Well, the cold spell continues. The weather forecaster of last night said this is the coldest May in the last 150 years. Wintery showers and below freezing just about everywhere in Sweden. Global warming, anyone?
Well, the cold spell continues. The weather forecaster of last night said this is the coldest May in the last 150 years. Wintery showers and below freezing just about everywhere in Sweden. Global warming, anyone?
5 days later, on the 17th May, spring arrived. It rained, much needed for the parched soil. Today it is also very mild, 15 celsius. The leaves are starting to open on the trees, white wood anemones and blue wood anemones are out, and tussilago (coltsfoot, yellow, look like dandelions) are flowering. Butterflies are out, especially the small blue on their upper wings and white underwing. Lets hope there is no more frost at night. Five days above freezing is generally the sign that spring has arrived.
Today is the first day of summer in Southern Norrland. Blue skies, the leaves on the trees and bushes still not fully out. I don't sit in the sun, I find it too draining, but Kerstin does.
This coming Thursday is Ascension in Sweden and also in Australia and perhaps elsewhere too. In Sweden it is called Kristihimmelsfärd and is a public holiday, while the Friday is the squeeze day, that most Swedes take out as a holiday, giving a 4-day weekend.
Politics here in Sweden is very interesting. The attempt by the New Moderates to ally with the Sweden Democrats was disastrous for the New Moderates, it made the Sweden Democrats the second largest party, which blocks any changes the Social Democrats might want to make. But it is good for Swedish Neutrality as the Sweden Democrats favour it. The Moderates lost a lot of support, mostly to the Centre Party, but the Social Democrats are well placed for a second term in the 2018 elections. The Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson is well placed to take over as leader of the Social Democrats.
Today it is 2 June, but it is pretty cold for this time of year. Yesterday we had North winds, and in the morning with the thermometer on +2 celsius it was also very cold, made worse by the windchill. Near to gale force winds. We anyway took the train to Bollnäs and with the rain that fell all day yesterday and showers today it left the countryside looking green and fresh. The lilac bush at home is coming into bloom, and the fields look green and well-watered. Bollnäs Library has a good selection of books in English, and serves lunches with good vegetarian and lactose free and gluten free meals. I have borrowed two books by Alice Hoffmann in English, looking forward to reading them.
I have noticed we now need to include a title to each post, this is daft, but OK I'll comply.
Sweden's Riksdag is blocked by the Sweden Democrats becoming the second largest party. We will have to see how this develops.
The New Moderates have been ousted from second place to third, and have set up informal collaboration in the Riksdag with the Sweden Democrats to work out collaboration between them where the two parties' have interests in common. With one year of the 4-year term available to the Government before the next General Election, the Social Democrats will likely decide to make Magdalena Andersson (Finance Minister) the next party leader and Prime Minister.
A lot has happened in the year since the last post was published. Anna Kingberg Batra has resigned as leader of the "new" Moderates and a new leader is being appointed. When that happens I will report again.
The election of a new New Moderates leader is taking time, so everything else has to wait. Meanwhile for the first time ever the "Alliance" of the Bourgeois Parties has been broken with the Centre Party and the Liberals by supporting the Social Democratic Government so the voting went their way, confirming the Foreign Minister in his position. See https://www.thelocal.se/20170915/swe...by-wide-margin.
We do? Hmmm, that's odd!Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
I am enjoying your stories and descriptions very much. Probably there are a lot of us in LitNet that read things, but don't feel compelled to post.
Nonetheless, keep on writing, this is fascinating indeed.
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty
~Albert Einstein
Thank you KP, I will!
This is the mildest and wettest summer I can remember. And toward the end of September it remains warm and mild, with highs around 15 celsius! It is also very humid. It is still Rot Month, which is normally the month of August, and that some may know of as Dog Days (named after Sirius the dog star): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_days. August is - or rather was - the time to go mushrooming. But now it is almost the end of September. Last year we had a mild winter with freezing and melting ice making the way very treacherous. Toadstools keep appearing, and seem to thrive!
We are a week into October and the mild weather continues.
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