Back in Norway

That might seem an unusual observation to make, but with summer days in Oslo creeping up to the high 20s and winter days dropping to -15°C (or lower), there is more variability in climate than I am used to from home. My Australian city of Brisbane lies just 500km south of the Tropic of Capricorn, so while summer is usually into the 30s, most winter days are sunny with an average temperature of 17°C, so only slightly cooler than a summer’s day in Oslo. To look out your window in Brisbane, winter pretty much looks the same as summer... the only difference you see is how people are dressed.

For that reason, I’m not used to seeing such the dramatic differences between each season that I now experience in Norway. Certain things that I thought were clichés – the falling yellow leaves of autumn, the bare trees of winter – are reality in Norway. I don’t think I had ever seen a bird nest in a tree before I moved to Norway... we no doubt have them in Brisbane, but if they are there they are blocked by the flowers and leaves, which thrive regardless of the time of year.

Spring is particularly pronounced in Oslo. The gardens throughout the city turn from barren bushes and shrivelled-up brown shrubs to bright seas of colour. The flowers literally seem to pop up overnight. I find myself saying at the beginning of each spring, “Oh that’s right, we did have flowers here!” (See the picture of Frognerpark, left.)

The slide into winter, on the other hand, is a much more gradual process. In Brisbane, my measure of when winter began was when I started wearing jeans and switched to long flannel pyjamas. Here in Norway there are many more steps. The first step occurs at the end of October when daylight saving ends. This year the next step was the first frost, which was followed the next day by the first snow. We are now reaching the point where puddles are frozen in the morning, and smaller patches of water are icy all day. In a month or two there will be constant ice and snow (or worse, slush), and my measure of winter then will be when I take my first fall on the ice. .

Of course, this is also accompanied by a gradual change in clothing. You move from a spring jacket (I hadn’t even heard of a spring jacket before I came to Norway), to a light winter jacket, then adding light gloves and scarf, then soon after to wearing wool socks or tights underneath, then to heavier gloves and scarf (plus a woolly winter cap), and soon comes the shift to thick mittens, a heavy winter jacket, and of course boots lined with wool or fake fur. I am used to it now, but in my first winter in Norway I was always running late because it took so long to put all those clothes on!

Another thing I find unexpected about the weather in Oslo is that they don’t necessarily have a white Christmas. It snows on and off in the lead-up to the holidays, but often there is nonetheless a snow-free or ‘green’ Christmas, as it is known here. So I’m hoping for my first white Christmas... it will be my incentive for making it through another winter!