Saturday, July 24, 2010



It´s cloudy and cold here today, even now around 10:40am the temperature hasn´t reached 14C (57F), but it is actually rather nice now after the heat wave we´ve had. As long as it doesn´t stay like this too long. The flies stays calm too and that´s a plus :-) I know that I am a bit obsessed by the flies, but as You know we do have some here :-) :-)






Bittersweet.

I drove to Skara and the big supermarket there shortly after our morning walk. I had forgotten to buy most of what I needed yesterday when I was at the grocery store in Gudhem :-) :-) This time I actually brought the list I´d made and didn´t buy anything else than what was on it. Well that´s a bit of a lie because I bought a small pakage of mixed nuts and dried fruits too. A nice little snack while driving I thought. You could think that they would make this little bag easy to open up so You actually can get to the mix. But how wrong You would be then :-) :-) I pulled every corner, I tried to rip it open and i even used my teeth to get the contents of the little bag. The plastic looked untouched and I was exhausted, so I used all my strength one more time and guess what! The little bag sort of exploded! I didn´t eat much of it, it gets a bit unpleasant when it falls all over the floor and back part of the car where my dogs are when following me around.


I´m not that a big fan of daylilies, but I do have a couple of  them. This yellow bought as "Stella Dóro" and

this one that is an Tawny Daylily (Brunröd daglilja), Hemerocallis fulva. I have one more but it almost never flowers, perhaps it´s time to move it to another place?



Today is a clean up day. One of my aunts comes to visit tomorrow and I have to get rid of all newspapers lying around, put the books back where they belong and vacume the floors. My dogs are always shedding their fur and it isn´t especially nice to walk around in all that hair. My electric stove has to be cleaned as well. Not because I´ve used it, not at all. It´s because I never use it that it has to be cleaned. Having a fire heated stove is perfect except for the fact that there is a lot of ashes spread in tne kitchen. That happens when the hatch is opened so I can put in more fire logs. If the surface isn´t touched it looks rather clean, but as soon as the surface gets touched You have no troubles seeing that it actually is quite filthy :-) :-)


Skara Cathedral. Skara is over thousand years old and i guess some of this church is also.







The old library.

And the new one. I do prefere the looks of the old one :-)


But for now I´ll settle for a nice cup of tea and then I´ll start reading on the second book about Winnie the Pooh and his friends :-)
Have a great day now!

This has at least been a gallery, but it doesn´t look like it´s used like that now.





This house has two dates on its walls. I think that the oldest part was built 1787 and then over hundred years after they built the new part 1913 in the exact same style. That would never happen today. Skara is still one of those twons where they stops and talks to people and waves to those they know driving by in their cars. It´s a rather nice little town to be honest.










The old railroad station. There are still some tracks behind it used by a railroad museum. Nowdays it´s used as a bust station and there is also a sandwich shop. They make so nice subways :-)

20 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...i loved seeing all of these pics of skara! why is it that when you show pics of these towns there never seem to be many people in the towns? where does your aunt live and how long will she be visiting? i bet the pets will like having company. skara cathedral is gorgeous. thanks for taking all of those pics. joyce

ana_didi said...

Hello Christer,
I enjoyed walking through Skara in your photos. Some buildings have their roofs painted green,
I like it :)
I just feel so weird not seeing people in the streets. I could only see a woman walking the dog. It's always like this?
Hope you have a good day and that the house cleaning is easy :)
kiss
Didi

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
I´m usually there early on Saturday or Sunday mornings :-) Most people doesn´t get up as early as You and I do :-) :-) I also tries not to get people in the way of what I´m taking photo´s of. Otherwise it is a busy little town.


She lives just outside Gothenburg and comes just for a short time. She and her friend will later go to Falbygdens ost (The area I live in is called Falbygden and ost is cheese). It´s a well known cheese maker and people from all over southern Sweden travels there to buy their cheese (It´s bl...y expensive but sooo delicious :-) ). But it´ll be the first time she´ll come here. The funny thing is that I´ve never been to Falbygdens ost and I live just miles away :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Didi!
Skara is a beautiful little town. Even the less beautiful parts of it looks nice :-)

I think those roof with green color is made of copper, that gets green after a while. But it isn´t uncommon with green colored roofs here.

No it´s not always this empty :-) I was there early this morning, so most people weren´t up yet. It´s Saturday and vacation time :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Cindi Myers said...

