Cultural Café

5 november, 20175 november, 2017 / Leya / 18 kommentarer

We wanted to visit the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, but it was closed and a veritable construction site. I was dying for a nice cup of coffee along with some cultural events…but the building seemed totally abandoned.

Nothing wrong with a construction site…if you can find a place like this when you step down into the underground..

A slight drizzle, and my stomach was making sounds…but when we had totally given up on this place and walked down some steps to get to the street again – suddenly there emerged a big window with BOOKS. From nowhere. Nothing with books can go wrong, so we opened the door and stepped inside…

…a café! A place reminding me of my university years with not too expensive coffee’s, nice company and working in two’s or more. My eyes and spirits went up and I just took it in…..feeling the coziness and the warmth instead of the by now rather chilly, hostile weather outdoors.

We stayed for an hour at least and left with big smiles on our faces ;-D

It went on drizzling – but we felt good all the way home! Keep reading! And…some tea is OK as well…

Seven Day B&W Photo Challenge – Day 4

1 november, 20171 november, 2017 / Leya / 6 kommentarer

I was invited by Raj (XDrive)to join the Seven Day B&W Photo Challenge. (Thank you, Raj)

The Rules are

• Seven days.
• Seven black and white photos of your life.
• No people.
• No explanation.
• Challenge someone new each day
Today I would like to challenge Ninna at Words&Pics
Ninna, participate only if you have time, no compulsion. Men du är bara bäst – och jag såg att du gjorde ”ingenting” just nu!

Seven Day B&W Photo Challenge – Day 3

31 oktober, 2017 / Leya / 19 kommentarer

I was invited by Raj (XDrive) to join the Seven Day B&W Photo Challenge. (Thank you, Raj)

The Rules are
• Seven days.
• Seven black and white photos of your life.
• No people.
• No explanation.
• Challenge someone new each day
Today I would like to challenge Sue at WordsVisual
Sue, participate only if you have time, no compulsion. I know you are a busy woman…

What is Your Story?

3 september, 20173 september, 2017 / Leya / 21 kommentarer

This is still one of my my favourite stories – (and favourite characters…) and so it was for my children as well. I guess most of you know them…? How do you remember their impact if you read them as a child?

Thursday Thoughts – Hasse & Tage – (‘Swedish Words Ltd’)

3 augusti, 20173 augusti, 2017 / Leya / 6 kommentarer

This tiny exhibition at Kulturen in Lund was a real hit for me. I only took a few photos, but hopefully they convey something of what and who they were. Some of their movies are still on TV every year…and Hasse is still here, even if he does not write or perform anymore. The Apple War and The Simple-Minded Murderer are my absolute favourites.

Nostalgia…yes, but they will never die! Hans Alfredsson and Tage Danielsson – the number one comic artists of Sweden, the best critics of politics and politicians, the front figures working for a better world and environmental awareness. They brought out the best in people…by using their extreme talent for words.

Unfortunately this kind of sophisticated humour does no longer exist. (People are not good at words anymore…) Word jugglers, enthusiasts – ask any Swede my age, and they can recite something from ”Om sannolikhet” (”On Likelyhood”)

the small exhibition is in Lund, at Kulturen

I studied at Lund Uni for several years…

One of their famous songs starting ”I want a flowery Falun sausage for breakfast…”

…and Genghis Khan was the first ”Lundaspex” show I enjoyed- Not in 1954 though…but much later

WPC: Unusual

19 juli, 201719 juli, 2017 / Leya / 14 kommentarer

Unusual…well, my daughter spotted this unusual grave decoration when we visited the beautiful Highgate Cemetery, London. The much loved author Douglas Adams’ fans leave their most precious pens in the pot. Of course we did as well. We are all only Hitchhikers here, aren’t we…

Thursday Thoughts – An Eternal Love Affair

11 maj, 2017 / Leya / 24 kommentarer

My lifelong relationship with books and literature makes me visit every library I come across. Going to Dublin meant I would be able to visit one of the most fantastic libraries I know of –

Trinity College, Dublin – I had seen the Long Room in some photos before – and of course the Book of Kells. This old library makes a perfect Harry Potter setting….and already walking through the gates, into campus, sent pleasant electrical shocks along my spine… Soon I would enter the magic…

The long Room is the main chamber of the Old Library, and is nearly 65 metres in length, housing around 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books. It also contains the oldest surviving harp in Ireland.

Just to the left of the Shakespeare bust, is the magnificent spiral staircase. And then –

So many great men and women have walked this wooden ground…

…and forever left their footprints in our world…

All books are handled with the utmost care

And the marble busts in each row – are all famous men (yes…men, of course…..)

This is indeed a remarkable Old Library – The Long Room

Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Letters S or T

11 maj, 201711 maj, 2017 / Leya / 12 kommentarer

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Letters S or T

The staircase, Trinity College, Dublin, The Old Library, The Long Room

WPC: The Road Taken

1 mars, 20171 mars, 2017 / Leya / 18 kommentarer

For this week’s challenge, Krista asks us to show something that surprised us on “the road taken.” Many roads taken…but this road over the moors up to Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s Wuthering Heights really surprised me. We walked for hours, and the landscape was just as beautiful and haunting as in the novel…one of the world’s greatest love stories. I almost felt them whispering in the wind, laughing and running, hand in hand.

Lev! Live!

25 februari, 201725 februari, 2017 / Leya / 3 kommentarer

In Umeå, where my daughter is studying, there is a 170 meter long glass wall in the railway tunnel (2012) decorated with some 30 quotes from the works of author Sara Lidman (1923-2004)- Lev!(Live)

She was born in the village Missenträsk and raised in the Västerbotten region of northern Sweden. She studied at the University of Uppsala when she contracted tuberculosis. She achieved her first great successes with the novel Tjärdalen (The Tar Still) and the novel Hjortronlandet, where she depicts themes such as alienation and loneliness.

Sara Lidman is one of the most important writers of the Swedish language in the twentieth century. Especially because of her innovative language and imagery, Biblical but also integrating the worldly and the spiritual. She also wrote extensively on political subjects, always with a strong feeling for the poor, against war and colonialism, pornography and the misuse of our natural environment. She engaged in protest against the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa.