The steady approach of winter

Last week the temperature dropped below 0 for the first time this season and I started to wear my gloves while cycling to work in the morning (I should have started to wear my hat also – the result - frozen ears). The autumn colors continue to amaze me. Below are some pictures from the banks of the Fyris River that runs through the city about 100 m from our apartment.

C&R

Starting our 4th year in Sweden

On the first of September we celebrated the end of our 3^rd year in Sweden. That week we also welcomed our friend form SA (see previous post) with particularly Swedish style food (see below). 

Very typical Swedish food to welcome Christoff - Prinskorv (small sausages) and köttbullar (meatballs)

Very typical Swedish food to welcome Christoff - Godis (assorted candy) and knäkebröd (crackers/hard bread) 

Showing Christoff all the sights was a nice break from a very busy time workwise. With all the people now back from their summer holidays and the new year starting for schools and universities, September is always a very busy time with lots of things happening. It is also the start of autumn and more and more yellow leaves began to appear everywhere. We had a very wet and rainy summer (with even one thunder shower! – very unusual here, the fifth time I heard thunder in Sweden), but a few weeks of nice weather towards the end of August. The last week or two however, became noticeably colder and autumn arrived in its full glory. 

Double rainbow after a very rare thundershower

When I was younger I disliked autumn and preferred the new beginnings and happy floweriness of spring. Nowadays I kind of like the sweet melancholy of autumn. I started to notice the usual signs associated with autumn here in Sweden; the cidery smell of apples rotting under the apple trees, the chestnuts ripening on the trees, lots of bugs flying around trying to stock up and procreate before winter starts, stalls selling chanterelle mushrooms and blueberries from the surrounding forests, bushes full of fat ripe bright-red rosehips complemented by red hawthorne bushes and trees everywhere. I really like the colorful autumn with the anticipation of the approaching winter. We hope for a nice, cold and snowy winter. Our first two winters here were ideal with lots of snow and sub-zero temperatures during the whole winter (people from SA- yes - this means that the temperatures did not go above 0 for the whole winter- not even in the days). The last winter here was not as nice, however, the continuous snowing and melting caused a lot of sludge and the lack of permanent snow made the days much darker and dreary. This year, some weather experts predict a cold winter due to sunspot activity and the lack of ice in the arctic (ironically), so we really hope that the predictions are accurate and our fourth winter will be a white one. Here’s to three years in the land of snow and ice! Skål!  

C&R

Sonskuif (Sunshift)

Yesterday-night, the time shifted and winter has officially arrived. Thus far we had a mild autumn, with the temperature dropping below zero only a few times in the nights. During the days the temperatures are between 5 and 12 , which is quite nice but just enough to encourage you to start getting out the hats and gloves. Especially on chilly mornings, when cycling to work, gloves and a hat prevents uncomfortable chilly fingers and ears. But the grass is still green and the trees, a beautiful mosaic of yellow and red. However, the leaves are falling quickly now and form lush carpets of yellow beneath the trees. Underneath the apple trees are rotting apples, emitting a surprisingly nice aroma. No wonder the elks are getting drunk on them (see newspaper articles here and here).

Autumn carpet. 

Note the lonely lost glove in the foreground,

this is quite a common sight nowadays again (also see older post).

We hope this will be a snowy winter again. The previous two winters (the only two winters we had in Sweden so far) were very snowy. In 2009 we even had a dusting of snow already in October (previous post). That year, however, the big snow only came around the middle of December (previous post) and then stayed with an ever increasing cover until deep into March. Last year, the snow came during a huge snow storm in early November (previous post), which also remained in covering the earth until middle March. How is it going to be this year? People say that the previous two winters had unusually heavy snowfalls and in Uppsala, the snow usually don’t stay throughout the winter, but rather fall and then melt away before falling again. We sure hope we have a lot of snow again, since we’ve grown to like the white and black landscapes of snowy Sweden.

Stay tuned for news of winter 2011-2012.

C&R

Spot the difference...

The beautiful colors of fall is here. I continuously hear that this is extremely lovely and people often become quite euphoric about how the whole world is changing. I have to agree that I think the change of the leaves are nice, especially the yellow ones. But I have the feeling that much of the change is lost on me. With the help of Photoshop and Carina we removed some of the red hue from two photos that we took in autumn. For me the two photos looks very much the same (save for the first photo having a slightly darker sky in the one image).

Since I don't really know how "extra red" would look like I don't feel that I miss anything. As a matter of fact I think I must be quite disturbing to have more vivid red in the world. It would probably look like a circus redecorated the place if I could suddenly see more red. I am therefore content without it. I must however protest about a recent suggestion by a student who said: "...it may be good to know if a child has some disabilities like colorblindness as it may be better not to allow it to live...". This is slightly "overkill" I think, and I am very happy to live with slightly less cone cells, thank you very much (in some circumstances it is even an advantage, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness).

Enjoy the rest of the season. Looking forward to the black and white of winter.

R&C