springflowers

Upcoming: Spring Release

Within the next two or three weeks, thousands and thousands of spectators will attend an age-old event which just recently started to become a public spectacle: the spring release of the cattle. Many of today’s children in the cities have never seen a cow and believe that milk in square cartons is produced in a … Read more

Sweden

The Swedish Climate

Between the Powers of East and West By the middle of April, spring has usually arrived in the southern half of Sweden, garnishing roadsides with yellow sun-like flowers of tussilago (coltsfoot, Tussilago Farfara), filling meadows and clearings with vitsippor (wood anemones, Anemone Nemorosa), and spotlike occurences of the increasingly rare blåsippor (blue anemones, Anemone Hepatica). … Read more

“Nationalmuseum”

Letter from Stockholm…

In Stockholm, we are waiting for spring to arrive. It’s quite cold for being the second half of March and I think almost everybody is longing for the sun to warm our frozen limbs. Usually, we get some warmth when the sun starts to rise higher and higher on the sky moving towards midsummer. This … Read more

Bonfires, sausages and pinnbröd!

Over the weekend all of Sweden celebrated spring with Walpurgis Night (or Valborgs in Swedish). This holiday is still common in lots of parts of Europe, including the Czech Republic, so it was nothing new to me. However, because I come from the dried lands of California, where generally any fire is strictly prohibited, I … Read more

Spring arrives in Sweden

Spring is finally here in Sweden. How can I tell? Well, in Norrland, the days are getting much longer, and the nights much shorter. The snow is almost completely melted. And the temperature is hovering around 10C (50F). But up in the cottage, what makes spring so obvious is the Swedish wildlife. The cottage is … Read more