Hello Winter

 Looking back in my photo archives, I see that last year too, we had the first snowfall around the same time in November. 

Photo from Nov 22, 2024

Today (Nov 21, 2025) was also a sunny winter day here, with a thin layer of white on the ground, and a few degrees below 0'C - neither slushy nor particularly icy. As the weather will probably turn more unreliable again tomorrow (a mix of rain and snow to be expected) I decided to take advantage of the here and now. So after lunch I donned my winter boots and coat etc again, and went out for my usual Friday "recycling walk" - and from the recycling bins, back a different way, including a stop at the small corner shop where I sometimes buy some extra fruit & vegs between my regular home deliveries from the supermarket. (Bananas and a cucumber on my list today.) A couple of months ago, hardly worth mentioning... But today, besides being my first proper walk this season with snow on the ground, it was also the first time since my unfortunate fall back in early October that I felt up for combining two errands on the same walk. I was out for about 45 minutes, and even if in total it was still a shorter distance than 1 km, it felt like progress.

No photos from today's walk, as I was busy enough just watching my steps, and holding a walking pole in one hand and a bag in the other... But later, back home, I took this "skywatch" sunset photo from my balcony:

Skywatch Friday

 

 

 

Braving the Snow

 

My winter Moomin mug

 Time to try and overcome the fear of snow... 

 

 

... put on proper winter boots with studded soles... 

... and get out there...

... even if just to the dustbins, plus a few steps extra! 

(Cold winds blowing, so not tempting to stay out long...) 

Back in - after my five minutes or so of "braving it" - I got Barbie and Skipper to dress for winter, too. Skipper is wearing a pair of winter boots that I made for her earlier in the autumn, from two fingers cut off from a worn-out glove. And if anyone is wondering what it is that she is holding under her arm, that's a little yarn gnome that I found under the sofa earlier in the autumn, and who must have been hiding there since last Christmas - if not longer... I entrusted him to Skipper to look after until this Christmas, and she's taking her job seriously. 

First Snow

 

~ 10:50 a.m.

~ 2:30 p.m.

As weather forecasts predicted already last week, we had the first snow here today. Not welcomed by me - but I was glad I had decided already before the weekend to take the weather warnings seriously, and postpone an appointment with my dental hygienist - again. (Had already put it off once, because of my knee injury.) "Whether the weather" will be any better in another two weeks remains to be seen... But today I just stayed in! 

 

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not! 

 

(anonymous British poem)

Winter Starts Here

Today I woke up to the first snow for this season. Just very small powdery snow flakes in the air today, but still marking the beginning of winter.

And yesterday, I noted that the Christmas Tree in the main square downtown is up: 

 
More snow to be expected, but the latest forecasts say that tomorrow, most of it will probably fall north of here; and the day after, on the east coast, moving north. (Far up  north, I think many places have already had snow for a while now.) 

Anyway, 1st Advent Sunday is only 1½ week away now. Frosty/snowy weather might inspire me to make my usual change of kitchen curtains already this upcoming weekend... (I always like to start with that, before putting up other decorations.)

Tea, First Snow & Last Leaves

Wednesday through Friday were mostly staying-in days here, with windy and rainy weather going on outdoors, and various indoor routine chores to deal with at home anyway. Today I woke up to a thin layer of powder snow on the ground - but dry, and no ice underneath, so I decided on a walk downtown for some minor errands.

Not really enough to constitute a "Christmas market", but a few extra booths and stalls have been put up along one side of the square (as usual this time of year). 

My main errand today was to my favourite Tea Shop, though. I've been buying loose-leaf tea blends in this shop ever since I first moved to this town to live - 38 years ago in January! (They sell coffee too - but I don't drink coffee.)

Buildings and trees across the square reflected in the windows

 

 I also popped in at the Bookshop, recently reopened again after a fire in that building back in the summer. I didn't buy any books, but some stickers and stamps - as I realised the other day it's time to get started on my overseas Christmas cards. (I already had enough cards at home, but I wanted to show my appreciation of the bookshop being back in business...)

 I received the first Christmas card and letter myself this week - from a penpal in the US.

Looking back towards town on my way back home - the sun breaking through from the south, but still dark skies in the background.

Crossing the old cemetery closer to home - here you can see the very thin layer of powder snow on the ground.

The trees are all bare now, except for just a few leaves lingering here and there. In the cemetery I've noticed that some low branches on birch trees growing right next to lamp posts seem to tend to hang on to their leaves longer than the rest... Must be to do with the light from the lamps at night!

That Time of the Year

And suddenly we're past mid November, with only one more week to go to 1st Advent weekend... Looking out of my windows, all the trees are bare now, and it's getting dark early in the afternoon. (Sunset 3:45 pm.) The last few days there have also been chilly winds blowing, with temperatures close to freezing point in the mornings - and not much better during the day either. I'm thankful that I did manage to get my flu vaccination over with on Monday (see previous post) while it was still quite mild, and no wind. Queuing outdoors for 45 minutes later in the week would no doubt have been more of an ordeal!

I was still feeling tired for a couple of days afterwards, though; hard to say if side-effect of the vaccination or just "anyway". (Not exactly ill, just a bit "slow".) But yesterday, I decided it was a good day to change my kitchen curtains - as I always do around this time of year. Other decorations for Advent will wait until next weekend; but I always prefer to get the curtain job over with beforehand, choosing a day when I have the time, and feel up for it.

Today, I woke up to the news on the radio that the east coast of Sweden was having the first snow storm of the year - as much as 30-40 cm in some places.

Which told me it was also time to get on with the final "winter preparations" on my own balcony... So today I've covered my clematis (climbing on a trellis against the wall) with a layer of fibre cloth, and wrapped my strawberry boxes in old newspapers and shoved those under the bench - which was already covered with a plastic tarpaulin for winter. 

Seems I was just in time. Looking out the window tonight, I see we're now having a light snowfall going on here as well... Whether it will remain just light, or turn worse, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

For my own part, there's nowhere special I need to be tomorrow. Might be a good day to just stay in and get started on some Christmas correspondence...