From –25°C to above freezing in 4 days. Amazing.

Phew, I’m glad the electrical weirdness manifested on Saturday and not today! The temperature outside our bedroom window this morning was –25°C.

The public transport company of Stockholm was advertising a reduced train schedule on their home page, plus a total cancellation of service on the above-ground sections of the metro (subway) lines, and advising people to stay at home if possible. Luckily it is very easy for me to work from home, so I followed their advice. (The prospect of standing outdoors, waiting for a train for who knows how long, in –25°C was not the least bit appealing.) My colleague Oscar, who lives in a relatively central part of Stockholm, finally got to the office just past 11, after about 2 hours of travel time.

During the day the temperature went up to around –13°C, so going out in the afternoon was not so bad at all. And there wasn’t much wind, which helped matters a lot.

Indoors, pretty steady at 17°C. An extra fleece on top of the other one, and I heated my orange juice this morning. (Sounds weird, perhaps, but tastes really nice.)

The Swedish weather service is forecasting around –10°C for tomorrow, with gusty wind and heavy snowfall all day, and issuing a “class 2 warning” meaning “weather conditions which can be expected to cause danger for the general public, major material damage and major disruptions to essential civic functions”.

I don’t mind the snow – I’m probably going to remember this winter fondly for the next twenty years. I don’t even mind shoveling and sweeping it. I do mind it all coming down at the same time so the streets are impassable and the trains are all late.

Here’s the fence along the front of our garden, as of about two weeks ago. Whenever a snow plough clears the street, most of the snow just gets pushed to the sides, which is what you see along most of the fence. The streets around here are relatively narrow to begin with, but wide enough for normal-sized cars to pass when meeting. Now there’s just enough space for one car. Whenever we (with stroller) meet a car, we make our way to the nearest driveway. Otherwise we’d have to climb up on that bank of snow, or risk watching the car get stuck in the bank on their side.

If we did nothing, we’d have a similar snow bank in front of our stairs and our mailbox. To make the stairs passable, and to make it possible to deliver our mail, we shovel that snow to either side, every time the street is ploughed. That’s what has lead to the sizeable pile of snow in the foreground. It now comes up to roughly chest height for me, so now I’m having to choose between lifting snow to that height, or walking a few yards with every shovelful. Just after shovelling the pile looks rather dirty because of the sand mixed into the snow, but since we have been getting at least a light dusting of snow at least once a week, it’s soon nice and white again.

Wherever possible, snow gets ploughed onto open spaces adjacent to roads: greens, squares, etc. On inner city roads, where there is really no space to leave the snow, the city sends lorries to transport it away, when there is at least a few days’t break in the snowfall and they have time. But now Stockholm is running out of places to put that snow. Snow from central Stockholm is tipped in the city’s waterways. Snow is considered waste, so tipping it in the water requires a dispensation from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, which the city has, but it’s now coming up against the volume limits for that dispensation. (600,000 cubic meters allowed, 450,000 cubic meters already utilized.) The city has been tipping snow in larger open spaces in the suburbs, but that’s of course not popular with those who live there – lots of noise from the heavy trafficy, ugly piles of dirty snow, worries about what will happen when it all melts, environmental concerns etc.

All our plates and bowls are green Höganäs earthenware. We use the same for both everyday meals and for special occasions, since we think they are really beautiful in their simplicity. We got them as a wedding gift, and hope to use them for many years.

Most unfortunately Höganäs decided a while ago to discontinue the green colour. With the help of Tradera (ebay’s Swedish arm) we’ve nevertheless managed to complement our stash with more small plates (since we seem to use a lot of those) and more large plates (since we’ve managed to break a few).

Since last spring I’ve been trying to buy some more pasta bowls, too – they’re great not just for pasta but also for porridge, cereal, and soup. One of the bookmarks on my Daily list is a search for “Höganäs verona*”. There’s a steady stream of stuff for sale. Mugs, especially, loads and loads of mugs: but various serving bowls and plates come up pretty often, too. But the one thing that never seems to turn up is the bowls. Seriously, not a single one since April 2009.

