Not Ideal

 

To sum up the 22nd of February, 2026: 
The day was not ideal neither for walking, nor for a barbecue picnic.

 What gave these two the idea to even try, I can't imagine! (I zoomed them in from afar.)

Yesterday afternoon, it rained on the snow, and then the slush froze over night. I tried a  short walk around noon today; but even with my studded boots on, and two walking poles, I soon felt I had better make it very short... 

This afternoon, it has been snowing on top of the ice, and more is to be expected during the night. So my guess is that tomorrow won't be ideal for outdoors activity either.

 

Winter Skywatch

 

20th February at 07:16

Thursday and Friday were of the kind that kept me "busy enough" without blogging. Thursday was laundry day for me; and on Friday I had a delivery from the supermarket booked between 10-13. For a change, they had put me almost first on the list rather than last, so I got my delivery already around 10:15; which also gave me time for a walk around the cemetery after lunch. The weather forecasts for the upcoming week being rather gloomy, I thought I had better seize the opportunity. It wasn't as sunny as the previous day but also not quite as cold, so kind of nice anyway.

I did not make a lot of photo stops on that walk, but I noticed that a second bird feeder has been put up on the other side of the same tree as where the "little red house" one is. (Cf my "calendar photo" for February.)  I think the green one is meant for the bigger birds... 
 

I also stopped for a photo of the one family grave of ours in this cemetery - belonging to my maternal great-grandparents. (That grave is still officially in the care of my aunt, who lives elsewhere, but I keep an eye on it as I often walk by there anyway). The hares seem to have been visiting (actually, there are very few spots in the cemetery not covered in hare tracks!) - but I don't think neither old spruce branches nor dry heather is in their diet. The winter grave decoration seemed as intact as can be expected after nearly four months... 

Late last night, before I went to bed, I noticed that it had started snowing outside again - but very tiny snow flakes. There were weather warnings issued along the west coast, but the "warnings" not stretching quite as far inland as here. This morning, I did wake up to the sound of snow ploughs outside; but so far it seems we only got just about enough new snow to cover old footprints on the lawns. (2-3 cm)  

As it's hard to predict whether the next shower will be snow or rain, or the next few days predominantly icy or slushy, after breakfast I took out a couple of bags to the bins, and then "a few extra steps" (10 min or so) in the immediate neighbourhood in connection with that. I don't intend to go out again today; and tomorrow will depend on how the weather develops.

 Linking to Skywatch Friday

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:

 

 

 

 

Following the Tracks

 

The combination of winter sun and freshly fallen snow does often tempt me to go out for a little while, even if at present I prefer not to stray very far from home. It was on Friday that it snowed all day. By now (Monday) it's obvious that where no official paths have been  cleared, people still make their own... Like across the lawns to the playground (above)!

But humans are not the only ones leaving tracks in the snow! Here, for example, a big bird or two seem to have been out walking in the company of two hares... 

Tracks like these always make me think of a chapter in Winnie the Pooh, where Pooh and Piglet go following some tracks, which they suspect may have been made by a Woozle...

 ... but the tracks keep multiplying, so that after a while it seems there must be at least two Woozles, now also joined by, perhaps, a Wizzle... 

 

... and after yet another turn around the same bush, the two friends begin to fear that there are even more potentially dangerous animals about...

 But of course all is explained when Christopher Robin turns up:

'Silly old Bear,' he said, 'what were you doing? First you went round the spinney twice by yourself, and then Piglet ran after you and you went round again together, and then you were just going round a fourth time - '

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

Today started with a view of blue sky and white fluffy clouds - a rather rare sight lately.

 

Also quite a lot of white fluffy stuff on the ground again, since the snowstorm on Friday. The rectangular spots of light are reflections from windows on the building across the lawn. 

 

Low sun casting long shadows

 

In the afternoon, I decided to venture out for a short walk to catch a few of the rare rays of sunshine, and to get a "feeling " for how slippery or not it felt on the ground. It wasn't "too" bad, but I still felt that even using two walking poles I had better keep my eyes on the ground with every step. I did go over to the old cemetery, but only went in far enough to snap this photo of a path that had not been ploughed:

 

  

Life in a Snow Globe

 

 Photo edited in "HDR-ish" mode in Picasa3. 

After a couple of weeks of the weather staying cold, windy and dry, but without throwing more snow at us - yesterday (Friday), it was in snow-globe mood again, the whole day. So we're back to be being pretty much covered in the white stuff again. 

The head cold that hit me from "nowhere" about 1½ week ago has pretty much kept me indoors since then, and I haven't been doing much at all unless you count using up about a ton of paper tissues and cough drops. (The inside of my head has kind of been feeling blurry like a snow globe all on its own, much of the time...) 

(istock image - not my own photo)

Luckily, I had ordered my usual bi-weekly grocery delivery for Thursday - when the weather was still on good behaviour and did not cause any delays. (Besides groceries, I also stocked up on paper tissues and cough drops...) And after I got the delivery sorted, I even managed a short walk to get rid of a couple of weeks of recyclable waste in the right bins; before Nature started throwing the next lot of snow at us. So yesterday I could just stay in and watch the snow-globe-like weather from the comfort of my own home. 

On the whole it's been a long period of "doing" very little. A lot of the time I've just been half-dozing to radio, TV and audio books; with a few excursions into Blogland now and then in between, when I've felt up for it. 

I have got through the whole original B&W Forsyte Saga TV series that I managed to find available on YouTube (mentioned in some earlier post). I watched the 26th and last episode today. I did enjoy being able to see "the original" again, as this was probably one of the first TV series of "grown-up" kind that I ever watched back in my youth. In 1967, I was still only 12 years old, so I'm not entirely sure if I did see it then (might depend on what day of the week and what time of night it was broadcasted?) - or perhaps not until it was rerun again here in 1970? But even so. I don't think any of us back then would have been able to imagine the explosion of various ways we'd have 55 years later of watching pretty much anything, at any time...

