Stockholm’s spring is coming, at last

Buds are just starting to appear on some of the trees around town. The shot here is of Jakobs church in Kungsträgården.

Ever so slowly, spring is easing its way into Stockholm. The grass is gradually turning green, buds are just beginning to appear on some of the trees. Tulips are coming up, but not yet blooming, although some of the daffodils are.

It feels like such a triumph after our long winter. OK, actually it feels like it was a long time in the coming. At least the days are amazingly long: the sky was already light when I woke up at 4.30 am. To get back to sleep, I had to put on my eyeshades.

Daffodils and pansies in a planter, as seen from a bridge on Djurgården.

My friend Elissa in Cincinnati posted this quote on Facebook yesterday. It also seems appropriate for Stockholm just now:

“I remember too how spring came, just when I thought it might stay winter forever, at first in little touches and strokes of green lighting up the bare mud like candle flames, and then it covered the whole place with a light pelt of shadowy grass blades and leaves. And I remember how, as the days and the winds passed over, the foliage shifted and sang.” —Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

Tagged as: An American living in Stockholm, spring's arrival in Stocholm