In my last post I mentioned that I was going to Oslo for the weekend, and that turned out to be a very good idea – after a weekend of summer-like temps and sunshine in Oslo, it was snowing in Tromsø when I arrived home late Monday night. “Velkommen til vinteren,” said my cab driver as I got into a taxi a the airport (that’s “welcome to winter”). It’s been above freezing, so the snow didn’t really stick around, but the higher altitudes on the island turned white again for a little while. I posted a video of the snow on Instagram from the university campus, which was reposted by the CNN account this morning (it’s a bit surreal to see that something you filmed on your iPhone has over 100,000 views).

In any case, Tromsø is still distinctly un-summery and I’m even feeling a little bit under the weather today, so I thought it would be nice to revisit some of the photos I took over the weekend (which was absolutely jam-packed with buddies and lots of time spent outdoors in the beautiful weather). Katie, who started the Oslo Strikkefestival, was telling me that May is her favorite month in Oslo, and it’s easy to see why. The whole city feels like it’s in full bloom, and the new green leaves feel positively lush.

These photos were taken in Slottsparken (or Palace Park), the public park that surrounds the royal palace, but we visited several parks over the course of the weekend, including Frognerparken (always a favorite) as well as one I knew of but had never been to, Ekebergparken, which sits up on a hill east of central Oslo and features some truly beautiful views over the city and the Oslofjord (and it’s also a sculpture park). Even though I’ve spent a summer in Oslo before, I didn’t arrive until mid-June, so I never realized how many lilacs there were all across the city! The smell as you stroll around is simply divine. Up north the lilacs bloom much later – and spring/summer up here is even later this year than normal.

I’m so incredibly grateful to have had such a beautiful weekend, and I’m feeling pretty spoiled by it all. Oslo truly is one of my favorite cities.

I’ve also continued to have lighter-weight spring and summer knitting projects on the brain, and I’ve made headway with my two laceweight projects. I made some progress on my Loess wrap (aka my “sommarøya wrap”) while in Oslo, and I’ve been focused on my Garland pullover since I got home. I finished the main body, so you can finally see the garment starting to take shape, and I’ve started the first sleeve. This welthase yak lace is such a pleasure to work with.

The slightly desaturated pink of the yarn goes quite nicely with all the photos of blossoms, don’t you think? Now, if only we had some blossoms of our own in Tromsø…