I tried it and it works! Great fluffy flakes are falling down outside of my window, returning my world into an amazing white winter landscape. The local birds, which have been around in increasing numbers recently, are now having an executive meeting to discuss what to do and who is to blame for thinking it was spring earlier in the week!



My attempts to induce snow were inspired after I saw a a story at CNN a couple of weeks ago about the crazy things kids in the northern hemisphere do to ensure a snowy day.

It seems that snow rituals are much more common and widespread than I ever imagined. The donning of special "snow-making" clothing inside out, flushing ice cubes down the loo and performing special weather incantations are just a few of the things that both the kids and adults do to conjure up snow. The main reason was that sufficent snow meant a day off school or work. This being the reverse of our fervent prayers in Adelaide for a scorcher February day, so we could all stay at home. I wonder if they still do that? I think that 38C used to be the cut off point, where school could be cancelled for the day.



One of my Canadian friends told me that in her family, her mum would use the old "Be very quiet and it will snow" technique if the weather threatened the white stuff. Oh, sure, Mary sees through it now, but she confessed it worked for a good few years (meaning that maybe sometimes they got snow, but that the children were nearly always quiet). Why didn't I think of this technique for my own kids? Not that I could have promised snow. Hmm...actually I think my kids were born in a less gullible age and would never have fallen for it.

I remember reading the Conrad Aiken short story "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" for my American Literature class at university. Of course, it really wasn't about snow, but because I am now living in Sweden where I DO associate snow with silence, it resonates strongly with me. That lovely heavy, muffled silence after a snowfall brings the Aiken story to mind immediately. And the pristine beauty is always breathtaking.



There is further snow forecast over the next few days, so hopefully this pretty picturesque landscape will remain for a while longer.

And I have a small request directed to the Australian great white shark - can you just knock it off already? Yesterday, Lars-Göran gleefully pointed me towards this filmclip from the SVT site about yet another shark attack - this time in Perth. It's all in English, so go ahead and listen to it. Fortunately, this time it was not a fatal attack, but really, it's getting out of hand now. And as an aside, check out "Simon" in the clip, standing there looking oh so cool in his Warnie pose. It was just so typical that I had to laugh.