A bit of Lund history: Hardebergaspåret/The track of Hardeberga

Few weeks ago, when it was snowing at its best (or better afterwards), we went out for a walk.
Walking (or taking the bike) here is always very comfortable since there are good paths for such purpose and in particular, we are lucky to live nearby a big track that crosses east Lund and continue towards Södra Sandby, when it ends, today.
Such track is called "Harderbergaspåret".

Our winter walk on Hardebergaspåret

The history behind this track can be found on Wikipedia, but unfortunately it is available just in Swedish.
Not everyone living in Lund knows that until 1966, a railway track was there, instead of the bycicle path. That was the rests of the line Bjärred - Lund -Revinge- Harlösa, that was active in the beginning of the 19th century (however, still kept in used until 1966 for transporation of stones and beats.

In the new neighbourhood, called Harlösabanan

At that time there were more stations in Lund. Lund Södra still exists but it is used for other purposes and it is still located on the track.

Lund Södra

  Lund Östra was located where we are living today, therefore, nearby Villa Sunna and St. Jörgens Park, but it was demolished 1949.

Nearby Lund Östra

The track was passing "behind" Stadsparken for then continuing north towards Bjärred, with an additional stop called Högevall. Högevall is part of the rests of the medieval wall in Lund, which is crossing the park.

If one is more curious about details of this undocumented piece of history (it would be nice to just see some sign about it there and then on the track) I think the best link to explore is this one.

Tom Sawyer, by Shin Takahashi

Tomu Sōya by Shin Takahashi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoyed very much reading this manga, although I am not familiar with Tom Sawyer, on which the story is based upon.

What I liked the most were, a parte from fresh and beautiful drawings, the characters, especially Haru, the protagonist.

The plot is just catching the reader and the happy ending is the cherry on the pie.



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Evighetsträd (eternity tree)

The other day, I was walking nearby when my attention got taken by a little plate on a tree.
I looked closer and I saw that there was written "Evighetsträd". I was puzzled.

Evighetsträd #9

Evighetsträd #498

I did a small search about this and I found an interesting link:Naturskyddsföreningen i Skåne. Here there is written what is this concept: basically, from what I have understood, this organization tried to preserve middle-aged or old trees that can be found around Skåne.

However, from the sign this seems to be an initiative of Lunds Kommun. They have decided to mark those trees that are supposed to live as long as they can, and once dead, the tree is left as habitat for other organisms (mushrooms, insects, etc.).

A terrible picture of the tree.

The tree in all its height

The tree is one of the 500 trees that have been selected and marked during the 2002-2004 timeframe.

It seems then clear that the two organizations are not connected to each other, although the concept is very similar and probably one is inspired by the other one. 

In all the years that I ahve been living in Sweden this is the first time I met one! I wonder if we will ever seen all the others (there is a map in the link above, but one has to guess where the trees really are, anyway...)

Sailor Moon Stars

Sailor Moon Stars, Vol. 3 by Naako Takeuchi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a well deserve end to the "saga" of Sailor Moon, in particular the story called Sailor Moon Stars.

I appreciated very much the drawings: the characters are depicted very beautifully and their emotions are clear through every picture. Every scene melts together very nicely with each other and my main perception was that the story was permeated with sweetness and cuteness.

However, specifically speaking of Sailor Moon Stars, it is not a "mature" story, although the moral and the message the is transmitted is very beautiful and positive, but it is clear that the target of this manga is teenagers.

Especially the first two numbers were not representing anything specifically new, also within the Sailor Moon story itself.

Anyway, I will still keep be a fan of Sailor Moon and I believe it is a great comic that girls should definitely read!



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Green Matmarknad

Yesterday we managed to visit a place that has raised our curiosity: Green Matmarknad.
This is a recently opened supermarket in the fancy/posh area of Västra Hamnen in Malmö. It was promoted/discussed/advertised in the newspapers recently for its "green" profile and it caught our eyes.
The shop is quite beautiful and has a lot to offer, most conventional ingredients, but also quite peculiar ones. The ecological imprint is visible in the majority of the products and it is nice to see some new brand on the shelves.
One is welcomed by the flower section, which gives a very nice first impression (and the nice smell makes the customer happy to walk in the shop).  We can switch smoothly then to the grocery part of the supermarket where the vegetables look nice, fresh and are mostly ecological, of course.
On the left, one can see a big area reserved to freshly grinded coffee and a small stand for what it seems can be cooking event. On the right, instead, there is a long counter with unimpressive fish, cold cuts (among which finally one could see prosciutto cotto - cooked ham, porchetta and a very old capocollo) and meat hanged in a pitoresque way.
Continuing in the shop, it is possible to observe a small section for kids/babies products, where one can find alternative brands for diapers, as well as a complete selection of food (unfortunately for me, mostly scandinavian style) for the babies. I wish some more international products would be available there (for example, italiana pasta for babies)!
I was happy to see that there was a detergents refill-station (as it is nowadays popular in Italy, too) of a brand called Attitude, which seems very interesting (maybe to try?).

We walked for quite a while in the shop, wondering if there was something we wanted to buy or not. We ended up buying a new soft drink made in Sweden which we tried today and found very tasty and refreshing: Xubi. However, if one checks carefully, this is not exactly an ecological product (watermelon from Africa!??!??), even though it doesn't contain conservants and sugar and other not so nice ingredients.

We were a bit puzzled by the cash counters (it is all self-service) and some products could not be scanned. However (possibly, also because the place is quite new) we got assisted by a couple of shop assistants, which I assume are not going to be available for a long time: for going out of the shop you need to scan the receipt of the payment.

So, in summary: the place is inviting and it has a nice selection of products, mostly ecological, but not necessarily such.
I am wondering how long such a place will last, though, considering:

•  the competition with the more traditional (and huge) supermarket not so far away from that location,
• its position which doesn't make it super accessible except if one is going to Västra Hamnen or surroundings on purpose,
• the prices, which are not that different from "normal" supermarkets which today offer a quite wide range of ecological products as well.