New Hunter's Pet in World of Warcraft: Woolly Rhino

One of my guild mates in World of Warcraft had already gotten herself a new hunter's pet - a woolly Rhino. Very cute, but also very deadly...

Help, I can't see!

What I hadn't expected after the cold night was this extremely thick mist - it felt as if I was going blind, only seeing something white with vague shapes in black and white.

First night with temperatures below freezing point

Yesterday it rained most of the day, but towards late afternoon, the skies cleared up.

'Mark my words, the puddles will be frozen over tomorrow' I told a colleague when I left the office. And how right I was!:)

Snow White

Politely she accepted the apple half that the old woman offered her. Barely had she taken a bite before she sank to the floor.

I'm a member of a photo forum, and one of the recent themes was 'apples'. Unable to come up with a creative compisition, I decided to illustrate a scene from Snow White, and then had some fun fiddling around with it in Photoshop Express.

R.I.P Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman, one of my favourite authors, died on 26 October 2008. I've started re-reading his books about Jim Chee and Leephorn, members of the Navajo Tribal Police.

I do enjoy crime novels that are set in a specific environment or a specific era. Elizabeth Peters and her British archeologists in 19th century Egypt is one example.
Another one is Ellis Peters' medieval mystery-solving munk Cadfael.

Entertainment combined with culture/history...

Sunny morning yet again, but warmer than yesterday, since it was cloudy and rainy all night. When I left for work, the raindrops were still clinging to the rowanberries.

Clear blue sky, sunshine, crisp air, chirping birds - and the first night frost.

The sun was shining and the sky was clear when I left home this morning, but when I arrived in the centre of Stockholm, the clouds had already began gathering.

In the shiny white building the company I work for rent floors five, nine, ten, eleven and twelve. Yes, we are a lot of people, but then we are the head office for Sweden's biggest hotel chain.

Saab nostalgia... this one has been refitted to be used in folk racing.

Misty morning

The weather has been very grey lately, but this morning it was softened by mist.

This is the way I walk from my home to the bus stop five mornings per week.

View from the central railway station in Stockholm while waiting for the commuter train.

Updates 2 April 2008

Today, I've added new pictures. One photo for each day for the dates 2-21 February 2008.

I've added a bit of explanatory text to 27 January 2008.

I swapped the puzzle picture for 29 January 2008 with one of my own pictures, with a different cut, and I edited the text.

Yes, yes, I'm aware that the posting date doesn't fit - that's because I've been fiddling around with the dates to get a chronological order and to get the blog archive tree to look tidier.

21 February 2008

More tube train ads. Here, one of the Swedish commercial TV channels has chosen to display an ad on the doors of a tube train. They will start showing new episodes of Stargate and the text reads 'The gate opens Fridays at 21:00' (hours). And when the doors slid open, you did actually enter 'through the gate'.

20 February 2008

In Stockholm (Sweden) the advertising agencies can hire advertising space on the tube trains. In this case, Interflora had hired an entire wagon.

19 February 2008

The lovely staircase in the previous picture, and some of the flowers, can be found inside the Victorian style green houses.

18 February 2008

17 February 2008

16 February 2008

15 February 2008

14 February 2008

13 February 2008

12 February 2008

11 February 2008

10 February 2008

9 February 2008

Kew Gardens is where I saw, for the very first time, a bright pink chestnut.

8 February 2008

Ever had a really close look at the chestnut flowers? This is what they look like.

7 February 2008

When I saw this chestnut tree I realised this is what a tree should look like when it's been allowed to grow freely instead of being cut back all the time.

6 February 2008

5 February 2008

Kew Gardens, London

In April 2007, I visited Kew Gardens in London for the very first time, in connection with a h2g2 meet. The weather was absolutely gorgeous - sunny and warm like a summerday.

The next couple of pictures, mostly of flowers, will be from Kew Gardens. You will, yet again, experience my fascination for close ups.

4 February 2008

This is, by far, the oddest graffiti I've come across. What it says? Ice cold Russian archeologists. And in a very neat hand writing too.

3 February 2008

This cat belongs to one of my colleagues, and it's a Norwegian Forest cat.

Those ear tufts makes it look a little like a European lynx.

And that intent look in her eyes is because she's crouched down in an 'about to attack' position and is focusing on her target.

