Thursday, 28th December 2023

Oh, what a day and what a jolly holiday! It's been donkey's years since we've had so much snow and such splendid sunny weather during the Yuletide in Sweden. Stepping out onto my kitchen steps, there's a full moon in the north and a sunrise in the east. The moon is chilly, and the sun is warm. It's a few degrees nippy outside, yet in my old cottage, it's nearly twenty degrees toasty. Not a whiff of wind whistling through the timber walls.
The ancient yard pump is still in action, a boon if the power goes kaput, as it sometimes does. I recall the Alfrida storm a couple of years back, which snapped oodles of trees here on the island. It was a dreadful New Year's weekend...