Fimbulwinter

This January, the people behind Stockholm Marathon have been organizing a series of virtual races with the last one being today. Opting for the half marathon distance, I took it slightly slower than two weeks ago as the real feel temperature was -15 degrees and I did not want to overstretch my lungs. Running in my old and trusted VJ Sarve Xante, I did run the same loop though along the river to Lundabron and back in the afternoon sunshine.

While we occasionally have had colder temperatures, sometimes even down to -30 degrees, since moving to Umeå back in 2014, this winter is unprecedented in that it has stayed very cold for weeks on end. Somewhat to my surprise, our exhaust air heat pump from Nibe has kept the house at a cosy 21 degrees throughout with a total electricity consumption for January of just 1,307 kWh, including all warm water and domestic appliances. While the electricity is 100% certified nuclear power, the lack of wind and the political decision to close down two reactors at Ringhals have meant that electricity prices in Sweden have been unusually high this winter so the total cost for those 1,307 kWh has been almost 200 EUR (which is still half of for instance German electricity prices).

Back home, I made pasta with black cabbage, caramelized red onions, goat cheese and fresh thyme, served with a glass of the house pinot noir from N.Z.