Summer holidays

As autumn started and trees are showing their first red leaves, I want to look back at a wonderful summer vacation with some special visitors from SA. My mother and father came to visit us here in Uppsala during the summer vacation and we had a busy two weeks of touristing. We enjoyed having them here with us and we hope that we were able to give them a memorable and exciting trip. Below are some pictures of our endeavors...

Day 1, Arrival and rest 

Room ready for guests of honor

We did not take many photos the first day, but one thing that amazed Mamma from day 1 was the beautiful flowers and the number of bicycles

Day 2, Uppsala town, Cathedral, City hall 

Our first outing - Bus ride through the whole of Uppsala

Mamma and Pappa dwarfed by the Domkyrka (Cathedral)

Inside the cathedral

Marie and Maria - Wax statue of Maria in the Cathedral

View from Stadshuset (City Hall)

The two Uppsala landmarks (castle and cathedral) from Stadshuset

Many bicyles at the station

Going for a early evening stroll next to Fyrisån (Fyris river)

Lanes of trees next to Fyrisån

Enjoying the view from Kungsängsbron (bridge over the Fyris river)

Discussing the interesting statues at the train station

Day 3, First Stockholm visit, Stockholm boat trip, Gamlastan (old town Stockholm)

On the train to Stockholm

Waiting for the Tunnelbana (Metro) in Stockholm

"Stockholm under the bridges" sightseeing with the Riksdag (parliament) in the background 

On the sightseeing boat

Lunch (and desert) in the park after the sightseeing

Visiting the Vasa museet

Day 4,  Old Uppsala - church, mounds, museum and Odinsborg restaurent

At Gamla Uppsala (old Uppsala) with the two (new) Uppsala landmarks on the horizon

Grave mounds at Old Uppsala

At Old Uppsala Cathedral

Enjoying the sun at Disagård (open air farm museum next to Gamla Uppsala Cathedral)

Enjoying lunch at Odinsborg restaurant

Visiting Gamla Uppsala Museum to learn about Vikings

We had quite a few tubs of these

Day 5, Stockholm - Archipelago tour and visit to Gamla Stan in Stockholm

Back to Stockholm for another boat trip

Waiting for the start of the archipelago boat tour

Enjoying the "vibe" in the glamorous Strandvagen in Stockholm

Kicking off the archipelago tour with a pear cider

In front of parliament in Stockholm

On our way to Gamlastan (Old town) of Stockholm

Mamma in front of Stockholm Stadhuset (city hall), where the annual Nobel Prize dinner is held. The rule for this occasion is that every Nobel prize winner should sit next to a member of the Swedish Royal family

Day 6, Uppsala - walk in forest, buffet lunch at Skarholmen, Uppsala castle and Botanical garden

A walk in the forest at Hågadalen

Buffet lunch at Skarholmen

Looking out over the Botanical Gardens from Uppsala Castle

The canons that the king pointed at the Cathedral as a warning to the archbishop

Uppsala Castle

Day 7, Uppsala - visit to IKEA and lunch at the station restaurent

A visit to Sweden would not be complete without a visit to IKEA

Very much at home in IKEA

The old station in Uppsala - now a restaurant

Lunch at the station restaurent

Day 8, Stockholm again - Skansen open air museum

Another train trip to Stockholm

Catching the tram to Djurgården (translates to animal farm). The green oasis island of Stockholm

Visiting Skansen open air museum on Djurgården

Taking the funicular in Skansen

Raindeer

View over Stockholm from Skansen

A soldiers cottage

Taking a well deserved break

Old town and man in time period costume

Window shopping in Skansen old town

Lunch and a well deserved rest

Dinner - a very traditional Swedish dish - Falukorv (the famous sausage from Falun)

Day 9, Uppsala, quiet day in town, sunset cruise on Lake Mälaren

Enjoying some cherries next to the river Fyris that runs through Uppsala town

Another boat trip - this time in Uppsala. Sunset cruise on the M/S Linnea. Cruising up the Fyris River into Lake Mälaren for an awesome sunset accompanied by a typical Swedish Räkor buffet (shrimp buffet)

Returning to a dusky Uppsala (around 11 pm in the night)

Day 10, Uppsala - boat trip to visit Skokloster castle on Lake Mälaren

An early morning for another boat trip on Lake Mälaren - this time to Skokloster castle

Nice day at the beach on Lake Mälaren

Approaching Skokloster Castle

Having a rushed lunch at Skokloster before running to catch the return boat

The dash for the boat. Pappa won by far

Cruising back to Uppsala through a number of drawbridges

Day 11, Uppsala, last day in town

Day 12, Goodbyes on Arlanda airport

No photos :(


Thank you Pappa and Mamma for a wonderful time and a "lekker kuier". Hope to see you here again very soon :)


R&C

Lasius colony update (island outworld)

Since the colony moved into the nest in February, it has grown quite a bit. It is even more difficult to estimate the number of individuals but I would guess between 600 and 800. They are also currently occupying 5 chambers in the nest but will sometimes move into a 6th just for a few hours.

Front view of nest (5 chambers occupied)

Recent move to this chamber

Complete setup

In the main out-world there is a permanent search party and I decided to make an island out-world. This makes it easier to experiment with food types or give them a quick snack. It is a Ytong platform stuck on a pillar with a tube passing under it. The whole structure is placed in a ramekin filled with water and works quite well to keep the ants from escaping.

