Hamnskär in the Swedish South-East Archipelago, close to the city Nyköping.There is so much great music in Swedish that never made it outside the borders. A person in nearby me is currently learning Swedish and she loves music, so this is for her - listen and learn! (And the rest of you can as well, of course.)
Sofia Karlsson, a fantastic young artist, recorded a new version of my favorite Peps Persson's 80's blues and reggae song För livet ('For life') in 2007, a song that I heard over and over again growing up and loved. Peps version is filled by his 'skånska' accent from southernmost Sweden, but Sofia's version turns it more into a folk ballad. You can listen to Sofia's version here. And here are the lyrics, line by line, with translation (literal, as much as possible) in parentheses. Enjoy!
This song is a homage to all living things, all species. Peps Persson has written several songs on this theme, and also songs that criticize society, capitalism, and materialism. Som of this more famous song titles are (in translation): High Standard, False Mathematics, Oh Boy, and The Totally Fooled Generation.
It is snowing again in NJ, large aggregated snowflakes that drip down slowly from the sky. The cats are lower than the depth of the snow, so they use our shoveled paths to get around (to bird feeder, compost, barn with firewood, and basement...)- severely restricted pathways compared to their usual garden wanderings. A deer lept through our yard and left deep double tracks over 1.5 m (=yards) apart. Winterwonderland out there, so unusual, and reminds me of Swedish winter landscapes.
The cats hang out in their new cat houses, homebuilt and homedesigned by PP and with real cedar shingles on them. They are spoiled rotten with attention, hot water to drink and hot water bottles at night :)
A cat house.
Our walkway to the cars from the house. I know, you have it like this in Sweden all the time, but 30+ cm snow overnight is less usual here. And even less usual is that it seems to be staying and not melting away quickly.
Ella in snow.
Winter sports in all kinds are fun to do, and if the weather is bad you can always enjoy Swedish accomplicements on TV and the web.
Here is Ukrainan stamps from 2010.
Today, 26 jan 2011, one of many Japanese volcanos had an explosive eruption, which is still ongoing. Amateur video of Kirishima here and here on youtube.
This mountain has been closed for hikers since the SO2-level has been high, according to a Flickr comment of a photo of the eruption, shown here.
More info on the Eruptions blog by Eric Klemetti
Vladimir Nabokov of 'Lolita' novel fame was a butterfly researcher, and his theory from 1945 suggesting that little blue butterflies spread across Bering Strait, down the Rockies, down through Central America, through South America and down to Chile, has just been supported with DNA data. The same theory has been shown to be true for tiny gentians too. You can go far if you have lots of time and persist.(New York Times)
Brown things in nature can be oh so beautiful. (From the great blog Resurrection Fern)
If you were born in Sweden in the late 1960s and early 1970s you could not have missed Barbapapa - here is some nostalgia... I always loved how they were shaping their house out of themselves.
And, here is B for you all (from North Norfolk Railway, UK, photo by Leo Reynolds)
An old map of southern Manhattan (New York City) from late 1700s was recently found, but it was tattered and yellowed and fragmented and on its way to destruction. But with some restoration and preservation tricks it is now nearly like new - check out before and after here, and use the zoom to see details. Incredible how you can change paper for the better...
Back then New York itself was just a village at the very southern tip of Manhattan, down near Battery Park and Wall Street. A great book has been written about how the nature looked like on Manhattan when the Europeans arrived - Mannahatta by Eric Sanderson. There were meadows, springs, small ponds, hills, and saltmarshes. Bears roamed on Manhattan and there were several indian villages. Today it is a concrete jungle. Fascinating...
The coldest weeks during the year is the last week of January (just started) and the first week of February. Our thermometer outside showed 7 degrees F this morning, but the reported temperature from down the valley a few miles from us was minus 5 F or so. Pretty cold, like a deep freezer. For you in Sweden this is nothing, I know! Or if you are from the Upper Peninsula in Minnesota, the coldest place in the US. But here, this is COLD.
Water is freezing over, and the snow is staying - so it is gorgeous. When the sun is about to set, the 'blue hour' is a great time for photos. None of these photos have been color-corrected - this is how blue it was! The photos are from Rock Brook on the Sourlands during yesterday's walk:
On the narrow road - journey into a lost Japan, by Lesley Downer
This was not a fast book to read, but a book that takes its time. Lesley Downer, a Japan scholar from Britain, sets out to trace the steps of the famous 17th century Japanese poet Basho and his companion of their trip to the North of Japan, through mountains and distant valleys. Basho, famous for his haiku's, wrote in detail about his trip and also wrote many haikus at the places they stayed during their 5-month long walking trip. Lesley quotes some of these in her book when she visits (or tries to, some are gone) the same places as they did. Away from the coastal cities concrete, neon, and traffic, she is looking for a lost Japan, a country that might have some similarity to how Japan was in the 1600s, rural, peaceful, and undisturbed by the stressful, modern world.. She does find it, but it is endangered and not much left of it.
