#copenhagen

jakob@pod.orkz.net

The walk of the young trees

Every day I walk for about an hour in my neighbourhood called, Nørrebro. Today, in the street called Asminderødgade, I saw some young ash trees which for some reason grabbed my attention. I have passed them many times without ever really looking at them, but today was different.

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Here they are. The ash trees of Asminderødgade

The ash trees have had a hard time the last many years because of an evil fungi that has killed many of them. But I read once that they have found a variant that can withstand this threat and maybe these are of that resistant sort.

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The same trees from another angle

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The space beneath is a chaotic bicycle parking lot. It has been very windy these last couple of days so everything is in disarray.

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Here you can see the roots of the trees messing with the pavement.

The weather today was sunny, rainy, sunny again, dark, light, dark again. I started to take some photos of other trees as I walked on. Most of them young trees so you can appreciate the work of the local municipality gardeners.

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Here are some newly planted trees at Nørrebro station, where there has been a lot of construction going on in connection with the new underground city ring metro.

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Here's an older platanus tree in Arresøgade. The platanus is not really fit for the cold and windy Danish weather, but it is thriving in cities where it can get shelter among the tall buildings.

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A young oak tree in Guldbergsgade.

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And another oak tree in the same street with a cosy place for the locals.

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The beautiful horse chestnut is quite common. This one also in Guldbergsgade.

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The square where both Sjællandsgade Church, the old Bathing house and Guldbergsgade School is situated. A lot of newly planted trees here. In 50 years time it will become a stately place.

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To finish off I have a picture of the trees of the graveyard, Assistens Kirkegård. In there you will find some very old trees some which goes back to the founding in 1760. Many famous people lies here. The physicist Niels Bohr, the writer Hans Christian Anderson, Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and many more. The trees in there are beautiful and old, but I didn't go in there today as my walk had become the walk of the young trees. Maybe I'll go take some photos from in there another day.

#Walk #walking #trees #young #ash #platanus #oak #horsechestnut #Nørrebro #Copenhagen #Denmark

jakob@pod.orkz.net

It has been a busy day, but every day I walk 4 km to get back in shape (the distance is slowly increased and I plan to get up to 8-9 km :)

So this small post is just to show you something I noticed today while walking through the street called Thor's street in the neighbourhood called Nørrebro (The coolest neighbourhood in the world according to some).

People in this country is about 180 cm in height (me for example) but up to 2 metres is not uncommon. So many people will have to bend down to enter these buildings. I am not sure why Thor's Street have such low doors. It is not common in the rest of the area.

#architecture #Copenhagen #Doors #door #Nørrebro #Thor #street

jakob@pod.orkz.net

The fedtemad

Literally fat-food could be translated as: grease sandwich. The thing is that a rye bread one side sandwich in Danish is called 'a food.' Mention any sort of topping, potato, salami, tomato, add the word -food to the end and it means a piece of rye bread with that topping (potato, salami or tomato) on top. This one is with melted pork fat!

One hundred years ago Copenhagen working class children was brought up on this fare. Not exactly unhealthy. Rye bread is very healthy and a bit of fat in a hungry child never harmed anyone. But they did often suffer from malnutrition and later, in the thirties, forties and fifties, there was a program that sent those pale and skinny children on summer holidays in the countryside with friendly farming families who took their social responsibility serious. Here they could benefit from clean air, sun, seawater and that healthy and varied farm diet.

Below is a small film of Copenhagen children leaving from the Central Station in 1940.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLvyewi4aOg

My mother who grew up in central Copenhagen's riff-raff quarter has told me how the children shouted to their mothers who were all stay-at-home moms, to throw down the grease-sandwich wrapped in newspaper.

It is not bad actually with a pinch of salt (the brown bits are crunchy pieces made when you melt the fat.) The pork fat is also used instead of butter on traditional Danish smørrebrød when you eat pickled herring or old cheese.

And keeping with the fat topic, I just saw this introduction to Danish pastry as it is made in Denmark (should be something completely different from what is called Danish pastry in the USA I've heard). Another grand way of consuming large amounts of fat... in this case butter.

#Food #fat #grease #crunchy #bits #Denmark #Rye #history #Copenhagen

jakob@pod.orkz.net

Our small Wyzard Tower garden has been producing enormous amounts of tomatoes. The principle I have enforced has been to let the plants grow wild with no pruning down to increase harvest. I like things to just go wild. It has sometimes gone a bit too wild, so some of those new gentrification pest neighbours are worried that their children would die due to falling tomatoes. Killer tomatoes.

My wife have this year tried beef tomatoes that in this cold climate, where all fruits and vegetables get intense aromas in a trade off with less crop, have tasted almost melon like. Our youngest daughter didn't fancy them, probably because they were to large, luscious, colourful and alien shaped. So we have had tomato salads every evening, and I have been eating rye bread with mayonnaise and tomatoes for lunch for quite some time. Now the chillies are soon ready for harvest and the tomatoes are over. As you can see on the last picture, we are ready for winter now, with the thyme, rosemary and the survivor pine tree as the only residents on the balcony. The rest of the spices have moved inside - (actually they are right now on display in some plastic recycling design project my wife has on exhibition right now - they will return shortly she has promised).

Next year we will return to the less frivolous sort of tomatoes and have many, many more chillies!

#gardening #urbangardening #winteriscoming #tomato #chilli #balcony #Copenhagen #Denmark

baztian@joindiaspora.com

Books that I read in 2021 - number 30:

Now I have finally read the last part of the Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen. „Dependency" is the title of this also short book. It is indeed the most spectacular of the three parts (but also the most challenging for me). It relentlessly describes the story of a drug addiction from the inside. No wonder that the humour of the first two parts is somewhat lost in this topic. It is still extremely gripping to have the power of addiction described in this way.

#ToveDitlevsen #copenhagen #denmark #sucht #dependency #drugs #buch #autorin #femalewriter #worker #workingclass #autofictional #trilogy #recomendation #books #literature #fan #married #gift #poet #vesterbro

baztian@joindiaspora.com

Books that I read in 2021 - number 19:

Right after the first part, I have now read the second part of the Copenhagen trilogy by this great female writer. Youth is the title and that is exactly what this unfortunately very slim book is about. With a clear, humorous style, she describes her years after leaving school and her path to becoming a poet. Now I have really turned into a Tove Ditlevsen fan.

#ToveDitlevsen #copenhagen #denmark #kindheit #buch #autorin #femalewriter #worker #workingclass #dreissigerjahre #autofictional #trilogy #recomendation #books #literature #fan #office #poet #artworld #verleger #vesterbro

baztian@joindiaspora.com

Books that I read in 2021 - number 17:

It took me a while to immerse myself in the world of this book. This is the first part of the "Copenhagen Trilogy" by Danish female writer Tove Ditlevsen. Her own language creates an amazing connection from the heart of the working-class child in 1920s Copenhagen directly to the future, to us today. Now I have finished the book and want to buy the second part immediately. What a discovery.

#ToveDitlevsen #denmark #copenhagen #kindheit #buch #autorin #femalewriter #worker #workingclass #zwanzigerjahre #autofictional #trilogy #recomendation #books #literature