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Jan 19, 3:24pm
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Back in Memphis.
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Jan 18, 2:52pm
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Looking forward to this. Nothing fancy, but the air is cool even in June and the light is special.
West coast of Sweden
The photo was taken in October
The weather was not all that great last summer, mostly low skies for three weeks. However, coming from Memphis in July, it was a very nice relief.
The water is part of the sea, it's not a river or a lake.
The climate is similar to Vancouver's, maybe a bit milder during winter and quite a bit of precipitation, which shows in the deep green color of trees and grass.
Down at the harbor I find my very dear friends Cappy and Leif, we have known each other longer than I care to remember. Leif took over his parents' grocery store in the seventies and provides service for all tourists during summer and a lifeline for the few people who live there all year.
On her way to the grocery store
My wife is collecting seashells on the deserted beach. It was strange to find it empty, but there had been a thunderstorm before we got there that day.
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Jan 17, 9:52pm
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Endearing and sad.
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Jan 16, 12:36pm
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I do some work for a friend, who has a repair business. I'm retired, but it's fun to do things with my hands. It is a peaceful occupation, it gives you time to think.
I suppose this is what makes Lou Dobbs so upset, not many "Made in the US" on these things nowadays.
 An old chest of drawers waiting for its turn. Every joint is loose after some forty years in somebody's home. Wood is interesting. It is both forgiving and stubborn.
I'm not quite sure what this thing is, to be honest, a side table of some sort, I guess. A side had split and been put back together with the miracle helper of choice; Duct Tape! ( I use it a lot myself, it does come in handy many times..)
 My sophisticated heating system. Did you know that you have to pay $7 / Gallon for kerosene? "But you have to realize that the container costs, too", is an argument I hear when I complain about the pain at the pump. Well, I would bring my own container if that was an option.
I covered the windows with card board for two reasons, they get so dusty from what I'm doing and I don't want to show my actions to the public while the midnight oil is burning sometimes. But I made a small "door" and for a handle I have put leftover Bondo on it, letting it grow to a pretty big handle over time. It's makes one think of a Speak Easy.
A friend of my wife once brought over some antique frames for repair, they were wrapped in that canvas. I put it up on the wall to underline the elegance in my workshop!
I realized it today, that drill quit working four years ago. I never had the heart to throw it away. My wife calls me a pack rat.
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Jan 15, 7:34pm
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I was outside waiting for the jackdaws to come for the night right after sunset. It is a beautiful, chilly evening.
The small almost black birds are very nervous and never go straight for the shelter in our bamboo hedge, they always gather in some tree next to it to make sure that it is safe.
They are careful for good reasons, this guy is sitting waiting for them every night. It is a hawk.
He, on the other hand, didn't stir even though I burned off a flash at him, he has confidence. But the flash made the jackdaws scatter in every direction.
He seemed almost reluctant to give up his place, but my close interest had spoiled the hunt for him and he took off, too.
All that remains after a successful hunt. Nothing but feathers
"Our" hawk was sitting on top of a lamp post next to our house a couple of days later. He seemed quite unperturbed by my curiosity.
Gumballs still hanging on the tree. They may be decorative, but they are a nuisance, very hurtful to step on them with bare feet in summer.
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expressionistes profile - StumbleUpon
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Jan 15, 6:46pm
475 reviews
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http://expressioniste.stumbleupon.com/
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Renault Dauphin
I was extremely happy to see this photo on my friend's, expressioniste's page. It was my first car, I have many, many fond memories from that little car. Although made in France, where the climate is very different from Sweden, it never failed during cold mornings in the winter and the heating system was perfect. I had a very slippery slope up to my home when we had snow, and we did have snow back then! The car climbed that slope even when my neighbor had to leave his car at the bottom of the slope, to his chagrin..
Thanks again for this picture expressioniste and thank you for your outstanding blog created in a positive spirit, one can just relax and enjoy one's visit here.
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Jan 14, 4:18pm
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The doorbell woke me up this morning.
Memphis Light Gas and Water are having crews out to trim branches away from the power lines.
The workers are performing death defying acts high up in the pine trees.
They saved the squirrels' nest, I thank them for that. It has been the home of many, many generations.
Now we can see the ugly transformer again, the bamboo is cut. It won't take long for it to grow back. Before summer is over, the gap will be filled up. Last spring the squirrels had managed to chew off the support wire leading to our house, while sharpening their teeth. It is a 3/8" steel wire! The squirrels also use the cables as an express way to our roof.
Out on a limb, so to speak.
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Jan 14, 4:18pm
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Pictures in the following segment are "borrowed" from a pdf file at stromstad.se [stromstad.se]
Walking around where I spent my childhood takes my mind on an unpredictable path.
