Lilacs

I love lilacs, especially the light purple kind. They smell wonderful. Unfortunately their blooming period are short but I managed to take this picture while the flowers were fresh.

Location, location, location

Imagine the things you'll see if you just look up once in a while. I saw this. Would anybody please tell me the purpose of growing trees on the roof? And it's not last years Christmas tree either (which people tend to throw away in the most peculiar places). Imagine the face on the tennant in the top flat when the tree roots starts to break through the ceiling in the bedroom.

Hot, hot, hot!

When it's hot in Helsingborg, we open all the windows and it looks like this. This is a very old building so I'm sure AC is not standard. I'm also sure, considering the age of the building, it's probably flagged as a historical monument and as you might know, you are not allowed to do much work with the building if that's the case. The picture shows the upper row of windows, there's another row of bigger windows under it but they're closed and not as fun.

Swedish Ents

This tree reminds me of the Ents in Lord of the Rings. It has a shape that makes me think of arms and a head and all the leaves around the trunk could be clothing. My imagination is running wild again, it often does that. I like it though, a wild imagination makes one think outside the box and fuels creativity.

Waterfalls

Here's a picture of one of the waterfalls we have. On April 20th I posted pictures of a frozen waterfall. It's not the same waterfall as the one on todays picture, they look the same but are located in different places in the city. The one on the picture cannot be seen from the street, you have to find the little path behind the rhododendron bushes and follow it. This city has a lot of hidden gems that you won't find if you don't do some exploring. And when you find one of these hidden gems, it's good to have a camera with you so you can take a picture of it. The picture will tell you it wasn't just a dream.

Trains

I wanted to go take some pictures of trains. Then I discovered that there was nowhere I could go to take pictures because everything is closed off with wire fences. I understand the security issues but my plan was blown to bits. So I did my best and I did find a piece of railway going only God knows where outside of the fences. I snapped a pic as quickly as I could in case somebody would stop me and then walked away. You can also see a train wagon with the usual graffiti on it. Why does trains always have so much graffiti on them?

Life is a piece of bread to nibble on

Sometimes life's simple. Give me a piece of bread and I'm happy. I'm in a cage but I have the biggest piece of bread of every bird that lives in my cage so I'm happy. I just wish the human with the clicking camera would go away. I'd like to munch on my huge piece of bread in peace. Just saying.

Flowertime

Look at the red tulips in the sun! A picture like this doesn't come around very often. Timing is of the essence here. Walking by at the exact moment when the sun shines through the petals and creates the image of twincolored tulips. They look like the petals are striped in yellow and red but they are actually just red. The yellow stripe effect comes from the sun shining through. If I had come by earlier or later I would've missed it. Sometimes taking a good picture involves being lucky enough to be at the right place in the right time.

Barbed wire

Now this had me thinking. What's hiding behind the barbed wire and spiked gate? Looking in through the gate I saw nothing but an empty backyard. Life's full of questions that never will be answered, isn't it?

Another tree

This particular tree stands in the park that surrounds the old castle tower. I love taking pictures of this tree, with and without leaves. It's old and gnarly and twisted. It looks just like an old faerie tree. Many of the trees in this park are more than a 100 years old.

Lady in high places

A real neckbreaking picture. This woman is located high up on a building and to take the picture, I had to zoom hard, bend my neck backwards and hold the camera on straight arms. I never knew taking pictures would feel similar to aerobics..... I know better now.

The whole city is full of houses with all kinds of decorations on them. That's good, because I like finding these decorations and take pictures of them. Otherwise, it would be a lot of pictures of flowers and trees.

Whaddaya looking at?

This goat gave me the eye when I snapped this picture. You would think she'd seen cameras before. She resides in the childrens zoo in my hometown and the picture was taken one day in April when I came here with my brother and his family. Unfortunately we were too early for the goat babies to have arrived. The female goats including this one were all expecting but nobody had delivered.

Flag day

I forgot to post this Monday June 6th which is the Swedish Flag Day and a national holiday. I was standing high up on a hill zooming as much as the camera would allow me and clicked. These are the flagpoles outside the local theater and for once they're flying the big flag, not just the little streamer which doesn't do for as nice a picture.

The city destroyer

This is the statue of Magnus Stenbock. The cannons and cannonballs from yesterdays picture are located at the rear end of the base that the statue stands on. On the front of the base, there's two soldiers, one of them is holding the Scanian flag. The statue stands outside the city hall which can be seen in the background. However, this man did not come to Helsingborg as liberator and defender against the Danes. He came to crush the Danes claims on Scania for good. He bombed the city to pieces and showed no mercy to Scanians and Danes. Some people want to sink him in the harbour, others want to keep him because he's a war hero. I say send him back to the Swedes, LOL!

Destruction of war

Apparently there's no other place in the world that has been ravaged and destroyed by war as many times as the southern part of Sweden called Scania (that's where I live). Scania used to be Eastern Denmark for centuries. For over 500 years, Swedes and Danes fought over Scania and almost every part has seen bloody battle, villages burned, civilians murdered. Both Swedes and Danes used the "scorched earth" strategy, burning and killing so the other part wouldn't find supplies or men for their army. Todays pictures shows part of a staty of a man called Magnus Stenbock. In 1710 he won the last battle of Helsingborg and threw the Danes out for good with much cruelty to the Danish soldiers and the Scanian people. There's been a lot of controversy regarding this statue, many are still today offended by this monument of the Butcher from Ringstorp as he's called.

I'm a history buff, did you notice?

Where the rich people live

The small boat harbour in sunset. This is the North Harbour where the apartments has amazing views over the sound and the rents are as amazing as the view. You can see how close the buildings are to the water. Not what I would call tsunami proof. Even though I dream of a house on the beach, this is a bit too close to the water for me. This is also a very popular stretch for people during the summer, lots of outdoor cafeés and guest boats anchoring in rows and droves. Privacy is not a word I would use for this particular piece of the city. Anyway, it makes for a good picture late in the evening when people have gone home.

Tree ornaments

Now there's an odd tree ornament if I ever saw one. I took this picture during my Easter holidays, the kids at one of the local pre-schools had decorated the trees in their garden with Easter feathers. It reminds me of another decoration I saw last time I was at the childrens zoo in my home town. Apparently kids give their pacifiers away to the bunnies in the zoo. The bunny cage was decorated all over with pacifiers and drawings from the kids. Unfortunately I didn't take any picture of it, you just have to take my word for it.

I guess that's one way for parents to trick their kids into stop using their pacifiers at a certain age.