snowy, sunless days sow seeds of spring-longing

Ok, i'm not sure where that little diddy came from. I think i just wanted to ryhme, because actually I'm content and mostly delighted with the winter weather here in Sweden. Typical late November weather here is cold, cloudy, rainy (with some snow), and a 3:30 sunset. December should be better, with more snow brightening the landscape and with everyone wanting to be huddled inside around candles and fireplaces anyway. On December 21st the days start getting longer instead of shorter, and i'll be ready for it. The darkness makes me sleepy and gives me low-energy, and that can be tough. And mostly I just can't wait to place little seedlings in the ground and grow a garden again.

I feel i have some rather random things to say so i'll just dive in. One is that i wanted to say a late happy birthday to the beloved Astrid Lindgren, who turned 100 a couple weeks ago. In reality she died a few years ago, but her birthday is always celebratd in Sweden and other parts of the world. She created the books about the strong-willed and strong-muscled Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstockings), who if you don't remember, was able to lift her horse above her head with ease. :) Pippi was a little too bold for some of the readers in the man's world of the 1940s into which she was born, yet it's not surprising that she was born in Sweden since this country is still in many ways leading the world on issues of gender equality. (They were just voted number 1 in an annual ranking by a Swiss group which evaluates countries on the basis of gender equality. In case you're interested, the top countries after Sweden were Norway, Finland, and Iceland (go Scandinavia!:) Yeman was last, and the US was 31st, after Cuba and South Africa....hmm)

Anyway, Astrid Lindgren wrote many more wonderful children's tales which are worth reading and which I myself have on my long "have to read" list.

While I'm on the topic of children's books from Sweden I want to mention the artist of the beautiful painting at the top of my blog. His name is John Bauer and he illustrated many of the fairy tales that came out of Sweden one hundred years ago, which are unsurprisingly about mostly trolls and other forest creatures. I love how literature reflects the local, simple, everyday things which are common for each place it comes from. A Swedish story about little red mushroom children who live in a blueberry forest may seem exotic to an outsider but to anyone who has walked the paths of the forests here can easily see where these writers get their ideas. :) You can see more of Bauer's painints here if you're interested: http://bauer.artpassions.net/

December looks to be an exciting month for me, with the highlight of course being my trip home on December 17th, which will last for 3 long (hopefully) weeks and be filled with family, friends, and contradancing calvin's dance shoes right off his feet. But before then comes the start of Advent on the first Sunday in December, where everyone begins to light the advent candles and perhaps open a little gift every day before christmas. On December 10th the Nobel Prize ceremony comes to the palace in Stockholm where the king and queen of sweden hand out these famous prizes and all of Sweden watches a live broadcast of the gourmet dinner and ball held afterwards. On December 13th is Lucia (i'll tell more later), and in between all this there is lots of food and sweets.

Today I went sledding with Alexander and Erik, and I felt seriously like a kid again, where you are so excited about what you're doing you never take a walking (but only running) step and you find you can't get your words of delight out of your mouth without shouting them. It was a beautiful clear day, below the freezing point, and with a lovely icy snow on the ground. Now it's dark, and i think i'll go light some candles and work on my knitting.

nordic winter arrives

Last Saturday the first significant snow fell in Uppsala, and though I hope to have at least a few, ok even just one, more slightly temperate fall day before it's cold till April, the snow was still beautiful to behold. Alexander and I have been talking constantly about "när snö kommer, ska vi lager en snögubbe!!" So we dressed ourselves warmly and built 2 snowmen outside.....they were pretty amature since we were too lazy to gather anything more than sticks for the body parts, but i'm sure we'll have plently more opportunities to improve our skills in that department. The weather has indeed been cold, and dark too. Now it's dark by 4 pm, which is quite an adjustment. I'm used to darkness signaling the end of the day, but now there is still 7+ more hours of DAY left after it gets dark before it's time to wind down, so you can't just shut down when it gets dark and quit being productive. However, candles make it cozy, and i think Swedes must go through more candles than any other country....when i walk down the street at night and glance through the windows of houses there are always candles burning at the kitchen table. And I am understanding better now why on a beautiful day, every person here heads outside to talk advantage of the sun and warmth....it's not an every-day experience.

There is still one apple tree in our garden here which is laden with apples still and putting up a worthy fight against the frosts. Erik and I have made a lot of äpplemås to freeze which will be gratefully eaten all winter in the mornings with yogurt and museli. We have been having fun lately, whether it's our daily routines or a weekend trip. He comes and plays with the kids and I often, and Alexander truly loves "ERIT!!" We read in the evenings, or he reads and I knit. I just plowed through 2 wonderful novels, Gap Creek and A Thousand Splendid Suns. The former set in rural SC 100 years ago and the latter taking place in modern day Afganistan. I highly recommend both. It's so amazing to travel the world through books and learn about different cultures and time periods. Erik and I just started a great new book together called Living Spirituality by Greg Laugherly of Swiss L'Abri. We also found a lovely international church here to attend, and it seems every Sunday there is a visiting pastor from Africa.....a couple weeks ago a man from Zimbabwe spoke, and it was hilarious to see his enthusiastic, flamboyant style translated into Swedish by a typical reserved, hands-in-his-pockets Swede. He tried his best, and it was certainly humorous. :)

Last weekend Erik and I heard an amazing concert by Anders Widmark, a pianist who takes old Swedish psalms and creates experimental jazz masterpieces out of them. We bought cheap student tickets but somehow landed on the front row, literally 8 feet from the piano and able to see every beautiful movement of his hands on the keys and see the almost pained expression on his face as he played. It was heaven for any piano-lover, and I had such a sense of the creativity that is flowing through this world and which, despite all the talk of a meaningless, random universe, seems to scream of purpose and beauty and source.

I miss all of you back home and think of you so often. In just over a month i'll be flying home for Christmas and will stay for a glorious 3 weeks. There is nothing like traveling, despite the exciting discoveries, to make one appreciate home and old relationships.