December | 2020 | This blue marble

Kaamos is Finnish for “polar night”, the midwinter weeks or months when the sun does not rise above the horizon at all. Only about one quarter of Finland officially goes through gloomy kaamos weeks ever year, but all of Finland feel the lack of light and the long twilights in the morning and at night.

During kaamos, unless one lives very near the North (or South) Pole, there is enough daylight to go about daily activities: a never-ending blue twilight with deep shadows. Kaamos can be beautiful,too: in January and February, clear days roll through watercolor-washed skies of blues, yellows, oranges, and pinks, until the snow is colored a deep purple and finally sinks into the deep blue twilight again.

Copenhagen has a little over an hour more daylight than Helsinki, and I certainly feel the difference. Yet it is increasingly difficult to get up within the first half hour of my alarm clock. When there is so little color in the day, I crave color on my plate. While my digestion does not always agree with cold greens and salads in the winter, it helps to enjoy some of the last EU-produced colorful vegetables of the season.

(Copenhagen, Denmark; November 2020)

The beauty of Frederiksberg Gardens was once curated to the extent that no one poorly dressed was allowed in. And like a proper English landscape garden, the curves of the waterways are just a little too neat to be natural, and the tall waterfall looks gorgeous and natural – but out of place in flat Denmark. English garden styling is like the ideal image of natural beauty.

Scattered here and there between the trees, dozens of great gray herons hunker down for winter, standing like statuettes, necks warmly folded under the neck feathers. In windy Denmark, Frederiksberg Gardens is probably a nice resting place for birds. And on a cold Saturday in November, the park is a perfect place for a leisurely walk, some headspace, and good conversation.