VIKTOR DONOVAN

Monday, June 15, 2009

REAL BREAD

There is an enormous satisfaction in making your own bread.
And it so easy.
Maybe people think that when they bake their own bread, they have to put in what is found in commercially produced bread such as:

Enriched wheat flour (flour, barley malt, ferrous sulfate (iron), “B” vitamins (niacin, thaimine mononitrate (B1), riboflavin (B2), folic acid)), water, sweetener (high fructose corn syrup or sugar), yeast, wheat bran, whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, molasses. Contains 2% or less of: soybean oil, salt, sweet dairy whey, butter (cream, salt, enzymes), maltodextrin, honey, corn syrup, calcium sulfate, soy flur, dough conditioners (may contain: dicalcium phosphate, calcium dioxide, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ethoxylated mono and diglycerides, mono and diglycerides, and/or datem), yeast nutrients (may contain: ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, calcium carbonate, monocalcium phosphate, and/or ammonium phosphate), cornstarch, wheat starch, vinegar, natural flavor, beta carotene (color), enzymes, calcium propionate (to retain freshness), soy lecithin

No need to worry, all those chemicals need NOT be in the bread you make yourself.
Use organically grown flour and use various kinds of rough grains and brans and you will enjoy the kind of rough bread your ancestors grew healthy on.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

I AM THE CAMERA

Here at Gotaplatsen in Gothenburg, Victor Hasselblad proudly stands with the world famous camera he invented. The sculpture by Ulf Celen is called "I am the camera" taken from the reply Victor Hasselblad gave to an American passport officer who asked: "Does your name have to do anything to do with the camera"?
Victor Hasselblad answered: "I am the camera".

Friday, June 12, 2009

AFTER THE RAIN

One of the many delights of spring are rhododendron and azalea bushes. They belong to the same family.
It is sad to see them go. After two nights of heavy rain it is definitely over. It also means that spring is moving into summer, that the long lovely period of flowering trees and shrubs gives way to other delights such as roses and annual and perennial flowers. Their splendor, charms and comforts, should you happen to think of the long and dark Scandinavian winter days that inevitably will come. But somehow, seduced, one thinks, oddly enough, that it will always be like this, that there will always be flowers and flowering bushes and these strangely long bright Scandinavian summer nights.

MAKING YOUR OWN WOODEN SHOES

Once upon a time in Sweden (before the industrialization) 80 percent of all people were engaged in agriculture. Having leather shoes was a sign of wealth and ordinary people had to make do with handmade wooden shoes.

This film from 1923 shows how wooden shoes were made. The film also shows how you make a wooden spoon and a simple chair. To see the film: Click here!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

LISEBERG TULIPS

Tulip frenzy at the Gothenburg Funfair and park LISEBERG.

For more pictures, click here.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

IS EVERY WOMAN REALLY A BORN ACTRESS?

It is interesting how absolutely inappropriate this advertisement from 1938 would be today.

Horlicks is a peculiarly English product and it is still sold.

It supposed to help you sleep if you drink it before going to bed.

NEW BOOK!

Much of human activity is centered around food. We think of food whether we’re hungry or not. We spend a great deal of time buying it. We take hours preparing it (well, some do). We talk about it. We read about it in cook books. We watch television when chefs talk about it (sometimes to excess). When we socialize, it is often centered around the communal intake of it. We give it as gifts. Food, we can’t escape it! Some people become keenly interested in preparing food for themselves and others; many have become what we call “good cooks”. Usually a degree of creativity is involved together with a keen interest to entertain and a need to take care of others, to be a good host. It is such people that one remembers, and that is how I got started on Food & Folk, remembering, for example that excellent couple, Beatrice and Clayburn La Force on their ranch in Alpine California. After that I just kept going.

MY HOMETOWN GOTHENBURG

A series of closeups (224 photos) of Gothenburg, Sweden. Language: English and Swedish.----- This book consists of a series of closeups of Gothenburg. It is no history book but, hopefully, it will generate some curiosity about our city. When you walk in a city like London you are struck by Britain’s colonial past and its enormous wealth which manifests itself in buildings and institutions all over the city. When you walk in “Little London” as Gothenburg is often called, one is keenly aware of its importance as the best fortified city in Northern Europe. Two forts still watch over it. Remnants of the seventeenth century wall, and the meandering moat are a reminder of the city’s military past. Positioned on the West coast of Sweden, Gothenburg was once a world leader in ship building and shipping and evolved naturally into a merchant’s city. The English and Scottish heritage here is very important. There are clues and traces everywhere. One has only to look.

A GARDEN IN MY HOMETOWN

A book in English and Swedish about the Garden Society of Gothenburg--TRÄDGÅRDSFÖRENINGEN -----The Garden Society of Gothenburg is one of the best preserved early 19th century parks in Europe. It is situated directly downtown, offering lovely walks in the park or in the shaded woodland areas along the canal/moat, waterfront. The garden recently went through a major renovation under the auspices of Ulf Nordfjell, the internationally known landscape designer. The aim was to bring the garden back to its old nineteenth century glory. Carpet bedding returned and five new woodland areas were designed by five international garden designers. A superb new rose park was added, a successful blending of historical roses and perennials.

Love letters from my Swedish grandfather Folke to my American grandmother Olga 1909 - 1961

My American grandmother, Olga, met my Swedish grandfather, Folke Jonsson, in Brussels in 1909. Olga was 18 and Folke, 23. They settled in Gothenburg and Särö, Sweden. Olga, being American, had her family in Florida, and Folke soon came to realize that if you marry a woman from another continent, and this woman is charmingly independent, innovative and brave, and has her own means to boot, she is bound to want to visit her native country some time -- or several times -- or more than several times. To Folke, a sensitive soul, the long separations were quite painful and he suffered till his darling Olga returned. He “talked” to her in his frequent letters. Olga saved all his letters, in their original envelopes, in neat little bundles held together with different coloured ribbons. They were a treasured lifelong testament of his love. Olga and Folke corresponded in English as Olga was American and preferred writing in English. Had my grandfather Folke married a Swedish woman who had stayed at home, there would not be this stack of his letters today. He never intended the letters to be shown to others, but more than one hundred years have passed since Folke wrote them to his darling Olga. I have enjoyed getting to know my grandfather in this manner and I think others, not only relatives, should also share that privilege.

A pictorial Companion to the letters in the book above: 150 pictures of Olga & Folke 1909-1978

NEW BOOK BY DONOVAN O'MALLEY

REVIEW: "...O'Malley continues to prove that he is one of the more important writers around, a writer who with every book brings into our lives some very strange, often exceedingly humorous, and now, frequently very lonely people. His ability to create language for each of his characters is sharp, well studied and written, and without belittling anyone he, in language, shows the difference between class, and education, and exposure. Likely that comes from his experience in writing plays where characters are alive and moving, but with his considerable literary skills he makes his written page people morph into real life folks. He is in top form here ... " Grady Harp, June 12 (Hall of Fame reviewer)