Snowy Shadow Shot Sunday

 

Another sunny and really cold winter day today. I was out for about half an hour in the middle of the day, walking very slowly with support of both my poles. Above a photo from the playground park in the middle of the housing estate; but mostly I just walked back and forth on a path along the football field for a while, because it was both sunny and quiet there. Safer than the street, and hardly even any other people about just then.

 

 

 

Snow Update

 

Yesterday we had more snow added, without any plough coming round duirng the day, and I just stayed in. This morning the walkway outside my building had been ploughed, though; so I siezed the opportunity to take out some rubbish to the bins. I also prolonged my walk a little (20 min or so, walking slowly and with poles), but kept close to home. 

The latest weather forecasts for this area predict no more snow over the weekend, but temperatures remaining cold. I have a home delivery booked tomorrow, and hope that will work out pretty much as usual, without too much delay. 

Tiddely Pom

 

 

 

▲ Photos zoomed in from my windows 11:30-11:45 today.  ▼

 The more it snows (Tiddely pom)
The more it goes  (Tiddely pom)
The more it goes  (Tiddely pom)
On snowing ...

Photo from the TV news of a man skiing in Gothenburg city - where the trams stood still this morning. Many buses were also cancelled, and trains running late, and schools have been closed... etc.

Snowbows and Diamond Dust

 

Today around 1 pm the sun was trying to break through a hazy fog consisting of teeny tiny snowflakes - so small one could not really see them, just feel them... And while I was out in it (for about 25 minutes) they also landed as a thin powdery layer on top of the black cap I was wearing. (As I was wearing a white coat, I did not notice this until I got back home and saw myself in the mirror in the lift on the way up to my flat!).

 

I went for a short walk to the nearest small convenience shop to buy some bananas and a couple of pears, to cover my need of fresh fruit until my next home delivery from the supermarket, booked for Friday.

 

 

 

I didn't actually notice those rainbow-like phenomena in the sky until I got this photo (above) up on my computer screen at home. But I think they too must be to do with that strange icy atmosphere.  (*)

 

 

Yesterday, I saw a hare disappearing into some bushes near a building. I know there are at least one or two hares that I think of as "living" in the old cemetery, but that I also sometimes see (from my windows, at night) grazing on the lawns on the estate where I live. Today, I noticed more evidence (footprints in the snow) of it/them having been around here. No doubt it's difficult for them to find food just now, with the ground all covered in snow - both here and "there"... 

 

 * * *

 

* I googled "rainbow in snow" and got this AI summary:

 

A "rainbow in snow," or snowbow, is a rare, faint arc of color (or white) caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in falling or blowing snow, rather than water droplets like a normal rainbow. Snowbows are often muted and harder to see because snowflakes are complex shapes, making them less effective at creating distinct colors, and they usually appear at sunrise or sunset when conditions are right. 

 

How it forms:

• Light & Ice Crystals: Sunlight hits ice crystals in the air (like snowflakes or diamond dust). **
• Refraction: The light bends (refracts) and splits into colors as it passes through the crystals, similar to a regular rainbow.
• Faint Colors: Because snowflakes are imperfect and complex, the colors often blend, resulting in a paler, sometimes white, arc known as a white rainbow or fogbow. 

I like the word "diamond dust", because that's exactly what it felt like when I first got out for my walk today. So I had to look that up as well, and here is what Wikipedia says:

 

Diamond dust is a ground-level cloud composed of tiny ice crystals. This meteorological phenomenon is also referred to simply as ice crystals and is reported in the METAR code as IC. Diamond dust generally forms under otherwise clear or nearly clear skies, so it is sometimes referred to as clear-sky precipitation. Diamond dust is most commonly observed in Antarctica and the Arctic, but can occur anywhere with a temperature well below freezing. In the polar regions of Earth, diamond dust may persist for several days without interruption.  

 

Walking in Snow

 

The snow warnings issued yesterday for around here today were cancelled towards noon. Whoever is in charge of where to drop the snow evidently decided to dump most of today's snow ration somewhere else. And as even just walking the few meters to the bins by the corner of the building just now demands donning full winter gear anyway, I decided to prolong that walk a little to snap a few photos. 

Our street had probably been ploughed yesterday, with only a thin extra layer of snow added since then - and no grit added so far. And when the weather is not too difficult, there's always a special feeling about getting out in freshly fallen dry snow - still pristine and white, rather than dirty or slushy or icy...

The photo at the top shows the bridge over the railway, leading to the old cemetery. That bridge is often a tricky and slippery spot in winter, but it looked ok just now, so I decided to cross it and have a look on the other side.

Looking down on the railway tracks below.

 

The pedestrian crossing over to the cemetery looked more treacherous, though. So I decided not to go over there, but just snap a couple of photos in that direction from where I was...

... and then turn back to walk a bit more on the paths in among the apartment buildings.

 

I think I get it now, why they had summer holiday maintenance teams paint the large stones lining the walk paths in bright colours. A bit easier now for snow plough drivers to see them in winter!  

The snow gathered on top of benches gives an idea of how much has fallen so far...

 

I was out for about half an hour, but walking very slowly (still having to "think" about my left knee with every step in this kind of weather), and using two poles. Each photo means full stop, removing my right glove, taking out my phone from my small shoulder bag, somehow manouvering both phone and poles while taking the photo, then putting the phone back in the bag, putting my right glove back on, and getting the right grip of both poles again to continue walking... It was quite nice winter weather to be out in today, though - no wind, with good winter boots on not really slippery, and I was dressed warm enough. :)