Yes! It happened. Overnight the snow queen descended yet again and turned Sweden into a winter wonderland. It was so mild and spring like yesterday that I hardly believed that any more snow was possible this year. But I forgot about the legendary "Siberian Express" weather system that comes through here around mid-February to late March. Maybe it was just denial. Anyway, I awoke today, looked out my front door to see this:



As you can see from the mounds at the side of the road, the snow plough has been through bright and early. It snowed steadily for the entire day, so it had to come back again for another sweep as the snow piled up. I think we got about 30 cm of white stuff today. It looks so pretty (from the comfort of my apartment, naturally).



It's not as cold as you might think from the pictures. Today it hovered around -2C with a brisk wind, but I saw on the weather service that they are predicting -11C for Thursday. That's a bit nippy for my taste, but at least the snow will be nice and crisp. Let's hope it doesn't freeze the train switches again as I hate being stranded part way through a journey.

Down towards the harbour, the wind was blowing with added strength, and the main road into town was quite deserted.



Wandering along the park by the lake it was hard to see where the path was and where the lake started. No sign of ducks, swans or people. Not even taking a break on the park benches. I wonder why?



And no boats out on the water, that is slowly turning to ice. It amazes me how rapidly that happens. I guess it's already really cold and a small drop in the temperature combined with a lot of freezing snow pushes it over the limit. It was so blue and spring like yesterday and today it's a mid-winter landscape all over again. Still, I love the snow and think it looks really beautiful.



I must have jinxed the weather by talking about chilli yesterday. Though I'm chuffed that a friend of mine in Sydney has bought me a packet of the new Tim Tams and is sending them to me. Thankyou, Ellie! It was Ellie who also told me about a tour of Scandinavian Sydney that she is going on next weekend and a Nordfest which is on in April, for any of you lovers of Scandinavia in Sydney. I'm trying to imagine Scandinavian Sydney and failing miserably, but Ellie promises me lots of pictures, so I'll be able to tell you after she's been there.

People here must have chilli on the brain at the moment as four seperate people have made posts about these delicious Mexican food called Tamales. Friends from Ed, Malmö and Örebro have posted about them in the last week and today Francis posted the most delicious sounding recipe. I simply have to try these as we are both fond of hot, spicy food. Sandy tells me that I ought to be able to get most of what I need in Stockholm at Chez Albert, so I intend to pop in there later this week and check it all out. I've not eaten much Mexican food before as it was not so common in Australia. However, I love to cook and Lars-Göran has adapted well to eating hot Thai, Vietnamese and Indian style foods so this ought to be something he'll enjoy.

And if it's too hot, he can jump out the window and roll in the snow to cool down.