The last week has been classic November weather here in Stockholm, and in much of the country.

Just a week ago I was scuffing through the piles of leaves on the ground, kicking them up as I walked along with my kids. They were golden yellow and had that lovely crunchy sound under your feet as you walked. That was then.  Since then we've suffered daily from something ranging from a mist, to drizzle, to tonight's constant downpour.

Rain. Dark. Grey. Wet. An absent sun. November.

They are the words on everyones lips at the moment, and everyone's facebook status's. The leaves are now trodden on and mashed together, clumps on the footpath that are slippery and have completely lost their "fun factor".

I feel like a nasty mother waking my children, in what feels like the dead of the night each morning and I have to remind myself that it is a necessity, and that I am not torturing them for the fun of it. We walk to and from school in the dark and they are ready for dinner by 4.30pm, simply because it feels so late. "Why is it so dark mummy" they each ask, wanting an explanation, struggling to understand. I wish I had a good answer for them.

So to combat the darkness I set up the timer on a lamp last night, which promted me to add a few more items to last week's list:

14. Put timers on your lights so they turn on just before/after your alarm goes off in the morning and     just before you get home from work/school.

15. Go to the local pool, it is great to get about in your swimsuit/bathers and be reminded of the warmer weather. It is also nice to have a few less clothes on for a change.

16. Make the most of any sauna at the gym, the pool or anywhere you can access one. The heat is great in the winter, it gets right in under the skin and makes me feel like I am somewhere else for a few precious moments, or as long as I can stand it. Again it is nice to have a lot less clothes on.

17. Change the colour theme in your home. Stay a way from the cool, dark colours and go for white. If you ever wondered why so many Swedish homes are spartan white then one November here will convince you it is the right way to go - but add some warmth with splashes of bright colours - reds, yellows and oranges are great at this time of year.

18. I've said it before, I say it again - have parties! It is great to be able to keep drinks and food outside, it's like having an extra fridge.

If however, you are struggling with the darkness, rest assured that our rate of loss of light has slowed down. We are now only losing about 4 minutes a day, that's 28 minutes this week. And with about a month to go until the Winter Solice, when the days start getting longer again, there is light at the end of the tunnel. It's just a very long November tunnel...

Hang in there....

It struck me today how hard the darkness and the cold weather is on children, how hard it is on all of us.

1. Light therapy. You can buy sunlights at well-stocked appliance stores or online. There are also a few around the country and light therapy centres around the country. Search on ljusterapi + café or + center or + behandling.
    
2. Escape to a warmer, sunnier place sometime over the winter. If you can’t manage that plan some sort of holiday, or weekend away. Go to the snow, go to another city, go the country. Spend the weekend on one of the cruise ships wandering around without a jacket and gloves! It is fantastic how much a change of scenery lifts our spirits even when the weather is at its worst.

3. Vitamin supplements – available from health food stores (häslokost butiker), online or bring your favorite kind with you.

4. Fish oil (fiskolja) – it is fantastic and really boosts the kids’ immune systems. They are less susceptible and if they get something they are not sick as long. A worthwhile investment for all the family and vegetarian alternatives exist such as flax seed oil.

5. Evening primrose oil - winter is hard on skin and the colder it gets the dryer my skin gets until my fingers are like sandpaper with cracks at the end of them. No amount of hand cream helps. The only cure is nattljusoljataken orally, daily.

6. Eat well. Nothing will bring you down as far and as fast as a poor diet. Lots of fruit and vegetables, and warming nutritious meals. Great time for curries and any other spicy food to warm you from the inside.

7. Sleep well. Sleep deprivation does terrible things to us at the best of times. You will need to be regularly getting enough sleep to keep your energy levels up. Make sure the kids get enough rest too. Earlier to bed rather than later.
    
8. Plan lots of events well in advance. Go to the theatre, movies, museums or anything else that is around. Meet friends there. Plan dinner parties with friends where you play games or just curl up by the fire and talk.

9. Take a course, join a club. Be active.

10. Have rituals and celebrate the seasons with Halloween, All Saints Day, First Advent and anything else that comes along. Make them your own celebrations; make up your own celebrations. They brighten life up and they mark the time.

11. Make the most of the sun as soon as you see it, because you never know when it will be back again. Any indoor activities can wait until another time, another day. If the sun is shining go outdoors.

12. Learn from the kids – Swedish kids are used to being out all year round and want to go out no matter what the weather. “There is no such thing as bad weather only unsuitable clothing” is a famous Swedish saying that is fitting for this time of year. Force yourself to get out regularly, rug up and be suitably dressed. Take up an outdoor sport – it will make a huge difference to your ability to enjoy this long season.

13. Know that this too will come to an end and keep an eye on the daylight hours. Know that you will rejoice like never before when the sun, the daylight, the birds, the flowers and the leaves return to us. Winter here gives you a whole new appreciation for the rebirth of nature, the survival of the species. To see bulbs pop up through the snow, buds appear on dormant trees and to hear the chirping from the early morning to the late hour brings joy, and gratefulness. And sighs of great relief.

This week has seen the onset of the first cold weather for the season. With temperatures dropping below normal we have been reminded of what's to come, and had our first taste of snow.

