Good Bye to 2025

 

It's the afternoon of New Year's Eve, and so far all is quiet... After weeks of unpredictable explosions, sometimes starting already in full daylight, NYE does still seem to be the one day in December when most people hold back on their fireworks at least until sunset... *

I went to bed early last evening, had a long night and a lazy morning, and managed to get out for a half hour walk in the old cemetery before lunch. Cold and frosty, but dry ground -and less windy than it was yesterday (when I did get out for a little while as well). 

Remember my post from before Christmas, when I found a gnome or elf (or what ever you prefer to call it) sitting on top of a headstone in the cemetery? (If not, you can have a peek here.) Today I happened to walk past a New Year grave decoration (on a different grave) that seemed even more odd to me (as in never having seen anything like it before):

Even more intriguing to me since the person resting here didn't die young, but at the mature age of 94. Under the dates there is a phrase or quote in a foreign language I can't identify. But a scene that might inspire a whole novel... I'm not likely to be the one writing it! - but I couldn't help imagining scenarios like the person being someone's last link to "the old country"... Immigrating perhaps back in the 1960s or so, and missed by children and grandchildren... 

Does anyone among my readers know of traditions somewhere to offer food and drink to the dead, at New Year?? 

* (PS. The sun set at 3:30 pm. The first round of fireworks noise started just as I reached the bottom of this post, around 4:05. It's going to be a long night...)

Some Books I Read in 2025

It strikes me that I seem to have written very few book reviews this year. I think it's primarily to do with the fact that most of my reading has been "by ear" (Audible) - and also that the majority of my reading this whole year has been re-reading/listening to books I've read before...

On average I've probably as usual listened to one book per week or so, but that includes a lot of re-reading - for example all six major novels by Jane Austen, the Harry Potter series (for the umpteenth time), Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga, and Jaqueline Winspears whole series about private investigator Maise Dobbs (16 novels, most of which I've probably reviewed separately before). 

More recently (during the autumn) I have listened to two new releases in J.R. Ellis' Yorkshire Mysteries series (which I have been following since the beginning): The Otley Murders (No 11) and Murder in York (No 12). I enjoyed them both but didn't get round to writiting reviews. Here's the publisher's blurb for the York one, which also has a Christmas setting:

In the ancient city of York, winter brings Christmas markets, cold weather…and murder.

Snow dusts the cobbled streets of York as tourists flock to its famous Christmas markets. But for DCI Oldroyd, what starts as a peaceful evening on a ghost tour quickly turns deadly.

The tour guide’s grim discovery is no theatrical performance—he finds the body of Henry Marlow, a notorious local landlord, in the doorway of a derelict building. Oldroyd soon has no shortage of suspects: a resentful ex-wife, angry tenants, and even the guide who knows every secret passage of the old city.

As festive lights sparkle above the narrow passageways of York, darkness gathers below when a second body is found in the shadow of the ancient cathedral. Can Oldroyd untangle the web of secrets and lies before anyone else dies? As the holiday season approaches, it seems the killer is planning on making this a Christmas to remember—for all the wrong reasons…

 

 

This month, I was also pleasantly surprised to come across a new crime novel by Ann Cleeves:  The Killing Stones - subtitled "The Return of Jimmy Perez", the dectective from her "Shetland" series, which was also turned into a successful TV series which continued to live its own life even after Perez himself had left it.

In this new book, we find Perez having...

"... traded the stark beauty of Shetland for the wild isolation of Orkney, but the darkness of human nature follows him everywhere.

When a ferocious storm rages across the islands, it leaves behind more than just damage: it uncovers the body of Archie Stout, a popular, larger-than-life member of the community.

The murder weapon? A Neolithic stone, bearing cryptic, ancient inscriptions.

Now living in Orkney with his partner, Willow, and their young son, Perez is drawn into a case that is chillingly personal—Archie was a friend from his own childhood. And the island is full of familiar faces, all of whom are potential suspects in the killing.

