Reflections

Our trip to Portugal, combined with the sudden and early onset of winter, meant that many of the normal autumn activities didn’t get done. There’s usually a period of a month or so when summer gear and clothes slowly goes away and the winter clothes and equipment come out. But now it’s happening all at once because suddenly we are standing there in the snow! So today, and yesterday, we spent time getting the snow shovels out, finding the winter underwear, putting away the summer clothes, remembering which shoes worked best in the snow and similar tasks.
I hope those of you living in the direct path of Storm Ciarán took care and managed to stay safe. I looked at some impressive satellite images
 and saw that our snow yesterday, and the very rainy weather forecast for the weekend are all connected to Ciarán. As it moved in other weather systems were pushed north, causing yesterday’s snow storm. Now it’s turned NE, heading for Scandinavia. We do live in interesting times.
However, today it was very calm and this morning it was actually sunny again; a rare treat this autumn. Our neighbour was out with the digger, clearing our snow for the first time this year. We went out and dug our way down to the cellar and up to Betty’s, then cleared away around the car and camper van. We got pretty warm doing this  so once we’d finished we took a walk down to the lake. Yesterday we froze in the strong wind and today there was no wind at all and we were taking off gloves and hats and opening up the jacket, trying to stay cool! 
The forest was gorgeous with all the trees filled with snow and lots of photographs were taken. Even after half a lifetime in Sweden we both still find the snow so wonderful.
Today’s picture shows the dark water of the lake, reflecting the forest and contrasting with the snow-covered ice.
Our plans to use the camper van this weekend and next have been scuppered by this rather extreme weather. With so much precipitation, and temperatures only just above zero we’d rather have winter tyres and that means using the car. We booked a hotel for the Tai Chi weekend, and Livia has a spare room for us tomorrow. It’s a bit of a disappointment but sometimes it’s better to be sensible!