The Beach Girls

Tuesday was the warmest day of the year so far. I'm guessing around 26 C. Not bad for Sweden in late June. I noticed these two girls heading for the bus station, so I decided to see if I could hold them up long enough for them to miss their bus. Luckily for them that didn't happen. Gabrielle and Sofie have been friends for many years. Both girls live in Västerhaninge. After a very short chat where they informed me that they were heading for the beach, and that the bus was about to leave, I snapped a few quick portraits and after that they ran for the bus!

Top Secret Recipe

This is Ann Wahlfors and Lena Kristiansson. And possibly Ann's daughter, I forgot to ask. All three girls took part in the traditional dancing during the Midsummer celebrations at Prästgårdsparken on Friday. Lena is the chairperson of the Sorunda Handicraft group and she told me a little about the old Sorunda Dress. Ann, also known as Sorundann is a weaver, but more importantly she is a baker, and she is one of the few people in the world that bakes the famous Sorunda Cake, three of which you can see here. The recipe is a well kept secret. Every farm has their own design of the cake. The recipes are handed down and kept by only a few family members, but I do know one thing and that is that there's lots of butter in the cake!

The Midsummer Dancers

As promised here are a few photos from the Midsummer dancing at Prästgårdsparken. The first dance must have surprised everyone. The dancers, all wearing the very old Sorunda regional dress suddenly started moving to the sound of Cotton Eye Joe! But after that the more traditional songs took over. The people you see here are all members of the Sorunda Hembygdsförening.

Erecting the Midsummer Pole

A few photos of the ceremonial erecting of the Sorunda Midsummer Pole at Prästgårdsparken on Friday.
On the first photo you can see Lena Kristiansson and Maria Landin dressed in the Sorunda regional dress explaining for the local fire fighters how they are going to raise the Maypole without too many accidents.

After lifting up the uniquely decorated midsummer pole the fire fighters made a slow 360 turn on the lawn and nearly hit a woman who was on crutches and a bit slow to move away!

Then, with some more help from Maria the pole was positioned in a hole in the ground and slowly erected.

Finally pointed wooden splinters were used to secure the pole and when the job was done the fire-fighters got a round of applauds from the massive crowd. Tomorrow I will show some dance photos.

The Sorunda Regional Dress

Obviously I had to shoot a few portraits while attending the Sorunda Midsummer celebrations. And what better way than to show you two members of the homestead society dressed in the regional dress, the Sorundadräkten. Top photo shows Lasse. Amateur photographer since 1952. You can see some of his photos at Fotosidan. He shoots with a Pentax and has a number of new and old lenses to choose from. His granddaughter who is thirteen has also taken up the hobby. After this portrait in front of the Midsummer Pole (that was still on the ground), we walked over to the homestead society building to take photos of the famous Sorunda cakes (I will show you those in a day or two. Lasse is one of the dancers that performed here later in the day. They shocked everyone with their opening song. We all expected a traditional Swedish tune, but they gave us a dance number with Cotton Eye Joe!

Second photo shows Maria Landin. She is the chairperson of the homestead society. She's also an archaeologist from Stora Vika (a village with many Stone Age finds), and works as a antiquarian for the Nynäshamn municipality. I have met her before, and if you would like to know more about Maria press here. The regional dress is well documented and goes back many centuries. The one Maria is wearing is a mix of styles from various villages around Sorunda and the dress has changed a bit over the years. More Midsummer photos to come.