Perez must immerse himself in the lives of the islanders, separating truth from local legend before a desperate killer can strike again. . . and threaten the new life he's desperately trying to build. "

By placing Perez in the Orkneys the author has managed to keep the atmosphere from the Shetland series, while at the same time giving Perez a "fresh start", so to say. I enjoyed listening to this book, narrated by Kenny Blyth (in Scottish dialect). There was one chapter that the first time round made no sense to me at all though (especially since I often tend to do some of my listening half asleep in the middle of the night!). I had to go back later in a more conscious state of mind and do some googling... It turned out to involve a strange island custom that I'd never heard of before - a kind of medeival football game known as The Ba' ... So no wonder I suddenly felt "lost" in unknown terminology... ;)

 

Weekend Reflections

 

Weather-wise, it's been a strange week. On Christmas Eve I woke up to a fairytale-like world covered in snow. On Christmas Day, the snow gradually melted away again. On 2nd Day Christmas (Friday), the lawns outside were all green again; but in the afternoon the fog gave way to a glimpse of sun and blue sky. I did get out for a little while then - but kept to the street where I live, as the footbridge over the railway (leading to among other things the old cemetery) still looked treacherously icy. The photo above was taken zooming in a house across the railway (which runs in a valley down below, invisible from this perspective). 

 

Yesterday afternoon I had the laundry room booked and did not go out. 

Today, Sunday, offered sunshine and blue skies again, and around noon I went for a walk down to the river and back. Good to see some water reflections again! :)

 

Linking to Weekend Reflections 

On the whole I've had a "quiet" Christmas - apart from the fact that some people (youngsters?) around here now seem to be treating the whole month of December as a time for playing with fireworks and/or bangers. It's literally been going on almost every afternoon/early evening since 1st Advent, and I hate it. As I never actually see anyone at it - just hear them!!! - I can't say if they're keeping within what's lawful or not. Whether legal or illegal, it makes me jump every time though, and is making me generally nervous! (And not in the least looking forward to New Year's Eve...) 

Christmas Skywatch

 

 

On the morning of Christmas Eve - quite a surprise! - I woke up to trees and ground covered by a layer of white snow, which lasted all day. (No sunshine, though.)

In the morning of Christmas Day, it looked almost like we could be getting a sunny day...  That too ended up mostly grey, though - and it started to thaw a little. I wasn't out any further than to take out a couple of garbage bags, though. Photos taken from my balcony.

 

This morning (Boxing Day in Britain - here in Sweden "annandag jul" = 2nd Day of Christmas), the snow was all gone; and the sun still hiding behind fog.

Linking to Skywatch Friday

White Christmas

 

Christmas Eve is the main day of Christmas celebrations in Sweden - as in the day when Christmas presents are exchanged and opened. And in families with children, Jultomten (Santa Claus/Father Christmas) often comes knocking on the door in the late afternoon or early evening, to deliver them in person.  

What I had not expected this year was a White Christmas - except maybe just a very thin layer of frost on the ground. But I was in for a surprise this morning, when I got out bed and looked out of the window to find that it had snowed during the night. And it has kept on snowing a little on and off since then (writing this around 11:30 am).

I'll neither be going anywhere, nor having visitors; but as usual in later years I'm hoping to have an online video session with my brother later on in the afternoon. (I'm saying "hoping", fingers crossed, because the app we used to use has closed, so we'll be trying a different alternative this year - without having tested it beforehand...)

Tomorrow I may be catching up on blog reading and commenting while most of my international friends are in turn probably in the midst of their most intense family celebrations... Anyway, however you'll be celebrating, I wish you all a Happy Christmas!

The Sun Is Back!

When I first woke up this morning, the sun wasn't up yet, so not much use even looking out of the windows. I was also tired, so went back to bed and my audio book... And fell asleep again... Next time I got up, and looked out of the window, I could hardly believe my eyes. Instead of the usual grey that has been hovering over us all December so far, there was blue sky, fluffy white clouds, sunshine - and frost on the ground! Quite an impressive winter solstice transformation since yesterday!

 

 Best to make use of the sunshine while it lasts! I thought; so around 11:30 I set out for a walk to get the most out of the daylight. 

Although the sun is "back", it still doesn't go very high over the horizon even at noon... 

The fact that the sun was showing its face inspired me to expand my walk beyond the old cemetery. One thing I cannot order with the home deliveries from my usual supermarket is flowers. (They sell flowers in the store, but not online.) And the nearest florist's is downtown in the city centre - still too far for me to walk to (considering that if I do, I also have to walk back home). So I've had no red poinsettias or amaryllis etc at home to brighten up the gloomy first three weeks of December. 

