The first snow melted, but a new layer is already down. Last night we were walking through the snowfall enjoying the view of the dark night and snowflakes in the light of the streetlamps.  My hubby and two kids went completely nuts when they figured out that one can make and throw snowballs! A real wow-factor was in the air! The whole day today I could not stop looking out of the window because everything is pristine and white, and all the bushes and trees are covered in frost. So beautiful! Just take a look at the apple tree!

As I was tricked into writing a haiku about yesterday (hi, lady T!:)), I will put it down here too. I would like to remind the readers that my husband is black and my kids are not exactly white either. So here's the haiku:

Lamplight on snowfall
A freezing negative of
Big and small black men

That, of course, is light years away from what is happening in my ex-home, Senegal, at the moment. People still go swimming there, and usually at this time of the year it is still very hot in Dakar (although they say this year is a bit cooler). Nordic as I am, all those degrees above zero were quite a lot to bear. It was encouraging to see, though, that local people suffered from the heat even more than I did. I remember going out right after having a cold shower (one could not really face the thought of a hot shower from July till November in Senegal) and feeling the sweat run down my back a minute later. It was no use trying to fight it with roll-on's or other stuff. It was as simple as that - the African heat beats every cosmetic wonder. The Senegalese women dress like goddesses, and walk the part too, but this most beautiful sight was somewhat ruined by some huge sweat patches under their arms and on their backs. Anyway, nobody cared much as we all looked as patchy as the others. It is wonderful how fast you can get used to the smell of sweat...

There are, of course, advantages. For example, there was no need for winter clothes (that cost a fortune in Europe) and I was especially glad that I could live five long years of my life without worrying about ladders in my tights. A sweater in the coldest nights was more than enough. To be able to have a dinner on a patio of a restaurant in February was, for me, an X-treme experience. We used to sit on the balcony of our apartment, look at the moon (that was lying down, not standing up like in Europe, funny!) and enjoy the night breeze after a long day of heat, and it was all very romantic, until the mosquito season started. But that's another story. :)