Saturday, December 11, 2010

Photos du jour - 11 dec 2010










Just as we were reflecting on how snow would never disappear until March or so, well, it just did! Overnight! Upon waking up this morning we were all surprised (that includes Sascha) to see almost everything gone.

So the day was much warmer (8°C/46F today instead of -4°C/25F yesterday around mid-morning), very sunny, and it was great that today was precisely a Saturday :-) A wonderful opportunity for a walk through the forest to the sea...

We won't be fooled though and we remember that this does not announce Spring for real... merely a remission before another cold wave. Stay tuned (and warm)!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow: As if we had a choice!?









Snow's here to stay, or so it seems since our last posting. It arrived back then and guess what? It just won't melt and more regularly replenishes the little that disappeared. This is definitely not lucky-happy Boulder where everything goes back into the air in less than 24 hours. The few millimeters on tree branches can even stick around for days. So just imagine what piles up on the ground in the meantime. Downtown they even send trucks to pick up the snow piles before they turn into hills that would mask traffic at intersections...

OK we haven't had 4 feet of snow in two nights. But whatever layer of snow is on hat picnic table outside our back door (about 1.5 foot thick) does not really get much thinner. Sascha keeps meowing at the glass door seeming to ask "can't you just do something about this so that I can go to my usual playground?". Well, we let him out the front door instead (where it's somewhat plowed) and he is usually back after 2 and a half minutes...

So we are pretty much resolved to not seeing snow melt until March or April. Not quite resolved to having to shovel snow so frequently, but working on it and at least getting better at shoveling (never got a chance to do that in Colorado with that wonderful God-given sublimation process). We learned (the hard way) that a big factor when looking for a place to live in Denmark is whether that place is on a street corner. Because when it is—like our house now—you get two sidewalks to shovel instead of one! And you just don't want to have to do that for the rest of your life in a place where it's an every-other-day kind of activity for several months in a row...

Isn't it insane what one can still learn about snow even after several years spent in Colorado? Who would have thought? And there are not even any mountains to be seen for hundreds of miles around here! Quite humbling, if you ask me.

It's true snow's been hitting Western (and of course Northern) Europe quite hard, paralyzing most of France (no strikers required this time ;-). What's funny though is that now we don't hear any longer our fellow Danes say "it never snows in Denmark" but rather "it's never snowed that early before". Come on, guys, please... One day you will need to realize that yes, you live THAT FAR NORTH! ;-)

Stay in touch for more news from the Pole sometime soon, weather permitting...