However, today it struck me that about half way between home and the city centre, there is nowadays (since some time back in early autumn, if memory serves me right) a Lidl grocery store. So far I've only been in there once, shortly after they opened. But now I checked their ads online, and it did indeed seem like they might have some seasonal flowers. So that's where I steered my steps today. 

And I found what I sought. I bought one large and one small poinsettia, and also an amaryllis - still just a bud, but showing signs of perhaps even producing a second one later on. (They had taller ones, but those would have been difficult for me to carry home - as I was using two walking poles, I had to choose flowers that I could fit into my backpack...)

 

4th Advent Sunday / Winter Solstice

 

4th Advent Sunday today - and also the Winter Solstice. 

As I've mentioned before, the month of December so far has been unusually dark here this year - or at least so it has seemed. Yesterday I heard some additional statistics on the radio: In our capital Stockholm, it has been the darkest December since1934. So it has also very probably been the darkest month that I myself (born in 1955) have ever experienced! (Even if I don't live in Stockholm, but closer to the west coast.) 

Anyway, with the Winter Solstice behind us, even if still cloudy, we should now at least be able to look forward to a gradually increasing amount of daylight again!

I decided to celebrate the Winter Solstice with decorating my little Christmas tree...

... and by waking up the ten Santas sleeping in the tiny house on my kitchen window sill. Someone wondered on a previous post how they all fit in there, and if there was magic involved. My answer is that the magic lies in the camera perspective...

 

Kitchen Gnomes (Part 2)

 

On the small wooden corner shelf in my kitchen you'll find my wooden gnomes. (The other items are there all year round.) The shelf itself belonged to my paternal grandmother, and once upon a time used to sit in her kitchen. 

The wooden house (a model of a kind of storehouse that used to be common in the north of Sweden) comes from my mum's side of the family (my maternal grandfather was from "up north") - and so does the little carved dog. The boat-like thing next to the house is a souvenir bought on a family trip up north in my early teens - a wooden cup, a traditional Sami kind of item. The little ceramic deer and the "nutty" squirrel were presents from friends some time in the past; and the little grey gnome I think was originally part of some Christmas flower arrangement. 

The two gnomes to the left on the middle shelf I remember buying when visiting a Christmas market in a friend's church back in my upper teens. And the grey one on the same shelf was a Christmas gift from a Swedish penfriend some 20+ years ago. 

A random collection of things, but with one thing in common: 
They're all bearers of memories of family and friends.

The Kitchen Gnomes (Part 1)

 

I feel that I must have told this story before, but I can't find evidence  of it now. (It may have been many years ago.) 

I had a period in my youth when I more or less banned gnomes of all kind from the Christmas decorations in my own home. But then for quite a few years I had a friend and neighbour with whom I used to exchange the service of watering each others' plants when the other was away on holidays. Her apartment, in contrast to mine, was always full of gnomes at Christmas time. So we were both well aware of our different "taste" when it came to decorations. 

Then one year she left a little parcel for me, which turned out to contain a tealight candle holder surrounded by five little gnomes - accompanied by a message that these gnomes were "seeking asylum" with me... Ah well... Put like that, how could I refuse... 

Next time it was my turn to water her plants at Christmas time, I had happened to find (in some shop) a "toothpick" pack with tiny Santa figures on them. (Probably meant to be used to decorate food served for Christmas.) So I planted those tiny Santas here and there, in flower pots or where else I could think of, around my friend's flat...

Over a number of years afterwards, around Christmas time, those tiny Santas then kept wandering back and forth between our flats... Sometimes most of them were at my place, sometimes at hers.

Photo from 2015

When I moved to my present apartment in 2008, the majority of them happened to be hibernating in my box of Christmas decorations... And as since then, that friend and I have no longer been watering each other's plants, those ten tiny gnomes have remained staying with me. Well - in my basement storage room 11 months of the year... But invading my kitchen window sill for a few weeks every year around Christmas...

Ssshh - they're still asleep in the Santa House... 
But I might wake them up for 4th Advent Sunday!

Gnome on the Stone, and Elf on the Shelf

 Today was another grey day, but it wasn't raining, and I had nothing special "scheduled", so I decided to go for a walk around the cemetery around noon, to get the most out of the little daylight that there was. For the first time since my knee injury I walked all around the place - and then a bit extra. (All in all I was out for about 45 minutes - using both walking poles.)

