May and Spring in Sweden

Finally spring has arrived in Sweden. It felt great to get back and feel warmer winds in the air as well as seeing that things had started to turn green. Now everything is waking up again after this long and cold winter.For the moment spring has taken a step back or been put on hold. It turned colder yesterday and it is now below 10 degrees Celcius. For being May I don´t find that acceptable. I even had to wear my gloves this morning as I biked to work. I miss being able to just walk around in shorts and a t-shirt. Well I think it should be at least around 15 degrees C now that we are into May.

Both trees and hedges have or are about to turn green and get leafs.

You can also tell it is spring by all the people that have taken out there bikes again. Before we left for the US there were not too many people biking yet to work and it the number of bikers has just exploded. Now it gets really crowded at some places when I bike to work and home.

All the restaurants and coffee shops have taken out their outdoor furniture and people sure take every opportunity they get to grab a lunch, dinner, coffee or a beer outside.

To me it is really interesting to see how the sun brings out people and how temperatures 55-60 F or 12-15 C makes people feel like it is summer. People dress in light summer dresses and shorts. I can't help thinking, hey it is not that hot. I still keep my jeans on and a light jacket or hoodie. I am used to temperatures in the 90:ties (30 C). That is nice as long as it isen't too muggy outside. Here there is no problem with mugginess.

Now it is also really light. The sun comes up real early in the morning. I was surprised the first morning when I got back to Alabama as I woke up at five am and it was still pitch black outside. The sun did not come up until 6 am. As we drove west deeper into Texas the sun did not come up until 7:30 am. I think 6 am is just fine. I love the light mornings and the light evenings here now when the sun stays up until around 9:30 pm by now already! The evenings will continue to get even longer until midsummer (end of June). It is very special and almost magical. But still if I were to chose I would prefer to have a much more even distribution of the light during the year. The lack of natural light during winter is such a killer, at least for me.

Here are a few more pics of Stockholm that I took the other morning when I was biking to work. That sure is nice to be able to bike to and from work. I like passing the central parts of the city. It is just the best feeling ever when there is a lot of traffic that is moving really slowly and I can just swish past and get home in half an hour.

May and June are very nice moths. Stockholm turns so pretty and it is the summer look that just makes Stockholm the most beautiful. That is when I love this place the most. People just come out and hang out. If the sun is out everyone is out trying to soak it up as much as possible. I don't blame people. I totally understand it after having survived this winter myself.