Winter intermezzo
When I wrote about the unusually early snowmelt in Tromsø a week ago, I was almost sure that new snow might come soon. I guessed right. Already on Thursday evening, it starts to snow. The next morning, the roads are white and the tussilago flowers are stuck in the snow.
On Saturday morning it is winter again. About 15 cm of snow have fallen; it is -1 °C and it is still snowing heavily.
I take the car on the gravel road to the ski jump, which feels pretty adventurous although the iPhone photo below is exaggerating.
None of the thousands of tussilago flowers is visible anymore on the turning area, they are all under the snow. And the small pond with the ski jump in the background looks like winter has never been absent.
Later that day I make a car trip with a friend. We visit the same beach as my wife Annika and I did two weeks earlier. The first photo is from 12 April; the second from 25 April, which was yesterday.
The common cowslip peeks out from the snow while the pillows of purple saxifrage that were in bloom two weeks ago are buried deeply under the fresh snow.
This snow, however, won’t live long. Parts already have melted away and even if it may snow again tomorrow, the rain expected later will melt it all away. And that’s more than ok, because I have put away my skis and now I’m looking forward to some hiking tours, first some hills, and later some mountains.