The Golden North

In Winter 2019, Becky and I travelled north again to Norrland, a term the Swedes use to refer to the five most northern counties in Sweden (Gävlebord, Jämtland, Norbotten, Västerbotten, and Västernorrland). The reason for our trip was to see if our love for this Scandinavian country persisted even when it was frozen. For this trip we based ourselves in central Västerbotten, so we could get a proper winter. For years Becky and I had been living in central Italy, where, as you can imagine, we don’t get much snow. Except for one day in 2018 where Rome received a heavy dosing of it, bringing all life to a standstill. But, I digress. Having flown into Umeå and renting a car, we drove out to our lodging. The drive was absolutely beautiful, the sun hung low in the sky casting a golden hue over the white blanket of snow. It was truly magical. For the next several weeks we pushed ourselves to get out and enjoy whatever we could, including going for drives to explore the surrounding areas. This is how this photograph was taken, outside of Malå, while driving along the 370. The sun was setting and looking out my passenger window I saw this thick blanket of undisturbed snow, and the golden and pink skies. I told Becky to pull over, then I hopped out and snapped this photo. Despite this being a just one frame of hundreds taken that day, it is a photo that I frequently come back to when I am longing for those short, but colorful, winter days in the Norrland.