A winter snowgåsbord

This week has meant snow snow and more snow throughout Sweden. And for a Jersey girl who lives in fear of snow conditions on the road, I have a love/hate relationship with the weather. I LOVE the coziness, the light and prefer the snow to the rain. But I wish during weeks like this I could just spend all day drinking hot chocolate, going out for short walks/snowball fights, and curling up on the sofa watching Christmas movies (Why do they NEVER show the original Miracle on 34^th St here or Christmas Story here?) . But, no, there is still a job to go and do (although glad I had planned to work more at home this month).

But like most bad weather in Sweden, there is no crazy lead in or warning. There is rarely 3-7 days of TV reporting about the prospects of a terrible storm – like Snowpocalypse or Snowmaggedon. No. Instead you plan on driving somewhere one afternoon and then peek out the window and go ‘That looks pretty crappy’ . Then you check the road conditions on the vägverket site or the weather report on SMHI and try to decide if the crappy is local, temporary or in for the long haul.

Swedish news media here still seem to like to consider themselves serious journalists. They haven’t bought into the idea of newsertainment. They actually try to report news instead of just write about terrible scary things that could eat you in the night.

Most of the time that is good, but sometimes you just wish a storm could have a good, catchy name. I don’t mean like Gudrun – oh Gudrun was a real monster. I mean in line with snowpocolypse. Given the Swedish concept of ‘lagom’ I cannot see them predicting a snowpocolypse unless, really, the snow would be covering at least the first floor of most houses.

So I have chosen snowgåsbord to describe this weeks snow situation. It’s been a mix of snow. Wet, powdery, slushy, but it has been pretty continuous. Like any good smorgasbord there are a few good things to choose from, and what is left at the end might make you wrinkle your nose a little bit and wish you had gone for lunch elsewhere.