Friday 1 April 2011

THIS IS THE END - SPRING STARTING WITH COLD DRIZZLE!


"No!", this is not a prank on April Fool's Day, this is the real thing. All night long, there was a steady drizzle outside my, always open, bedroom window, brandishing welcome humidity to my thankful nostrils. And the drizzle did not stop at day-rise either. Whilst we are shivering in all that cold wetness, we are also grateful to get rid of the banks of icy snow that still adorn most of our sidewalks. They will all be gone within the day.

Hammarby Sound, with its brackish water, is already completely free of ice, but the freshwater lakes feeding into it aren't yet. But it is a question of hours now until their white blanket, already turning grey-ish due to rotting ice, will be completely gone. The seagulls and ducks are already rejoicing and looking forward to a healthy swim in fresh waters.

Readers on the continent certainly may be asking themselves how we Northeners cope with our seasons. The answer is simple: we have learnt how to ENDURE. After the looooong, dark and, respectively, slushy and icy winter, we are sliding into our summer, which, being short and rainy, gets us to look forward again to the next nice cold winter.

To round up this optimistic post, let me make an exception to the rule by showing some pictures taken from the opposite side, that is, from the side I usually am looking at from my balcony. It shows the ice still lingering, blanketing the outlet from the upper small freshwater lakes into the Sound. I had to hurry to take those pictures, tomorrow the ice will surely be gone!





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess you are longing to take photos of the many private sailing yachts and motor boats that come cruising along the Sound to get out into the open waters of the Baltic Sea - the first ones maybe coming at Easter? Eva M.

Emil Ems said...

Dear Eva,

Nice to have you back here as commentator! I am indeed looking forward to some more action on the Sound, even if I could do without those small racers and water-bikes that, singularly, make as much noise as all the other traffic bunched together.