December's Foggy Freeze

JoeI looked out the window before going to be last night, and I couldn't see the apartment building across the yard from us—an event that has not been so remarkable this November, I must say.

"Ah, snowing again," I thought, despite the fact that it clearly looked like fog, and went to bed. After all, it was -15 degrees C, it couldn't be foggy, right?



This, however, is Sweden. Of course it was foggy. This morning the 30 cm of snow we've accumulated since I confidently announced three weeks ago that it was melting is covered in a nice layer of hoarfrost. Not as nice as the three day hoarfrost we had for Christmas week last year—but then again, it's only December 2!

You know me, I love the winter. Biking home through the downtown streets Tuesday, over hard packed snow, with the river churning icily under the bridge and the snow covered cathedral roof over to the right, I had a moment of pure joy at living in such a place. So, no, I will not complain about the fact that, at the beginning of December, we've already been snow bound for three weeks, or that yesterday's daytime temperature ranged between -20 degrees C in the morning and -15 in the afternoon. I will simply say this: last year, we had snow the last week of April. And that's 5 months from now.

At least the cat likes the snow.