Mid summer comes with its own scenes and sights, and signs and invitations!!
First, the ground breaks, and you can dare to step on it barefoot. Then the grass starts to emerge, and green bursts all around you.
Slowly color starts to come up and around.
These flowers are called Lupin!! You always see them in places where people can see, but they seem wild. Me and friend were discussing if they are truly wild or if the local community planners throw seeds in places where people go for walks or drives, so that it will give them a Vårtjanslor (spring feeling!!)
And then the color envelops us. We can see it all around us, in nature and on people, in the clothes they wear. Women are in dresses, and guys in shorts and tennis shoes...
The days keep extending, and you forget you need to sleep. ONly your body and sleepy eyes tell you that there is something amiss. You can stay up till 1:00 am and still feel that it is early evening. The above and the below picture tells you how the sun is past 10 pm. The above picture was taken in the woods behind the university around 10 pm and the below picture from my window at around 11 pm!! It is these long days that make the winters seem bearable!!
The city starts to get a different look. In winter there are lights, in summer, there are flowers. City here takes special care to create a feeling that we have entered a different time of the year! Every year the city Kommun has a theme, which is represented in special colors they pick for flowers around the city. With little exceptions, you see the same color of flowers around the city. Gives it some uniformity!!
Wanna guess what the above picture is about? Well? Eating outdoors, like all the other fancy places in summer!!
Well Ok....so, nobody expects us to not enjoy summer and pretend we are in Italy or Spain or Greece, where picture postcards show people enjoying their meals outdoors. Right? But for us to pretend that --we must have these heaters that create a warm space around us, and sometimes we throw blankets on our legs to prevent from feeling the bite in the air. Otherwise, seriously it is like Italy, or Greece or Spain!! Not India though, because then we would be indoors!!
And what would summer be without a beach...or at least a sand bed. So, the city sometimes creates this in the middle of town!! Notice the sandy beach-like creation in the middle of the square? Its for the children to enjoy their summer. While parents can watch over them, children get to pretend they are having a summer by the beach. And some make sand castles, and other just roll in the sand. There are fountains around it. This is also the centrum, the center, where all the buses in the town must stop for a rest before going to the ultimate Swedish destination--IKEA!! (ok, not all the buses go to IKEA--seriously!!)
And there is music in the air. The first spring I heard music in the bus and was almost startled!! But in general, you hear more music in spring and summer!! Our building is shared with people from English department and those from Music Department. The musical folks are the most appreciated. Every once in a while we walk out of our rooms to listen to warbles of young people---other times there are properly organized classes. Sometimes they are just practicing, and other times we have witnessed serious grading being done in this open arena in our building. Following are a few examples of what happens when schools close....and there is fun and frolic in the air....
I asked my colleagues, ‘so, what did you think of the beautiful singing?*
Nice but sort of Christmasish.....
Ah, what do I know...??
And last but not the least....there are people jumping, laughing, singing and dancing all around. People sit outside, sun bathing, eating their lunch outdoor, reading books,and about five times more people on bikes than in winter. Bikes are a year around phenomenon here, believe it or not...Here the last little video just makes me smile every time I look at it...could there be better signs that midsommar is upon us? Coming for raising of the maypole on the 22nd of June?
