

Gustaf Fröding, local poet, very famous in Sweden (ugly statue! he looks like something out of a horror movie)

Nils Ferlin, also local poet, and very famous. Even UGLIER statue!

Saluting Engineers III & IV

What salute to London's engineers would be complete without old Ismbard K?

And finally that nice mr Farraday whose monument can be found by the Thames outside of...

The insititue of Electrical Engineers

Saluting Engineers II

There you go Siv, another London monument to an engineer. This one is Joseph Bazalgette, the man who probably did the most to improve the level of health in London - he built the first effective sewage system in London.

Engineering is a mystery to me.. I was dreadful at physics and maths (calculus and beyond). Now to find the memorial to the unknown bean counter or the mediocre biochemist....

Since no-one else has bothered with a shot from the lunar eclipse over the weekend, I will. This was shot in Stockholm, Sweden, using a Nikon D70 on a tripod. ISO 200, exposed for 2 s at f/6.3 using a Tamron 28-300 mm lens at full length.

Trafalfgar Square 3 March

I have a number of favourite subjects - perhaps I am hoping for the definitive photograph. I will get plenty of chances to capture the Triton fountains but this was probably my last chance to photograph the Lapper statue.

Bricks, part... well: 475645, or something like that

I find new details every time I visit the library (um, yes, I go there a couple of times per week *blush*).

Perhaps I'm a libroholic? :-D

Springtime - yabbadabbadooo?

Well. Springtime IS actually coming, despite all the snow. I know that. The birds go crazy every morning and the grass turns green in sheltered places. Each day some more daylight to enjoy.

But still. Still. STILL, I feel a little like this bike outside my building. I am in dire need of thaw now. In many ways.

Saluting Engineers 1

James Henry Greathead

This statue of civil engineer J H Greathead is in the City of London by the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House (the ceremonial residence of the Lord Mayor of London). While most statues seem to be of politicians and military figures - there is one of the Duke of Wellington close by - some commemorate those who built London. South Aftican J H Greathead's contribution to the coty was the development of the Greathead shield which made the creation of the tube system that much easier.

Oh dear deer, part two

Someone obviously felt sorry for him and lent him a woollen scarf, although it's much warmer now than one week ago.

CSI Västerås

This is what met me this morning. The beautiful white ranunculi I bought for myself yesterday were slaughtered during the night, probably by one ANGRY cat kept waiting too long for fresh breakfast (they have "dry" food available all the time, but every morning they want a something extra, most often some tuna)

The suspects, both of them masked until proven guilty.