LUCIA, 40 RAINDAYS AND MOSCOW
14 December 2006

Yesterday was the 13 December. This day means a lot to us Swedes. In these cold dark December days when the sun hardly rises (or sets for that matter) Sankta Lucia comes with candles in her hair to save us all from this misery. She sings a tune, brings lussekatter (sweet safron-bread) and offers gloegg (mulled wine). She's great. It helps to have a tradition which marks midway, kind of "time out", which symbolises that that eternal darkness can't get worse now: The earth has reached its maximum distance away from the sun now and soon we'll have some light again. It's the right time to be cosy inside, hybernating and drinking gloegg.

The met-office just informed the joyeous citizens of Scotland (I read this the Scottish version of The Times) that we haven't had one rain-free day for 40 days! People do like talking about the weather in the UK, yes, but there is a reason for that: it changes every 5 minutes, literally. And it is extreme. How often do you see people leaning against the wind on street corners?! It's pretty, pretty, pretty miserable, as Larry David would express it.

The article following the met office's uplifting news, reported that the bears in Moscow Zoo are failing to hybernate this year. It's too warm. Moscovites are happy about not having to wear their gloves and hats (especially after that period of cold last winter when it was so cold that even electrical cables froze-and broke) but just think about the bears for a second. Imagine not being able to hybernate... I hope they will be able to sleep a bit at least. At the same timesmany of their friends the polarbears in Canada have to survive the winter wihtout snow.
My thoughs are with these beautiful creatures.