Back from the Xmas vacation

Happy 2015 everyone!

Exactely like many of you did, I just got back from the Xmas vacations.

And as tradition wants - at least for me - I spent part of those days in Sweden, and the second part in Italy. I will try to cover all this period with the pictures I’ve taken on the way and post them during the upcoming days, but not necessarily in chronological order...

From a climatic point of view, this season has been so far quite weird, and you surely don’t need me to recall it. During the last days I've also been trying to hit the skiing slopes - with not so much luck -  and probably for this reason I already found myself looking back at the pictures I had taken in Sweden just few days before.

To be completely fair and honest, snow arrived in there only on 24th December in the early afternoon, so just in time to have a White Xmas! The days before were a bit windy, rainy and not so cold, but then winter came!

After spending the 24th at the table for the traditional celebrations, on 25th we went out for a 3-hours long long walk in the snow, thanks also to a very nice clear sky!

All the trees were overloaded with snow, and the contrast with the blue sky was simply amazing!

During the first part of the walk we stayed along the lake where the ice didn’t completely make it’s way over.

At that moment the deepest parts of the lake were still completely ice-free, letting me capture some nice reflections

Then we moved into the woods where the sun hardly made it’s way through the trees’ branches

Another lake was already resting under the thick layer of ice that was building itself from shore

While the sun was already going down, we started heading back. The combination of the fresh snow, the setting sun and the almost complete absence of any other person around made the whole landscape quite surreal.

For the very last part of our walk we were again along Mullsjo lake and now, with the temperature well below 0 degrees and dropping every minute after the sunset, the ice was really building up. Do you remember the same picture from this summer in this spot?

Even though I had my gloves on for the whole day, by this time my fingers started freezing a bit. It was really time to head back inside, but not before snapping this last picture for the day.