Winter aconite

This time of year you see lots of photos of signs of spring, at least in Sweden, on Facebook and in newspapers. Are Swedes more obsessive about spring than people in other northern counties? You could argue that we have a long, dark winter, parts of our country don't have sun at all in the daytime about a month every year but most parts have a "normal" winter depending on where you happen to live. 

Sweden is a long country so while snow and cold weather resides in the northern parts you often have mild, rainy weather in the south. Maybe people living in the south of Sweden are more longing for spring because we don't have the advantages of winter as people in the northern parts do. When there is snow and cold climate there is often more sunny days and the snow lights up both day and night. In the south, grey, damp weather is more common and lack of snow makes everything darker. 

One of the first plants so come is Winter aconite, or Vintergäck in Swedish. It arrived a couple of days ago. That's my contribution to signs of spring on this site.

Another sign of spring is audible. Suddenly one day the gulls appear over land and makes their usual noise. I don't know where they are otherwise, or, if they are just quiet. They arrived yesterday, quite a lot earlier than last year and was a joy to hear.