Month: May 2015

Time for lilacs

lilacs

Lilacs Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

It is time for lilacs just now. I love lilacs. Their look, their fragrance, everything about them. Imagine the fragrance passing this huge hedge with lilacs?

lilacshedge

Lilacshedge Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

It smells so good here! The lilacs are a promise of summer… though the weather lately has been far from summer-like. Much too cold.

lilacs

Lilacs. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I pass these ones on the way from the gym when going home. There are also some white ones on the way.

white lilacs

White lilacs. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Just as beautiful, but… they do not smell as good as the other ones. It is a short season and it will soon be over.

white lilacs

White lilacs. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Posted by nini in Flowers, Garden and Nature, Outside, 0 comments

Plantgangs

plantgang

Plantgang in the bedroom window. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

If you love and live with plants, you have plantgangs in various locations in your home. Various kinds, sizes and colors of plants. I try to place them for ultimate light-conditions, in groups and at various heights when possible or needed. Apart from that, I don’t do any particular “styling” of them.

It is ultimate light for a particular plant that is the deciding factor. For instance do the Saint Paulas not like direct sunshine. The November cactus in the background does, but it is too wide and big to have closer to the light in the window. That one, by the way, will soon go outside to the patio over the summer. It loves being outside in sun and rain. It propagates its flowering. It is still a bit too cold though to bring it outside. But soon.

plantgang

Plantgang in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

In the kitchen I have two windows in the corner. The light comes in from two directions. In the window to the left from the south, in the window to the right from the west. That gives a lot of light and most plants love it here.

plantgang

The southern window. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I don’t use curtains in the kitchen since some years back. In the southern window the framing of the window is taken care of by the now huge green plant that I’ve hung on the curtain-rod. On the windowsill below it there presently are three orchids and a baby aloe. The mother-plant of the aloe is in the corner between the two windows, as is the hanging plant above them. The big aloe got replanted just a few days ago. Remains to be seen if it survived it… Had to get the baby out from the pot. Turns out an aloe has very small roots. Didn’t know that.

Kitchen-plants. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Kitchen-plants. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

In the western kitchen window I have two of IKEAs hanging planters. On the window sill more orchids and on the table one Saint Paula that I didn’t have enough space for in the bedroom. It used to have white flowers – it now has light blue flowers.

IKEAs hanging planters, which can be hung one under the other, are really nice and useful. In the top one are three plants, in the bottom one four. Just wondering how long I can have them all here. They grow… They both hang on a curtain-rod and I just hope they will not get too heavy for it as they grow bigger. The plants are also bought at Ikea, called Himalaya Mix… whatever that means…

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Hanging plantgang. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

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Detail of the corner between the windows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

In the livingroom window there is absolutely NO styling of plants at the moment. Just a mess of plants waiting to get outside more permanently and kept inside when it it is cold and windy. Plus a few plants that are inside all the time. It is too early for the chili-plants to be outside all the time. The fig tree is also inside so far. This is NOT how it is supposed to look…

plantgang

In the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

This time of the year though many plants can be outside both day and night. Problem is when the rain is pouring down and they risk to get drowned… I then keep most of the plantgang on the bench on the patio, which is partly under roof from the balcony of my upstairs neighbor.

plantgang

Plantgang outside. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Some of the pelargonias are more or less placed where they will stay during the summer. At the top three white pelargonias. One is the mother-plant, the other two are its babies. They are partly protected from the rain by the two large honeysuckles on the corner. They seem to be a good sort that doesn’t get all brown when rained on as most white pelargonias do.

Below them are two other pelargonias. Mårbacka is their name. They get pink flowers. The one to the right is the mother-plant, the one to the left its babies. The babies need a larger pot soon.

plantgang

Pelargonias outside. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I will present the other plants on the patio to you later on, when the weather improves and everything is in place. It is still early on in the season for the outdoor life.

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Posted by nini in decoration, Flowers, House plants, Urban Jungle Bloggers, 3 comments

The Maman Sculpture

maman

The Maman sculpture. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

For 13 weeks the Maman sculpture of the Louise Bourgeois exhibition has been standing guard outside the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

maman

The Maman sculpture. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Since the exhibition started, and photos of this sculpture started to appear, I intended to go visit to see the sculpture in place. It is such an interesting form. Fascinating.

maman

The Maman sculpture. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I didn’t go into the Moderna Museet. I stayed outside in the park to take pictures of the Maman sculpture. I’ve actually not visited a museum in Stockholm since the entrance stopped being free, which it was for a while. Entrance fees might become free again if the politicians will decide so. Until then, no museum visits. Too expensive.

maman

The Maman sculpture. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

So, I visited Friday as the exhibition ended on Sunday May 17th. Yesterday the Maman sculpture was taken down for transfer to Museo Picasso Málaga where the exhibition will reside June 15 – September 27 2015.

maman

Photo Moderna Museet.

