Undecorating and Defrosting

 

The amaryllis that I bought just before Christmas is now in bloom - just as it's time to start taking down other kinds of decorations... 

The traditional date in Sweden for "throwing out Christmas" is 13th January. Back in my childhood, it was still common to have what we called julgransplundring ("Christmas tree looting") around this date. I thing the origin is that further back in history, the tree was often decorated with edible things - like gingerbread cookies, candy and apples - and before throwing it out after Christmas, one had a party where the guests were invited to help strip and throw out the tree - and eat the leftover decorations.  In my childhood, it was no longer all that common to use edible decorations in the Christmas tree; but there were games, and sometimes dancing around the tree (if the space allowed!), and cookies and cake etc to eat - and at the end of the party when the guests left, each child also got a "goodie bag" with a few sweets to take home with them. 

Below is a photo from my very first such party, I think from 1960, which was the year when we moved from a flat in town to a house of our own in a village. I'm the one to the right (5 years old), and the three other girls were friends of around my own age living in the neighbouring houses on the same street. Whether parents nowadays still manage to find time to throw "throwing out" parties, I don't know... Back in those days, there was no preschool or kindergarten, though  (or at least not in the village where we lived). So all the mums in our street were stay-at-home housewives (or possibly worked part time when the children were old enough to go to school).

 

Nowadays I tend to take my Christmas decorations down gradually, pretty much in reversed order to how I put them up in December - and no party... (I still have some gingerbread biscuits left, though. Bought, not home baked, this year...) 

Yesterday I put various "gnomes" and "santas" (Swedish: tomtar) back to bed; and will continue packing angels and whatnot later in the week. My electric candles may be staying for a while longer, though.

Today it struck me that as the weather (according to forecasts) may be about to change to somewhat milder temperatures again, I should probably take the opportunity to defrost my freezer - as just now it was fairly easy to just put the contents of the freezer in bags out on the balcony while the indoors thawing was going on. 

My freezer is in a tricky position though, as it's fitted into a cupboard with another ordinary cupboard underneath it. So defrosting requires an intricate arrangement of pots and pans and towels, in order to stop melting ice from falling/dripping down where one doesn't want it... So that took pretty much all afternoon today. The photo below is from another year, but it looked very similar this year.

 

 

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...)

 

Supermarket Reorganisation

 

Two days in a row now I've chosen the supermarket as the destination for my walks - primarily because they're in the process of reorganising things, and even though I do most of my grocery shopping online with home delivery (twice a month), I also like to try and keep up with where to find things when I do go there myself.

On both my visits this week, I was too busy with reorientation to think of taking photos; so for this post I asked AI for an illustration. The one above actually comes rather close to reality - some members of staff were still busy moving things, while other people (customers + staff working with home deliveries) were trying to find them... ;-)

On the whole I'm very thankful for the possibility (since 10 years back) to have the bulk of my groceries and everyday stuff delivered, and to neither have to search for them in the store nor carry them home myself. However, there are still certain items now and then that one does prefer to have a proper look at before buying. 

Christmas decorations and such have been put on display now, and I was looking for some battery candles. I don't like to to have real candles lit when going to and fro between rooms, but with battery candles one does not need to worry... I have some battery "tealights" since before, and also a couple of fake thick ones, but had decided that it might also be time for me to get some tall ones, to fit ordinary candlesticks. Yesterday I found and bought two red ones - but then back home decided that I don't want to introduce too much red before December. So today I went back and also bought two white ones of the same type, plus  some batteries of rechargeable kind.

I'm quite impressed with these LED candles, because: 1/ the "flames" move and flicker, so that in the dark, and especially from across the room (like from my TV chair), it's really hard to tell them apart from live ones (except that these candles don't shrink!!); and 2/ if you don't turn them off manually, they have an automatic timer which does that after six hours, and then lights them again after another 18 hours (i.e. the same time next day). 

I also bought an Amaryllis (a real one!) with three buds coming up - hoping it won't grow "too" fast (...but if it does, never mind...)

 

Snow, Slush, Rain, Ice - and Repeat...

 

 

I used my 'proper' camera yesterday to play with some more close-ups of the Amaryllis that I bought just before Christmas (then not yet in bloom). From the label attached to it, I thought I was buying another red one... But it turned out white!

Not much happening here besides Weather - which on the other hand keeps "happening" a lot just now, as in shifting frequently between snow, rain and ice. This morning I woke up to lots of snow on the ground again; but a few hours later we're back to heavy rain and +4°C. But if/when the temperature drops again, it will quickly be back to dangerously icy... And alas it looks likely to continue like that (back and forth) at least over the next week or so.

Luckily I'm usually at liberty to choose for myself when to venture out or not. Yesterday turned out sunny (and cold), so I actually did get out for a short walk while waiting for my 2nd load of laundry to dry (in a drying cabinet in the common laundry room). Having seen the weather forecasts for today, I decided I'd better stock up on some fresh fruit from a small greengrocer's shop just some 5-7 minutes walk away... And this morning, I was glad I did! (A lot less tempting to go out at all today.)

Amaryllis and Postage

The budding Amaryllises I bought for last weekend are opening up their flowers now. :-) The pink one in my living room, and the red one in the kitchen.

At the beginning of the week gone by, I posted my "far away" Christmas cards. (Asia, Australia, North America) I hope they'll all reach their destinations in time this year.

The ones going to other countries within Europe (including Great Britain) will be posted some time next week. Most of my Swedish ones are still waiting to be written, but should be posted before the 15th (recommended by PostNord Sweden).

While pottering about with this, I learned that postage will be going up again next year - by around 15%. With the general inflation and energy crisis, I suppose not really surprising; but it's beginning to feel expensive. So I will at least be cutting back on postcrossing (i.e. international exchange of postcards with random strangers)...

From 1 January 2023, the cost to send an international letter or postcard from Sweden will be 30 SEK - which currently equals $2,9 / €2,75 / £2,3. 

I still have quite a lot of unwritten postcards in stock, though, so have decided to prolong my 'transition period' a bit by ordering a good supply of 'forever' stamps before New Year - at the old price.  ;-)

First Advent Sunday, First Snow, and First Amaryllis

 

In Sweden, the Christmas season starts with the first Advent Sunday, and that's also when most people start putting up decorations - especially candlesticks and window stars. December is a very dark month here, so the extra lights are welcome. 

I spent most of Friday putting up my window decorations, plus changing some table cloths and runners etc.

To the left in the collage above is the window in my study; to the right the living room.

On Saturday morning, somewhat to my surprise, I woke up to the first snowfall of the year.

I went out for a walk a bit later, but kept it very short. For one thing, it's tricky to know in some places if there is ice hidden under the freshly fallen snow or not... 

And when I woke up today, the first Amaryllis flower in the kitchen window had sprung open for 1st Advent Sunday.

Lighting the first Advent candle.

 

Happy Advent, everyone!