I've been very lazy about updating my blog this summer. Partly because of having a lot on my plate at work, but also because I've been trying to enjoy the brief Swedish summer as much as possible. The thought of being indoors when the weather has been so lovely the last few weeks just seemed wrong.

Even if you've never been to Sweden, you've probably heard about our long, dark winters. This is not something that can be taken lightly. Swedish winters can be extraordinarily cold and even seem like they may never end. The cold isn't the worst part though. It's the lack of light. I grew up on the east coast in the US in Philadelphia, where winters are cold and raw though not very dark. In Stockholm during winter, it's typical to leave your house at 8AM and the sun still hasn't risen. When it finally does rise, you're already at work and the sunlight you see is watery pale and fleeting. By 2PM the sun is already setting and when you head home at 5:30-6:00PM, it's as dark as midnight. It's worse the farther north you go. In northernmost Sweden, the winter months are marked by complete darkness--all day and all night.

So you can imagine when spring and summer arrive, we all go a little bonkers. There's so much...light. Here in Stockholm, the sun rises at 3AM and sets at around 10:30-11:00PM at the height of summer. We feel as though we've awakened from hibernation and suddenly we are frantic to be outdoors as much as possible just to feel the sun on our skin. We turn into sunflowers, our faces turned upward and following the path of the sun across the sky.

I promise I will have a proper post again soon...just let me enjoy the last vestiges of Swedish summer. :)