“Let’s talk about the weather”. That is the epitome of small talk. Except of course for people really dependent on or affected by the weather, such as farmers or people living in areas that experience severe snow stroms, floods and hurricanes. For most people living in modernized areas, the weather is mostly a nuisance. The past few years the weather has been quite weird though. I live in the Swedish country side. Well, actually in Götaland. The roads are in parts breaking up more or less every spring. Incidentally, I live on what sometimes is called “The King’s Road”, the stretch of which in almost all of its parts is quite old, as in a millenium. Roads are a very big part of human history, but that is often forgotten. It seems houses and buildings (i.e. monuments, often over individuals) have a much stronger protection than roads. Roads are also really the history of human activity as a sum of countless agents acting through time and space.

But I digress… Sometimes we have power outtage for some hours due to snow and ice. It is nothing really serious. The last few years have been unusual though. For example, big snow four years ago broke a lot of roofs.

Last year I noted the spring was early. This year spring has been really late. The ground was frozen into about mid April. Today, May 3, I note that the hepatica in the garden (the “wild” corner) are at about same stage as they were last year when I wrote that post (March 23). That is a difference of five, six weeks. And no leaves appearing on any trees yet.

Today it is warmer than ever. But still that icy feeling when there is a gust of wind. Oh well, it is a nuisance, not really a problem. I am not a farmer.