This is my 12th and final Wrap-Up post for the year-long project I had during 2016. That means that for 366 straight days I was able to take, edit and post a picture on Instagram. (that's bending the truth a bit though about the take a picture part...there were days when I didn't take the actual picture but had to resort to using the "archive").
I'll probably do a whole year retrospective blogpost in a little while, once the project has sort of settled in my mind, so this will be "just" a December wrap-up in the same vein as the previous ones; a cover image and then some pictures from the last month's batch.
The cover image of this blog post is the very last picture of the year, taken at the Hope Outdoor Gallery overlooking the skyline in Austin, Texas. I thought the spraypainted words on the ground was a good way to finish off the year, which has been such a rough year for many people, with a hopeful look into 2017. It was also a very enjoyable day spent looking at a fascinating part of the Texan capital!
December 4 - Day 339: Gnomes, gnomes, everywhere gnomes!
December is the month of Christmas, so it made a lot of sense to visit a few markets to get shots of all the people there enjoying the season's delights as well as buying cool stuff for their homes. When I visited the Katrinetorp Christmas market outside Malmö on December 4th I saw an abundance of these Christmas gnomes on sale and thought they could make for a cool picture of the day. I guess they look kind of quaint to non-Swedes with their conical hats and big beards (and in this case...clogs!).
December 12 - Day 347: End of the line
Sometimes you take a picture that is just plain pretty and strikes a lot of people as look-worthy. This image, taken just a few hundred yards from my home of an abandoned railroad track is one that a lot of people liked on Instagram, and I can see why. It has leading lines and an absolutely amazing sky with lots of colors. I am not saying they are the _natural_ colors though...I've certainly enhanced them...quite a bit.
December 13 - Day 348: House for a mouse
This image is taken at a place that was the very unlikely center of a whole town's attention for a few weeks during December. Out of nowhere a tiny, mouse-sized piece of public art appeared on one of the busier streets of Malmö and everyone went completely nuts over this rodent-sized restaurant and nut store. I definitely liked the attention to detail that the anonymous(e) artists had put into the piece, as well as the additions that visitors put along the original artwork. I wrote about the visit to this place in my last entry of this blog too.
December 27 - Day 362: At South Congress
Going across the ocean ot Austin to visit friends and loved ones is most definitely one of the highlights of my year, and this year was no exception to that! This picture is taken in the trendy South Congress Avenue area where there are lots of hipster-ish bars and restaurants and some areas that sort of resemble a more European street life. We were there to find a restaurant to eat at, and I took this photo of the darkening sky as we approached the Hopdoddy burger joint to eat one of the best burgers I've ever had.
December 28 - Day 363: So long Princess!
This is another picture taken at the Hope Outdoor Gallery in central Austin and one of the sadder images of the year. It was only a day or so before that the news of Carrie Fisher's death had been made public and whoever did this memorial painting must have done it pretty much overnight. It was also a place where I saw several eager spray painters, who pretty much covered older stuff all over the art park avoid painting over this. Several even told each other "let's leave that alone". I bet it will last for a little while at least in the actress's honor!
December 30 - Day 365: The Walburg Boys on stage
I can't help smiling when I look at this image, because it was taken in a place that makes me very happy. This is The Walburg Boys, the house band at the Walburg German Restaurant, a rather large Biergarten in a Texan town that at best can be described as "small". We went there with a large group of friends and had a fantastic meal full of sauerkraut, schnitzels, spätzle and other German food, along with a very entertaining band playing both polkas, waltzes and more rock related stuff.