Second Month and the Coming Winter.

After two months in Sweden the long autumn is slowly turning into winter. This means that the days get quite a lot shorter and last weekend we switched to winter time, which is also the "normal" time although for fewer months (in effect we are now GMT +1).


Currently it is not too cold and we had no snow since the short cold spell at the start of the month (usually the first snow comes later). The average temperature is 5°C and unlike in South Africa the night and day temperatures does not vary that much. However, we rarely see the sun anymore...
Although the official sunrise and sunset is 7:11 am and 3:53 pm at the moment, the constant clouds and occasional mist lets little light through. This reminds me of a few lines from an excellent movie "Eric the Viking" (1989):

FREYA  Have you ever seen the sun, Erik? 
ERIK  The sun is up beyond the clouds
     - where it always is. 
FREYA  But have you ever seen it? Think back... 
ERIK  Of course not... but...  when  I  was  a child....
     I remember a dream....
     it was as if the whole sky was blue... 
FREYA  The sky WAS blue, Erik... once.

Do not despair however as the autumn colors are really beautiful. Following is a few pictures taken in the surrounding areas and on the way to work.


When walking outside it is noticeable that there are much fewer people about (except foreigners, children and people walking their dogs). We suspect that there are a lot of indoor activities going on and have joined by enjoying the cozy warmth of our home with a lot of strong coffee while watching movies. As mentioned, children here are unaffected by snow, rain or ice and came out to "trick or treat" on Halloween (in the black of night, i.e. about 5 pm). We were prepared and here are a few pictures.


We are enjoing the different seasons and are eagerly awaiting more snow that has been foretasted for the coming week.

R&C