Make it hyggelig - or the winter hiatus

Oh yes, winter is truly here. We had the first snow on the 25 October already, and it has been snowing a few times since. It looks beautiful, and the very low daylight around lunchtime makes this a magic place. We go on a walk at home almost every day. It is a 3.5km loop, so no hike really, but the views, light and atmosphere change all the time and make it a great walk. The hiking trails are already too deeply covered in snow, so there is no way you can use them, unless you go snow-shoeing - something I may give a go at some stage. And it will be like that at least until end of April. This year, I went to the ice cave (isgrottan) just outside Örnsköldsvik on the 5th May, and there was still so much snow that it was almost impossible to get there. Have a look at that hike here and here.

Sometimes it is sunny, with blue skies and glistening snow. Other days it is gloomy and grey. Most of the days it is cold, really cold. We had quite some time well below -10C (14F), with a few days down to -18C (-1F). The min-max thermometer showed us that one night it was even down to -21C (-5.6F) - the coldest night so far this winter. And that is just the beginning. Last winter -18C (-1F) was normal for quite some time…

Our house looks gorgeous, and so far we can manage the snow. Here it is, and the second photo is our view. The third and fourth photos were today’s sunrise - we get some magical sunrises here in autumn and in winter.

Here is our house last winter: We really didn’t know where to put that white stuff anymore. What do you think - will it be like that again in a few weeks?

So what can you do in winter here, where we have just about 4-5 hours of sunlight a day? Sweden goes a bit into hibernation, but of course for the true Swedes, the outdoors are still important. We see our neighbours walk by every day, doing pretty much the same loop we do. And for the times inside, you just make it hyggelig, with lots of candles and lights, cookies, mulled wine (glögg) and a good book. Maybe also a cat on your lap ;-)

And the freezer is full of blue- and raspberries from summer/autumn, so I thought I’d make some use of them. Already after harvest I made lots jams and gelées (also with lingonberries [a must with Swedish meatballs!], blackcurrants and hjortron [cloudberries], gooseberries, plums, and rhubarb), so we have plenty. And, as it is close to the Holidays, I baked a lot of cookies, some filled with the blueberry jam from summer, some with cinnamon icing, and some macaroons.

Oh, and the berries are also great to make your own booze. Blueberry and raspberry liqueur, to be precise. I was back in Germany in October, and since I took the car this time, I could load it up with cheap booze. The boot was full with bottles ;-) Among them a few bottles of Korn, a rye and malt-based or a wheat-based spirit you can’t get here, but which is perfect for making liqueur. If you don’t get it you can also use vodka, of course. So, I made a few bottles. The liqueur is now in random bottles in the wardrobe in our guestroom, because it is cool and dark there. We have to wait for it to infuse for at least another 2-3 weeks (the longer the better), before I can sieve out the berries and fill the liqueur into nice bottles.

We also do lots of cooking and baking, and in the new year I want to get back into baking bread again. I haven’t done that for a long time, but it is so much fun, and no shop-bought bread matches home-baked bread. And who knows what else we can come up with. It won’t be boring this winter :-)