Sweden in May

This is Sweden in May. It is the prettiest time in Skåne. I had to show you right now. I am doing the mega blog catch up and looking at my blog covered in winter pictures is deceptive and depressing. I must tell you how pretty it is here right now! So no matter that I am writing the easter post in drafts, let me fast forward to let you know it is green and alive here.

The Swedish flag, in Canola and Sky

The House in March from the Road

The same view two months later, in May, all lush and full of life.

Liliacs

The Liliac hedge

The view in our yard from the swings to the hammock

The view towards the trampoline in May

The Canopy on the walk near our house

Our Rhubarb and Apple Tree

Apple Blossoms in my Yard

At the university in Lund

So many Tulips

Tulips

Hawthorn flower

So many dandelion wishes!

But the thing about Swedish spring flowers, is they are over as soon as they start. A brief and brilliant beauty. Leaving you wishing for more.

Getting Outside in the Early Spring

April 17th, waffles on the porch!

Initiating the porch in the spring time is a huge deal! It is wonderful when it becomes warm enough to eat outside. When we can open up our house, our world expands three fold. We have a fenced yard and we can leave the doors open and let the kids run in and out. The front and back yards are like new rooms to expand out into. And with the ice gone we return to 'street play'- things like chalk, stroller walks, and bike riding. And the neighbors who we have not seen all winter are out in the sun, playing and tending their yards, and the kids have friends to go see.

The first street chalk of the year!

A neighborhood walk, the nearby field we get snowballs from in the winter and wildflowers later in spring.

A stroller walk, parked next to the big pines for a nap

The baby swing, after the ice and snow but before the leaves return.

Digging in the potato beds and collecting yard waster in wheel barrows are fun spring activities

A little bird house in your soul

The hammock before the leaves

Now they are old enough to go out and play as sister playmates!

The 'fort' in the pines, a bed tent...

SwedeGirl made a sign declaring the fort her club house and invited the neighborhood kids over to play. We have two little girl neighbors the same age as SwedeGirl,one has a little brother, and we have a same age boy cousin living three doors up the street. It is wonderful to have playmates right next door!

Swingset fun in the backyard with the neighbor kids!

And solo ninja climbing.

Biking at the neighbor's house

SwedeBaby is in on the biking now she is 2!

With her sisters help it is even more fun.

Spring meant a return to bouncing

Static-y!

And SwedeBaby is a bouncer now too, by now she is very good and knows how to hold her own with the big kids on the trampoline as well.

A return to outdoor life was so welcome!!

Return of the Sun: Swedish Spring in Flowers

Swedish Spring is a succession of small reliefs that come with the budding of each new kind of flower.

Once the sun returns the days get longer noticeably fast.

The sunshine on the house as spring dawns

The Snodrops came out the day SwedeBoy was born, just as they came out the day SwedeGirl was born! The first flowers and the new spring babies, right in sync. They are called snow drops because of the white color, and because they might come out when there is still snow.

Our last snow came after SwedeBoys Birth, March 18th.

Winter trickers, they also come and bring the yellow color in the early spring when there still may be snow.

My first baby wearing outing into the sunny yard with SwedeBoy

The Rhubarb was starting to grow that day.

And the buds emerged on the trees powered by the rainbow light.

Then, came the crocuses.

Purple crocus, some of the earliest flowers.

The Bees came out to celebrate.

Super Daddy, carrying both kids.

The day the first daffodil bloomed in our yard, a wave of relief spread, like I been stranded on a desert island and spotted a rescue boat. Spring was finally really coming!! That yellow burst of color was promise the dark and gray days were soon over.

Yellow is happy!!!

Springtime of your Life.

In town it is warmer and the flowers come sooner, that same day the daffodils were bursting all over Lund.

There are fields of these early purple flowers in Lund.

SwedeBoy!

Twelve days after the last photo above of the Rhubarb buds was taken, it has grown this much.

Once the sun starts shining, everything bursts open in the warmth and light. You feel the power of the life force when what looked dead the day before unfurls an entire perfectly formed leaf. Coming from the tropics, I never really understood the inner work that goes on in winter, and the sudden outward power of spring. Truly, in the darkness of winter things rest and take shape then, like a new baby spring forth fully formed.

I was just waiting, waiting for our baby and for the dead gray to be replaced by green. I felt relief on a deep body level when spring arrived this year!