Remember the wonderful Immigrant Song from Led Zeppelin's golden days? It's a very, very appropriate description of Sweden today. And also very apt, as this week they were awarded a Lifetime Grammy. But I won't go on about Led Zep as I'm liable never to stop.

Snow continues to fall and now people are having to dig out their cars before heading off to work.



When I passed the blue car here while walking the dog, the woman had just finished sweeping the snow off. She was hot and flushed and a tad annoyed, especially as the snow plough had been through and banked the snow up near the car and she had to go back and get a shovel to dig out about 2 metres of snow to be able to back out. Still, she is better off than those who chose to park around the corner in the street.



Yep, that's a road you can't see there. But as it is only a very minor road, the plough hasn't come there yet. We are fortunate to live on a fairly major road, so both the road and footpath are among the first in town to be cleared. I don't miss the days of digging out the car and spending my time like this before going out. There are some advantages to not owning a car in this weather.

I think the snow looks beautiful, especially now that it is so pure, white and untouched. It is also the deepest I've seen it for a while, covering the trunks of the trees almost to the beginning of the branches.



However, it is a big headache for the local council, who are responsible for clearing the street for traffic. In this weather it is a full time job and the ploughs are working round the clock. But what do you do with so much snow? The ploughs push it into mountains in a safe place and later on trucks will come along and collect it to be dumped into the sea. In the meantime, there are hills of snow dotted all over town, much to the delight of the local children. The adults are less pleased, especially when these mountains take up half a dozen parking speces in the local shopping centre.



The snow changes character as time passes depending on the "warmth" of the weather. Today it is very slippery out as some of the snow has compacted into ice, then new powdery snow has fallen, disguising the ice and fooling people into thinking that it is safe to be there. I've seen a car that was unable to come up an icy slope, several cars lose traction and come sliding across the road (a combination of high speed and inexperience in most cases) and I saw several people slip over. I have been fine, thanks to wearing spikes on my shoes (a necessity for someone who first trod on snow at age 43!). While I love to be out walking in these conditions, I do have sympathy for the elderly who push their walking frames and mothers with their prams. It can't be easy battling through all of this.



You can see that while normal pedestrians and their dogs can walk on the footpaths, those with wheeled vehicles have to be out on the roadway. This is because the road is ploughed and traffic has compacted the snow to a more level surface. On the footpath, it is a bit like trying to walk up a sand dune. Imagine doing that wheeling a pram? Not fun.

Still, it is so serene and peaceful in the snow. All sounds are muffled and the view along Fagerviken out to the archipelago is picture postcard.



I got a call today from our American friend, Randall, who is currently in Morocco. He is planning on coming back to Sweden in mid April to collect his boat from Brantevik (a small town in the south of Sweden) and he plans on being up this way for a number of gigs in Stockholm in May, so we will have a chance to catch up and take him out sailing on our boat. Sailing? Summer? Hmmmm..... now that is a great thought!