So now she is gone.

I also looked at the other sculptures in the park outside Moderna Museet. Something I’ve also planned to do for a long time. I will show you what in a later post about it.

Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, 1 comment

Shortlived beauty

cactus, cactusflowers

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I always was fascinated by cactus plants. Have had several over the years but now I only have three.  All three of them have had flowers this spring. Certain cactus flowers are shortlived beauty. Especially the latest of mine that got them. These ones lasts about a week.

The flower fell off before it opened. It simply became too heavy. I put it into a vase and it opened there a few hours later. It is now on day two, fully opened. It might last until tomorrow. There are presently two more flower buds on it, but it is never sure that they will fully open up. The hairy buds often just dry away. This bud did open, after not having had flowers for several years, and never before since I moved to my present place. Once in my previous place. Enjoy the shortlived beauty of them. I have no idea what kind of cactus this is.

All pictures are ©nini.tjader.2015. You can click a picture to see a larger version of it.

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Posted by nini in Flowers, House plants, Urban Jungle Bloggers, 0 comments

Newer thought I would see these rugs again…

Lately I have seen this kind of carpet in various places. I never thought I would see those carpets again. I’ve seen them lately in various interior design magazines and I’ve seen them on the Hunting for George webbsite from Australia (which has some really nice stuff). I was really surprised by their re-appearance.

I used to have some smaller carpets of this kind many years ago. They then came from IKEA and costed next to nothing. I can still remember how they smelled…

Not only did these carpets appear again, but they are now really expensive too. (Let us just hope that the profit from them goes to their makers and not only to their sellers).

Would you pay as much as between Australian dollars 140-685 depending on size and model? I would not. That is much too expensive. They are made from natural fibers, hemp from Bangladesh it appears. Once upon a time when Ikea sold them, they were the most inexpensive rugs you could get…

I am surprised that they have become so expensive, and that they have reappeared on the market. If you do a Google image search for “hemp rugs” you will see more examples. They can be found not only in Australia or New Zealand, but also in other countries.

Do I like them? No. I am not particularly a fan of recurring trends. I’ve already seen these a couple of decades ago…

Posted by nini in carpets, Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, 0 comments

Apple Photos, no thanks

Photos for Mac

Photos for Mac, screenshot from Apple.com

With the system update to Mac OS X 10.10.3 you also got the Apple application Photos installed, automatically. One thing it also did at installation was to remove the icon in the Dock for iPhotos. Thankfully it did NOT remove the iPhoto application, just the icon in the Dock. Which is bad enough. I, as a user, should control what I have in my Dock or what I don’t have.

The first time you start Pictures, it wants you to convert your iPhoto Library to Photos. It also wants you to place your images in the Cloud for access from all your different devices. Converting the Library takes for ever and a lot of harddisk space if you have a large iPhoto Library. If you don’t have enough space on your harddisk, Photos will tell you so.

Opening Photos is a disappointment. Both the way the images are organized there, and in particular how it manages imports from a camera. It has several controls to edit your photos and to upload them to various places (except to Instagram). It also has several controls for how ro create various outputs like calendars, photobooks etc. More information here.

First time I tried to import photos from my camera I got a big chock. I shoot in jpg and raw. What did it import? Only the jpgs! No raw files at all. Which is really odd as it imported all the raws from the iPhoto Library on conversion and correctly states that they are raw files. But not when it imports directly from the camera. No raw files.

When using iPhoto, I had no such problems. When using iPhoto I also could remove photos from camera from within iPhoto after done with the import. There is a control for this in Photos too, but it has problems and doesn’t do it as seamlessly and effortlessly as iPhoto does/did. It gets stuck and locks the entire machine (at least in my case).

My conclusion was: do not use Photos. It is only good for amateurs who shoot with their iPhones and do not have any particular demands on how to manage their photos. It might be a good companion to the iPhone, but not so good that I will use it. And it doesn’t do RAW.

