Sir Walter Scott's stunning Abbotsford in the late 19th century

Sir Walter Scott's stunning home Abbotsford in the 1880s.

This is Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott's stunning home, photographed in the 1880s. The romantic castle, designed by the first English-language author to have a truly international career, is since 2007 in the care of The Abbotsford Trust, a charity created to safeguard the future of the estate and the legacy of Sir Walter Scott. 

This is how the trust defines its task and the house it safeguarding:

 The trust is determined to restore the house and redevelop the estate in order to make it self-sustaining. It is the objective of the trustees to ensure that Abbotsford becomes the centre of a renaissance of Scott’s works, but in a way that a modern audience will appreciate.
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Perhaps nowhere else in the world can evoke the power of the romantic past more than Abbotsford, stunningly located on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. Abbotsford sits at the heart of the landscape that inspired the poetry and novels of its creator, Sir Walter Scott. Unlike the homes of other great writers, this is a house that the writer himself designed and as such uniquely embodies a physical representation of the Romantic Movement that he helped to create. When you touch the bricks and mortar of Abbotsford, you are touching the soul of Scott.

The house contains an impressive collection of historic relics, weapons and armour, including Rob Roy’s gun, dirk and sword, and an extensive library containing over 9,000 rare volumes. It sits amid formal gardens and a wider landscape that Scott designed and planted.

Here you can read more about The Abbotsford Trust. 

Nissan´s futuristic car carrier City of St. Petersburg in Øresund

The MV City of St. Petersburg is Nissan´s futuristic looking roll-on/roll-off car carrier. The semi-spherical prow is said to to save 800 tons of fuel annually. There is room for 2000 vehicles on the 140m x 22m ship, which early this afternoon was on its way northwards in the Sound.

Views from my balcony (1): Trees in the Kulla Gunnarstorp nature reserve

This is how the trees in the southern corner of the Kulla Gunnarstorp Nature Reserve looked like this afternoon. These photos are the first in a series, which I have chosen to call  "Views from my balcony". More  will hopefully follow in the next few days and weeks ...

Oaks and pines are common in the Kulla Gunnarstorp Nature Reserve

The trunks of the pine-trees are particularly beautiful

The Höganäs church - a functionalist masterpiece by Ivar Tengbom

The Church of the Ascension in Höganäs

Of all the buildings in Höganäs, a coastal town in southwestern Sweden, the church from 1934 is easily the most impressive. It was designed by the architect Ivar Tengbom (1878 - 1968), one of the best known representatives of the neo-classical - and later also functionalist - style in Sweden.

Internationally Tengbom is perhaps most well-known as the architect of the Stockholm Concert Hall (1923 - 1926), the home of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the venue for the annual Nobel Prize ceremony. 

The Stockholm Concert Hall 
(picture by wikipedia)

Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim's ethnographic photographs

"Dancing Kalmucks"

During and after Finland's struggle for independence Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim - the greatest Finn of all times - was Commander-in-Chief in in three wars and twice Head of State. During the heroic 105 days of the Winter War (1939-1940), when Finland fought alone against Stalin's Red Army, Mannerheim was hailed as a champion of liberty throughout the western world.

Before joining Finland's fight for independence Mannerheim was a succesful General in the Russian army (until 1917 Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian empire). The fact that he was an able sportsman and and wellknown for his excellent horsemanship must have been one of the reasons why he was chosen for the formidable task of undertaking a reconnaisance mission on horseback through Asia.

Mannerheim began his two year long expedition at Kashgar in Turkmenistan in October 1906. Accompanied by only a handful of men, he rode through areas belonging almost entirely to China. The purpose of the exhibition was to investigate the vast, mostly uninhabited mountain and desert regions, which were of strategic interest for Russia. Mannerheim's expedition also served scientific, particularly ethnographic, objectives.

"The way in which Mannerheim studied the customs, languages, ethnic traits and regional archelogy of the tribes that he encountered, collected objects and took photographs showed considerable scientific talent and ambition. The collection of objects wen to the Finno-Ugrian Society (Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura), which later published Mannerheim's detailed journal and helped him in the preparation of a description of his travels intended for the general public."

Read professor Matti Klinge's article on Mannerheim here

A map of Mannerheim's route from Samarkand to Peking

During the expedition Mannerheim took a great number of pictures, many of which show ordinary people in the remote areas he visited. Some of the (at least for me) most fascinating photos show natives dressed in clothes with very long sleeves. I have no idea about the reason for the extended sleeves - could it be that they make it easier to keep warm in a cold climate? 

(The photos are from the book "Fra Samarkand til Peking Paa Hesteryg", published in Copenhagen in 1940)

Waiting for the train in Copenhagen

Waiting for the train to Helsingør at the Østerport station in Copenhagen on an evening in October ....

Mont Blanc

A  late 1880s photo of Mont Blanc 

From Shelley's poem Mont Blanc: LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI: 

    Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky,
Mont Blanc appears--still, snowy, and serene;
Its subject mountains their unearthly forms
Pile around it, ice and rock; broad vales between
Of frozen floods, unfathomable deeps,
Blue as the overhanging heaven, that spread
And wind among the accumulated steeps;
A desert peopled by the storms alone,
Save when the eagle brings some hunter's bone,
And the wolf tracks her there--how hideously
Its shapes are heap'd around! rude, bare, and high,
Ghastly, and scarr'd, and riven.--Is this the scene
Where the old Earthquake-daemon taught her young
Ruin? Were these their toys? or did a sea
Of fire envelop once this silent snow?
None can reply--all seems eternal now.
The wilderness has a mysterious tongue
Which teaches awful doubt, or faith so mild,
So solemn, so serene, that man may be,
But for such faith, with Nature reconcil'd;
Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal
Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood
By all, but which the wise, and great, and good
Interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel.