Today, we went Medieval in Visby:

But before we took off to join the festivities we shot some pics of Sis and me rigged up as Middle Age maidens. :-) !!
The slide show was made by my brother in law Mats and was shot in the old blacksmith´s house at my sister´s and his farm at Lugnet. This oldest house on the farm is like a museum and contains a number of old, marvellous paraphernalia.

Nostalgica..

Once in a while I get a bit tired of digital photograhy.

I then found a way to experiment with another form of photography - the old fashioned way.
It seems to be very right for the moment: you´ll find those "yellowing" pictures turning up off and on in blogs and web pages. Here are four versions of old fashioned "analogue" photography experiments I made from the very same Sandhamnrose - a new Dawn.

The pics were taken with an apps I had downloaded on to my new IPhone.
Quite fun it is (was!) and with good results too - I find!

However, the new phone with its great camera dived into the cold water at high sea when I was riding an open boat a week ago and the IPhone is no more. (I have not quite gotten over the loss yet!) All that is left are the experiments with the old fashioned pictures of the sweet smelling roses I had downloaded to the computer. Like old book markers they are - the ones you used to trade with your little girlfriends around the age of 10...
Remember?

Beach findings..

The vast beaches of Gotland are covered with an abundance of fossils. Here are a few which I picked yesterday on a nearby beach..

In fact the entire island of Gotland is built from fossils. Of these petrified animals we know about 1.500 different species trilobites on this island. They are about 400 million years old!

I just wonder just what these small creatures from the beginning of creation really are ..

Ancestors of plankton, shrimps, mussles , corals and crawfish?

Most probably.

In the old days the long Silurian period was in as a matter of fact called Gotlandikum!
Orthoceratites
The last two photos by Bernt Enderborg at Gute Info

The Garden in August..

Some recent heavy rains have transformed the garden from the dry landscape of this summer´s heatwave into a lush green..

Yesterday, I picked the cherries to make a pie.

And there are rasberries for breakfast every morning..

The apples are doing fine!

The Black Currants are like grapes.

Thus. No time for the hammock!

Autumn flowers in pale purple. With a marvellous scent!

The light changes gradually as the days pass and impose a little sad feeling of the upcoming fall. I guess we all know the feeling - when the ads in the papers are talking about "School start".. ..showing happy apple cheeked kids gazing up from fresh school books and they start showing the drab collections of tweeds, boots and hats of autumn clothing..

Yet, there is still time..
Yesterday I swam in my sister´s pool and collected duck eggs from her poultry house containing chickens of all kinds (crossbreads with crazy outfits like heavy plumage on their little heads not matching their bald bodies etc), roosters, ducks and peacocks.
The sun is hot and - yes, there is still time...
For a bit of summer galore encore..

A marvel of compact living in Hongkong:

Medieval Week on Gotland Aug 8th-15th 2010

Photo above: The Medieval week´s Official webpage

The Medieval Week on Gotland Aug 8th-15th 2010 is soon on!

For a week now..

..people in Gotland will live in a true Medieval ambiance.

And travel 600 years back in time..
In a journey in time and space!

We will go back in time with the medieval markets and music, theater and lectures in Visby´s old town and surroundings. Knights will clash in tournaments...

During eight days in August the Middle Age is back.
Gotland’s special settings, Visby’s 200 medieval houses on winding lanes, splendid church ruins, and the magnificent city wall frame a spectacle without equal.

Medieval preparations are taking place all over - here in one of the old church ruins in Visby.
A mixture of sobriety and merriment, education and festivities. The week incorporate music, dance and theatre performed by many different artists and groups.
These are photos I took last year..
..when I was wearing a Medieval garb like above. Which I had borrowed. This year I´ll wear my new Medieval dress that looks like this:
And here are some dresses from last year´s tayloring efforts :
My sister to the left.
And this is a setting truly fit for a knight and all the fair maidens!

Time to be picky! And to make a cell phone casket...

Back in Gotland, harvest time is on. My sister and I left Sandhamn yesterday and spent the 3 hour ferry ride across the water playing the great game of Carcassonne on her IPad! She is back after sailing the Caledonian Canal in Scotland on to Skye where she bought her IPad - the gadget has nor yet reached Sweden. I am dying to get one myself!

Meanwhile, I´ll have to do with starting to pick the berries of my garden. This is today´s harvest. And, since my new IPhone was drenched by a wave in foul weather when I was riding an open boat in the archipelago Saturday, this is what I am trying do do to this dead, drenched cell phone:
Into an absorbent damp eater casket called "Torrbollen" (The "dry ball" in Swedish) it goes! Looks a bit like a cell phone funeral to me. A Dead, Departed, Deseased, Expired Ex-IPhone!
A Done with cellphone:

And of course I don´t have any insurance for the drowning of the IPhone. I have all kinds of more or less absurd insurance coverages - "clearing the debrie if the old barn should burn to the ground" etc. "hitting a one-legged priest while riding my bike after eating cherry cake" And other similar unbelievable stunts.
But no insurance for an IPhone being drenched in the high seas riding an open boat in a rolling, heavy sea? No. A life line to the world! (How studid can you get?) Small text.
So here I am on Gotland with the dead cell phone in a casket, singing a little tune - hymn? to myself - an extraordinary undertaking while gobbling rasberries at the same time. Any insurance for rasberry choking anyone?

The New York Times: Focus on Gotland!

Visby at sunset (Photo: Pia Ehrenpreis)

Yesterday, The New York Times run this piece on Gotland in its Travel Section:

"A Swedish Island for Respite or Revelry:"

"A CURIOUS thing has happened in the Baltic Sea. The Swedish island of Gotland — a singular, sparsely populated place — has become a magnet for two disparate groups: party-crazed club youths who unleash Champagne showers inside neon-lighted nightclubs,
and stressed-out solace-seekers who retreat into the island’s untamed wilderness.
It is a strange dichotomy, and one that is becoming ever more acute.
Gotland, the largest island in the Baltic Sea, lies about 60 miles off the southeastern coast of Sweden. Its geographical size is comparable to Long Island’s, but with a year-round population of less than 60,000, the island is largely undeveloped. Within 10 minutes of leaving Visby, the only sizable town on the island, an idyllic landscape dotted with rustic cottages and rural farmhouses starts to unfold."
The NYT Slideshow on Gotland.
The NYT article here.

Ha, finally Gotland is placed on the map by NYT! I am now soon due back to my rustic cottage and rural farmhouses in the idyllic landscapeof this largely undeveloped island!
And the summer harvest! Oh joy!

Alice M..

..is a young artist, graphic designer and photographer

..who spent her summers here in Sandhamn

..where her parents has a house close to the big beach.

The "M" stands for Murray by the way..

I have seen a lot of artistic expressions of the light and shadows staging their special all-year-around-shows over this particular island, but I dare say that Alice has an outstanding eye for catching the harsh contrasts and sometimes very hard light of the shadows of the sustainable pine trees.

Alice M is studying and working in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

I love this water painting !!
From LA dream. Photos by Alice Murray.
Today, Alice Murray opened her first exhibition here on Sandhamn.
Her artworks were all pinned to her beloved pinetrees!
See more: Her web page is here.