Her detailed writing gives you a fantastic introduction to Japanese medieval history, literature and haiku, and also the current and past traditions of 'regular' people. She doesn't avoid talking about fear of foreigners, her own tiredness and embarrassments, and highlights the great people she meets by coincidence during her trip, which isn't as long as Basho's in time, and not all by foot. She uses trains, buses, and hitchhikes, and walks where is is possible, mostly in the mountains. I know very little about Japan, and I think this book taught be at least five times more than I knew. Densely written at time, it is a lovely book, a book for contemplation and reading 2-3 pages at the time. Highly recommended to anybody that loves biographical stories, foreign countries, history, and literature.
I just read a very interesting and excellent article, The Truth Wears Off or The decline effect and the scientific method, by Jonah Lehrer in The New Yorker.
C as in caboose, and this is how PP's Dad had it at work (thanks Shorpy to a great photo)
Can't see it? Ever wondered what patterns those flowers' petals had under UV light? Now you can know.
Cold? And you can draw your own snowflake here.
Castle, in a new way - isn't this amazing? Art by Peter Callesen, scroll down and you will see the castle (and much more).
... since the last post, because both PP and I got sick in the horrible cold-flu that is whisping around in these neighborhoods. We have been coughing, sniffling, and headaching, and used up more cold medicines this past week than we usually use in a whole year. Bad stuffy noses and sinuses...
Since there wasn't much else to do than to let the viruses run their course in our bodies we have also watched some movies and finished some projects. Clint Eastwood has graced our TV screen with his face several times (the Gauntlet, not one of this best) as has Robert de Niro (New York cop with a son in trouble in City by the Sea). Gosford Park is an English 1920s murder mystery where everybody could have done it, and it portrays the servants in a the giant mansion in an unusual and interesting detail. Maybe a bit too slow and long, but that could have been because of the medicines too. A Perfect World with Kevin Costner was great, about a prisoner on the run who kidnaps a boy and their developing relationship, probably 1940s - not the usual good vs. bad people movie, and of course Clint Eastwood directed and acted in it too.
Still, my current favorite is Ken Burn's Civil War series, a documentary in 9 episodes made for PBS. It is great, and captures the history and people involved in the Civil War in US. All interview, still-life photos and he lets the story take its time, and it is the opposite to the snippet-rush-fast-special effects-stress movies and documentaries that are more common today. For me that never really learned much about American history in school, this is like a wonderful education and charting new historical territory.
While watching movies I knit and knit, mostly scarves and hats, but also other things. My favorite online knitting site is a mecca for free patterns and ideas - check out Ravelry.com (it is free to sign up). Right now I am working on a gray 1940s WWII Watch cap, not sure for whom, and is just about to start a lacy scarf for myself in a color called neptune. There will also be new knitted cotton dishcloths that can be thrown in the washer every week, instead of linen ones that are thin and fall apart, or wettex that turn slimy and gross. Here are some hats I have knitted recently.
I woke up to a quiet world in white, just with some windy drifts of snow, but otherwise white, white. Schools closed, and not many cars out. Went for a walk down to the old bridge and met a few cars, otherwise just me, bluejays and some woodpeckers, and the sun on the snow and wind shifting snow off tree branches. Here are some photos of our winter wonderland in New Jersey.
It is easy, just use this chart... (courtesy of Darya Dino at the Summer Tomato blog)
American Life in Poetry: Column 302 (posted here with special permission)
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
In Iowa in the 1950’s, when we at last heard about pizza, my mother decided to make one for us. She rolled out bread dough, put catsup on it, and baked it. Voila! Pizza! And inexpensive, too. Here’s Grace Cavalieri, a poet and playwright who lives in Maryland, serving something similar and undoubtedly better.
"Oh, come kids, hurry up, look, look, you are going to miss it! It is nearly gone now! "
Thump, thump, thump, comes kids footsteps down stairs and dining room.
" Mom, what is it?", says one kid.
" Look, the last sunset of 2010!"
Kid's comment: "Sigh, you are so silly!"
Happy New (and belated) New Year everybody!
Now it is MMXI.
