Stockholm

Last week I visited Stockholm for a few days. This was my first visit to Sweden and hopefully not my last. I hadn't realised that Stockholm was built on 14 different islands with another 30,000 making up the archipelago. Approximately just 150 of the islands are inhabited.

Many views of the city were taken either from one of the many bridges or from a boat.

Grona Lund amusement park

Vasa Museum

The Old Town, Gamla Stan, is full of medieval narrow cobbled lanes and historic buildings. Visiting early in the morning, I managed to avoid the crowded streets, full of tourists from the many cruise ships that are regular visitors to Stockholm.

Stockholm Cathedral

 The sculpture of St George and the dragon was created around 1485 from materials such as oak and elk antlers.

This red brick building is Stadshuset, City Hall. You can go up the tower to get a bird's eye view of the city.

Crossbones Graveyard

I first mentioned the Crossbones Graveyard in 2012 and thought it would be a good idea to see if it still existed. There has been so much construction work in this area that I thought it might have been swallowed up by one of the big developers.

To my surprise the gates were still there festooned with ribbons and various other bits and pieces, but through the gates I could see a garden and went around the corner to see if I could visit.

Crossbones Graveyard is a post medieval burial ground and now, instead of it being a small area of wasteland, it is a community garden opened and maintained by volunteers.

It's  estimated to hold the remains of 15,000 paupers, more than half of them children. This was the Single Women's churchyard for the 'Winchester Geese'.


The Geese were women licensed by the church to work in brothels.




Since 1996 the friends of Crossbones have worked to protect Crossbones and raise awareness  of its historical, cultural and spiritual significance. From 2006 to 2012 they worked alongside the 'invisible gardener' to create a secret guerrilla garden.

Since 2015 they have collaborated with Bankside Open Spaces Trust to maintain a community garden of remembrance on the site of this ancient burial ground.

This is known as the pyramid and is embedded with oyster shells from nearby Borough Market.

Oysters were not taxed and were cheap to buy making them a staple part of a pauper's diet.

No doubt many property developers would love to get their hands on this extremely valuable piece of land so well done to the Friends of Crossbones for all their hard work in turning this into a garden of remembrance.

Sharing with Our World Tuesday

Passchendaele

This weekend we remember the thousands of soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Passendaele.

The Mud soldier erected in Trafalgar Square is made from sand and mud taken from Flanders fields. It is here as a reminder of the struggle and sacrifice made by all the men who fought in the battle.  With the tremendous amount of rain we have had in the past 24 hours I doubt there is much of the soldier left.

The battle took place on the Western Front in Flanders, Belgium between 31st July and 10th November 1917 and was one of the deadliest clashes during the First World War.

 In just over 3 months 500,000 soldiers fell or were wounded as incessant rain turned the trenches into a sea of mud. Men and horses drowned and tanks got stuck in the quagmire.

'Lest we forget'

Sharing with My world Tuesday