Frozen

 

 

 

Today was another of those rare winter days with the sun shining from a clear blue sky, making me want to get out there, in spite of the cold...

 

Having no urgent errands today, I did not feel tempted to walk all the way into town again; but decided to just go for a walk down to the river and make photograpny my focus this time - so also brought my Sony compact camera, rather than just the phone. 

 

In the first photo above, it's my own shadow you see, standing on the bridge, looking north. On the south side of the bridge is one of the dams where they regulate the flow of water through the city. And when it's as cold as it has been for a good while now, there are sometmes interesting ice formations to be seen.

 

 

 

I then followed the path on the other side of the bridge for a while, before going back up to walk across the cemetery back home.

 

Funeral chapel

For a change, I enjoyed following the tracks made by maintenace vehicles on some snowy paths that had not been ploughed. (I did have the right footwear for it.) 

 

It's been good to be able to collect a few sunny and enjoyable outdoors moments towards the end of this long winter, which for the most part has just been - well, "difficult"... 

 

Winter is not over yet, though. It's snowing again as I'm about to finish this post, and here's the forecast for the next nine days:

 

 

 

 

Mackerel Sky

 

Mackerel sky is supposed to forecast that the weather is about to change. This photo was taken yesterday afternoon, and it was indeed followed by snow/rain/slush/ice during the night and morning. As nights had been very cold for quite a while, the change to milder temperatures meant icy and slippery roads and streets. Weather warnings were issued, and in the morning, many trains and buses were cancelled. Luckily I did not have to go anywhere. I had ordered a home delivery of groceries, which even arrived on time (around noon), in spite of the icy streets. 

My local newspaper, on their website, reported about extremely icy conditions in our city centre in the morning, though. Below are a couple of "slippery slope" screenshots that I snapped from their video:

 

 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Icy Cold

 

Another cold and sunny day today, and I took my Sony camera for a walk down to the river to look for more ice and reflections. (It has a better zoom than my phone camera...)

Taking a photo of my own shadow taking a photo of... etc... 

 

 

Weekend Reflections

 

For Valentine's Day (Swedish: Alla hjärtans dag = All Hearts' Day) we had one of those rather rare cold winter days of sunshine and blue skies, and yet no ice/snow on the streets. And this big heart is once again in place in the square, right in front of the old court house in the background. (It has been moved around between a few different locations since last February when it first appeared.) 

The water level in the river is low, due to construction work on a bridge going on upstream. From the spots of ice along the temporary "beach" (not normally visible!) you can tell that it is really quite icy cold even if there is no snow or ice to be seen elsewhere!

 

Looking back towards town on my way home.

As you can see from the reflections in the river it was a very still day - no wind blowing.
 

 A frozen shallow pond, on the other side of the path along the river that I was following.

I was glad to be able to take advantage of the sunny day for a walk. Today we're again back to cloudy and grey - and also a bit of snow whirling about outside my windows just now...

 Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections

 

2025 Has Begun

 

During the night between New Year's Day and today, the rain turned to snow again; and this morning I woke up to blue skies, a thin layer of snow on the ground, and the winter sun doing its best for the short while it was up. I tried to make the most of that as well, so took my walking poles + studded boots out for a walk into town and back. (Which means I was out for about an hour.)

 

There is a temporary ice skating rink in the park in winter.

 On my way home I followed the path along the river and then across the cemetery.

The forecasts for the next few days are a bit vague again. As so often, around here we seem to be in a border zone between snow and rain... 

 

I may be linking this post to the blogs below,
when their respective posts for this weekend turn up. 

More Views of Snow and Ice

 

Monday was another really cold day. I needed some things from the pharmacy, so went for a walk downtown to the city centre. It takes a good while for the river to freeze even when it's as cold as now; but ice has begun to form along the river banks in some places, especially where the water is shallow. One also sees sheets of ice floating along in the open water, and sometimes piling up, like here.

This fence is a barrier between a street and the railway that runs in the valley down below.

It's rather unusual to see snow staying more or less untouched on fences and plants like this for several days in a row - but there's been no wind since the snow fell, and the temperature has not risen above freezing point either. Today was a lot milder than the last couple of days, but it still wasn't thawing - so it still looked pretty much the same when I walked past there again today, now in the other direction.

 

This time stopping for photos on the bridge over the river by the dam and waterfall.

Upstream, on the other side of the bridge, the river calm like a mirror... 

 

* * * * * * * * *

It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood,
It fills with alabaster wool
The wrinkles of the road.

It makes an even face
Of mountain and of plain, —
Unbroken forehead from the east
Unto the east again.

It reaches to the fence,
It wraps it, rail by rail,
Till it is lost in fleeces;
It flings a crystal veil

On stump and stack and stem, —
The summer’s empty room,
Acres of seams where harvests were,
Recordless, but for them.

It ruffles wrists of posts,
As ankles of a queen, —
Then stills its artisans like ghosts,
Denying they have been.

Poem by Emily Dickinson

Another Day

 

Here in Sweden, the day known as Boxing Day in English is called Annandag Jul, which means the 2nd day - or "another day" - of Christmas. It's a bank holiday, but less loaded with traditions compared to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (I suppose that varies a bit from one family to another, though.) Probably quite a few shops are also kept open on this day nowadays. I haven't been into town to check, though!

Christmas Day was rainy and windy (mixed with a bit of wet snow from time to time) and I stayed in - mostly watching TV (or streaming services etc). This morning, looking out of my windows + checking with the thermometer, I got the impression that it was wet outside rather than icy. That impression changed as soon as I set foot outdoors, though. The ground is frozen hard and covered with invisible ice, so very slippery. I had my trekking poles and studded booths though, and thought it would be better on the gravel paths in the old cemetery. But even there it was icy. So I ended up cutting the walk shorter than intended.

I think I already mentioned this in an earlier post, but one thing slipperiness seems to do here is to make people a lot more inclined to chat with complete strangers - even if only to state the obvious (i.e. how slippery it is). In the cemetery, I met another senior lady with trekking poles; and after exchanging a glance and a smile (recognising each other's struggle), we also stopped to verbally confirm to each other how very icy it was... Then on my way back across the footbridge over the railway (an especially tricky spot in winter), I also met a somewhat younger lady, without poles to support her - and obviously hesitating how best to proceed. Body language easy enough to interpret just now! but she too also started a verbal chat... Something which rarely happens the rest of the year, between strangers just passing each other going in opposite directions.

For my own part, I got home safely, and can only hope the other two reached their destinations in one piece as well.

Tomorrow is laundry day for me; a good enough excuse to just stay in again.

Brrr…

Sooooo cold today!!! Bitter cold winds, icy and slippery streets...

My thermometer showed minus 2.6 degrees Celsius (27.3°F), but my weather app on the phone really was much closer to the truth,  warning me that it would feel like -12°C (-10.4°F). It’s like we suddenly jumped straight ahead to mid January or so…

A short walk to the nearest mailbox today felt like going out for a polar expedition. Besides winter coat and boots, I also needed the extra spiky thingies for the boots and my Nordic walking sticks (with the bouncy “summer” rubber ends removed). And I was still afraid of slipping! (But I didn’t.)

 

(The photo at the top is my own, taken with the phone.
The other images I stole borrowed from the internet.)

We only have a thin layer of snow around here yet, though. I just watched the evening news, and up in the north in some places they’ve had 1 meter of snow in the last three days. And I understand they’ve had quite a lot in the south-east, too. Around here, not as much snow, but very icy roads; and many people haven’t had time to change to winter tires on their cars yet. So lots of road accidents.

Tomorrow I’ll be staying in , I think... (No need to go anywhere!)