We went to Millesgården”, a sculpture garden on Lidingö in the grounds of the house of, and dedicated to, the artist and sculptor Carl Milles.
There are three terraces looking back across the water toward Ropsten and beyond to the city, he collected many copies of his works around the world, including his fountain at Nacka Strand.
On the way home from Långholmen we stopped by on Gamla Stan again.
We’ll prescribe you a cat by Syou Ishida
[Read aloud to Adelle]
It seems there is quite a collection of Japanese cat books, this one is again a fiction, following the story of a mysterious clinic and some the patients that visit it.
They each find the clinic through hearsay and approach when they have given up with other options. The clinic, run by a doctor and a nurse, provides each with a cat and some instructions about how to care for it.
In each case the cat resolves the troubles in the patients lives in a way only a cat could, often inducing some kind of familial trauma on the way.
As the book goes on the clinic seems to get weirder and weirder, with clues about the clinics origin being given throughout, until the end of the book where the mystery clarifies somewhat, albeit without actual explanation.
This is ‘kawaii neko no hon’ (cute cat book) in the Japanese style, there is gentle trauma for many of the characters but nothing that cannot be resolved with the application of a cat. There is loss, confusion, coming to terms, family discord, jibes at Kyoto accents and buildings that seem to move around.
The translation here sometimes produces slightly weird ways of describing things, with some of the interactions between people seemingly missing nuance that would be available in the original language, although that may be as much about that nuance being unsaid before translation – it would be endemic in the society and not require saying.
If you are looking for a gentle cutesy book with little challenging emotion, this is a good book for you.
(see also part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4)
(see also part 1, part 2 and part 3)
A. at Skansen
(see also part 1 & part 2)
Some statues at Skansen.
(see part 1)
Skansen animals at midsummer.
Once again we went to Skansen – for midsummer this time. They hold traditional Swedish midsummer celebrations there and the place was the busiest we’ve ever seen it. Still, there was a rain shower which cleared a lot of the people.
We went to a midsummer Blót, these days more of a maypole style festival than the original blood sacrifice (incidentally also related to the origin of the word ‘bless’…to mark with blood). Quite a number of us collected and we wandered off into the woods to find a clearing where we could erect the ‘maypole’ and dance around it. It was quite an honour to be invited to such an event, and an interesting insight into modern interpretations of Norse traditions.
After Fisksätra we went on to Saltsjöbaden
