christmas castle concert 2014 with rongedal

What a lovely way to spend a Lucia evening -

Christmas concert in Skokloster castle church
with the fabulous brothers Rongedal and choir.

Admittedly I did miss singing and outstanding moves like this, that would have set the audience on metaphorical fire!

Happy Lucia one and all ~

gargoyles

They never seize to fascinate and entertain me, gargoyles.

random photos athens, III

Befittingly, in this heat - as far as us Swedes, Northerners are concerned of course - here are a some more photos from Athens. And the omnipresent question in this case being; why isn't warm/hot weather nearly as difficult/sticky to deal with when abroad compared to at home?

Military parades and procedures like these evzones at the monument of the unknown soldier are so. not. my. cup. of. tea. Ever.

The dog's point of view of the whole fuss.
I can relate.

This quite obviously isn't the Stockholm underground. This impressive one is clean, pretty and with trains running as scheduled.

Frappe, with a taste which can be described as cold, burnt coffee made with dishwater. Once, never again.

Colourful and quaint in Monastiraki.

Old meets new in Monastiraki.

In the backstreets of Monastiraki, oh if more scaffoldings could be covered in such wonderful fabrics!

These guys played some enchantingly lovely music in Monastiraki.

A whole lot of clothes going on despite the obvious heat.

A Swede in Athens, Carl Larsson painting on a sign for what I presume is a restaurant...

One of many picturesque churches.

The shining exception to the rule of crap vegetarian food in Athens, this salad with marinated mushrooms, halloumi, mixed fresh vegetables and sesame seed breadsticks was quite, quite lovely in all its simplicity.

A glimpse of the controversial new Acropolis museum.
And a very blue Beetle.
Under an orange tree.

Acropolis at night.

random thought on athens
random photos athens, I
random photos athens, II
athens flickr photos

homage to blue skies

As we've (very less than) enjoyed a couple or *rather* rainy and chilly weeks here and now supposedly we have (only) a couple of days to enjoy a dash of sun, a tad of blue skies before it all begins pouring down in rain again, I thought I'd give a wee homage to (Swedish) blue skies. As I believe they are awe inspiring, amazing ~

my very own honeysuckle shrub against an amazing sky

one pretty tower house under a smashing sky in falun, dalecarlia

who knew cement works could be this beautiful?

well at least under a bluer than blue sky in dalecarlia

not exactly blue skies, but very lovely blue just the same,

and more about this blue coloured stage performance in dalecarlia later

vidablick view tower in dalecarlia

the lake siljan view from vidablick above

the (infamous for its ugliness) norrtälje harbour silo.

everything goes pretty against blue skies

husby-sjuhundra quiet countryside church

mörby castle (ruin)

have yourselves a blue skied wednesday ~

Ely Cathedral

A few glimpses from one of my favourite (over sized) churches, Ely Cathedral. A stunning work of intricate detailed (including a charming plethora of one of my favourite quirky things, gargoyles) architecture and art, situated in Cambridgeshire, England.

I also like the fact that you can have a lovely meal, tea and cake - although the lack of whipped cream for scones and cakes despite asking politely is of course appalling and extremely close to a mortal sin - at the Almonry situated tucked away in the gardens behind the cathedral. How often do you get a view like this with your lunch?

If you want to read more about the cathedral, Ely and the interesting surroundings in fiction I suggest you pick up Jim Kelly's first book and possibly the second, in the suspense series about Ely journalist Philip Dryden.

The Eye in the Sky and Other Books

This beautiful building is the impressive, full of amazing and intricate details, thought provoking cathedral of Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK. The town of Ely and its surrounding marshlands is also where Jim Kelly's suspense novels take place. I found his first book, The Water Clock, in the series about worn and weary country newspaper journalist Philip Dryden to be quite good, the milieu descriptions, the tragic story about his wife suffering from locked in syndrome after a car accident, a car accident Dryden in parts blames himself for, the body of a murder victim being found up on the roof of Ely cathedral tower. Yes I liked the book and I was happy when I saw the second one, The Fire Baby, finally in pocket edition a few years back. As far as I can remember I found it to be a pretty decent suspense novel too.

But when I got the third one, The Moon Tunnel, I realized I was rather bored with the excessive milieu descriptions, the brooding Dryden with his coat pockets filled with food and snacks, his cat green eyes and the sloppy taxi driver with a fondness for greasy meals that drives Dryden around the marshlands. The way in which his wife still suffering from LIS is able to help him with a very extensive as well as quick research via Internet, e-mail and text messages I personally find rather improbable. So bye, bye also to Mr Kelly.

Karin Fossum is an internationally renowned Norwegian crime novelist whom I've read a few books of. I'm not a great fan of hers and that's actually not because I find her to be a bad writer, quite the opposite, her writing is intelligent and precise, no word seems unnecessary. But the stories she tells, and picture she paints in words of Norway and the Norwegian life, true or false or a matter of personal opinion, is just so utterly gloomy and depressing I shy away from the books.

The Jonas Eckel novella I got from a charity organization store and I thought the 152 pages long book might be a quick crime novel read. It wasn't. A very skillfully written psychological everyday drama, a sad, depressing, bleak, emotional, tense, creepy novella about unhappy, grey outsiders - or even sadder, perhaps just very "normal" people - trying to fit in and live life like it "should be lived". The main character's surname Eckel spelled Äckel is translated into "Repulsive", hence the name of the book is very apt. Depressingly apt.

The last book, Himmelsöga - Heaven's Eye, or The Eye in the Sky -, in Arne Dahl's brilliant Decalogue about an elite force within the Swedish police was such a great summing up of the ten years with the group called Intercrime. I was a bit hesitant since I didn't find the ninth book to be of the series usual top notch quality, but I was instantly drawn into this book from the first chapter.

A first chapter that was one of the best first chapters I've ever read, the way he describes the daytime equivalent to the night time's dead hour when summer turns into autumn, the way he soars above the 10 different members of the elite force, the ingenious way this first chapter is tied together with the story in the end. And the explosive, imaginative, humorous, political, satirical, philosophical, intellectual splendid story in between the first and the last chapter simply makes me, once again, go *w.o.w*.

A big role in his books is also played by Stockholm and I must say that's another great detail of the series, not as fully appreciated by non-Stockholmers I suppose, but such a perfect spice in an already wonderful stew. I'm glad he decided to write an eleventh book in the series, because I'm honestly not sure how I'll be able to go on without another book about the Intercrime group to look forward to...

Hemingford Grey in Bloom

Today, Friday in the middle of what must be one of the most gloomy Swedish September months ever, there will just be a few holiday photos from the delightful, picturesque, sleepy village with many secrets gardens and paths of Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, UK. A village that happens to have a larger de jure population than Öregrund, now that is difficult to imagine from the looks of it...

Enjoy, recall the summer that once was and have a good weekend!