So I wonder: is it because no one else liked them (so they didn’t buy them and now they have none to sell) or because everyone else liked them (so they’re now unwilling to part with them)?

Here’s a poster I spotted the other day. (Sorry for the glare; I couldn’t get into better position because that would have entailed standing right in front of the exit from a busy escalator.) It reads roughly Tulips bring a feeling of spring – buy a bouquet today. And then in smaller type, Campaign financed with the support of the European Union and the International Flower Bulb Center.

Questions arise, and jostle for attention in my head.

First, what kind of spring feelings can they possibly be talking about, when it is barely the middle of January and the ground is covered with a thick blanket of snow?

Second, what is the EU doing, spending money on advertising for flowers?!

Third, wait a moment, is that the same poster they had last year? Yep, identical. Same photo, same layout, same photo, same financing information. Well, at least the EU doesn’t waste money on frivolously making up new posters every year.

20°C below freezing (–4 F). The coldest day yet since we got back to Sweden.

Last winter it never got below –14° or so, but that was enough to demonstrate the weak insulation in this house. For this winter we’ve put in place a new electric heater in the bathroom, and bought a large extra heater that we can put up when it’s particularly cold. In practice it’s been up and running whenever the temperature outside gets close to –10°.

Now at –20° all the heaters are turned on, and yet we cannot get the indoors temperature to above +16° (and +14° in the bathroom), which is just a little bit too chilly for comfort but actually not too bad, except when undressing. As long as it doesn’t get much colder outside, and as long as we don’t have a blackout.

We ventured outside yesterday when it was only –16° outside. Luckily there was almost no wind, so with proper clothing it didn’t feel too cold, except for the nose and cheeks.

I remember the poor Brits describing the weather as “bloody freezing” when it was +7° or so in London. Wish I could transport them here for a day and show them what real freezing feels like!

Seen on town today, #1: the first sellers of semlor. For years they’ve started as soon as Christmas was past (just after Epiphany). This is the first time I’ve seen them advertised before the new year. What is the world coming to? I guess being first gets you at least a handful of extra customers…

Seen on town today, #2: “Mayonnaise without additives! New!” I feel simultaneously cheered and disgusted. On the one hand I am glad that real food is making a comeback. On the other hand, isn’t it pathetic that something as basic as this is worth advertising?

This morning

The snow came last weekend. It stayed, which was a pleasant surprise. Then we had more on Thursday, and a little bit more again yesterday, so by now we have lots and lots of it. It’s the best kind of snow, too: cold and powdery, which gathers into beautiful drifts and gets pounded into a solid flooring, rather than turning into slush.

(Another reason to be happy about living in a suburb: in the city it’s all become brown sand-blended mush already, with all the disadvantages and none of the advantages of snow.)

Out here it is splendid, gorgeous, glorious. The moment I step outside the door in the morning, the snow lifts my spirits. The world around me is light and beautiful again. There hasn’t been much wind since the middle of last week, so the bushes and trees are all heavy with snow – lovely shapes and great contrasts. The snow lights up the clouds, even the dark and overcast sky above looks soft and shimmering. With the Christmas lights everywhere, it really does look like a wonderland.

Totally swamped by Christmas and other obligations. During the past 10 days I’ve been off work for 1 day (Ingrid sick), and had to leave early or come in late on 3 days due to various appointments. Hence I’ve been catching up with work from home in the evenings after Ingrid’s gone to bed. Then on Thursday we had our Christmas party at work, on Friday evening a tense production release, on Saturday an all-day hen party (from 9am to late evening) and today the Estonian House’s children’s Christmas party. Plus I’ve been sleeping badly due to all this rushing around. By this afternoon I was so knackered that Ingrid and I took a 90-minute nap together.

And there’s no end in sight for all this rushing around, until after Christmas. I’m leaving work early tomorrow again because of the St. Lucia celebration at Ingrid’s nursery, and leaving work early on Friday to celebrate Christmas with Eric’s family, which means more lost work hours to be made up some time. And not a single Christmas gift bought yet. It’s almost enough to make me wish that Christmas didn’t exist.

Therefore I am spending my time on keeping afloat and not on blogging.