Saturday, March 19, 2011

little signs of spring

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After that first sprig of spring there have sadly not been many signs of spring to (soon, pretty please) come. This Swedish winter has been hard, for everyone, the winter of 2009/10 was pretty horrific, the one of 2010/11 has been worse.

The first snow in the Stockholm area fell on October 22nd. Ever since then it has been more or less snow on the ground, with emphasize on more, much more. Causing huge problems in the public transportation system, general traffic issues, the flawed snow clearance all winter has left a lot to be desired, there have been an increase in all sorts of fractures - the icy streets have been just awful, during this winter many of us have adopted a strange shuffle-waddling way of walking, hopefully it's only weather related and not something that'll come along for spring - the electrical bills have skyrocketed (as if last year wasn't enough) and many wild animals have perished due to the cold and a lack of food.

I think we all, at least us living in the more middle/southern parts of Sweden, not being THIS used to long, harsh, snowed in winters, have been dampened and dispirited by these nearly five months now (and probably one more to go before we can finally say goodbye to winter for real). So every little, tiny sign of spring on its way means the world. Every ray of sun has to be enjoyed, every leeward spot  showing at least one sunstarved person with its face turned upwards, catching some natural C.

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Me, I have been most happy about finding snowdrops, beside them some small tulip-buds making their way up in flowerbeds.

march 13, 2011 - rhubarb sign


And yes, rhubarb, glorious rhubarb already. It'll take ages until they're ready to be picked, but still, with spring comes summer and rhubarb dishes galore.

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The ice on lakes are definitely crackling. And yes, hopefully soon, one can again be able to actually take a loaf dog walk in the nearby woods without the fear of falling on the ice-covered paths. Ah, before one knows it, there will be wood anemones everywhere. There will be spring.

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9 comments:

from stuttgart with love said...

Love those little pigs standing in the wood and waiting for the springtime to come! ; )
From Stuttgart with love, Christiane.

Growing Up Gramma said...

MMMMM rhubarb!

pärlbesatt said...

Your ice-picture is reminding me of a necklace I made after a long walk around Årstaviken. Here's the post where the necklace can be seen.

And thanks for reminding me of a thing I wanted to do, concerning my around the year-creations...

I made the first thing I've done in MONTHS the other day, a necklace reminding of lermodd, grönska och snödroppar. No energy to look for the english words for those things, sorry. ;)

Eliza Keating said...

beautiful blog..so pleased I came across your great posts...Eliza Keating

Olga Walker said...

Hi there

Love the photos - I know what you mean though, we are experiencing lots of lovely rain here in my part of Australia - New South Wales, only thing is without being ungrateful, we would really love some sun now:):):)

Olga from http://revedoa.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

LOVE those little pigs. Yes, even here in California I'm sitting staring at a chilly day and wishing for spring. I do believe we'll be getting snow tonight and it has me looking for ANY signs of spring. Thanks for sharing!

Richa Khandelwal said...

Lovely Pica Pia!!

Sara said...

Beautiful photos! Here in Malmö the snow has decreased to nothingness, and I'm loving that. The spring has been long awaited, and I do believe it finally has arrived!

Terry Tibbs said...

Loving the photos!!! Especially that one of the cracking ice :)
Do you take them yourself?

Anyway awesome article :) Spring's just about kicking off here in France too, it's sooo chilled.

Keep up the sweet posts :D

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