And old ("returned") grave reused as flowerbed, with some plants that still add a bit of colour to this grey season. 
 

Hydrangea climbing on the old stone wall along one side of the cemetery.

The buds on the rhododendron bushes seem a bit too far gone for their own good as well (I made the same observation about some azaleas on my last walk there). Weather forecasts now indicate that temperatures will probably be dropping again next week, though...

From a distance, on a grave out in one of the "fields", I spotted something very bright red on top of a standing headstone. I couldn't quite make out if it really was what I thought it looked like - or perhaps just some red flowers giving me the illusion...? So I decided I had to go and have a closer look - and it was indeed something I don't think I've ever seen as grave decoration before: 

I decided to blur the name before posting the photo here, but (not surprisingly) the grave belongs to someone who died only 19 years old, and less than a decade ago. 

When I got back home, I got started on my own "final" Christmas decorations... (Got those boxes up from storage yesterday, which was also laundry day for me, so I had to make a few turns down to the basement anyway.)

I don't have a lot of gnomes and "santas", but I have a few, which are now up on their usual shelves etc around my flat. For example, the Santa family knitted by my mum...

 ... And as soon as they had settled in, Skipper came to visit them, and return the stray little yarn gnome doll which she has been looking after all autumn (ever since I found him under the sofa, where he must have been hiding since last winter)...

As reward for her faithful "babysitting", when back home on her own shelf again, Skipper got to decorate her and Barbie's own Christmas tree:

 

This one also lives in my living room. He was bought by myself some time in this century, because he reminded me of Dumbledore (from the Harry Potter books). Therefore he also gets the company of the two little owls...

I also have a few kitchen gnomes, but I'll save those for another post. 

The Sun Has Gone Away on Holiday

 "Sun so far in December"

The weather has been so extremely grey so far in December that Swedish Television has taken to show daily statistics of the number of hours of sunshine. Note that this (above) is not the number of hours per day, but for a period of 15 days... 

Over the past two weeks, our capital Stockholm on the east coast only had 30 minutes of sunshine altogether. Karlstad, situated on the north shore of Lake Vänern (and generally known as a town where the sun always shines) saw the sun for 2 hours and 18 minutes in total; while our 2nd largest city, Gothenburg (Göteborg) on the west coast, can brag about getting 3 hours and 48 minutes. (Borås, where I live, is only an hour inland from there, but I think our statistics would probably be closer to Stockholm's.)

Viewers can send in their own weather photos. The background above is not a blank screen, but a fog photo from Boden, far up in the north. 

Below, a silhouette photo from the province Hälsningland, in the middle of our oblong country. Beautiful, but kind of spooky - like an island appearing "out of nowhere"...

 

And as for the next couple of days - not much hope of improvement...
 

Muted Colours

It continues to be rather mild for December here - and wet, grey and gloomy. The photo above (from the cemetery) shows some azalea leaf buds in the foreground looking almost worringly green for the time of year. I hope they're not getting deceived to believe that there's spring in the air already! 

On Friday afternoon I managed a walk combining recycling with a visit to the one of our two small neighbourhood shops that also serves as "post office" (with limited service); to pick up a parcel (something I had ordered that was a little too big to fit in my own postbox), and to get my bunch of Swedish Christmas cards posted. 

Saturday and Sunday were so thoroughly wet, dark and dismal that I didn't set foot outside. I kind of went into half-hibernation, and can't recall that I "did" much indoors either... 

Monday today, and the sky still a very dense grey - but the rain stopped (at least for a while), allowing me a walk to the major post office down by the railway, to post a couple of large "parcel envelopes" (which I didn't want to entrust to the single postbox at the convenience store). The walk from here to there took me about 15 minutes, which is probably fairly normal (for me). On the way back, I took a detour into/around the cemetery, which prolonged the whole walk to 45 minutes all in all. 

It's been over two months now since I and fell and hurt my knee. It keeps getting better, and less swollen; but still not enough for me to dare try to walk all the way into town and back (which is what I'm really longing to be able to get back to). I don't go out without wearing a compression knee bandage, and using at least one walking pole for support (today I used both). I also wear a somewhat softer knee bandage (bamboo) all night.   

 A 'favourite' old house I passed on my walk back from the post office. (If you feel that you've probably seen it before - then you probably have!)

