@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

There’s so much to be anxious about right now, so I thought you might like to know that they painted the night sky inside the bus shelter outside the Ole Rømer Observatory.

#Aarhus

Aarhus. On the road outside the Ole Rømer Observatory, named after another famous Dane, Carl Nielsen. A broad clear road in Kongelunden, the Royal Woods, with trees on either side. Looking straight at the bus shelter, one of the city’s iconic mushroom-shaped bus shelters designed in the 1960s by furniture designer Poul Cadovius. A low concrete mushroom-shaped shell with standing room and a little bench inside. The council commissioned artists to paint them with local motifs. Artist Ekaterina Poliakova painted the night sky in this one. As you wait for the bus, you are surrounded on three sides and above by a black night sky with a map of the stars and constellations and galaxies, their names written beside them. Outside, the shelter’s shell is painted like a day sky – light blue with fluffy white clouds.

Seen from a side angle, so you can see the outside of the bus shelter with blue sky and white clouds painted on it, and night sky inside. Now follows same full description as on all photos in the toot, so skip if you’ve already heard it. Aarhus. On the road outside the Ole Rømer Observatory, named after another famous Dane, Carl Nielsen. A broad clear road in Kongelunden, the Royal Woods, with trees on either side. Looking straight at the bus shelter, one of the city’s iconic mushroom-shaped bus shelters designed in the 1960s by furniture designer Poul Cadovius. A low concrete mushroom-shaped shell with standing room and a little bench inside. The council commissioned artists to paint them with local motifs. Artist Ekaterina Poliakova painted the night sky in this one. As you wait for the bus, you are surrounded on three sides and above by a black night sky with a map of the stars and constellations and galaxies, their names written beside them. Outside, the shelter’s shell is painted like a day sky – light blue with fluffy white clouds.

Inside the bus shelter looking out, a sliver of ‘night sky’ above our heads with stars and galaxies. Outside, a car passing by and other cars waiting to turn the corner. Now follows same full description as on all photos in the toot, so skip if you’ve already heard it. Aarhus. On the road outside the Ole Rømer Observatory, named after another famous Dane, Carl Nielsen. A broad clear road in Kongelunden, the Royal Woods, with trees on either side. Looking straight at the bus shelter, one of the city’s iconic mushroom-shaped bus shelters designed in the 1960s by furniture designer Poul Cadovius. A low concrete mushroom-shaped shell with standing room and a little bench inside. The council commissioned artists to paint them with local motifs. Artist Ekaterina Poliakova painted the night sky in this one. As you wait for the bus, you are surrounded on three sides and above by a black night sky with a map of the stars and constellations and galaxies, their names written beside them. Outside, the shelter’s shell is painted like a day sky – light blue with fluffy white clouds.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

They are 3D-printing a new street in our neighbourhood

#Aarhus

Vestergade, mid-city Aarhus, Denmark. A lovely narrow old street that is, after a few years' trial, being turned permanently into a Quiet Street - cars may drive here, but only slowly, and bikes and pedestrians have priority. The council is planting trees, widening the pavement café and seating spaces, and laying a nice new chessboard-like brick surface. The surface is designed to slow down bikes too. It is the first place in Denmark that is being paved with a Dan Jord RoadPrinter - a Dutch brick paver that rolls out complete stretches of road from a machine, as if you are winding a continuous sheet of paper out from a huge roll of paper. Photo taken with permission - I have turned into one of those Auld Lads who stand there, hands behind my back, watching them at work, fascinated by the process, interrupting them with questions including 'may I take some photos?' This photo: Sun shining. A close-up of the machine seen from the side over Work In Progress metal barricades. A yellow half-timbered café and house opposite us. We can clearly see the bricks being wound like one ready-made carpet out of the machine, slowly falling into place on the flat surface where several men in high-vis yellow gear are at work - laying, sweeping, fixing.

Seen from the back, behind building paraphernalia and a huge bag of concrete or some such - a vew of the brick road being wound out of the machine. A cyclist is just passing on the pavement alongside. Same general description from first photo now follows, so skip if already heard: Vestergade, mid-city Aarhus, Denmark. A lovely narrow old street that is, after a few years' trial, being turned permanently into a Quiet Street - cars may drive here, but only slowly, and bikes and pedestrians have priority. The council is planting trees, widening the pavement café and seating spaces, and laying a nice new chessboard-like brick surface. The surface is designed to slow down bikes too. It is the first place in Denmark that is being paved with a Dan Jord RoadPrinter - a Dutch brick paver that rolls out complete stretches of road from a machine, as if you are winding a continuous sheet of paper out from a huge roll of paper. Photo taken with permission - I have turned into one of those Auld Lads who stand there, hands behind my back, watching them at work, fascinated by the process, interrupting them with questions including 'may I take some photos?

