Another trip in the sun

Holiday on its last few days here. I have not travelled at all this year, not even a concert (and I could have seen Deep Purple and Black Sabbath had I wanted to!). And I like it. Instead I have been taken it easy here in Jämtland County (Sweden), one of the most gorgeous places on this earth. So I opted to do another trip on the old trusted bicycle today in good company, and our goal was to check out the island of Frösön in Lake Storsjön (The Great Lake, home of Storsjöodjuret, The Great Lake Monster). Now this is where I grew up, part of this island is like part of town, but with a couple of bridges separating Frösön from the town of Östersund. Then you have a large mountain and on the other side of that an airport. Used to be part military, part civilian but it is all civilian now. Did my stint in the Air Force there back in the day. But this part of the island also has a beautiful church and some areas out back with incredible nature that people never see. That was the goal, to check out the area we had never seen, and to have a good day in the sun taking a few snapshots on the way.

Took this shot of an outdoor bath (what you see here is only a small part of it) that has closed down now, so this will soon be gone I suppose. What a pity, I mean the kids can certainly appreciate a place like this. I used to spend a lot of time there as a kid, and I have to admit that I was unaware of what this place looked like now. This homage to The Great Lake Monster (or Storsie) came as a bit of a surprise. Glad to capture it on film while it still stands.

Once we arrived on the furthest point of the island, we headed into the woods towards the shoreline. Soon there was only a thin trail that was pretty hard to move through but we did so anyhow and boy was this a great decision. A deer passed us by very close. Fantastic nature, lovely cottages by the lake with grand views for miles and miles. I guess we spent a couple of hours checking it all out and at my age (55) it started to get a little rough. All in all we spent nearly six hours on this little trip and it was brilliant.

On the way home I wanted to buy some beverage at a hotel and guess what, they did not accept cash. This civilization is clearly going to hell. Still, great day and I do feel lucky to have so much so close to where I reside. I think these snapshots says it all.

(Thank you Seth for a good day)

(My images)

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Meet Angelica Rylin

I saw The Murder Of My Sweet at the Rockweekend Festival here in Sweden back in 2010 and it was early days then. They suffered some technical problems and you could tell that they needed live experience. All that said, I knew it was a band with clear potential. Six years later they have moved on and their third album “Beth Out Of Hell” (2015) is quite good. What you have here is a decent Symphonic Rock/Gothic kind of band based around drummer Daniel Flores (who multitasks a great deal) and vocalist Angelica Rylin. Frontiers Records has also released a solo album from Angelica called “Thrive” (2013) and this is more traditional AOR (think Heart, Bon Jovi etc).

Nice to see that they are going places.

(My live image)

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Rainbow – Boston 1981

There are quite a lot of Rainbow live albums coming out these days, and “Boston 1981” is the first to feature Joe Lynn Turner on vocals. It was obviously recorded when they toured the States for the “Difficult To Cure” album. There is a stock in Vinyl as well, but my guess is that this will be out of print before you know it.

I still have to see this but I can say that I like the cover of this one.

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Look what I found today

On my trip to Stugun today (see previous post) my good friend Seth suggested that we checked out a small lakeside communty called Lillsjöhögen (located 30 minutes from Östersund). You basically follow a small road straight into the woods and then the lake appears to your right. What I did not expect to see was an exact copy of the kind of church that existed in Sweden about 900 years ago. Suddenly it just pops up on your left and it really takes you by surprise.

The place just screamed “photo opportunity!”, so we decided to check it out. I have to say that it is quite impressive. The Viking era is very apparent, you can tell that they have had a lot of fun with this. The door to the church was open so we ventured inside and looked around. Beautiful details. Bought a postcard. You can just pick what you want and put money in a box. Very old school, nice to see that it still exists.

I hidden treasure smack in the middle of Jämtand County then, not too far from where I live, and I had no idea that it existed. No sign on the main road as far as I could tell. I will definitely come back to this place. Perfect for family gatherings etc.

What a wonderful place.

(My images)

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Hunting property

Checked out Stugun, an old quiet community about 45 minutes from Östersund (Jämtland County), today. A house from the 1970s is for sale near the base of the mountain. In the end it was not for me but I do like Stugun, it still looks like the Sweden I grew up in. Lovely church down by the water as well.

(Thank you Seth for your good company)

(My images)

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Good day in the sun

Spent six hours on a bicycle trip in good company around (part of) Lake Storsjön (The Great Lake) today. Took in some sights and stopped on a few places for sandwiches, beer and finally dinner. I try to do something like this every summer and it is quite enjoyable.

I love Jämtland (County), it is a nice part of the country to be living in.

(My images)

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Deep Purple back in action (2)

My good friend Seth Nilsson saw Deep Purple at Gröna Lund in Stockholm tonight and came away with a very positive feeling. Drummer Ian Paice was back in fine form and Seth sent the following report…

“I think I just witnessed a jackpot! It has been a while since I saw Deep Purple in such fine form. I saw the band in Linköping on their last tour and the new songs were relatively new in the set then. Now it was perfect, no peeking at lyric sheets from Ian Gillan. Ian Paice was in fine shape and Don Airey was better than last time around. Of course he did some ABBA (I remember him doing that back in his Rainbow days as well). Steve Morse did Europe, which surprised me. Good fun! They had a backdrop that featured water and smoke when a certain song was performed. Yes, there was the extended solos, but I would rather have that than see Gillan strained halfway through the gig. Roger Glover´s solo did go down well. I think we were lucky to see Deep Purple in such good shape tonight. Looking forward to the new album”.

Amazingly, the cancelled shows were the first Purple shows ever to be moved to other dates because of Ian Paice. The band has done thousands of shows through the years – starting in 1968 – and he never called in sick until his mini-stroke in Sweden in June.

The band has recorded a new studio album with producer Bob Ezrin and it will be the 20th. Sixth with guitarist Steve Morse, fourth with keyboard player Don Airey. Bob Ezrin did produce the last album, “Now What?!” that was released in 2013. The new one does not have an official release date as of yet, but late 2016 or early 2017 is a good guess. The band has not premiered any new songs, probably because of YouTube, but a major push can be expected when the record is coming up.

In the meantime, Deep Purple still rocks!

(Thank you Seth for the report)

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Deep Purple back in action

Deep Purple returned to Sweden for shows in Gothenburg and Stockholm yesterday and today to do the shows that were cancelled due to the minor stroke that drummer Ian Paice suffered in the capital a couple of weeks ago (see earlier post). This shot of his kit was taken pre-show in Stockholm and a report will follow on this blog shortly.

(Photo by Seth Nilsson)

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