Lucia / St Lucy's Day, 13 December

Saint Lucy's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Lucy, is a Christian feast day observed on 13 December. The observance commemorates Lucia of Syracuse, an early-fourth-century virgin martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution. According to legend, she brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs, wearing a candle-lit wreath on her head to light her way, leaving both hands free to carry as much food as possible. 

Because her name means "light" and her feast day had at one time coincided with the shortest day of the year prior to calendar reforms, it is now widely celebrated as a festival of light. Falling within the Advent season, Saint Lucy's Day is viewed as a precursor of Christmastide, pointing to the arrival of the Light of Christ in the calendar on 25 December, Christmas Day. 

In Scandinavia, where Lucy is called Santa/Sankta Lucia, she is represented as a woman in a white dress symbolizing a baptismal robe and a red sash symbolizing the blood of her martyrdom, with a crown or wreath of candles on her head.

In Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which symbolizes bringing the Light of Christ into the world's darkness. (Wikipedia)

 

Not sure if the video below will work for everyone world-wide, but I thought I'd give that a test. (Let me know if it works!) It's this year's (2025) Lucia Morning by Swedish Television (SVT); from Visby on the island Gotland, off the east coast of Sweden. 

It's a 1 hour show, and in Swedish. But of course you can choose for yourself how much of it to watch/listen to. It will give you an idea of the typical atmosphere, anyway.

"Inside the city walls of wintry Visby, this year’s Lucia brings atmosphere and warmth with choirs from Sankta Maria Youth Choir, Voices of Hope, and Gotland Boys’ Choir. In the ruins of St. Karin and Helge And, the Christmas songs ring out, and we also get to enjoy several soloists, the Gotland Wind Quintet, and a children’s choir in the historic surroundings."

    

https://youtu.be/QVc5rAzMQCs?si=toSBG8tjXE-Urfmg

Angels

 

It has become my tradition to put up my collection of Angels for St Lucy's Day (13th Dec), which this year falls on the Saturday before 3rd Advent Sunday. The glass angels in my living room; and the rest in the window of my study. 

 

 

I think I've mentioned before that all these angels have come to me as gifts from friends - I haven't actually bought any of them myself. The porcelain angel to the left is the only one that has been with me from early childhood; the rest have come flying in one by one much later in my life. 

 

 

This song is from one of the Christmas albums that I have on CD. 

Skywatch Friday

 

Actually it was on Wednesday rather than Friday this week that we "almost" got a glimpse of the sky behind the grey clouds and rain that have dominated the whole week. Not having been out at all for a few days, I grabbed the opportunity for a half hour walk for exercise.

I stopped for a while across the street from the building above, trying to figure out what's going on there. Seemed like some new business is moving into the premises, and doing some changes. Actually, one of the signs outside suggested that it's an old business moving back to the area where they once started out, thirty years ago. The name didn't ring a bell with me though, so no idea what kind of business. Nor do I know if they're moving back to the exact same building or just the same complex. Or what exactly all those triangular thingies in front are for...

As I had no errands and didn't need to carry anything, I took both my walking poles on this walk for a change - mostly just for the extra exercise (for arms/shoulders). We're still having very mild weather. No risk of icy spots just now - but the risk of slipping on a mess of wet leaves is not over...

Crossing the old cemetery on my way back home. 
(Imagine a constant background sound of leaf-blowers at work...)

I'll be linking to Skywatch Friday 

Winter Idyll vs Reality

 

This is a textile Christmas wall hanging that my mother made back in my childhood. I had to find a new place for it this year, because putting it up where I used to have it requires use of a stepladder + quite a bit of "fiddling" - which I don't feel up to this year. Luckily I managed to find an alternative space for it.

I used to have it on display at the top of the door leading into my study:

Photo from 2022

This year it hangs on the back of a bookshelf in the "dressing room" corner of my study, where it was easy to put it up without need of a ladder. The downside is that I don't see it from the living room, as I did when I had it on the door. But on the other hand, I can now get up close to it at eye level to look at details...

 (The combination study/dressing room may seem unusual, but it just so happens that most of my wardrobes are in this room, while I prefer another as bedroom.) 

 

In the "real world" outside my windows there's no snow to be seen. Since Saturday it's been raining more or less constantly - yesterday also combined with weather warnings for strong winds - and I've not been out any further than to the rubbish bins at the corner of the building a couple of times. (Luckily I also haven't really needed to go anywhere, though!)