Spring and Summer
Spring came abruptly and quickly gave way to summer.
I had been waiting for spring, anticipating the anticipation, and when it arrived the only thing that surprised me about it was how short-lived it seemed. One day the first yellow and purple buds were piercing through the grass, and then, a week later there were tiny buds on the trees. And then BANG – May 1st arrived and it felt like summer.
This is what spring looks like from a Swedish apartment window.
On May 1st, after a disappointingly cold and rainy Valborg night, the sun came out and the world celebrated in shorts and t-shirts. By Ascension Day, May 10, which is also a public holiday in Sweden, it was California hot. I wore an outfit I bought for a Rio trip two years ago, and Kip and I walked to Davidshall for an impromptu date. We bought a couple of beers at a restaurant with sidewalk tables, waited for a table outside and spent the next few hours sitting in the late afternoon sun, watching all of Malmö past by on the street. There is nothing like the combination of first summer sun and a public holiday to bring the entire inhabitance out of hiding. It felt like Malmö had tripled in size.
Just a few weeks earlier, in April, the tulips bloomed in Slottsparken. By mid-May, they were gone and the park looked like summer.
Earlier in the day on May 10, I met my girls at a café in Slottsparken, one of Malmö’s gorgeous city parks. Slottsparken is literally translated, the Castle Park, and it felt like a royal experience that sunny morning. We ordered salads and veggie burgers at Slottsparken café, a charming and particularly scrumptious garden restaurant surrounded by trees in full bloom and Swedish families enjoying their prized outside culture. The café and surrounding park were full that morning, Disneyland full, of people enjoying the day — walking, jogging, biking, paddling canoes through the park canal and playing Kubb — a Swedish block throwing game that may or may not have anything to do with Vikings. And it seemed like hundreds of people were lying on picnic blankets in sundresses, shorts, and t-shirts, or just swimming suits, soaking in the Swedish summer sun.
Sunny day brunch with the girls.
And this is still true, even three weeks later. The parks and every open green space is filled with people on picnic blankets, mostly in bikinis or shorts, soaking in the sun.
Celebrations
In May we also celebrated River’s birthday. It was his first birthday spent away from his friends in California, which was a little sad, but it provided an opportunity for us to invite some of his new friends home for a breakfast-for-dinner party in our apartment.
Jenga anyone?
One group of friends got together and bought River a box of Swedish treats, both good and quirky things that represent Sweden – the best candy and chocolate, the traditional crackers, meatballs, hot chocolate, super salty liquorice and a can of surströmming, the infamous Swedish fermented fish which has been named among the world’s worst smelling food — a heartfelt box of welcome whose generous gesture was not wasted on any of us.
And then we asked them to sing the Swedish Happy Birthday song.
For Kip and me, it was a really important moment. The long days, the sun, River’s new friends, it seemed like we had turned a corner in our experience here. We had made it through the winter in Sweden, and our son had finally made good friends, and that made being here so much easier.
And More Reasons to Celebrate
And then, a few days later, Micah came back to Sweden.
Micah has been in college since August, a full 8 time zones away from us. When she left for school it was difficult for all three of us left behind. It was a sorrow intensified by the distance and the disorientation of being in a new country with new expectations and rules. But it was also a sorrow soothed by watching her mature and grow intellectually. I am sure it is an experience that every good parent has, sorrow for the childhood that is over, joy for the adult who has emerged. But getting her back for a few months this summer was just cotton candy, the icing on the cake.
Last Day of May
As I am writing this blog post it is the last day of May and we are still amazed at the good weather here in Sweden. It has truly been a month of California weather with sunny skies and warm temperatures, and it seems too good to be true. In a few weeks, River will be finished with school and we will begin a truly busy season of summer visitors and road trip adventures, but for now, we have enjoyed this month of summer bliss. There is nothing like a good, long winter to make the summer so special.
The canola fields in bloom. Kip took this picture on his way home from work, and its a perfect example of the Swedish Skåne countryside.