Sunday 28 November 2010

TIME TO HIBERNATE?


Winter has arrived with a vengeance. Snow falling since three days back and temperatures falling all the way down to the minus tens at night and keeping well below the minus fives in day time.

It is getting more difficult by the day to get up early in the morning. But this is Advent Sunday, so I forced myself out of bed at 7.30 to have an early timid glance at Hammarby Sound. The Nordic winter night is keeping its frigid claws firmly hooked on this scenery in blue. But neighbors opposite my balcony are fighting a winning battle against the dark with Xmas decorations in full bloom. In the dark winter season, you really appreciate these beacons of hope.

The picture below was taken yesterday afternoon, shortly before 4 PM. Dusk had already briskly established itself at this early hour!

Only four weeks to the darkest of the dark days!


6 comments:

Hans Christian Cars said...

This new picture of yours is very special. I was watching it for a long time to enjoy the clarity of the colours and the interesting composition with three balconies in a vertical row, the highest completely dark and the lowest flooded by light. It is an amazing picture.

Anonymous said...

Emil,

Även här Bryssel är det minusgrader och det är mörkt och stan är täckt av frost denna första advent.

Skönt att se att det vänder om fyra veckor.



Lars

Emil Ems said...

Dear Hans Christian and Lars,

Thank you kindly for your comments. I would have liked to make a larger print out of the picture. To my regret, I had to take it free hand and at a rather high ISO sensitivity, so it is full of noise. You can't see it on the web version, but it would definitely be noticeable on a larger print and disturb the otherwise nice view on the picture.

Lorenzo Brown said...

Merry Christmas, Emil.
It is so good that you can get so much pleasure from your balcony. I'm going to be just like you when I grow up!

Harry Pottol said...

Your blog mentions "minus tens." Converting Celsius to real numbers, I get 14 Fahrenheit. We had two nights that cold, about thirty years ago. We lost many plants and trees to freezing. On the other hand, I did not expect to find it remarkable in Scandinavia.

Emil Ems said...

Dear Harry,
I am glad you brought up the topic of freezing temperature in the Bay Area. I read about this when visiting there back in 1976/77, but did not realize that it had been THAT COLD. You may recall that I had a brief mention of this event in my California Blog, see: http://emilems.blogspot.com/2010/04/you-know-of-course-who-was-chester.html