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"

a massive spring update

Are you bored with my magnolias yet?

I guess my friends OUGHT to be. I discovered that I have quite a collection in my camera - a collection of friends that I dragged along with me for my almost daily magnolia mission :)

This is me paparazzi-ing a picture of my friend Kirsi watching my other friend Marie taking a picture of the magnolias that I forced them to go and see about a week ago :-D


...and this is my friend Anders, at the very same place, two days ago. I inspired him to take a picture TOO. I ought'ta get royalties from the magnolias for making them famous, ahem.

Well, this is it. It's done. I no longer need to watch them, cuz from now on it's just downhill again...

Svartån ("Svart" = "Black"and "ån" = ehm, well not river, but stream? creek? shucks, what would you call it?)

Kyrkbacken (Church Hill), the oldest part of Västerås. There are always new things to discover around the corner. Some of the wooden houses are 400 years old.

I'm SHORT, but I would need to bow to be able to get inside, I doubt that this door is higher than 1,5 metres. Yes, the houses are carefully modernized inside, people still live there, this is one of the most popular places in Västerås.

We all know that maples are beautiful in autumn colours - but I also love the early limegreen tiny tiny flowers in spring, before the leaves appear.

Magnolia watch, mid April in Västerås

Sooon... soon! I go to Vasaparken several days a week to check now :)

"I can see you"

Street art, someone recently decorated a small box outside the library with this delicate little work of art.

Västerås' walkabout, April 1st

The turbine building, Västerås' oldest power plant - hydro power, obviously. Built about 120 years ago, AND it still works (renovated in 1995), providing power to the castle. I've been inside - my inner engineering geek LOVES this. I admit ;)

Gustav Vasa - endlessly watching over the castle from Vasaparken...

...and here goes: the Västerås castle. Not very Disney, this one. The oldest parts are 800 years old. It was a royal residence until 1638.

Inspired by Cecilia, I had to go check the Magnolias too - nah, they are not fully ready for take off yet, and neither should they be already this time of the year.

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!"

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.

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.

Walkabout, Västerås, February the 23'rd

At first - let's stop in the small garden outside my building. My oh my, how inspiring. Not.

Well, you see that little thingee sticking up almost in the middle of the snow? That's what's left of last year's peony-colony. In a couple of months they will return. That's what keeps me going right now. Spring. There WILL be a tad of spring and summer this year too :-D


Graffiti or art? Well, this kind of "graffiti" I like to call "art" - street art. I love these small pictures that can be seen in sometimes hard-to-find places.

This MIB guards the house of the local newspaper. I hope they won't wash him off. He's handsome.

On we go, let's stop in Rudbecksparken for a while.

(It was very late in the afternoon/early evening, hence the gloomy colours - think of them as mysterious if that'll make'em more beautiful ;))

Look up - is this the equivalent of a high rise, but for a colony of magpies?

Nah, think again. This is where Santa grows all his...

...misteltoe! Before I moved to Västerås, I had never seen it grow wild, but in this region you can find them everywhere. Quite nice for being an utter parasite, don't you think?

Now - if they grow wild, does the kissing-rule still apply?

This little guy guards the park.

Daytime, he often gets attention from kids, trying to sit on him, trying to feed him and so on. Nighttime, he's magic. The illusion of a small deer (oooh, dear deer!") standing on watch is perfect, when you are only - barely - able to see the outline.

I don't know who's (whose? sh*t, my English grammar skills are deteriorating) work this is yet but it almost looks like something made by Arvid Knöppel (Swedish artist, 1892-1970) .

Library, Västerås, again

This is what the corner of my favourite library looks like in spring, I think this was taken in the beginning of May two years ago. From a distance just a boring square combination of one brick on another, but there are plenty of interesting details (also apart from the decorated bricks). Will try to go there again soon, in the company of Ms Ixus :)

(I tend to leave her at home much too often these days)

Say neeeeeigh :-)

...speaking of workplaces

This is - by far - the most beautiful place where I have ever worked.
Strömsholms Castle, some 20 kms west of Västerås, is a very small castle open to the public a few months every summer. No one lives there, it's a museum owned by the Swedish royal court.

(this was one of the places where I worked - in the café and as well as an assistant inside the museum itself - trying to make ends meet during/right after my studies.) <--- perrrrfect for a med student - don't you think? Taking care of an old wreck ;)

(ouch ouch ouch, that is NOT a nice thing to say, errrr, WRITE)

Initially it was built by Gustav Vasa, later it was rebuilt again almost from scratch in 1669. Some of the grounds from the Vasa-era remains, to be seen in the basement.

It does NOT house any ghosts. I was so disappointed to hear that :(

I really love the place, and despite being extremely happy that I have a better job now I still miss it from time to time.

A trip to the library

Yesterday was grey grey grey, I had to check carefully where I placed my steps since the sidewalks were filled with disgusting slush.

Where to?

Well, that's the nice part: the library. I LOVE the library. It's not the most beautiful building in Västerås, but I love the fact that some of the bricks are decorated. Small small details are always interesting to me.

OH, and yes: I found some interesting books too. I guess that's - after all - my main reason for loving that place.

The equivalent to Hodge?

No, this cat never belonged to a famous person, it's just famous (well, that depends on how to define famous) for sitting on the stairs outside the local newspaper i Västerås, VLT, and for having been kidnapped in the beginning of the nineties. He/She was later found again in a forest close to the city centre.

I paid it a visit last week (I was going to the small café "Kalle på Spången" in the house at the corner in the background) but none of the pictures were any good so I used an old one, from June 2006.

I met a copy in Gothenburg just a few weeks ago, inside AEC.

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a note, added 070221

Today I found out that the cat is named "Jönssons katt", designed by Anders Jönsson, available at Svenskt Tenn for SEK5300:- - okidoki!

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Hodge?
Hodge - A very fine cat indeed

Oh, the irony

This slightly "enhanced" sign can be found in Bishop's Street (OK, so it's "Biskopsgatan" in Swedish) in Västerås, ca 100 m from the cathedral. Some people probably mind (and if they do I guess they mind a LOT), but my pagan soul finds it quite amusing. This said, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but... Well: The IRONY.

A taste of... December

I found this poor lonesome *sob* Daisy outside my building December 5th 2006.

That's global warming for you.

Brrrr...!

Vasaparken, Västerås, Sweden. A perfectly beautiful day - but jeeeeez, it's cold!

Västerås City Hall to the right.

"Three men in a boat"? :) No, this is actually actually Sture Collin's "Dårarnas båt" (Ship of Fools). They boldly navigate a small pond in Vasaparken. Or - I guess they could have been, if it wasn't for that darn stone they managed to hit ;)

Copies of "Dårarnas båt" can be found in two more places in Sweden - the underground station at Sockenplan (Stockholm) and at Hornsgatspuckeln (also in Stockholm).

What the...?

Ouch.

A few days ago: 7C, green lawns, sunshine, no rain... lovely.

Then BAM, swoooosh, pow pow pow. Winter got back, with a vengeance.

The bikes outside my apartment building are cold, oh so cold. Poor sods.