Yet despite its regularity we somehow we never seem to take this transition with ease and lag behind the weather in every sense. As I dropped the kids off at school and daycare I felt the icy wind ripping at my face and in shock watched the snow swirling down around me. Did anyone say it was going to snow today? Damn I forgot to check the paper before I dressed the kids. My daughter had only jeans on and although my son had lined pants they would not be enough. I cursed myself for not taking the cooler temperatures more seriously, for not getting their warmer boots out of the cellar and checking if they even fit, for not putting woollen hats on them.

It seems I am not the only one who so keenly resists the change in seasons, the kids themselves run around in way too little clothing if no-one watches over them. Up until this week I have turned up at school to find my daughter among the kids without hats, gloves and even jackets, despite her hands being icy-cold to touch. This week their teacher finally stopped them from going out without jackets!

Motorists too are renown for being ill-equipped when the icy conditions come and every year hundreds of cars go sliding off the road into ditches, on-coming traffic and anything else in the way. We wait until the last minute to put our winter tires on; I too have been guilty of it and caught in a snowstorm. The garages around the country usually have a very busy few days as motorists wait around to have their winter tires put on for them. The papers are guaranteed to be filled with reports of accidents on the roads.

I watched a kid on a moped this morning on his way to school - as he turned the corner the bike slid out from under him and he came off. He was fine, albeit very annoyed. It is soon time to put the mopeds and motorbikes away for the season, in wait of warmer weather. Only the bravest drive once the roads get icy.

It has been a funny autumn this year with local temperatures being below average, the rain coming mostly at night and the days filled with glorious sunshine. As long as the sun shines we are happy and can cope with the cooler temperatures. The first snow doesn't usually come for another month, which is why it took us by surprise this week. Everyone was talking about it, the kids more excitedly than the adults! 

So after the snowfall I managed to get downstairs and drag out the snowsuits and boots and they were dressed warmly the next day, ready for whatever the skies decided to dish out at us. Of course by the time I picked them and their friends up in the afternoon they were hot, hot, hot and the boys quickly discarded their jackets and ran around in just their snowpants. You never can tell and the temperature is so much lower in the mornings!

Mind you I don't think too many of us will complain about the Brilliant blue skies in the afternoons. The colours at this time of year are glorious.

The last couple of weeks have also seen a dramatic difference in daylight. Once the sun starts sleeping in later than us in the mornings it becomes difficult to get up once the alarm goes off, and even more difficult to raise sleeping children. It is now dark until 7.30am and as early as 5.30 in the afternoon and we are losing daylight at a rate of 5 minutes a day - that is 35 minutes a week! The darkness of Sweden will soon be upon us!

You can keep your eye on the Swedish daylight hours here:

  This graph shows average temperatures, rainfall, humidity etc for Stockholm.

 
Sweden Climate graph contributed by climatetemp.info

And you can check here for the current temperatures in cities and towns around the country

Perhaps you'll manage to be a little better prepared for when the temperature drops than I was!

Happy Winter !?

It has been a busy week, with school and daycare finishing up for the academic year, clients being finalised and other clients in need of attention. I had such great intentions about getting back to the blog this week, but alas, that will have to wait a little longer.

In the meantime however I am very pleased to introduce Sue Dugen to you, she will keep the blog going while I am in sunny Canada. Sue and her family migrated here from the UK in 2006, in search of a better life. These true adventurers left family, friends and the life they had known behind them, they walked away from their security and have embraced this northern European country of ours.

I'm sure she will tell you more about her adventures, how she feels about life in Sweden and her latest career development as an indexer.

You will probably see some changes on the site during the summer as I will be sitting on the deck at the cottage working on the site, perhaps blogging a bit from time to time too.

In any case I hope that Sweden has a particularly warm and sunny summer, that the days are bright, the lakes are full of kids frolicking in the water, and that the flowers bloom.

Glad Midsommar! Glad sommar!

Spring is here in all its glory, and so are the frogs. A warning was just released from Stockholm City Council that it is now that frogs, toads and salamanders are in the process of migrating, especially on warm, damp nights and that we need to watch out for them while driving.

At this time of year there are countless amphibians on the move from their winter hibernation in forests and gardens, to their summer residences in lakes, ponds and streams. They are particularly vulnerable crossing roads where they fall victim to traffic, bicycles, pedestrians and even curbs that are too high to climb.

In greater Stockholm there is plenty of water for our amphibian friends and they can easily be spotted crossing the road, especially around Spångavägen in Bromma, around the Kyrksjön (lake) and Kyrksjölöten (nature reserve), as well as around Gubbkärrsvägen near lake Judarn and on the roads around Långsjön on the border between Stockholm and Huddinge in the south. Other vulnerable areas include Järvafältet, Isbladskärret on Southern Djurgården and the forrested area of Solbergaskogen.

Want to help? You can join FrogFriends by donating either time or money. It is one of the many frog groups around the country.

And if you see a friend on the road - gently pick it up and carry it to the side, or better still, down to the water. You should be very gently with these delicate creatures, have gloves on (for their sake not yours) and/or put them in a bucket to transport them. That's just what we did with this sleepy little guy we found over Easter.

And last of all, take photos and report your observations to Stockholm's species catalogue.