SORDID TIDINGS

No nice extemporations on weather conditions today, I am afraid! Instead, I will give it a go as crime reporter.

I did not notice anything special when returning from my daily morning walk around 9.30 AM. Deep in thought as I was, planning for a forthcoming trip to Karelia together with Per Wijkman, an old friend of mine, I just bypassed all the excitement on the quay without even seeing all the activities going on there.

But I woke up abruptly, when opening the balcony door to let in some fresh air. There was noise on the quay, with a huge barge letting its engine idle, which caused the balcony rails to vibrate and annoyed me some. Stepping outside for a closer look, I saw the view you have in front of you. Apparently, a car long sought by the police, had been found submerged just below my kitchen window and was now being recovered by the mobile crane of a barge.

I gather that there is an interesting story behind this event but am, to my regret, unable to provide you with more information than this. We have to leave it to the valiant reporters at "Sjöstadsbladet" (the local newspaper) to report on this in their next edition. Or maybe, if they are generous, they could do us a favour and put some information into this blog, in the form of a comment. What do you say, Sjöstadsbladet, shall we make a trade? You may use my pictures of the event in your paper if you put in a small comment here at the blog, explaining to us what all the excitement was about!

SKIR GRÖNSKA

Just three weeks ago, the sidewalks in this picture, showing the quay opposite mine, were still  covered with snow and the two willows showed naked branches, hanging hapless along trunks darkened by windy winter slush. A week ago, the first signs of green appeared and now we can witness the delicate beauty of newly budded twigs. So dear is this green marvel to us Swedes, that we even have a wording for it, "skir grönska". In English you would call it something like "delicate green", but this does not have the same flavour to it, since you are missing the Northerners´ longing for spring, so nicely encapsuled in our expression.

It is intriguing how quickly the mood is adapting to this newly seen color. Winter seems far away and you almost have the feeling that it will never come back, in this pastel world of great expectations. No hardships anymore, the world feels anew fresh and inviting! This gets me to think about a trusted German adage "Wenn die Not am Höchsten scheint, Gott der Herr die Hand uns reicht". Believe it or not, this is the text of a famous aria in the opera "Hansel and Gretel"; that notwithstanding it expresses the mood of the day: just when you are completely worn down by a loong winter, salvation comes with the first budding of trees and flowers!

Am I the only one to feel uplifted by the delicate scenery? By no means! Have a look at the second picture. It shows two workers having climbed the large crane adjacent to our apartments, which has been left standing as a memento of the busy harbor that once occupied the quays. Their task was, I trust, to clean the crane of bird droppings accumulated over the years. Suddenly, they stopped all activity, getting entrapped by admiring the glory of our early spring. It took them quite a while to tear themselves away from the scenery and get back to the task they had come to carry out.

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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!

FERRIES' DANCE FOREBODING SPRINGTIDES

Late yesterday evening I arrived back home from a short trip to Germany. Just like a month ago, I had no occasion to savour the temperature, stepping from plane to train, from train to cab and from cab to my apartment door. This morning however, I noticed a big difference to my last return (remember the glove freezing to the doorhandle?). The air was fresh, but mild. Although white snow was still blanketing the lawns alongside the streets, the Sound was completely ice free and you could hear the odd bird starting to kvitter.

Whilst appreciating these forebodings of spring, I could not help noticing that there now were two ferries crossing Hammarby Sound. I then recalled that since recently, the ferries no longer go straight across, but make an intermediate landing on the quay you can see just behind the two ferries. Above that quay, building activity is approaching its end and soon the last "immigrants" to Hammarby Sjöstad will be able to move in there and are already being serviced by ferry transports. This adds to the charm of this nice neighborhood but, of course, diminishes my views. If you would like to see how the quay looked without the new buildings, take a quick glance back at the "Rainbow picture" in an earlier post.

But why two ferries of a sudden? Well, this is an example of Swedish efficiency. Going straight across, the trip takes only five minutes and there is a ferry available each 15 minutes. With the present triangular traffic, the trip takes ten minutes to the other side and you have to wait 20 minutes between the boats' arriving. Having to wait 5 minutes longer for the transfer is deemed to be unacceptable during the morning and evening rush hours, when people are hurrying to transport their children, as well as themselves, to and fro their daily hide-outs. With two ferries, you are back at the 15 minutes' interval.