The road didn't end here, back then, it would keep going, marked by three lines, the outer ones from cartwheels, the middle one a bit more bumpy from the horse that pulled the cart with heaps of horse manure every fifty feet, or so.
 It used to look like this, only the mid "lane" is missing, no more horses there.
Speaking of horse manure. There was this couple. He was a farmer, I'd say he was a bit crazy.
He had managed to find this precious, timid woman somehow and marry her. She had been pretty well off, she owned some land where she used to live, her husband took care of that money and invested in crazy projects that soon depleted her fortune.
As long as I can remember she would come to the grocery store in the same trench coat, summer or winter, probably the only coat she ever had. She had the saddest look on her face and spoke in a very soft voice.
She suffered from a heart condition. When asked about his wife and how she was doing, her husband would tell and I quote:
"As soon as I get her out to dig out the manure heap, she recovers in an amazing way".
He, on the other hand, would tell anybody who cared to listen how he had spent the previous night counting blood clots passing through his legs. He also kept notes of strangers, probably spies, passing by his property in the night.
Their house - it's still there - stood close to a pretty steep hill, facing north and with the sun standing low in the sky most of the year, their home was in more or less constant shade, making the whole situation even more deplorable.
They never had any kids, but they had two foster children, the older somewhat retarded.
He had some dysfunction or whatchummacallit, once he started laughing he wouldn't stop and we merciless kids would, of course, push the buttons to make this happen.
He fell in love with a girl, Esther was her name. He would chase her around the school yard. When we asked him why, he told us that he wanted to kiss "Goldie Rose" as he called her - freely translated from Swedish.
The younger of the couple's foster kids died from an aneurism at the age of 11.
That, besides being a tragedy for the family, was my first encounter with death. Until then it had been an abstract matter, a thing that might or might not hit the old people.
A ditch like this one sent me to the hospital at the age of 15. We used to take a shortcut over a field on our trips to court the few girls who lived where I grew up.
It was a pretty wide ditch and in order to jump over it you had to build up some speed.
So I did a night in November. What I didn't know was that the farmer who owned the property had put up a barbed wire fence along the ditch to keep the cattle from escaping.
I ended up hanging upside down with two barbs embedded in my thigh and a crushed elbow.
But you heal fast at that age, the doctors did a nice job putting the pieces together and it didn't take that long to recover. My wife teases me relentlessly about that very pointed elbow, almost like Pop-Eye's, it does look funny, not quite as it is supposed to be, but it works.
I tried to take advantage of my "medical condition" in school, we had a test, that I hadn't prepared for and claimed, that I couldn't write with my arm in a cast. The teacher didn't buy it and went to his room and came back with a typewriter..
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Jan 14, 4:18pm
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The morning light in October is almost surreal.
October was our harvest time, that is, that's when we would sneak into people's yards to steal fruit, especially plums. However, the fruit was secondary to the excitement, ah yes, especially when we were detected and had to run.
It was also in October 1957 I witnessed the Sputnik. It was awesome. Everybody spoke about it, everybody would be standing in the twilight and look to the skies for this marvel.
Take a few steps away from the road into the woods.
 Miniature wetlands. No alligators. Or Water Moccasins. Especially not in October. There are Vipers, but their bite, although venomous, is not lethal. And it's way too cold for them to be out, anyway.
Deer have become something of a plague. There used to be a few hunters back in my days, they wouldn't let a deer slip away and I can't remember ever seeing one, while I lived there. Now they are unafraid and like to graze in flower beds, eating tulip bulbs etc.
The soil layer is shallow at many places and most hills consist of bedrock. Nice places in the low forest to sit down and contemplate over a cup of coffee. No risk of being chased off the property, you can go freely wherever you like, except into peoples' yards, of course.
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Jan 14, 3:57pm
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Slumbering, dreaming of younger days.
It's hard to keep up with the Tennessee winter. Yesterday was like a spring day, you just had to stay outside and take in the blue skies and the warm sun. I couldn't use the car, otherwise I would have spent the day driving around with my camera. I had all intentions to do so today, but the skies have been lead gray. So the theme of today became kind of gloomy, too.
Even the proud, huge flag on top of Clark Tower seems less colorful in gray weather. The top section of that high rise reminds me of the twin towers in an uncanny way, whenever I see it. Something about the Gothic arch forms.
That would have been a nice ride yesterday!
A family moving out. There are For Sale signs wherever you drive in the city, more now than there used to be. It is that way in our neighborhood, too. Fortunately, the houses get new owners fairly quickly, mostly younger families. A generation shift is going on. I only know of one family living here, who actually were the first owners. It's nice to hear children playing in the street again, a sign of vitality.
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