Category Archives: Life

Storholmen

Posted on by
1

Beginning in November, I’ll have the opportunity to relocate in Stockholm from Södermalm, where I’ve been living since August, to a little island on the outskirts of town, technically in the county of Vaxholm, known as Storholmen (large islet).  It’s a cozy house on the water located at the NW end of the island, out on a penninsula.  I’ll be sharing the house with a gal from Denmark, Trine, who is studying antique furniture restoration on the nearby island of Lidingö.  I’m very greatful to Michael Knappstein, who resides in Hong Kong during the winter, for permitting me to share his beautiful house for the last couple months that I’ll be in Stockholm.   And many thanks to Nina Gustafsson for welcoming me into her home these past few months.  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Orust

Posted on by
Reply

Orust is Sweden’s third largest island, and boats nearly 15,000 residents.  While generally bucolic, the ~350 square km island has several highways that provide for the large boat building industry that operates on the island.  According to the Orust site, nearly 50% of personal pleasure boats exported from Sweden come from Orust boat yards.  That being said, there’s also plenty of very small towns heaped onto the shoulders of the outcroppings in the island’s fjords, and lesser, more winding ways to find them than the trucking-laden highways.

But I was there to go kayaking on the North Sea, with Orust Kayaking, based in Stocken, a bit south of Ellös, on the west coast.   Unfortunately, the marine fog had rolled in the night before, and was going to hang around for some time.  I convinced the renter that I would be fine, and we discussed a conservative route along the coastline that was probably only 2 nautical miles each way, but possibly closer to 3 given that I’d have to follow the coast line quite literally.  With 100m visibility for most the day, that’s about what I did.  Needless to say, I added some mileage where I could, but that’s probably the shortest distance I’ve ever paddled in five hours.  An occasional departure from the route delivered a little more action in the rock gardens, though the waves were only about 30cm or so, but it added some fun to an otherwise beautiful and seemingly desolate paddle.

I spent the night camped out on a point in Rossö, in the middle of Orust’s southern coast.  The site was right on the water, and as the fog cleared out for a few hours, I could actually see the scenery.  It was nearly a new moon, and I witenessed the best phosphorescence I’ve ever seen that night.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Vitlycke Museum

Posted on by
Reply

Tanumeshede  is the site of hundreds of bronze-age rock carvings, dating back to 1700-500 BC, and located at what was once the sea shore.  But due to the glacial uplift here, it is now located 3 miles inland from the North Sea.  The Vitlycke Museum serves as the curatorial and research base for the park, which is a world heritage site.

After a night out in Göteborg with Resilience Center friends, it was suggested that I check out the museum on my way up the coast.  It couldn’t have been a better suggestion on a foggy late afternoon.  Regarding the carvings, there is an implicit geographical/ cosmological shift embedded within the site of the carvings: fresh water springs emerge at the top of the rocks on which the carvings were made, even quite long after a rain shower ends.  This water cascades gently down the rock faces, integrating the carvings into a much larger set of tapestries.  The Scots-pine needles and birch leaves that cover the rocks are an additional component, but are cleared away from the immediate area of individual carvings by museum staff.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Kulturefestivalen

Posted on by
Reply

Stockholm’s Kulturefestivalen (Culture Festival) opened last night.  Spanning from Gamla Stan to Central station, along the main pedestrian/shopping corridor, with 3 main stages and a host of other activities, it promises to serve up some good entertainment during the week.  The closing performance last night by 8th Day Theater (Poland) was quite impressive, opening with wedding procession, which began at the rear, leading up to the “stage.”  The makeshift stage ‘disintegrated’ upon a sudden burst of cannon fire, immediately segueing to the migration of large flaming windows, ship-props, and other devices through the audience, a procession of refugees, generating a dynamic, theatrical performance where the stage was both everywhere and nowhere.