otherwise engaged

The spring break has been extended to include a week in Stockholm where the daffodils, hyacinths, cherry blossom and forsythia are all bursting out, and some days it’s possible to sit outside for coffee and buns, and there’s a Bonnard exhibition to see, and an Evelina Kroon book to read (aka look at the pictures),

and a nice walk in the Skogskyrkogården (the Woodland Cemetery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site) to see the trees and the Gunnar Asplund chapels and the little Latin motto over the entrance to one of them saying bluntly, ‘My turn today, yours tomorrow’, which made me laugh,

[Blue Hall]

and a very good guided tour round Stockholm’s City Hall (1923) which is really not at all what I was expecting given what I thought I knew of 1920s Scandinavian architecture and style.

[one small detail of the enormous mosaics by Einar Forseth in the Golden Hall]

It’s a colossal mish-mash of Swedish castle meets Venetian palazzo meets 1930s Odeon cinema meets medieval banquet hall.

[one of series in the Prince’s Gallery]

Plus lots of readings of Hairy McClary, Where’s Spot?, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes which remind me how much I love having a little person on my knee, engrossed in a cleverly written, nicely illustrated book with a good rhythm and a sense of humour.

[The Beatles arriving at Arlanda airport, Stockholm, July 1964]

I have the Beatles on repeat on the plane journeys to and from Arlanda,

and colourful sock knitting for train journeys.

Enough to be going on with.

Glad söndag!