The Sorunda Midsummer Pole

It's Midsummer. The most important tradition in Sweden. All over the country people have been dancing around the Maypoles. And now in the early evening everyone is eating and drinking and the sun is still shining. I took a 20 km bike ride in the warm weather down to Sorunda in Nynäshamn, to have a look at the celebrations at the Prästgårdsparken. Over the next few days I will show some photos from my Sorunda visit starting with a few close-ups of the Midsummer Pole before it was raised .The Sorunda Midsummer Pole is very different from a traditional Swedish Midsummer Pole. It is decorated with a few different symbols, including hollow eggs for good future fertility! And also with Lily-of-the-valley leafs that are picked ten days before Midsummer. Some more info about this tradition can be found at Sweden.se

Two Girls on a Lawn

I was on my way to a supermarket in Handen yesterday when I saw these two pretty girls sitting on a lawn. So I decided to join them for a chat and a portrait. This is Emily and Victoria. They are sisters. Both secondary students. Emily attends Young Business Creatives in Nacka. A state funded school where the programme is taught in English. Emily sees herself as a future journalist.Before that she plans to study abroad.One of her hobbies include painting. Victoria is a student at Nacka Gymnasium. She wants to work with people, but hasn't decided on her future yet. She enjoys Street Dancing. After our talk I was going to take a few photos and that's when I realised that I had left my memory card at home. Luckily for me I had an old 256 mb cf card in the camera bag!

Travelling in Style

There are a few people out there who knows how to travel in style. Here are a couple of spectacular and unusual cars that I noticed at the Retrorun meet. Top photo shows one of my favorites. A supercharged speedster in the form of an Auburn from 1935.
Second photo shows a green 1948 Studebaker, a very rarely seen model.
And how about a 1927 Bentley with a boat tail? That's not something you see every day!

Toys For Big Boys

These cool cars are called Mk Indy. They are Lotus 7 replica cars, based on the locost principle that you should be able to build a car for no more than £250. The Mk Indy is constructed in England by MK Sports Car. If you would like to build one yourself download this PDF article with a total description from the Smart sportcars website. I spotted the toys at this years Retrorun meet at Torvalla in Handen.

Two Englishmen Up a Tree

Out on a bike ride on Sunday I decided to head over to the art gallery in Österhaninge for a cup of coffee in their garden. Half way there I had to stop at the nature reserve Gullringskärret in Jordbro when I noticed a man up a tree. After a closer look I realised that there was another man higher up the tree. It turned out to be a couple of tree surgeons out practising their craft. The guy on the top photo is Oli from Liverpool. He is an arborist student. He has been working in Sweden since November of last year. A bit of bad timing considering that we experienced the coldest winter in many years, and Oli told me that it had been a tough few months. Oli lives in Jordbro with his colleague Tom, who at the time of our meeting was high up the tree. Both guys works at a company called Wells Trädvård.

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane

Visit any Classic Car meet in Sweden and chances are that you will see at least a couple of Ford Fairlane from 1956. It's a very popular car among Swedish car enthusiasts. Here are two beautiful examples that I noticed at this years Retrorun meet.

The Lilac Roadster

I'm turning into a Hot Rod photographer.This is my third Rod this year. The owner arrived a bit late to the Retrorun meet, and I pointed him out to the Hot Rod section. So I knew where to look for it a bit later when I took the cool skull shifter photo and the skull horn shot. This is a T-27 Roadster and it's obviously Edelbrock Equipped.

The Indigo 3000

The third Retrorun meet took place at Torvalla in Handen last Sunday. It's a classic car show. The weather changed abruptly a couple of times during my stay, and we had both rain and sunshine. This cool self portrait was shot just before a short rain shower and is a reflection from the hood of an Indigo 3000. What's that? I hear you say. Well it was a very Swedish sports car. Designed by Hans Philip Zackau, and built by a company called Jösse Car in Åmål, Värmland between 1997 and 2001. It was a two-seated roadster. The engine came from a Volvo, and the gas tank from a Saab! The car won an Excellent Swedish Design award. The idea to build the Indigo 3000 came from Bengt Lidmalm, a former race driver who worked for Volvo for many years. In March of 1994 Lidmalm and Sven-Olof Fogelberg started building the first car and the following summer the production got under way. The price was set to 250 000 SEK. Unfortunately the company didn't survive and only 40 cars were ever produced. A few more facts can be found on the company's web site.

Skywatch Friday.

