Of Castles and Kings

A friend visiting in the summer provided the excuse to see some of the area around Stockholm. I hate to admit it but even though I’m a short drive or train ride away I have not explored that city as much as I should. Drottningholm Palace just outside Stockholm is where the Swedish royals actually live but you can still tour a portion of the historic building. While there’s certainly vast wealth on display you can see that Sweden’s Royal Family wasn’t the wealthiest in Europe by all the faux detailing and decoration. I captured a little bit of it in pictures.

Seasons As They Pass

It is amazing how many seasons have passed since my last update. Right now, I’m facing winter again and, as often is the case, wondering what hole the time drained down. To quote Kipling “Nobody thinks about the winter when the grass is green.”

Here are my pictures from the seasons this year so far. Looking at them helps me to recall a bit of it all.

A Brief Bit of Winter

Since I’ve been in Sweden every Winter has been mild. Sure, there has been a bit of snow but it’s nothing like winter was in my childhood home of Buffalo, NY. I really thought it was going to be some kind of hinterland of ice and blinding powder that fell in non-trivial amounts from the sky. But it’s not…even my last base in the old country (Ann Arbor) had worse winters. The middle weather between pleasant and cold is one of dampness, wet winds, and slush. It really just sucks and it has me doing something I thought I’d never do: wish for a standard winter.

We had one for a week or so just now. Snow that crunches when you walk on it. Cold that freezes your nerve endings making things seem a bit more bearable. Clear, dry air and the ability to see crisp distances. I was out in the country (Gästrike Hammarby if you really want to know) and took a walk to appreciate it.

Fall Hard

Living in Scandinavia is all about accepting the inevitable stumble towards the cold and dark every year. I grew up with changing seasons so I’m very well practiced at swearing at the ones I don’t particularly like. This year feels colder and wetter than the last few so I’m taking that as an omen I will need to take my searing up a notch. But when the sun comes to taunt us the Swedish Fall is very beautiful.

The Summer Of Discontent

It’s been a very cool summer here in Sweden. So cool that we’ve had the lowest peak temperature in 155 years. Great for those of us who love Spring since it’s been a seemingly endless Spring. Warm days and cool nights please me just fine so no complaints. However, I worry if this cool trend will carry over to the fall and winter and make me my usual grumpy cold weather hating complainer. Once I had imagined a future in a tropical climate drinking margaritas or daiquiris full of crushed ice all day. Now I’m in Sweden which is typical of how things turn out totally unlike my expectations.

Here are some additional images I took in long sleeves over this often lovely summer.

Sweden 2014
(So Far)

It’s hard to believe that I moved to Sverige in January of this year. I’ve now worked my way through a few seasons here and am staring down winter. While I’ve been lax in updating this blog I’ve not been remiss in taking photographs. Here’s a variety of them from this year.