Island out-world (egg and honey water for lunch)

View from top

Closeup of yesterday's snack - fruit flies

I still have the descendants of the original fruit flies I caught last summer and this seems an adequate protein for a growing colony.

Fruit flies in medium

I expect that at this rate the colony may by next summer move into the other side of the nest, assuming they will continue at this rate after winter.

R&C

Carving chess pieces (part 1)

Cycling home a few weeks ago I passed a tree that fell over. The municipality cleared most of the debris but left the majority of the tree in the woods next to the path (presumably to decompose and continue with the circle of life). I was struck by an idea to carve a chess set and thought it would be OK to take one of the broken branches.

I have almost no experience in wood carving and the following is a bit of the process I followed to create half a chess set. The whole process from finding the wood to the current stage took approximately 10 days working on it leisurely during the holiday.

I started by buying some equipment: A figure saw, a whittling knife, a whetstone and carving gloves (highly recommended). In addition I used gouges (which required sharpening after my previous project in Ytong) and sandpaper. This is the only tools I used and, although tempted I, decided not to use my Dremel for this project.

Next, sawed the branch into three manageable pieces and removed the bark. I think the wood is Beech but I am not completely sure.

Removing bark

Probably Beech wood

At this stage the amount of debris became problematic. Luckily, we were also cleaning our closets and I found a use for all the broken jeans that we accumulated over the last 5 years. Using the newly acquired whittling knife I removed the stitches along the seams and re-stitched the pieces together to make a nice big denim sheet. Carving on this makes it very easy to clean up afterwards.

Extremely durable sheet to work on (made from 6 denims)

The first two pieces I carved was a bishop and a rook. I was very happy with the rustic look and how easy it was make these in such a short time (each piece took approximately 2 hours).

First pieces and whittling knife 

However, there are 16 pawns in a chess set and I decided that I should start making some. Pawns are very easy to make and after the first I started to cut two from one piece as it is slightly easier to handle a larger piece of wood.

First and second pawns 

Two pawns from one piece

The second bishop turned out much better than the first and I started to reconsider the amount of "rustic" that I wanted. I, however continued without measuring anything and merely eyeballing the sizes and shapes of wood to use.

2nd bishop

I found a nicely shaped piece for the queen and a knotted piece for the second rook. My plan is to lightly stain all the knotted pieces to make the dark pieces. To make up the full dark set I will also stain some of the pieces that have no knots/marks, but will stain them slightly darker. I have already made some stain that I am happy with (steel-wool, coffee and vinegar) and tested this on a piece of scrap wood (but more on this in in another post).

Queen in progress

Completed queen and partly completed 2nd rook 

Nice naturally colored pieces

I knew the biggest challenge would be the knight and decided it was time to attempt one. A few times during the process I was tempted to start over. I however continued with this one and below is the end product.

Piece used for knight

Completed knight

To keep or not to keep...

This piece of course took the longest to make (I would guess between 5 and 6 hours). I am not sure if I will keep this one or even this design, depending on how the other knights turn out...

And this is the current stage of the project, almost half a chess set. I have 9 pawns but lack one knight and one king (I have a clear design in mind) to complete half the set. Also some of the current pieces have been selected to be stained. But I have mixed feelings about the pieces. I am very happy with some but may want to redo others. I will however not redo any until I have a complete set and by this time my enthusiasm to stain and finish the ones I have may prevent me from re-carving any piece.

Current design of pieces

Current state of set (one pawn wandered out of shot)

Since my vacation is at an end I will not be able to carve as much. However, "winter is coming" and the number of days left to work outside is limited. I will try to complete the carving before it gets too cold. I also need to research finishing techniques and are leaning towards shellac (let me know in the comments if anyone has an opinion on this). I think a rustic look but with a high gloss finish may be quite nice. There are however some issues with Sweden and their extreme fear of anything alcohol (this include denatured alcohol, methanol and isopropanol), even to use as solvent in wood finishing procedures (but more on this later).

I will have more in a following post and maybe, in the future, try to make a chess board.

R&C

Glassblowing

Recently, Carina took me to Ulven, where we could try our hand at glass blowing. During the process, we were guided by Stefan Erlandsson, who provided us with a lot of interesting information about the art of making glass and the processes of shaping this amazing material.

Each of us made three items. 1. A paperweight where we used metal shears to cut the glass. 2 A drinking glass and 3. a decorative bowl. The last two items was shaped with a variety of tools as well as blowing the glass into a metal mold. More shaping is performed after the shaping in the mold.

Shaping the drinking glass

Shaping the drinking glass after mold-blowing

Mold-blowing

Shaping a bowl

After the items are shaped it is slowly cooled down to room temperature. We thus returned the next day and was extremely pleased with the end products.

Self made glass products

The glassblowing workshop is located at Ulva Kvarn in an old watermill approximately 7km from the city centre. There are a number of hand craft shops, galleries and resturants at Ulva Kvarn and spending a bit of time just outside the city is very refreshing.

Old mill-house

This was an excellent experience and I highly recommend it.

 R&C

Ghostbusters

Thanks to everyone who shares 50% of my genome (or are married to such an individual) for this awesome gift. The Ectomobile is one of the most famous cars from a movie and it is a really nice Lego model.

When encountering a paranormal entity.

Note this is the 30 year anniversary of the Ghostbusters movie, read more at here.

R&C