Of Feathers and Snow

Winter has arrived in Sweden! The snow started on the evening of the 23rd after an incredible ten days of mild weather and heavy rain ~ and it hasn't stopped snowing since!  It is a winter wonderland of white, with around twelve inches of snow already on the ground.

Last year was one of the harshest winters on record with extremely low temperatures lasting for days.  A "warm" day would be when the thermometor showed a balmy -7C.  Most days it was about -20C, which made it almost impossible to be outside for more than ten minutes at a time. Record levels of snowfall meant that it had to be constantly plowed into small hills and then loaded into containers on trucks to be hauled away to the snow dump ~ to put some perspective on it, there was still a sizeable hill of snow that hadn't melted at the snow dump in July when the temperatures were at 30C every day.

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A Russian Biography ~ Vladimir V Putin

Vladimir Putin.  May 2000 ~ May 2008.  President of Russia.  May 2008 ~ Present Day.  Prime Minister of Russia.

Vladimir was born Oct 7, 1952 in Leningrad, to Maria Ivanovna Shelomova, a factory worker and Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, who was a conscript in the Soviet Navy.  His parents died within one year of each other in 1998 and 1999.  Vladimir was their youngest son and only surviving child.  His paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin worked as a cook for Lenin at Gorki and after Lenin died, for Lenin's wife.  He also cooked for Stalin when he visited one of his dachas.

From his humble beginnings,
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