Friday, December 02, 2011

December - Day 2


The sun rose at 1019am and set at 1358pm. The length of the day was 3 hours and 38 minutes.

 (this is an old picture, it might have appeared here before)

When you live at the latitude 66°41' North and it is Talwikuu (Wintermonth) you'd expect there to be some snow. But our ground is black and it was raining hard the whole day. It cannot be long now, there has always been snow in December and will be this year too, that I can promise. 

(In the almanac it reads Joulukuu, but until 1700 this month was Talwikuu, Wintermonth. Later on Wintermonth was replaced by Joulukuu, as joulu means Christmas in Finnish and the word joulu comes from Swedish, Christmas was jól in ancient Swedish, and in modern language it is jul).

I have heard arguments that winter will be a lot shorter this season as it most likely will be over in April, but then one can never be quite certain and I remember one May when the ice stayed on the lake until the 24th (or close to it) and if that is the case, I really rather have snow now than in May.

Every day I look at the weather forecast to see whether there is going to be snow in the near future and there is some hope. It is always a bit disturbing when the Mother Nature goes off her normal course and does something weird. 

I did not get around to do any special Christmas preparations. Had to go to town to run some errands and the knitting time was minimal too, but as I was putting away the shopping and tidying the kitchen, I listened to Christmas music. I have several different cd's and I usually play them through every Christmas time.

When I sat down at the kitchen table, made a cup of hot glögg, listened to LouisArmstrong sing:
"to face unafraid, the plans that we've made", the pulse slowed down and I thought it is Friday night, December the 2nd and no snow. Yet.

Wool with you,
Lene 

10 comments:

  1. in icelandic Christmas is jól, so we seem all to have the same word here in Norden. here we have much more snow than usual, so if you want you can have some of it.
    best wishes from Iceland
    Frida

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  2. "Talwikuu", what a beautiful word! And thank you for the interesting explanation.

    Have a wooly ( and hopefully "snowy" weekend"!

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  3. Here in Illinois we have had one of the warmest Novembers since records began and today it was sunny and low 50s. I cant complain as it will be very cold very soon but like you I always look forward to the snow. Last year we had the 2 nd biggest blizzard ever known and lots of cars were stuck on Lake Shore Drive for days.

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  4. It has been several hours since you posted, but now when I check the webcam link you posted, I see snow! It looks beautiful... Happy knitting to you!

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  5. Anonymous03:56

    What is glogg? My computer isn't equipped to make the little dots, sorry. Is it like tea, or hot chocolate (my two favorite hot drinks!)? Or is it something entirely different?

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  6. Waiting for snow in Lillehammer too. Tonight came some "sludd", which is really wet snow, and now it's turned to rain...
    Gløgg is nice :-)
    and the scandinavian word for "Mulled wine": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine

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  7. Gretchen16:10

    I'm curious about glogg, too. Could you give us your recipe? I'm in Indiana, and we had snow on Tuesday. By Wednesday it was gone, but I enjoyed watching it fall.

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  8. I remember finding your blog around this time of year a few years ago. It always warms my heart, even when it's bitter cold outside. (It's not all that cold here yet, though I want snow SO badly!)

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  9. I'm so happy to read you again, Lene. Great project than "a post a day" during december ! No snow here too, in the Southern French Alps ! Everybody is waiting !

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  10. Usually it is the mention of firewood and bears and knitting - the similarities in our lifestyles - that makes me feel a connection with you across the world. But when I think of you listening to Louis Armstrong I feel like we are in the same room! :)

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