For my readers in Sweden

You guys in the way north get to see some of the most amazing phenomena in the sky. Here is a picture from the Spaceweather.com Web site today, taken in Stockholm. Auroras, midnight suns—nifty stuff. We mere mortals here in California only get to see things like, if we’re lucky, a sun dog. Yay. But we do see things like wild pigs, turkeys, ground squirrels. Red clay. Moles. Mold. Plastic bags. Gridlock. Smog.

Oh yeah, and Sharon Stone. Angelina Jolie. Things are looking up. Hey you Swedes, enjoy the nippy weather.

Unusual tree ornament

Recently some friends of ours made the final move to their new place in Sweden where they operate a bed-and-breakfast inn. They keep in touch with their friends by email, and last week included photographs they took while enjoying the local Christmas parade and decorations.

The tree shown here was part of a Christmas tree decorating contest and has an unusual top ornament, shown below. It’s proof that “Obama-mania” isn’t confined to the United States, but I don’t know of anywhere in the US where we can find such an ornament!