Black winter
Turku is experiencing its warmest winter in 100 years. It has hardly dipped below freezing this month, which means it’s been regularly +5C or even +8C when by all rights and precedent it should be -15C or even colder. I can hardly begin to express how strange it is to be in January in Finland - JANUARY in FINLAND - and be able to go outside without massive amounts of outerwear on. I have never been able to cycle to work regularly in December through February, due to snow/ice/cold. Usually during this time of year, I take Sterling to school by sled and then go the rest of the way to work by bus. But here I am in January, still cycling.
The lack of snow and cold is so disorienting. It’s dark and bare and gloomy and feels like perpetual November (November is one of the worst months here). I remember in the UAE it was hard to tell what month it was just by looking out the window. Well, I am feeling the same way looking out my window here in Turku now. Is it November? March? Who knows?!?
Even stranger is the fact that some plants are starting to bud or even flower - the picture in this post was taken in our front yard. Usually we have to wait until late March or April to see any sign of green or new growth at all. It’s a wait I look forward to, actually, because the coming of spring is so gratifying after the long, cold winter (and also our family has a competition where the first person to see new green growth and document it gets an ice cream cone). But to see new flowers, right now…it’s unnatural somehow. I hope we get at least a bit of winter in before springtime.