So, today I deleted the image library created by Photos when converting from iPhoto. I opened iPhoto again and repaired its iPhoto Library. Then imported my latest photos (all taken after April 28th in my case and saved separately to another folder on the harddisk).

I then wanted to delete the Photos application… but no, Apple won’t let me do that! (It is just like they won’t let me remove certain application son my iPhone). Why??

photosappen

Screenshot. Removal of Photos? No, not allowed.

Many have had complaints on iPhoto over the years – particularly in the way it stores photos in various folders inside the application and library. But, compared to Photos, iPhoto was/is a wonder of a competent application in so many ways. I will miss it. Or does Apple allow me to keep it? Will forthcoming OS-updates allow it to exist and open? That we don’t know presently.

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge. Image from Adobe.com

I am aware that iPhoto probably will disappear one of these days as it is discontinued. So it is high time to change my workflow when it comes to managing my photos.

I’ve used several applications for managing photos over the years. My workflow, since Adobe Bridge appeared (2003), has been to upload jpgs and raws from camera via Adobe Photodownloader into Bridge and a dedicated folder on my harddisk. I then import (directly from camera) to Adobe Lightroom. I then import to iPhoto and empty the card in the camera when done and remove the camera from the iMac.

Why so many applications? To be sure to have an unedited version of my images somewhere. They also get backed up to an external harddisk every night. All of them. When I need more space on my main harddisk in the iMac I move the oldest photos to another external harddisk from the folder where they originally got uploaded to Bridge and delete them from the iMac. That also deletes them from the backupdisk the coming night. I also burn them to CDs/DVDs to get yet another backup copy.

When photos are imported to harddisk I then use Adobe Bridge in connection with Adobe Camera Raw for eventual editing of the photos and saving out a web-version (settings in Bridge) to a folder where I keep the photos I use in my two blogs.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

The images in iPhoto I hardly ever edit. And IF I did, it has an option to export original which does just that, exports the original photo without edits, to a folder of your choice.

I realize I will have to stop using iPhoto. Whatever is still in there will be exported to one of my external harddrives. I will then get rid of iPhoto (if Apple lets me…). I guess using Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom will be enough.

I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I don’t like the way you have to have a separate datafile with the images for the storage. Takes up unnecessary space on the harddrive. It is also an odd application with features I really do not like and much too amateuristic for my taste. I’ll stick to Bridge, ACR, Photoshop and Lightroom as soon as I’ve emptied my iPhoto Library.

Photos I will not use. Even Googles Picasa is better than Photos. Wonder why Apple won’t let me delete it and what in the OS uses it? If you have Photoshop, you have Bridge. If you haven’t used Bridge since it was introduced, give it a new chance. It is really good.

Posted by nini in Nerdish, Photography, Thoughts, 0 comments

New details at home

hallwayclock

Hallway clock. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I’ve recently added some new details at home. Not expensive, just nice ones, that I found at Ikea. (And no, this post is NOT sponsored by Ikea. I actually do not have ANY sponsors for my blog – I just blog for the fun of it).

One is a hallway clock (SEK79), pattern designed by Olle Eksell. He is the designer that made that famous poster with the Mazetti eyes on which you see everywhere in interior design. Ikea has made several items that use Olle Eksells figures and designs.

I think it is a fun clock. Not that easy maybe to see what the time is, but… it is decorative.

At first I intended to hang the clock in the bedroom, but it turned out that it ticks. Loudly. So couldn’t have it there. Looks good here in the hallway though I think. And here I hardly notice the ticking. (Gustav, the neighbor cat, noticed it though the other day when he was visiting).

hallwayclock

Clock in the hallway. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I also got myself two new pillows with patterns by the same Olle Eksell. Just love those figures. I alos love the price, SEK39 a piece is really cheap.

pillows

Pillows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

The black and white one sits perfectly together with my other black and white Ikea-pillows in the chaiselongue.

Also got a colored pillow with his match-stick pattern. Presently placed that in the livingroom sofa. I like that pattern.

pillow

Pillow. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

pillows

Pillows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

There are plenty more products with Olle Eksell patterns at Ikea. Some of them I like, some not. Those with green and orange colors… I don’t like those as I am no fan of green and orange in my home. I do like the match-stick posters, but I don’t know where I would be able to put them if I bought them.

Posted by nini in decoration, Design, Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, 0 comments