It’s been a week since my last post – I’m not sure why. Somehow I seem to have managed to keep myself busy over Christmas in spite of no special plans.
Compared to last Monday, the snow is now in its proper place, though: outdoors! (rather than filling my freezer)
The morning of Christmas Eve was still free of ice and snow, which meant I could start Christmas by walking into town to attend a Nativity church service.
A “First” for me this Christmas was a Skype get-together with my brother at present-opening time on Christmas Eve (which is when we traditionally open Christmas presents in Sweden).
On Christmas Day the weather turned frosty but the ground was still dry. It remained the same on Friday, but on Saturday I woke up to snow and really cold weather (like around -10°C). It’s predicted not to last very much longer though. So yesterday I took the opportunity to defrost my freezer (putting the frozen food out on the balcony in the meantime). All back in order now!
Still cold outside today. I decided to venture into town for a few fresh groceries though – and some photos:
Views from where I wait for the bus into town.
Main square with the Christmas tree and the Court House (and to the right a building a block away from there).
Another view of the main square: The double bow with the mistletoe in the middle is a new winter decoration this year. (The stone chairs are there all year round. The red market stalls in the background were put up for the Christmas market, they’ll be taken down soon.)
The church is the one I went to on Christmas Eve (built in the 1600s).
This is one of few surviving old wooden buildings in the town centre. I snapped this while waiting for the bus back home. It’s often hard to get a good view of it without vehicles in front, as it faces the “bus square” where most of the bus lines meet.
At the grocery shop I visited there was something a bit unusual going on. Alas I have no pictures of that, as I had my hands full… But they had actually had to reserve a member of the staff for the very special task of blocking a stubborn pigeon from walking into the store. The pigeon (or possibly more than one of them, I’m not sure) was quite determined to enjoy the warmth of the heated entrance rather than the cold sidewalk outside. So when I arrived, there was a member of the staff trying to shoo it out… But of course with automatic doors opening every time some human passes in our out, it was soon back. So when I was done with my shopping and came back out – the “duel” between man and pigeon was still going on: The young man trying to block the pigeon with his feet – without hurting it, just putting his heels together and pointing his feet outwards – much like a classic clown posture!
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(The last thing I saw before I headed off towards my bus home, was the pigeon trying to even sneak past the young man in through the next door between the entrance and the actual shop… It seemed to be enjoying the game!)
7 comments:
thanks for my first laugh of the day, i have this image in my mind of the pigeon shooing. love that story. your town looks wonderful even in the cold. great idea on putting the frozen things outside..did you get handles for your freezer or fridge?
Yes Sandra, they put a handle on the freezer door last Monday in connection with adjusting it to close properly. The fridge already has a handle. It's just still hard to open (but I've got so used to using the butterknife as extra tool for that purpose now that I hardly think about it any more...)
I guess this made the man rather pigeon toed! So, the fix on your freezer did not work? What next? Your town is just lovely!! I always love seeing it at Christmas (and any other time, too). I'm glad you and Per were together for Christmas, even if only electronically.
Ginny, the freezer has been working just fine since they adjusted the new door (last week). It was just that a layer of ice had been building up during the week before and I thought it best to get rid of that and start over while I could make use of the cold spell outside.
You know I really like your town and the many different views you show us throughout the year. These pictures are beautiful, as always, and I am glad you managed to capture the wooden building on camera at a moment when there weren't any vehicles in front of it! Cars so often ruin a beautiful picture, don't they.
Still snowing here, and as long as I don't have to take the train to go to work, I don't mind it.
As usual I'm in two minds about the snow. I like looking at it. But I don't like walking on it... Especially not when it turns (as in town it inevitably soon does) to slippery ice!
Jag saknar verkligen snö ibland, men vi har iallafall lite morgon frost här borta.
Härliga vinterbilder. Gott Nytt År!!
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