Time passing

Welcome to winter and the change of the clocks!  It happened today here in the US (Swedes are ahead of us as usual, they changed their clocks a while ago).  Back to normal Eastern Standard Time for us now, no more Daylight Savings time (which is called Summer Time, 'sommartid', in Swedish).

The amazing hybrid solar eclipse (Nov 3, 2014) we had planned to watch this morning was hidden by a large could bank.  Oh well.  Somewhere behind those clouds were a partially visible sun.  We will have to wait to 2014 for another solar eclipse. There is some photos and info here of this rare event.

And, sad memories and news - it is 50 years since developers in New York City crushed the old, beautiful Penn Station and built a mega-ugly box on top of it.  Penn Station now are horrible cramped tunnels below Madison Square Garden.  Look at the photos of what once was here... At least Grand Central Terminal is still standing in New York, and Penn Stations are left in Baltimore and Philadelphia.  If you wonder about the names - Penn Station comes from the old Pennsylvania Railroad, and Grand Central was the railroad station for the rival New York Central Railroad.  Union Station in Washington, DC, had several railroads, that is why it was called 'Union'.  (PP can correct me if I am wrong :)

The rain is coming soon- April edition

A snapshot I took a few days back, when rain was closing in. Good for me that the April weather is changing fast, the sun came back half an hour later! I am at Barking Dog Plaza of course, for you who knows the place.

Early morning on Wreck Beach

Sunrise in the east, over Vancouver city.

Wreck beach, the only nude beach in Vancouver, but it was empty when I was there early this morning.

Wrecked logs, some really large.

When I was standing here looking at a great blue heron (I think), a bald eagle suddenly flew over me, all quiet. Those are really majestic birds!

The tide was out so kelp and seagrass on the rocks were above water.

Update: The day after the walk down to the beach I woke up with horrible pain in my legs. To get to the beach you have to walk down a steep, steep path that probably has at least 150 wooden stair steps in a nice conifer forest with lots of lush ferns. To get back up the cliff you have to walk up the same way. It is not easy, but certainly worth it.

Resa till Dalarna

TRAVEL TO DALARNA (a province in Sweden northwest of Stockholm).

Dimmorna lättade över sjön Väsmaren där vi sovit över i en gammal timmerstuga.
The morning mist disappeared over the lake Vasmaren where we had spent the night in an old log cabin.


Vi besökte en restaurerad masugn vid Klenshyttan.
We visited a restored furnace at Klenshyttan.

Själva masugnen var förstärkt med massor med järnband runt omkring ugnen.
The furnace was reinforced with lots of iron bands around the furnace.

Längs vägen blommade stora fält med ängsklocka i en mängd så fälten lyste blått.
Along the road there were large fields with flowering blue bells, so much that the fields shined blue.

Ängsklockan är underbart vacker med skira nickande klockor. Min favorit.
Campanula campestris is amazingly beautiful with fragile, nodding bells. My favorite.


Vid en stor myr flög massor med svavelgul höfjäril och även ängssmygare och på samma blomma satten sällsynt svartfläckig glanssmygare.
At a large bog there were lots of different butterflies flying around [I don't know the English or Latin species names].

Update by LS: I first put the translations in the comments, but then decided to add the translations here where you can see the photos.

Star trek goes to the clouds?

I found this image of the enterprise-shaped cloud, what do you think?