However, every 40 minutes or so, the two ferries tend to "collide" and have to execute an elegant wait-and-dance manoeuvre so that traffic can continue without unnecessary delays. Isn't it nice to live in such an efficient country?

To celebrate my good luck of living here, let me present, for your amusement, a little video with the two ferries "dancing" to music. You just have to click at the icon below to join in the fun.

BACK TO THE FREEZING NORTH!

Late last night I came back home from a refreshing trip to warmer fields. Jumped into the cab from the airport and did not feel the outside temperatures. However, back at my apartment building, I could not help noticing that the port opener (where you push some buttons) did not work. Well, I used the key and thought no more about it.

After a good night's sleep I stepped out onto the balcony this morning around 8AM, in my pyjamas, to taste the fresh air of Hammarby Sound again, so sorely missed during my absence. The air was a delight to breeze and the view of the sound no less delicate. A light mist threw a veil over the view, rendering the buildings and boats opposite my balcony in precious pastel colors. I was back home in my little cosy paradise!

The big surprise came when I went out to get a bite to eat and buy some newspapers. When trying to enter the press office, my glove FROZE SOLID TO THE OUTSIDE DOOR HANDLE. I had to rip it off and will have to buy new gloves. Now it dawned on me that it was REALLY FREEZING COLD. In my excitement for being back home, I had not noticed a difference in temperatures of more than fourty degrees (Celsius) between the Canaries and my home. Extraordinary, isn't it?

THE ICE BEAR COMETH ANEW!

Barely had I foretold a mild winter season in the latest blog post than weather conditions changed again abruptly. The harsh Polar High is back, edging uncomfortably close to the Icelandic Low, and impeding the western winds that bring mild and humid air to Stockholm. We are again shivering at temperatures in the minus tens and ice is anew forming on Hammarby Sound, as can be seen in the picture taken this morning at 8 AM.

I think I have had enough of this! This weekend, off I will go to warmer climes. Gran Canaria is beckoning with unusually green coasts (due to early winter rain). If you would like to follow me on my voyage, have a look at http://emilsfelicitousisle.blogspot.com/ where I will keep a diary of the trip.

RETURN OF THE SLUSHY SEASON?

You may recall that my earlier posts this winter have delved into matters of extreme cold and related idiosyncrasies. This discussion topic may soon be left aside, I believe. During last week, the last piece of ice on Hammarby Sound has dissipated, foreshadowing a more normal Stockholm winter. And indeed, when looking out of my window this morning at ten, I was greeted by an intense wet snowfall, of a kind well remembered from winters past.

Despite its location way far to the the North of Europe (Stockholm has about the same latitude as Kodiak in Alaska) my hometown usually experiences mild and slushy weather all the way through March. This is due (1) to the Gulf Stream that caters for the Atlantic to be cosily warm and ice-free up to Murmansk in Russia and (2) more importantly, to the GRAND NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION (well, it has to be grand, with such a denomination!).

So what does this grand wording mean? For reasons apparent only to experienced meteorologists, a permanent low pressure zone seems to reign over Iceland, being balanced by an equally permanent zone of high pressure far to the South over the Azores. The imbalance between those two acts as a giant ventilator, pumping wet and warm air with great insistence westward over the North Atlantic and over Southern Scandinavia. This translates into an oscillation of rain and wet snow falling over Hammarby Sound well into March. Temperatures usually waver around the zero point (in Celsius terms) and would be quite agreeable, weren't it for the constant humidity either hovering in the air or falling upon us as slushy downpour.

Why then did we experience such a long time of rather extreme cold lasting until last week? For this we have to blame another weather zone, the GRAND ARCTIC OSCILLATION reigning over the polar regions. Off and on, an arctic High that you can liken to a mighty ice bear, is getting tired of his position on top of the world and moving sidewise into Iceland, which has the effect of stopping the westward pumping action and replacing it with northerly winds, blowing icy cold over poor Stockholm. Last winter, he located himself uncomfortably close to Iceland for a prolonged period, leading to one of the harshest cold seasons in Stockholm for decades. We had our expectations up also in the current season, hoping for another Jack Frost to lead us into March, but it seems that this will not be the case, we probably will have to content us with the Slushy Season.