Snow? Really???

We awoke yesterday morning to swirling snow and about an inch of the white stuff on the ground.  It disappeared late afternoon, but flakes flew by the window several times again today.  Fortunately, it's supposed to warm up again by the end of the week.

Daylight hours are increasing rapidly!  Daylight savings time took place in Europe last weekend, and it is now light by 6am until around 8pm.  It was quite surreal coming out of svenska class Monday night at 8 and it still being light.  For most of the time we've been in class, it's been dark when we arrived at 5:30.  Summer will surely be as strange of lighting as winter was with its lack of light!

There are flowers popping up around Uppsala in spite of the returning snow.  We saw tulips last week and tonight we noticed some purple crocuses just starting to bud.  Tulips are a favorite in flower shops now too, and we bought a beautiful bouquet earlier this week that brightened up the apartment!

A friend asked me about Swedish Easter traditions this weekend, and I really didn't have anything to share except for a rather odd decoration we've seen around town.  I described it as twigs or stick with pastel feathers tied to the ends, and as this picture illustrates, that's what they are.

From what I've been able to find, these decorations are meant to hasten spring.  The stick and feather Easter bouquets are called påskris.  Over Easter weekend, according to Swedish folklore, witches fly back to a place called Blåkulla and these bouquets symbolize the witches' brooms.

Here's a link to more information about Swedish Easter traditions: http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/traditions/1167/