Winter

This last week has brought days and nights full of snow, the quiet gentle kind at first, lining the trees and houses like frosting...and leaving an air of hushed peace. The photo I took above is from a walk last Thursday morning into Reykjavik.

 There were days filled with flurries, busy bees of snow, wistful and floating horizontal rather than falling vertical. Then the strong winds arrived, a night of rain turning to ice and followed by what felt to all accounts like a proper blizzard. A blurr of white when we peeped out the windows after breakfast, there was the dark sky but a a mad haze of white. Accompanied by hurling howling sounds. Blinding waves of snow. But life carried on as if totally normal, kids walked to school (ours squealing in frightened glee, eyes pinched nearly shut and leaning fully into the wind) . People out scraping off their cars... (Other than us ....who were in complete awe)....there was no drama, no unusual stress.

Now there are layers of snow everywhere and it feels like we are in the middle of proper winter and really truly in Iceland! It's been marvelous, sledding, snowman building, even skating on the lake in town! Truly a time of winter magic....houses aglow...happy rosy faced children, excited to recap the days snowball fights. Humming Icelandic Christmas tunes. Inside we have filled the house with baking, with embroidery ( something my eldest daughter has been learning in school and is keen to work on) as well as  knitting projects  and all sorts of christmas decorations.

For a girl from the Midwest,( home to truly bitter cold winters) these last 14 years have felt ....well like something important was missing....and here we are...the feel of completeness, that missing piece. For once my children, raised in Malta, are getting to know the feel of snow, the difference between the wet- good packing snowmen kind and the powdery light fluffy perfect for sledding type. They are getting used to the different sounds snow can make when you step through it and how it feels to bundle up to where only your eyes show as you walk out the door.

Winter has arrived here.