Friday 20 March 2015

SPRING...



The birds are singing their little hearts out and the bees are waking up and searching for flowers and whatever nectar they can find.

The buds grow thick and swollen on the bushes and trees, little green shoots struggling to loosen the bonds that keep them warm and cosy inside the stems and tree trunks.

The rain, wind and winter weather is struggling to still make its presence felt and the animals (and humans) are getting frisky.  

Oh yeah ... Spring is here baby...!

As my friends and family in the southern hemisphere start to `welcome' the shorter nights and gloomier mornings, the cold starts to creep in towards evening and the tendrils of smoke curling out of chimneys (rather than day-time Braais!) give the game away ...... here in the northern hemisphere, we are getting ready to welcome Spring in all her fresh, blooming, frisky, fabulous glory.

The animals are the first to stir ... little Field Mice uncurling themselves from their long sleep and wriggling their little noses in the morning air. 

Little Grey Squirrels screech and cackle and chase each other up and down the tall trees, flinging themselves from branch to branch in frighteningly gay abandon (in the old-fashioned sense of the word, you understand), all fire, brimstone and shimmering tails.


And the cold slowly starts to ebb away and the sunshine starts to grow in intensity (not that we saw much of it this morning as the Eclipse progressed virtually undetected in London behind layers and layers of cloud).  

As someone tweeted this morning, the Eclipse was the most British thing ever (together with a photo of a tree, bare of all its leaves, arms stretched out to the dull grey sky surrounding it...!). The sun is shining now though, almost sniggering at us as we think how amazing the Eclipse would have been if it had been as clear as this .... Grrrr!


The sheep are ahead of the game - little white balls of fluff, prancing around the fields with their mothers, hurling themselves around the green pastures.

Every now & then they shoot upwards, their little stick-thin legs projecting them upwards, almost as if the muscles were acting on their own ... shocked expressions on their faces ... with little bleats of pleasure and surprise echoing around the field.

The cold weather hasn't entirely left us, to be fair ... and it was even colder up north recently when we took a long weekend break to Sweden.  A Christmas present between Julia & I and daughter & son-in-law Lauren and Ryan (each couple gave the other couple their holiday and we all went together..!).

As we were driven into the centre of the city, I peered out of the window at the little rivers and canals which were frozen solid ... just waiting for a couple of kids to strap their skates on and meander through the town.

The port was free of ice, but still had neat piles of snow dotted around public places where the streets and Squares had been cleared to allow access by people & cars.  The boats were mostly tied-up alongside the Archipelago's quays, `battened-down' and waiting for their Winter down-time to end.

It wasn't too bad until the wind came across the water, cutting through any loose clothing, or gaps between scarf & hat .... tears squeezing out of frozen eyes and searing their way across your face.  It was fun though.  And we discovered an apparently Swedish custom of having a Brazier located outside (some) restaurants, fed with chunky split logs and burning away ... great for warming hands and faces (and butts) ... Cool!



We also tested some of the local cuisine and I can confirm that Elk steak is fantastic ... while Ryan gave the thumbs-up to Reindeer steak (all Rudolf jokes have been banned ...!). 


And we discovered that Sweden (or the Scandinavian countries at least) appears to be the home of a familiar figure. In many of my Mum's drawings, a recurring theme appears of Gnomes ... little people with pink, rosy cheeks and conical hats.

I first came across them in childhood stories read to me by my Mum & Dad - from a large coffee-table style book with illustrations & stories of Nordic/Scandinavian characters ... gnomes, trolls (not the internet variety, although equally repulsive), fairies and such...

Well, walking down a street in Stockholm's `old town' and guess what we came across...!  

We had a few moments and I passed on greetings from my family to his ... and then we meandered off to find another Cobbled Square, or visit the  Royal Swedish Palace to see the Crown Jewels ... I forget!


 With the sound of birdsong dancing through the apartment and the (thankfully) warm evening of the first day of Spring enticing me to sit on our new balcony - amongst the tree-tops - and the lazy evening sunshine drifting down through the emerging leaves ... I will sign-off once again with the Swedish salutation you may choose to use over your next glass of wine (or appropriate tipple).

Skål...!

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