Winter is finally here! This was the view just after breakfast, and it’s been snowing all day now. We’re pleased, because our driveway was a slushy swamp after a very wet autumn. Now it is frozen solid 🙂
Just when we thought it couldn’t snow any more … we get another 25cm overnight.
I was getting worried about the roof above the deck, which had a very thick layer and was starting to look decidedly curved. So Linus got up on a ladder and knocked off a lot of snow.
We’ve also been growing some impressive icicles. This is our prize winner, which is currently just over 140cm long. There is an ice staligtite growing upwards towards it from the deck, so we’re hoping they will meet in the middle.
The night we got home to Sweden it was a brisk -16°C outside. Our luggage didn’t manage to catch up with us until the following day, and it contained all of our winter clothing, so we had to make a chilly dash from airport to car and then from car to house.
And it was snowy. Oh boy, it was snowy. It was a proper winter wonderland. But the best part is, it has kept snowing since then!
Here’s a bit of our front garden. In some spots, the snow comes up to my knees.
We had one day recently when the temperature soared to a tropical +2°C. Things started to melt, and the snow on the roof over our deck started to slide down over the roof edge. Then it got cold again, so it froze in place, and now we have this awning of ice hanging down:
Linus has had his work cut out for him, shovelling the path so we can get down to the carport.
The fjord has totally frozen over. We have seen plenty of people out skating, and walking their dogs on the ice.
We don’t have any skates, otherwise we’d get out there and have a go too – it’s a pretty rare occurence in this part of the country to have such solid ice on the sea. It might be another 10 or 20 years before have the chance to skate to an island!
Last week we had another fairly decent fall of snow:
and although it wasn’t that terribly cold, we lit the fire for some winter atmosphere.
The snow melted almost immediately and a couple of days later the temperature reached a scorching 15°. This week, there are some definite signs of spring, like blue skies:
and crocuses in the garden:
(How’d they get there? We will never know … )
Little Anneli is getting bigger and cuter all the time. There are some new photos on her photo page here.
It has been gently snowing here for about 3 days, and we’ve built up a nice wintry look around the neighbourhood. The fjord has a layer of ice and snow on it – not very thick ice (we won’t be taking the car for a spin on it) but a couple of centimetres.
We went out for a walk down to the beach yesterday – photos here.
Anneli pretty much slept through it all:
There are some new photos of our sleepy snowbaby here.