February Snow

 

The world is bathed in cold beauty,

a redemptive white dressing covering bare city streets,

snow reflecting winter light,

illuminating the world with hope,

as if to say,

it may be winter,

but it is no longer

Dark.

This rare snowy week in Malmö feels like a late February gift, a little welcome-back surprise for all the “sports break” travelers last week, a package tied up in a happy white bow.

The snow started Tuesday night and has been steadily falling all week, and it has been glorious. It does not snow often here in Malmö, and when it does it typically melts within an hour and almost never sticks to the road.

But this week has been an exception with snow falling all night Tuesday and into the day Wednesday, piling up in fluffy, light piles on cars and streets and bike paths. It’s Friday morning as I write, and it has begun snowing again — big fat flakes falling gently on the partly cleared streets below.

Beach bikes are not made for grocery store runs in the snow

Wednesday afternoon, I tried to ride Micah’s bike to the grocery store, a mistake I realized immediately as I tried to navigate the beach cruiser on slick uncleared bike paths. I rode slowly and carefully, too slowly and carefully, dangerously wobbly, riding on parts of the cleared street, eventually walking the bike on the cleared sidewalk. It was worth getting out to see the snow-covered, frozen canals and the barren trees dressed in white regalia. But today when I go out I think I’ll just wear my snow boots and walk.

Maybe other people have this snow biking thing down.

Swedish snow cycling