Winter is Back...

 

No use looking for "signs of spring" today... Winter is back! Started snowing a little today; and weather/traffic warnings have been issued for a lot more snow the next two days.

I ventured out for a short walk just after lunch, while it still wasn't to bad. Just a turn around the old cemetery nearby, for air and exercise...  

(Looking back at my own footsteps...)

 

Oddly 'granular' kind of snow today!

Well, I had no plans to go out tomorrow or Wednesday anyway... Tomorrow afternoon I have the laundry room booked; and on Wednesday I'm expecting an electrician to come and have a look at (and hopefully fix!) a couple of unreliable light switches in my kitchen. 

I just hope the snow and colder temperatures won't do too much damage to plants that were already on their way up to greet spring...

Photo from last week - "daffodils-to-be"

Canada Geese

I came upon these Big Birds in a park down by the river. I didn't want to disturb them so I kept "respectful distance", using the zoom on my camera. Checked my bird book when I got home, and it confirmed they were Canada geese (which I had already guessed). They're common enough here, but I've rarely seen any "in town", and never in this spot before. One of them seemed to be on "guard duty" while the rest were feeding!

 

"Hey, human - I hope you're not thinking of coming any closer!"

Grabbing the Signs of Spring

 

We've had "spring in the air" the past few days, with sun and blue skies in the daytime, even if still frosty during the night. On walks into town along the river, I've noticed this little flower bed with snowdrops, and also a few yellow somethings starting to show... (Winter aconite, suggested another lady who also stopped to have a look. In Swedish: vintergäck, which might be translated "mocking winter".)

Alas, weather forecasts are warning us to expect another wintry backlash soon; but in the meantime, I still felt "inspired" today to welcome the month of March with a couple of changes:

First I called my hairdresser in the morning, asking if she could fit me in - and she did have a spot open at 11 a.m. So I went for a sunny walk into town, and had my hair cut. (Last time was some time in December.) 

Back home, and after lunch and a bit of rest, I also felt inspired to take on the job of changing the kitchen curtains. (Long-time followers know my routine by now... I change colour scheme in the kitchen for winter vs spring/summer.) 

Since my vertigo incident back in mid January, I've been feeling a bit extra wary lately of using my step-ladder, though. Or at least higher than the first step.

Recently I've been discussing grabber tools with Sandra the MadSnapper. I have two of these, since way back - one shorter and one longer.

 

In later years I've managed to put up and take down Christmas window decorations (Advent stars) with them, without having to climb. I've also used them to adjust curtains when those are already up. I've never used them to take down/put up the whole curtain rod, though. But why not?? The rod just rests on two curved holders - it does not have to be "snapped" into anything... 

I decided to try. It turned out easier than I thought - and certainly also easier than climbing the stepladder while at the same time balancing the rod (as I've done in the past)...

Not so easy that I also managed to take a selfie while doing it, though! ;-)
But here is 'fakie' that I took afterwards to demonstrate...

What I did was simply to lift and unhook one end of the rod with the grabber, and lower that end until I could hold it. And then the other end. Why on earth did that never occur to me before?? Putting it back up after the change of curtains was not much more difficult either - one end first, then the other. And my feet on the floor the whole time. No ladder.

Mission accomplished! (I have two sets of 'summer' kitchen curtains. I've had both for many years. Last year I had my yellow ones up, this year I chose the white ones with floral pattern.)

In Memoriam

 

This image turned up for me on Facebook one day this week. I hope I'm not infringing on any copyright by re-posting it. (If I am, I'm probably not the first...) 

Friday was the day for my friend G's funeral, held in her church in Karlstad. I'd have wanted to be there; but did not feel up to the journey - in winter weather and all.

I sent the image at the top to her husband. He texted me back the title of a poem that was going to be read at the funeral (then in Swedish translation). I looked it up online and found it to be very much in the same spirit.

Death is nothing at all, by Henry Scott Holland (1847-1928)

Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was.

I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.

All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

(Copied from Wikipedia)

I moved to Karlstad to study (three terms of secretary college, to begin with) in 1975 (20 years old). In my spare time I joined a youth gospel choir in a church situated only a few minutes walk from where I lived the first year. That's where I got to know G - and made many other friends as well. As things turned out, I stayed nearly 10 years in K-d (working and studying); and even after I moved away - while G stayed, and got married - we remained close friends. We continued to exchange long letters and phone calls, and also visited each other now and then. Later we switched  to emails instead of letters. As we got older still, and various health issues increased for both of us, we met less often in person. Text communication got shorter too (mostly via a phone app the last few years) - but we still kept in touch. The last time we met "in real life" was last summer, when I was in K-d on holiday with my brother. I'm so thankful we managed to arrange that.

The Annual Book Sale

The weather is still in fickle mood here, and I'm getting tired of keeping up with it. (It think it was on Sunday I was out in a wintry snow shower for a while - wet snow, so it didn't last - while yesterday was dry but with chilly strong winds blowing.)

Today, however, was sunny - even if still a bit windy - and I went for a nice walk into town. Every year towards the end of February we have a nation-wide book sale in Sweden. It's been an annual event all my life, and I think the tradition goes back even further. My parents used to take advantage of it back in my childhood to buy books for me and my brother (and probably some for themselves as well). And most years of my adult life I've probably visited a book shop myself during this week. This year's sale started today, so I made the book shop in the city centre the goal of my walk. Had it been too crowded I might have turned around, as I wasn't looking for anything special, and my bookshelves are over-full since before. (Not to mention all the books waiting on my Kindle!) But the shop was not all that crowded, so I did go in... and once in, of course I didn't manage to get back out empty-handed...

The book on the right is a book of short stories by Tove Jansson - probably best known world-wide for her Moomin books and comic strips (later also turned into popular TV cartoons for children). But she also wrote other novels and short stories and was also a painter. (It's a self-portrait of hers on the book cover.) 

The two on the left are history books - both by the same author, a popular Swedish historian. One about World War II; the other about a 14th century nun, St Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), canonized as saint in 1391. There were several more in the series on sale, but I managed to restrain myself to "just" buying these two. (For now...)

I also couldn't resist to pick up some really cheap notebooks with nice photo covers, on display just by the cash register.

Tomorrow is laundry day for me, plus also looks like we may expect "stay-in-and-read" kind of weather again. So perhaps I'll get started on one of my purchases between my turns to the laundry room...