2 February 2008

This is a picture of an Amnesty poster against female circumcision - subtle yet telling.

1 February 2008

Join earth hour - turn off your lights for one hour on 29 March 2008 8-9 pm!

31 January 2008

Not my picture this time either, but one from an Austrian stationery deliverer.

I love it! I got one at work, and I absolutely love it!

It sits very comfortably in your hand, like scissors. It removes a staple with one swift squeeze - and best of all, it makes no damage at all to the paper you are removing the staple from!

While I was googling for an online picture, I came across what I think is the gadget that this one originated from: surgical skin staple removers. Now, it makes perfect sense that you'd want the removing of staples to make as little as possible and preferrably no damage to the skin, right? So why not apply the same technique to an office tool?

And yes, I confess - I'm an office gadget freak!

30 January 2008

Jigzone dot com is a puzzle site I use practically every day whenever I feel like taking a short break. You can even use a picture of your own to create a puzzle, which is what I've done here.

29 January 2008

Hedonistic Culinary Temple (Turku market-hall)

28 January 2008

Hey, that must be the bike for me (my nom de guerre on the Internet is Titania)! And yes, this is still at Turku Herring Festival!

27 January 2008

Did you buy your wine in a box? No worries, just dress your box up in one of these pretty covers!

26 January 2008

Hand made rocking horse

25 January 2008

And a new acquaintance - Romanescu cabbage! Absolutely fascinating in appearance - a bit like cauliflower, but each bouquet is a spiral shaped pyramid...

24 January 2008

This company had beehives all over Finland, location depending on nearby vegetation. They had lingonberry honey, cloudberry honey, blueberry honey... OK, I'll stop drooling now...

23 January 2008

Oh, and la piéce de récistance - marinated herring!

22 January 2008

Sea buckthorn products. Beware though - one year, mother and I bought ourselves a bottle each of buckthorn juice. Silly me didn't read the label, poured some juice into a glass and drank it.

Ouch! Ever had your tongue shrivel up and plaster itself into your gum?

When actually bothering to read the label, I found out you take 1/10 of juice and add 9/10 of water...

21 January 2008

Chanterelles and lingonberries... *wipes chin*

20 January 2008

Smoked salmon... *drools*

19 January 2008

Oh well, now that I've mentioned the Turku Herring Festival I guess I'd better post some pictures from it...

Now, doesn't this picture make your mouth water?

18 January 2008

17 January 2008

Yet another thing of beauty that I fell head over heels in love with.

It was last autumn, at the Turku Herring Festival in Finland. A goldsmith had a stand, selling his own series of jewellry.

He told us he had collaborated in creating the series with a designer who had studied old Carelian designs. There were earrings, bracelets, pendants and... rings.

And I bought this ring, made of bronze. When a colleague of mine saw it, she said 'it looks like something out of Lord of the Rings!'.

16 January 2008

Papa Louie Help Papa Louie fight the mutant pizzas in over a dozen worlds of Italian cuisine.

Play this free game now!!

Warning! Might be highly addictive!

No, this isn't one of my pictures - it's from a site with loads of fun little games.

Beware though, since I suspect it's from the Miniclip site that Tradedoubler and Doubleclick were downloaded to my laptop. I found and erased them with the help of Spybot.

I also enjoyed playing Sandman, Sushi-Go-Round and Phantom Mansion from the same site - games where you need to think a bit.

15 January 2008

Railway Nostalgia

Looking around at various railway stations, I've noticed that several of them still haven't been modernised.

But I think I actually prefer the old designs to the modern ones...

14 January 2008

Puppy Love

This is my boss's Bichon Frisé puppy Kasper.

He is a very social and playful puppy, but also amazingly friendly. He was chewing on what looked like a piece of dried cow hide and managed to lay it down flat against the floor, unable to bite into it.

So I grabbed the piece of hide to hold it up to him, and he didn't try to protect it, or growl at me, or try to snatch it away from me. I could safely hold up the piece while he was nibbling at it.

This type of dog is said to be rather allergy friendly. I didn't get a reaction while playing and cuddling with him, but then I did wash my hands afterwards, just in case.

Ain't he just the cutest thing?

13 January 2008

This orchid belongs to one of my colleagues and resides in her office. I think it's beautiful.