Fascinating

the weather outlooks from both American GFS as well European ECMWF clearly slow a lot milder temperatures compared to what we had in recent past. It is almost as if somebody pulled a switch sand said "it is springtime". (Meaning for Scandinavia; Max temperatures above 0°). Not exactly classic springtime, but enough mildness to distinguish itself from winter.

Here is how the temperatures (in Stockholm City) have been since 1st Jan 2026 in °C.

. . . . .

It has clearly been on the cold side

And then all of the sudden, it seems as if we get more sunshine as well milder temperatures, perhaps up to 9°C at times. Still frost at night though - which is totally normal for this time of the year.

Outlook Scenarios

Now here below you see what GFS calculated for Stockholm in the next 2 week period. Often, only the first days are significant, and then it starts to spiral into illusions. At least most of the time. Yet, it can outline certain tendencies. The thinking in the model is, that the stream of mild (at times cloud rich) southwesterly winds dominate. While at the same time, a high pressure area sending a ridge towards Scandinavia.

Even after cold front or general front passages, the high pressure ridge would re-establish itself over our area anew. And all that would of course lead to higher temperatures, and the classic peaks you start to encounter in springtime; as the sun is starting to warm up the lower atmosphere, the peaks get higher and higher - but the minima will still remain close to the freezing point (more or less).

The broken snow cover will soon disappear, including the mountains on the sides of the streets. Those look like hell; dark, almost black and dirty...

Nevertheless

For the time being - the sky is gray, dull overcast. In the evening we are expecting rain tonight which might stretch into the morning hours. The fronts which are hovering over Western Europe stretch all the way up to Southern Scandinavia and move into a northeasterly direction.

Kind of diagonally from SW to NE, which means it will stay overcast for a couple days. Ah, but i LOVE the fact that the daylight has gotten significantly longer. After all, in just 3 weeks it is time for the springtime equinox. Fascinating. I mean that we've come that far already.

Carla in New Zealand

While on the southern hemisphere, autumn is starting to make some inroads (but it is still generally warm in most places there)

Sal's daughter is now in New Zealand... so, she is expecting to meet autumn over time. That girl is everywhere in the world - which i find fascinating, too. (Remember she boat-lifted to the Caribbean a couple years ago and then went to Florida, and went by buss across the southern states, living up in Southern California for quite some time)

The way the girls make the world to their Ouster - I can only admire their bravery and power. When I say "ouster" - i don't mean that in the sense of "taking"- but in the sense of living within and with it, wherever they go.

I am so different compared to the girls.

I have always been a guy who felt safer behind a writing desk (later computer desk). Almost my whole life. As if that represented a sort of bubble, in which i started to explore the world from within instead. But at the same time, I have never been a particularly brave person. Only when i felt pushed and stressed - i would "jump over my own shadow". Well, it worked, too, you know. Just differently.

But i admire the girls for their fundamental way of feeling save and going out into the world, living within many different cultures. I admire that deeply. Not to mention all what they learn on their road of life. Absolutely fascinating.

Coming of age

I sometimes get confused how far ages have come. I mean, Carla is now 30, while Paola turned 26 ! I remember images of her when she was 15 (and looked incredibly mature already). Sal is 59, and i turn frikkin 60 in a couple weeks.

What the duck, you know !!

How did that happen ?

Also former husband Daniel, is turning 50 - and looks a lot older now. Perry would turn 55 this year, while Johannes is now a whopping 78 years of age (i met him back in 1996 when i was 30, and he 50). My mother if she would have lived, too, would been 78 years of age now. But she took her life when she was 28 back in 1975.

Even the actors we were used to watch in many different movies, looking like super young, and came to fame. Well many of them are pushing 50, or have already reached 50. While others already 60.

Also; i am only ONE year away from the age of my father when he died at 61.

Geeezaz.

Switching sides

I am basically almost as old as my grandmother Elfriede was, when i re-visited her for the first time, after i run away from my parents in the age of 15, and then at 17 visited her outside of Heilbronn by accident. Where we during a journey on our way from Spain to Berlin, happened to pass by only 3 km from her home (which i never forgot the address after mom made a package for her when i was 8 years old). I begged the group at the highway - to make us stop by at my grandmothers house.

Boy, that was a big moment in my life. To see her again. She was one of a kind, with no equivalent. Ever.

Now i am "her". How weird isn't that ?!

When i tell people at work that i am 60 - they all look at me with big eyes. I guess it has something to do with my way of being. Barely resembling that of a 60 year old. Not even closely. Still a lively personality, and a bit "crazy", but not in a bad way, i promise.

How do i feel in myself, i mean from within ?

Kind of between 46 to 50 somewhere. I think that is pretty much reflected in the way i am during daily life with other people.

How old am I in my Diary here ?

Oh that's a good one - but a tricky question. I often feel that the way I write is rather immature. Like a rebellious, bitching teenager. Not particularly sophisticated' As if my way of writing, the way i express myself, and how i put my arguments forward... remind me of a guy who is still... well, immature. Or so it seems. And so it sounds. In reality, that is not how i think and feel within - on the contrary. Yet the gap between my inner self, and the way i write, has widened considerably.

Many things that wander across my mind, soul and heart - i can barely express in the way I think/feel/sense, connect and ponder in sort of multi-parallelism while simultaneously going in multiple directions. (It probably would be far to cluttered, disorganized as well energy demanding write and wrap up such inner workings)

The thought process - which is partially intuitive and made up of senses, not always in stone written words - stretches endless deeper compared to the rather simple and "primitive" arguments i bring forth, when i write into my diary here.

It's as if my "written personality" has stagnated.

Hasn't changed that much since the time i started my homepage 26 years ago back in year 2000 (when i was 34). OK, a little has changed, but not that much you would expect from a guy moving form 34 to 60. Boy that looks so... well, written in numbers the gap of 34 to 60 looks way larger than the sound of "26 years ago".

Time is a strange thing

In one way, so determined and fixed in numbers and steps - at the same time endlessly fluid, on the verge of executing "time travels at any time".

If you would ask a bird, what's the time ? It would say "it is now".

When i read books written in delightful, distinguished English - it feels like poetry !! Like a symphony. I can clearly feel, understand an sense good written books, whemn a writer exhibits sophisticated, smooth and fluid ways of expressions which immediately make sense, while at the same time also cause an echoe from within. Like a gentle proposition encouraging you by free will, to think deeper; to reflect upon what was written and said...

All that makes me aware, how primitive my own writing style is

*LOL*

But, what the heck... I am still OK with it. Otherwise i wouldn't maintain my XPan Diary here. At the same time, it is my photographic engine - which powers this Diary. To maintain good photography, oriented around personal views, experiences and thoughts.