Of Castles and Kings

A friend visiting in the summer provided the excuse to see some of the area around Stockholm. I hate to admit it but even though I’m a short drive or train ride away I have not explored that city as much as I should. Drottningholm Palace just outside Stockholm is where the Swedish royals actually live but you can still tour a portion of the historic building. While there’s certainly vast wealth on display you can see that Sweden’s Royal Family wasn’t the wealthiest in Europe by all the faux detailing and decoration. I captured a little bit of it in pictures.

Seasons As They Pass

It is amazing how many seasons have passed since my last update. Right now, I’m facing winter again and, as often is the case, wondering what hole the time drained down. To quote Kipling “Nobody thinks about the winter when the grass is green.”

Here are my pictures from the seasons this year so far. Looking at them helps me to recall a bit of it all.

Fall Hard

Living in Scandinavia is all about accepting the inevitable stumble towards the cold and dark every year. I grew up with changing seasons so I’m very well practiced at swearing at the ones I don’t particularly like. This year feels colder and wetter than the last few so I’m taking that as an omen I will need to take my searing up a notch. But when the sun comes to taunt us the Swedish Fall is very beautiful.

The Summer Of Discontent

It’s been a very cool summer here in Sweden. So cool that we’ve had the lowest peak temperature in 155 years. Great for those of us who love Spring since it’s been a seemingly endless Spring. Warm days and cool nights please me just fine so no complaints. However, I worry if this cool trend will carry over to the fall and winter and make me my usual grumpy cold weather hating complainer. Once I had imagined a future in a tropical climate drinking margaritas or daiquiris full of crushed ice all day. Now I’m in Sweden which is typical of how things turn out totally unlike my expectations.

Here are some additional images I took in long sleeves over this often lovely summer.

Sweden 2014
(So Far)

It’s hard to believe that I moved to Sverige in January of this year. I’ve now worked my way through a few seasons here and am staring down winter. While I’ve been lax in updating this blog I’ve not been remiss in taking photographs. Here’s a variety of them from this year.

Muster of Eyes Collection

The title of this post is just put together from the names of the three events I attended recently. I’m too lazy to come up with one that works any better and it does sound kind of important.

The weekend of June 15 this year was a big one for those in the Detroit area who like to bake under the son looking at rare, expensive cars they have no hope of ever owning. If you have stamina, and I just fake that, you could have seen three displays such.

The largest is the weekend-long Motor Muster at the Henry Ford Museum. It’s help all over (was there an inch of open space left?) the Greenfield Village portion of that institution. Hundreds of cars among the examples of old U.S. architecture and life. It was like a parking lot of history. This show really will tired you out if you spend the hours necessary to get a good look at ever car, motorcycle, bus, motor home, military vehicle, and bike there. My feet still hurt.

In serene, green, and wealthy Grosse Pointe Shores is the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House museum. The house and grounds are astounding but for one day they are matched by find examples of important vehicles for Eyes on Design. Its goal is for “members of the transportation design community, collectors, and the general public to celebrate and reflect on design.” Proceeds benefit the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology.

Tied in to the above event is the throwing open of the doors to a private garage. The Lingenfelter Collection is the cars of a wealthy automotive specialty business owner. A lot of rare Italian rolling stock was here to see as well as a nice collection of modern and vintage four wheeled friends.

So, here area few detail shots from my tiring weekend. Now for a foot bath.

Herr And Back Again

When the temperature is hovering around 100 most people do the sensible thing and stay indoors or at least in the shade with an iced glass of planters’ punch. However, during the heat wave we had this summer I showed my contrarian nature and went out. Possibly the reason for this was just to gather gist for my whine mill as I do love to complain. But the major reason I think was that I get stir crazy in the house and like to wander. Not surprisingly I brought my camera along and managed to keep my sweaty fingers from sliding off the shutter button too often.

I planned to have lunch at a microbrewery housed in a building that has been used as such since the early 19th century. It is located in the town of Mount Joy which neither was elevated nor particularly rapturous but was quaint enough. Upon arrival I found that the main street was cordoned off for an auto show. Since I love anything having to do with autos I wandered up and down the street for a bit under the sun becoming a human puddle with a camera.

After that is was off to Bube’s Brewery (if you think of “boobs” or “pubes” when you see this name keep it to yourself) which is housed in a fascinating old building. Its long history as a brewery means a dark industrial atmosphere with catacombs and a dining/bar area which feels like a cave. Very low and reddish mood lighting doesn’t dissuade that impression of stifling antiquity but that’s part of the charm. Good atmosphere, food, and drink made it a happy respite from the heat.

Lastly I traveled to the Hans Herr House in the Amish country of Lancaster County, PA. Built in 1719 it’s now a nice way so see how those who founded the Amish community first set up shop (or farm).

I went to that farm actually to hear an acquaintance (Oliver Craven) play in the lovely duo The Stray Birds. It was nice to sit in an apple orchard and hear music until a summer thunderstorm came to finally lower the temperature a touch. It was almost worth fleeing for shelter.

Caught In the Headlights

What? More pictures of cars? Yes, sorry. Guilty as charged. But I have an excuse: I went to an automotive museum. Near where I live now is Hershey, PA (yes, that’s the place with the candy and amusement park) and the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Museum. I’ve been meaning to visit it and I finally got around to rousing myself to go and play the tourist. It turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable place, well-kept and full of interesting vehicles and displays. What I wound up recording were images reflecting my fascination with small details and not the entire autos. Well, at least I’m not spoiling the museum for you with my microscopic presentation.

Just a friendly reminder: click on the images to enlarge.