start of a long weekend

Happy Friday!  I'm off work today through Monday, going on an escape with Conrad

up to SF.  The flight is this afternoon, and I still have to pack, but it's a leisurely morning otherwise.  We got up a bit earlier than usual and had a nice walk in the chilly morning.  Yes, chilly - we think so, and the fresh snow on the mountains above Pasadena. 

Brrrr.  Good to see, though!  The walk, unsurprisingly, ended up at Amara for breakfast.  The usual, even if it wasn't a Saturday:  arepa,

decaf latte. 

Good stuff.

I'm looking forward to the weekend ahead, for sure!  May it be a good one for any of you out there.

it snowed here

Here being Baltimore.  I knew it was coming, and it did.  Not lots of it, but enough to cause difficulties for travelers into the area as well as forcing the conference to shut down an offsite activity that I was supposed to do this morning.  Ah well.  That gave me ample opportunity to catch up with friends, which was very welcome.

I was awake just before 7, which was unkind given my late night from being on Pacific Time.  Ah well.  I could tell that there had been snow, and snow was still falling. 

This continued on late into the morning and early afternoon. 

By now, though, it's stopped, and I can see the city south of me a little more clearly.  I don't think we're due for more snow on this trip, which is good since I want to avoid clomping around in boots if I can.

Wait, hold on, is that a glimpse of blue sky?

a too-short time of it in Sweden

We're home.  By the time we got our bags at LAX yesterday, it was 24 hours after we had checked out of the hotel at Arlanda (and given that we were awake well over an hour before we checked out, that's an even longer day).  A vacation cut short, alas, but we did enjoy ourselves so very much while in Sweden.  So let me recap!

On arrival in Bollnäs, we were met by Conrad's cousin Kersti and her husband, Ivar, and whisked off to lunch at the cafe of a beautiful garden shop, Mobackes Trädgårdscenter.  The shop puts on an annual holiday display using many amaryllis flowers and other flora.  It's not large, but the imagination shown was really delightful, and I'd never seen so many different colours and types of amaryllis.  So lovely.

After lunch, we headed to Kersti and Ivar's home, a farmhouse from the 1800s.  We stayed in the second house (also from the 1800s).  The two are painted the typical red that you find all over Sweden, the Falu red. 

You'll also find a lot of houses and farm buildings painted in a yellow, and the two together all over the country are such a beautiful combination, especially with a snowy backdrop.  In addition, many homes have advent candles in the window, and the warm glow from them made for such a wonderful, warm sight.

Wednesday evening the family all gathered at the Långheds Bygdegård (the local community center)

for the Saint Lucia celebration, a traditional celebration before Christmas.  Five of Kersti and Ivar's grandchildren were participating in the concert, and it was our first time seeing all of them - the eldest was in the womb when last we saw her mother and father in 2014.  The children were all very sweet, though by the end they were a little antsy.  It was super cute.  There were a few sweets to enjoy, and we got to catch up with Kersti and Ivar's children (who are all close to me in age) as well.

Dinner back at the house followed that, with Olov joining us for a bit as well.  Then?  To bed.  Lots of travel, I was still feeling the effects of the cold I had had, and we needed some sleep.

Thursday started off with terrible news from home:  Conrad's mother had passed away the night before.  It was an awful shock.  And it also meant we had to scramble to change plans for the trip, cutting it short to get back to the USA.  It was sad news for Kersti and Ivar as well - Kersti is Conrad's second cousin on his mother's side, and they had met Conrad's mother when they came to visit Michigan a number of years ago.  We spent time that morning dealing with what arrangements we could before joining Kersti and Ivar along with Pär and Olov at lunch at Kitchen in Alfta in the same industrial park complex where Olov has his office.  After lunch, he showed us his office and their operations, which were really cool, really fascinating.  From there it was a little shopping for mementos in Alfta at a store across the street from the library (of course I took a photo of the library!). 

We swung past a little shop in Knåda on the way home,

then got back to changing and canceling and making bookings for everything ahead of us.  That completed, we joined the whole family for dinner together (well, most of them - Lena's son lives with his father, and her daughter had handball practice that night, and Pär's partner Maria had gone to Stockholm for work). 

That was a really great evening.  Through it all, Conrad was doing pretty okay - things had not really sunk in yet for him.

Friday was a travel day.  Packing for the train was pretty easy, and we got that done readily after breakfast.  That left time for us to drive a little deeper into the country to see Lena's project:  ForRest.  Wow, what a beautiful forest retreat she has designed and built. 

We saw the property in 2014, and it was a thrill to see what progress she had made.

Lunch was up next, at Gästisbacken in Alfta.  The original plan had been to have the Christmas table there that night, but at least we got to have a good lunch

in the beautiful hotel

across from the old church. 

A bit more shopping (and a stop for hot chocolate)

after that, and then it was off to the train station in Bollnäs to catch an afternoon train down to Arlanda.  It was already dimming out when we boarded, and long dark by the time we arrived.  We checked back into the same airport hotel as a few days earlier (though with a view),

did a bit more souvenir shopping, and then headed to the airport hotel for some dinner - fish stew for me

and meatballs for Conrad. 

Re-packing followed, then to bed.

By 5:30 the next morning we were in the SAS Business Lounge. 

Getting through passport control before our flight was a mindbogglingly slow process that had us worried we would miss our flight, but we didn't.  It was over to Heathrow,

then a handful of hours in the lounge there before the 10.5 hours flight back to LAX.  It was a perfectly comfortable flight,

and I dozed a couple of times, but I would be lying if I said that all that airplane and airport time wasn't just a little boring. 

Oh, it was good to get home, unpack, shower, and get to bed.  Nine hours of sleep last night, and much needed!

Life happens, right?  Who could have known we would need to come home early (and leave tomorrow morning for the Midwest for the funeral on Wednesday)?  Kersti and Ivar were as wonderful, warm, and generous hosts as ever, and we were so glad to see them again.  The whole family was also very good at providing what support they could for Conrad.  A too-short time of it, though, and I am sorry for that.  We'll need to get back there again, and not with a nine-year gap!

the bleak midwinter

I think some people looked at us a little askance because we were going to Sweden at midwinter.  Not above the Arctic Circle, but almost as far north as I’ve ever been (my personal record is a point on the Sweden-Norway border).  Short days, cold weather, snow.

I joke with the title of this blog entry.  I don’t find it bleak seeing a northern countryside in winter.  And I love the Christmas carol the blog entry title references.  No, I loved seeing the snow and the low sun and all.  I wish I had had more time to enjoy it.  It’s such a great change from California.  The grass is always greener?  Or perhaps the snow is whiter?

I have hours yet to kill at Heathrow, so let me post some winter photos from in and around Alfta and Bollnäs.  I cannot overstate how very beautiful I think Sweden is in all seasons, and what a treat it is to have now made four trips there in my lifetime.