sverige i mars

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~Charles Dickens

I would say that I'm almost as unfamiliar with what a true spring is like as I was with winter before I came to Sweden.

Spring to me, as I've known it in California all my life, means some rain, some beach days, and a temperature in between that likes to hover around 60-65 degrees F, or 15-18 C. It is a mild time of year. You could see around you that the season had arrived by the color of the hills that were cozied up around my hometown outside of San Francisco, which had turned from golden to vibrant green, and the same for the endless orchards, hills and fields that you wind through on a drive down the 101 from there to Santa Barbara. So beautiful! So pleasant!

But now living in Sweden, after going through the winter, March gave me the first strong hints of what it will mean to experience the season of Spring in all of its real fresh, thrilling, and meaningful glory.

I've biked around without gloves on. The grey sky days have been broken up by many more blue ones. I've put on my fall jacket several times instead of my winter ones already. And that's certainly not all...
My student apartment complex and the ones around my have been stirring more loudly and openly than I've seen since I moved here so many months ago. The windows are left open and the volume of the music is turned up. Heads turn to see who is coming and going, as the natural Swedish curiosity about people isn't so dampened by a freezing weather beckoning them straight inside. The city squares have started to see days where many sit along the benches and drink their coffees and put their faces to the sun, even if they are still wearing jackets and scarves. My friends and I sat by the water in Copenhagen several days ago for a picnic and were not moved by any chill. People out at night seem to have more energy, more enthusiasm, more talkativeness. I've always known that Swedes love and long for their summer. But until I got here I didn't know how special their Spring was to them, and how incredible it would be to me. For everyone around me right now, the future is so unknown, but in meantime we are reveling in how free the season has started allowing us to feel. I could see little green shoots of grass and the beginnings of flower buds as I walked past a backyard the other day, and I nearly had tears in my eyes. Spring awakening, it's a real thing. March and now April will have plenty of cold left, but we are defiantly starting to switch our jackets, lay out on the patios, and generally going out to play much more.

I'll close with yesterday's facebook quote from my Australian friend here in Lund, a girl who you could characterize by how fiercely she loves sun and summer and the beach. If she could say it, we all can...

"And when the darkness fades, and the snow melts, and the sun finally comes out...the whole winter seems worth it ♥."



In Copenhagen with a champagne and cake picnic for Julia's birthday.



Afternoon nap and reading spot on my rooftop... overlooking a newly green lawn.

Comments

Patricia said…
I love the post, and that middle photo is a excellent!

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