Another angle of the same road work as in the first photo. This time we can see further along the street to a section not yet laid - just dirt on the surface. Same general description from first photo now follows, so skip if already heard: Vestergade, mid-city Aarhus, Denmark. A lovely narrow old street that is, after a few years' trial, being turned permanently into a Quiet Street - cars may drive here, but only slowly, and bikes and pedestrians have priority. The council is planting trees, widening the pavement café and seating spaces, and laying a nice new chessboard-like brick surface. The surface is designed to slow down bikes too. It is the first place in Denmark that is being paved with a Dan Jord RoadPrinter - a Dutch brick paver that rolls out complete stretches of road from a machine, as if you are winding a continuous sheet of paper out from a huge roll of paper. Photo taken with permission - I have turned into one of those Auld Lads who stand there, hands behind my back, watching them at work, fascinated by the process, interrupting them with questions including 'may I take some photos?

A finished section of the 'printed' brick surface - a long stretch of perfectly laid bricks. On both sides: small businesses and cafes and cyclists and pedestrians on the pavement alongside. Same general description from first photo now follows, so skip if already heard: Vestergade, mid-city Aarhus, Denmark. A lovely narrow old street that is, after a few years' trial, being turned permanently into a Quiet Street - cars may drive here, but only slowly, and bikes and pedestrians have priority. The council is planting trees, widening the pavement café and seating spaces, and laying a nice new chessboard-like brick surface. The surface is designed to slow down bikes too. It is the first place in Denmark that is being paved with a Dan Jord RoadPrinter - a Dutch brick paver that rolls out complete stretches of road from a machine, as if you are winding a continuous sheet of paper out from a huge roll of paper. Photo taken with permission - I have turned into one of those Auld Lads who stand there, hands behind my back, watching them at work, fascinated by the process, interrupting them with questions including 'may I take some photos?

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

About 20 years ago, I saw an excellent rock. It was unusual, so I took a photo. But I couldn’t find the photo shortly afterwards and thought I’d deleted it by mistake. I was sad. I kept describing the rock to people, but they were strangely uninterested. I am clearing out my photo archive and I just found it. I am happy. I missed this rock. I thought of it often. I can show my rock to people now, whether they want to see it or not. You included.

Short version: a rock that is half black and half white. Fuller description: Looking down at a rock not the size of a large boulder. A rock about the size of, say, a rugby ball. It is dark wet with rain, lying on a winter beach in Skagen, Denmark. Small stones in lighter greens and beiges are nestled around it at one edge. Larger uninteresting rocks in dull blacks and greys are on either side. The excellent rock looks like two rocks fused together. The left half is jet black and has a rippling texture that reminds me of the crisp packets we shrank in the oven to amuse ourselves as kids. The right half is bright white with patches of grey and very smooth. The join between the two halves is invisibly smooth. The rock looks alien to me. Obviously, I didn’t touch it. I assume there were faeries or trolls nearby.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

My favourite thing in the whole Fediverse is when I get a notification that someone has edited a toot I favourited or boosted months ago. Like, something in that toot has been bugging them for half a year. A comma that could've been a semi-colon. A spelling mistake they belatedly spotted. Some good information they wish they'd put in the Alt Text. And thanks to the magic of Mastodon, they can just fix it now, all these months later. I feel happy for them, knowing they can sleep soundly again.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

We need a word for real-life enshittification caused by online culture. Like being unable to find an organisation’s info because they’ve Instagram but no website. Or panicked people being sent a videolink to download to their phone when they ring for an ambulance. Or being excluded from residents' association news if you're not on Facebook. Or having cash payment refused. Or staff in the business you’re physically standing in telling you to find the answer to your question on their website.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

I see they're doing sightseeing tours of the Fediverse now. Aww that's nice. A new onboarding initiative.

Street scene, London. Overcast sky, bare trees to the left, an ornate old building to the right. Looking up at sign on top.of bus stop. It says: Bus stop Parliament Square
Big Bus Tours
TOOTBus Tours

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

Monday just walked in, bold as brass. Here again. Oh well. Glædelig mandag. Here's a postcard from ⁨#Aarhus⁩, just to say that I hope this week treats you kindly.

