MORNING AFTER CRAYFISH PARTY

Here I am sitting in the balcony of my newly acquired apartment in Hammarby Sjöstad, with Sophia Church (Sofia Kyrka) towering in the background and the sea channel, leading to Hammarby Sound (Hammarby Sjö), just below my feet. You can glimpse the odd boat being anchored on the quay opposite to mine. My apartment building has the street address Hammarby Kaj. As the name indicates, this, as well as the opposite, side of the channel used to house harbour facilities in the old days, when Stockholm still was a city full of industries. Nowadays, the former industrial sites have all been converted to residential areas, with the new harbour and heavy industry located far away from the city centre.

This picture was taken in the morning after the inauguration party of my new residence, or more precisely, a traditional Swedish crayfish party. This was the morning when I really felt at home in Stockholm for the first time since ten years back, when I had moved away from this beautiful city to assume a post in the capital of Europe. The move back had been prepared carefully, being spread out over most of two years. It also coincided with my transition from active professional life to the more relaxed living as pensioner.

Although I have never been an especially driven person, taking life and work more or less as it came to me, I still had to think about some other activities to fill my days, after having left Brussels. Fortunately, I have always had photography as a hobby, so I decided to make more of a profession out of this old hobby and carry out some creative projects along the way. So why not start this new professional venture at home, by documenting some nice scenery from the windows of my new apartment, as it emerged over the seasons? The background is enticing, with the sea channel merging into Hammarby Sound, and varying weather conditions will certainly provide me with ample variation in my pictures. Let’s see what this series is leading up to, and let ourselves be surprised by the ever changing picture motives occasioned by the seasons and by varying weather conditions.

RAINBOW OVER HAMMARBY SOUND

This day was very special to me, since I was arranging a traditional crayfish party in my apartment, to inaugurate it, so to speak. The guests were expected later, fortunately, for, just an hour earlier, there was a thunderstorm brewing over southern Stockholm. After a short rain the weather was calming down again and the sun started to come out from between clouds, shining like a giant spotlight on the buildings across the sound. Soon, as if destined to stimulate my party preparations, a most beautiful rainbow emerged, over the narrow outlet of Hammarby Sound (Hammarby Sjö) that lies hidden behind the apartment building to the left of the quay.