I like the photos of the town but I think they need some FLOWERS along the sidewalks! Ha! Ha!
Good luck with your cleaning today...I need to do that too.
I HATE bags that won't open! That has happened to me too! My dogs just delight in it!
Take care! - Cindi

Anonymous said...

That was a nice tour Christer. The architecture is historic and I agree with you, the old Library has more charm. Love the day lillies too. Laughed at you spilling your beans in the car. They make packages so tamper proof you can't eat the contents.

ana_didi said...

Really beautiful this city.
I love to see the old buildings so well cared for. Roofs made of copper for me is a surprise! One more thing I learned here.
Oh I understand the emptiness of the city, I remembered that you wake up too early:) I also like the peace that exists at that time.
Seeing your pictures I get this "saudade" from places never been. And that's a good feeling, even a little crazy :)
kiss
Didi

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Cindi!
There are very little flowers on the places I took these photo´s. But there are much around the old rairoad station and in some other places too.

I´ve done most of the cleaning today, the little that´s left I´ll do tomorrow morning.

Yes, what´s the meaning with those bags?? I won´t buy any more of them anyway. If I caan´t have all of it I won´t have it at all :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
The both librarys are brick buildings but the old one sort of has a soul, perhaps the new one gets that too in a hundred years or so :-) :-)

I did the same thing with a candy bag once (my fault then). I sat at a parking lot and tried to open the bag and beside me in another car sat a young boy. I thought his eyes would pop out when all tha candy flew all over my car :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Didi!
Unlike most owns and cities Skara really took care of the old buildings. In the rest of this country they tore down most of them during the 1960:s and -70:s. So it´s really nice to walk around there.

It is a special feeling walking around in a town when most people still are sleeping :-) You can walk around as it pleases You and nobody cares :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Alen Trädgård said...

Helt underbara bilder från Skara:) Jag skrattade gott när du beskrev dilemmat med att öppna påsen i bilen:)) Har varit med om något liknande och av alla jordnötter som var i påsen blev det 3 st kvar resten låg på marken haha. Ha det gott/Monne

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Monne!
Visst är det typiskt :-) :-) De där få som blir kvar känns dessutom bara som ett hån :-) :-) :-)
Ha det gott!
Christer.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Christer, I too wondered why the town looked so quiet, but you explained how it was early morning and it makes sense that not many people were around - my favorite time of day also. The old church and the library were quite interesting. And day lilies are not my favorite flower either because I would like them to last longer!

GOod news on the house cleaning, but like you it's also not my favorite chore - but neeeded (every now and then).

Anonymous said...

Hi Christer,
If you like Pooh try 'The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff. It takes a really fun look at all of the characters. I did a Philosophy thesis on it.
That is a great church. They just don't make them like that anymore. What a pity. Saka just looks like a friendly town. Here on the Eastern Shore folks all wave whether you know the other person or not. I need to blog on that. Maybe tonight. Too hot to go out
93F and a heat index of 109F.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Beatrice!
To be honest, I do avoid taking photo´s of people and show them here in my blog. They might not want to be seen in my blog or perhaps at all. Nature, buildings and cars is ok though :-)

I do have a tendency to spread things around me :-) So it was time to get some order in all that :-) :-)

Have as great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Grenville!
I do have "The Tao of Pooh" and I also have "Te of Piglet" :-)

I´m very interested in religion and in philosofy too.

Back then churches were built to last till eternity :-) Nowdays it seemes 50 years is old enough on a building. Not many houses or churches will be left from nthis time period after 100 years.


It was cold yesterday and it will be even colder today they say. I wonder if we even will reach 60 today.
Have a great day in thne heat now!
Christer.

Kat said...

Thank you so much, Christer
These are some of my favorite pictures. The inside of the church is magnificent as is the old library. I love the buildings lining the street, wonderful!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
I thought You would like these :-) Today I´ll go to Lidköping and I´ll try to get some good photo´s from there too :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Fantastic photo's of Skara..they are just beautiful. Like something out of a Fairy Tale...at least to me who has lived (in my head) in such a world all her life.
Like Joyce, I am wondering where all the people are? It would be teaming with people in this country.
I am trying to catch up as you can see. I took a few days off...the whole week actually.
Take care,
Mona

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi again Mona :-)

Skara is a very beautiful little town! Even the not so nice looking looks nice :-) :-)

It was early morning so everyone was asleep I guess :-) :-)
Take care now!
Christer.