Short version: Aarhus Cathedral spire in aerial view seen through long grasses. Fuller description: Aerial view across Aarhus mid-city to the sea, seen through long grasses, their stems bending in the wind. This is the café garden on the rooftop of Salling department store, 30 metres up. Framed through the long-stemmed grass stalks: Domkirken, the cathedral spire. The sky is cloudless and a light bluey-purple colour with a streak of sunset pink. The moon is unusually bright and clear, high in the sky.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

#SilentSunday

A huge silvery building facade with slots that give it a sense of moving lines and upward motion. Above it, a thin line of deep blue cloudless sky. In front of it, at a slight distance, like two sentinels, two tall green trees. I just found this photo during a clear-up and can't remember where I took it - it was either Aalborg or Oslo, I think.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

I disliked being forced to choose between an unusable phone or companies tracking me. Especially when DuckDuckGo blocks over a thousand attempts a day to track me and my data. I was cross enough to try something. I uninstalled DuckDuckGo, which I’d originally installed through Google Play. I installed F-Droid, which I’d heard people mention on Mastodon. I installed DuckDuck Go again, but now through F-Droid. I turned on the app, tracking blocker included. And hey presto, all my apps work again.

Screenshot, Danish-language, of the DuckDuckGo app-tracking blocker with the real-time counter showing. At that moment, it shows that it has blocked 10,969 attempts to get my data from 10 apps in the last seven days.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

I am not shocked, I am not surprised. It’s not new and it’s not news. But it’s still enraging that we have to spend so much time trying to dodge and fix the enshittification of our daily digital tools. I am grateful to the Fediverse for making me aware of F-Droid, which solved this problem and which I am now using for other app switches as I gradually deGoogle.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

My phone has been so sluggish lately that at times it was almost bricked. My regular few apps would no longer work. Each one would freeze and crash every time. To avoid more enshittification and AI, I’ve been refusing to update my phone. I thought that was it but still refused to reboot. Then a thought struck me. I use DuckDuckGo's app-tracking blocker. So I tested each app. As it hung frozen, I turned off track-blocking for that specific app. And hey presto, the app immediately started working.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

I disliked being forced to choose between an unusable phone or companies tracking me. Especially when DuckDuckGo blocks over a thousand attempts a day to track me and my data. I was cross enough to try something. I uninstalled DuckDuckGo, which I’d originally installed through Google Play. I installed F-Droid, which I’d heard people mention on Mastodon. I installed DuckDuck Go again, but now through F-Droid. I turned on the app, tracking blocker included. And hey presto, all my apps work again.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

My phone has been so sluggish lately that at times it was almost bricked. My regular few apps would no longer work. Each one would freeze and crash every time. To avoid more enshittification and AI, I’ve been refusing to update my phone. I thought that was it but still refused to reboot. Then a thought struck me. I use DuckDuckGo's app-tracking blocker. So I tested each app. As it hung frozen, I turned off track-blocking for that specific app. And hey presto, the app immediately started working.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

#SilentSunday

A single tall tree with white blossoms, rising alone in an empty cobbled courtyard, a single old wooden beer barrel beside it. The backdrop behind it is a row of centuries-old weathered buildings, one light pink, one rust-red, one dark red and half-timbered. Above them, a sliver of light blue sky.Taken in Den Gamle By, the Old Town open-air history museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

#SilentSunday

Short version: jets of water from a fountain in front of an historic building. Fuller description: right in front of us, hundreds of thin jets of water are bouncing up into the air at varying heights – one, two and three metres. They shoot up at intervals from wide circles embedded in the ground – people stand and play in the spaces in-between, betting on when and where the water will hit. If you squint, you can just make out a child sitting on the ground inside one wall of jets. This is the Endless Connection fountain by artist Jeppe Hein on the harbour promenade in Aarhus, Denmark. Rising up beyond, old and new city buildings. Prominent: ’Toldboden’, the former customs house, built by the world-famous-in-Denmark royal architect Hack Kampmann in 1897. An ornate landmark listed redbrick building. Its turrets and spires stand out against a dramatic sky – a cloudburst is imminent. Black and grey clouds are swirling in, big and low, leaving one distinctive overly bright white clear stripe on the horizon. The mood of the scene, to me: sinister and playful.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

Today is shaping up to be one of those messy days that could go either way. I may procrastitoot. Or procrastiboost. Probably both. Here's a cottage I saw in the woods.

#Procrastitooting
#MuteMeNow

Short version: Thatched cottage in woods. Fuller description:
A ridiculously picturesque fairytale red thatched cottage with white-framed windows, only the upper floor visible behind a riot of almost two-metre-high yellow and purple and pinky wildflowers and green grasses and bushes. It's tucked into big bushy trees including skyscraper-high willow trees. This is in Marselisborg forest in Aarhus Denmark.

Ciara
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green

Puppy in the office puppy in the office! The puppy is not at all overexcited but I am so these are the best of the 37 photos I took

Same Alt Text all photos. A fuzzy blurry pic of a bit of a gorgeous little white-and-brown King Charles Cavalier spaniel with a boring grey office floor and desk background. Photo taken with permission, model's labour paid for in doggie biccies.