What’s it like to live in four seasons? For someone like me from Northern Europe, living with four seasons is just the norm.
We expect ongoing change in nature, temperature, and precipitation patterns, with short periods of stability. But we always know what’s coming next because we’ve seen it all before.
Right now, for instance, here in northern Sweden, spring is on its way. It’s mid-April, and there’s still snow around, which is normal, but it’s retreating, revealing brown grass underneath.
We know the grass will turn green as soon as the temperatures hit double digits. You can watch it happen. Yesterday afternoon, I sat on my veranda with a bottle of wine. By the time I went inside in the evening, the grass had turned green in places.
This is what it looks like right now, in mid-April:
You can see the difference when you look at images from mid-March:
By mid-May, it will be an explosion of green. The ice on the lakes will disappear almost overnight as daytime temperatures solidly reach double digits:
And by the end of May, dandelions will pop up everywhere. For three months straight, daytime temperatures will reliably hit the twenties:
Then, by September or October, the colors will turn to autumn hues:
And by November, we’ll expect snow, which will stay till April, as you’ve seen:
Living like this means you need a lot of different clothes and shoes. Everybody has them. Jackets and shoes you only wear at certain times of the year. Summer stuff like t-shirts and swimwear, and snow boots and parkas for winter, and everything in between.
Our homes are technically equipped to handle the seasonal temperature differences without any inconvenience. My cats, which are indoor cats, have no idea that outside temperatures range from minus thirty Celsius to plus thirty Celsius throughout the year. For them, it’s always 23 Celsius inside the house.
The only real task we must do at the start and end of winter is change the car tires. You need winter tires for driving on ice and snow, and we use studded ones for the ice.
On the whole, I like this seasonal change very much. Each season comes with its own smells and sounds as different plants bloom and birds sing differently.
People also eat and drink according to the season. Some fruits and mushrooms are only available at certain times of the year. These are from my garden, once a year, in September:
In the forests, we get a lot of these mushrooms:
Some foods are typically eaten more in summer. It’s barbecue season, and people often grill outside. Or ice cream—no one eats much of it in winter, but in summer, it feels just right.
And then there’s the matter of seasonal lighting. Winter is dark, so we decorate our windows to make the street look friendlier and leave little lamps on:
