This year winter has been long and snowy, with a mean temperature of -4 C. There have been some beautiful and bright days of sunshine, but an almost equal amount of days when the clouds have filled the sky and let it snow. A lot of people complain about the weather, but I have to admit that I like the variation of changing seasons and I particularly like the countryside in winter.

The gardens are dormant at this time of the year, with even the snowdrops and winter aconites safely tucked away under a blanket of snow. To cheer up the winter, I have planted a lot of red twig dogwood Cornus alba Sibirica in my garden at Stensund that are visible in the picture below. In the same woodland patio area I always mark spots that need more bulbs with these beautiful cast iron and glass sticks for autumn planting, but as this year was exceptionally busy I will leave them there until next year and hopefully have time to fill up the border by then.

As not much is happening in the garden, I thought I would make this post more like a collection of photographs than a regular blog post. Below is a picture of the fields at Stensund in winter. As nothing is growing at the moment they are great for long walks and really enjoying the beauty of nature, especially on sunny days like this one.

In March the days are considerably longer already, but late afternoon the shadows fall long on the ground. In March the sun rises and sets around six o'clock, which is in stark contrast to December when it rises around 9 am and sets around 3 pm!

Personally, I also enjoy the days with cloudy skies as I find the different muted colour shades of winter fascinating. It is not only fifty shades of grey, but blues and browns and even red and yellow. At this time of the year the ice changes colour daily as well, and make a fascinating creaking thundery sound as the water beneath rises and falls.