This morning when I awoke in the darkness, I felt that there was a change in the air and when I consulted my trusty thermometer, I could see that my feeling was spot on. It was still a warm 22C inside, but outside, the temperature had sunk to -15C! Yes that's a minus sign you can see there. And for those who do not do celsius, that is 5F. An ideal day to adopt a pet penguin, I thought. So I did and named him Icicle. So say hello to Icicle, please!



The inspiration for the name came from the group of icicles (one of our strongest symbols of winter) hanging from the balcony rail.



As you can see, the snow outside is packed down into ice and this makes it treacherous to try and walk down the street without the aid of ice spikes on your shoes. And to think that yesterday I had a long telephone conversation with a good friend in Adelaide and told her that it wasn't so cold (at -5C). I shouldn't have spoken so soon.

Lambi does not enjoy the snowy weather, being a lazy couch dog, but she can be enticed outside to run free down by the harbour.



She is wearing her new reflector coat, so that I can find her in the snow. She managed to find several people to coo over her, so she was very happy. She makes me laugh as she trots around town with this funny canine sense of entitlement, giving us mere human beings the opportunity to adore her.

Over at the pier, there was a mist slowly rising from the water and I watched two ospreys (fiskgjuse) lap a wide circle through the fog. It's so beautiful to live in a smaller town and have so much more than buildings to look at. The range of wildlife around here still takes my breath away and I enjoy seeing the squirrels, badgers, deer, foxes, moose and birds every day. There have been three wolves spotted in the area over the last few weeks, but I haven't seen any sign of them in town yet. Fiona is sitting peacefilly in the water, framed by the silvery trees over on Bedarön with the sea beginning to freeze around her hull.



The sun had risen to a crisp, clear and sunny winter day. When it's this cold, the snow crystals begin to glisten, and as a friend of mine said today "it's like the angels have sprinkled silver dust on the streets." From the aft deck of the boat, we have a clear view across the icy water to the shore and the town beyond. I never get sick of this sight.



Looking the other way, we can see the island of Bedarön. It is beautiful, glistening with sparkling snowflakes more glittery than a thousand diamonds. The frozen ice and snow is so gorgeous that I do not want to leave it. The sun is low on the other side of the island and it glimmers through the treees. With the sun shimmering through them, the frozen ice on the branches looks like dewdrops, or tears before they fall.



Yes, the snow and ice is beautiful and exotic, but the Narnia-like landscape can also be dangerous. The newspapers are full of stories of people with broken limbs from falls on the ice, there have been power blackouts, car accidents and public transport delays because of the chill.

Today, my trainline to town was shut down for an hour and a half because of technical problems with frozen switches. Not a day goes by without there being some problem with the southern bound trains and I wonder why it's always my line that is affected. When I did get a train, it drove at only 40kph for part of the trip because there was a fault with one of the wagons. At Västerhaninge, I got off and took a bus as I felt it might be safer and more reliable.

Hmm... not exactly.....



That poor bus is one of the local buses here that drove into the ditch on Torövägen. I'm so glad I wasn't on it at the time, but 20 unfortunate people were and several sustained injuries. It is so easy to make a mistake here, even if you are experienced in these conditions. It quite put me off my trip.

The reason I was venturing out was to pick up some bargain priced goods at the post Christmas sales which are on this week. Most people are still off work until next Monday and are out and about spending money. I'm hopeless at looking at catalogues, though Lars-Göran pours through the junk mail every week and is up to date with what is being sold.

While browsing through one shop in town, we stumbled on the most perfect bedside lamps for us. It's only taken us FIVE YEARS to get around to getting decent lighting, even though we are both avid readers. How have we managed with the pathetic light we shared, I wonder. We weren't even looking for it and there it was. And with a name like Sydney - well, I had to have it. I'm going to settle in bed shortly with my new book, The Mermaid Chair and try the light out.

And for those of you in warmer climates, romanticising about the pretty snow, spare a thought for the poor people who have to try and clear the streets - especially when motorists fail to shift their cars!



The paper reported today that 550 people have been fined already this winter for not shifting their cars when the streets are to be cleared. I can see that no-one is being gentle with the offending vehicles. And see how much snow there is in an already tight street. They don't salt the roads here as it is not considered environmentally friendly to do so. Instead they rely on teams of ploughs to clear the roadway, followed by graders to scoop up the snow and load it on to trucks to be taken away. Here snow removal is a science.

This wintry landscape feels very far removed from the beaches of South Australia...