Green Fields in Winter

A Taste of Denmark

The winterseed creates lovely green fields during the winter season. On a  mild day in December the sun was shining through a haze across the winter-green fields.

The green fields are also good for geese and whooper swans who do some grazing up here North in winter.
    

You might almost believe that this is a spring morning and the church bell is ringing for service, but it is in the afternoon and the sun is already slowly on its way down.

If the winter is hard it can be a very costy business for the farmer. The extra expenses can be enormous if the seed is damaged. The winter is mild until now, sometimes with plus 10 Celsius which is a very high temperature in December.  But you can never tell. January and February can be a tough period for the winter seed.

A cosy little village lies surrounded by green fields.

A centralization in the 1960s meant that many shops, manufacturing business and schools have disappeared from the villages. But the increasing interest for the local community, environment and nature has caused that many villages have become attractive for people who are commuting to their job or go shopping in the big cities.

In some regions called udkantsDanmark  ( outskirtsDenmark) are problems because the necessary  jobs are only to find in the big cities. One of the results are many empty houses in the villages and no shops at all. A sad development.

It looks so peaceful and beautiful. This might be a scene from a Jane Austen film with d'Arcy and Elizabeth coming in from the right.............

Now it's later in the afternoon and the green fields are darker green.  Today's painters do not (usually) create their paintings outdoors. ( Maybe when they do watercolours). But when it was common to work on a painting outdoors they had to work fast in order to catch the light and the shades which many French impressionists have described. .

The last landscape from this day in December. The light is quickly fading. See you next time!



 photo East Jutland December 2014: grethe bachmann

A Visit to Copenhagen

Whenever I go to Copenhagen there are so many places I want to see or see again that it is difficult to chose which one, when you've only got a few days to spare. This time I wanted to see the Glyptotek, founded by Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914), who was one of the greatest art collectors of his time.  Carlsberg Glyptotek has got its name from his brewery, Ny Carlsberg. I suppose you know the Carlsberg beer?

Glyptotek means a collection of sculptures, but the museum has a great collection of paintings too. The sculpture collection is the old Egypt, the antique Greece and Rome and  a collection of Danish golden age painters and Danish and French scuplture. The alternative exhibition this summer is a fine collection of the French impressionists with a main selection of Gauguin - all borrowed from France, and it was this exhibition I wanted to see this time. I had a wish that Sisley and Pissaro would be there. They were. And so were van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Manet, Toulouse Lautrec and much more.

Black Diamond

Well, when I have been in one museum and seen one exhibition then I've got enough for one day. I get tired and I need to digest the impression - this time the impressionists! So - instead we went out in the city of Copenhagen. I know Copenhagen well, have been here many times on week-ends and vacations,

Busy girls...

but the city has really changed much -  like my own hometown Århus. Much has been renovated and there is much new architecture, some of it very exciting, like the National library, called the Black Diamond. There are lots and lots of cafés now, but this is the same in my town and elsewhere. People have annected this trend in Denmark. They "go more out" today, both singles and families. In spite of our difficult weather people want to sit outside with blankets and little heaters at foot of the table. We found a nice café opposite the University, a book-café, and I like those book cafés, I think they are cosy. Books and coffee and talk fit well together. We also found a pretty Italian café in Købmagergade, and I had a good strong coffee and a tiramisu. Mumms! The weather was fine, and we sat outside looking at people streaming by. I like to watch all those people from outside a café. You can see the whole world passing by like at Café de la Paix in Paris.

Bookcafé, University

children photo with the Silver Man

bikes bikes bikes

Gråbrødretorv

guy with dog and mobilephone

café guest with a fine boxer..

We were in a couple of Japanese shops in Copenhagen, this was one of our priorities, since we've got no Japanese shops in Århus. We wanted to have a teapot and some tea bowls - and some food articles. There is a fine little shop in one of the old streets, Fiolstræde, called "Sachie", with Japanese food articles, and we bought some Sake and plum wine, Japanese curry etc. Another shop had mostly ceramics, teapots and fine bowls  and kimonos. I know that what we call a kimono has another Japanese name, but I don't remember what. We bought a fine teapot. I wanted some bowls, but I couldn't decide. They were all so pretty. Typical me! A third shop was a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Thailand and other Asian countries.

The most wellknown street in Copenhagen is Strøget. You really need to walk through Strøget when you are in Copenhagen. If I haven't taken a walk there then I really haven't seen Copenhagen! And then take a walk  to Gråbrødre Torv and Nyhavn, Kongens Nytorv and the Royal Theatre, the four palaces of Amalienborg,  the Opera and the channels, Tivoli , Kongens Have etc. There is so much to see and this time the sun was shining, the weather was beautiful and Copenhagen did show its most lovely face. So it was a good trip.  We "walked the streets thin" and when we got tired we sat down by a café and had a little lunch or a cup of coffee.. But we also wanted to see several places outside Copenhagen, in the countryside of Zealand - and we only had one week in the rented summerhouse at the east coast south of the town Køge, so we had to leave "the rest" of Copenhagen for another visit.

Some cars we saw! The yellow one is a Tesla, and I don't know much about it less than it's an electric luxury car and it is very costy. Found it on the net. About 90.000 dollars. Ouch! The blue one looks like a Buick and the silver grey is certainly a Bentley. What a car! And its' from Georgia. Wonder who's in town!














 And there must also be a room for some of the old streets and houses in Copenhagen. Here is a small collection.

photo Copenhagen June 2012: grethe bachmann

Gråbrødretorv

a little Renaissance too

Fiolstræde

Rundetaarn

at Nyhavn