Bark Bark Bark

Aktiva Hundar (Active Dogs), is a day care centre for dogs. It opened for business in Handen last year. I have seen (and heard), them walking a large number of different dogs a few times recently. And on this occasion when I met the outside the mall I decided to stop them for a few photos. It took a few minutes to get everyone ready, but here they are, from left to right: Rikke with Rambo & Pumbaa Behind her Lotta, next to her Odette with Goten and Totte, then Pia with among others Dexter. Sara stands with Hamlet, Dinah and Douglas and furthest away Charlotte with Alfons and Jasper. Or as seen on the second photo:
Rikke with Rambo, Pumbaa och Ella, who is lying down, Odette with Goten, Totte and Bosse, Jennifer with Rocky and Tobbe, Pia with Sally, Märta and Hugo.

HMS Loke

This is HMS Loke. At first sight the ship may not look that impressive. But impressive it is. Built at Oskarshamnsvarvet in 1994, it is the only ship of it's kind in the world. Thirty-six meter long and nine meter wide it can carry 150 tonnes. It can do 12 nautical mile per hour. It is based at the 1st Marine Regiment at the Haninge garrison at Berga. It is a very flexible vessel. It can carry 90 m3 diesel and produce fresh drinking-water. It is used to carry supplies like fuel, vehicles, ammunition and water. It is also used as a military kitchen, repair unit, medical facility and it can assist with firefighing. And can also be used in a Search and Rescue situation. In my book that is quite impressive.

How to hide in plain sight

Some of the soldiers from the Amphibious Regiment at the Haninge garrison were nearly impossible to spot. And that's how they like it. But I decided to prove them wrong! Proof No. 1 is the marine on the first photo. He is there, but you can't really see him, so you can't be 100% sure that he really is there! For that he can thank his ghillie suit. The diver on the second photo is also tricky to spot. He is a frogman. And is often out on dangerous underwater operations. But I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him and that is proof No. 2.

Haninge Garrison

Here are a few photos of some of the soldiers and civilians that I met at the Haninge garrison on Saturday. On the first photo you can see four members of the Swedish Amphibious Corps. In Swedish that is the Amf 1. They are part of the navy and have their headquarters here at Berga. Hands-on approach might be a good title for the second photo. Everyone that wanted to have a closer look at some of the weapons used by all the different soldiers could do so as proved here. And as the garrison is big and there was a lot of walking around to do it was nice to be able to try some of the freeze-drying food that the military had on offer. The meal here that I ate contained 800 calories according to the smiling soldier that served it to me.

The 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla

Here are a few photos from my visit to the Haninge garrison yesterday. Top photo shows HMS Sundsvall. It is a corvette based at Berga. It belongs to Fjärde sjöstridsflottiljen. The ship took part in an UN operation after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
On the second photo you can see one of three Combat Boat 90 that took part in a show yesterday. The boat is a fast military assault craft and has been sold to many navies around the world.
Third picture shows two vessels from the Swedish Amphibious Corps. They are rebuilt Combat Boat 90 ships that today serves as medical treatment ships. More military stuff to come.

007 Lindgren

This is 007 Lindgren. She is in charge of the minehunting on one of the minehunting vessels at the Haninge Garrison at Berga. Her job is to actively detect and destroy individual naval mines. She told me a little about her work when I met her at the Haninge Garrison. The Swedish Navy opened the gates for visitors today so I decided to pay them a visit. I stayed for a few hours and took around 100 photos. More photos to come in the next few days.

Free Water Anyone?

This is Caroline and Karoline. Two university college students. Caroline is a future economist, she will graduate in December. Her friend Karoline is studying law and has a few years left in school before she can title herself a jurist. I spotted their unusual bicycles in Handen on Thursday and decided to check out what was going on. The girls work extra for Manpower, and on this occasion that meant working for City Gross, which is a grocery chain. When I met them they were giving away water bottles, not a bad idea on a sunny summer day. And true to her education the future jurist Karoline asked me if I knew everything about The Personal Data Act.