Catherine Drea: Wondering about warming

I arrived back into Waterford on the new late train. It leaves Dublin at 20.20 and was a very welcome respite after I had travelled all day from the north of Sweden. 

It struck me as quite incredible that I had left Hudiksvall at lunchtime, travelled thousands of miles all by public transport, to get here 12 hours later.

It’s a long story but as my sister, who has lived in Stockholm for many years, says, she emigrated to Sweden in the madness of young love. I remember well the day the said Swede turned up at our cottage door with a pair of skis over his shoulder. He speaks English now with an Irish accent, so much so that his colleagues in Ericsson's used to call him Paddy the Swede.

Sweden is vast. Way up in the north everything freezes for the winter so it was amazing to be there in Mediterranean weather. 

Much like here the chat was all about the warming climate. My one swim in the Baltic was just that, absolutely freezing! But they have had the same unusually high temperatures all summer, as here in Ireland.

Being a tourist in a small place, about the size of Dungarvan, was ideal to get a sense of rural life here. While I have visited Sweden a lot I usually stay in Stockholm. Here in Hudik the lifestyle is more like ours; easy-going, friendly and slower-paced than city life.

The Swedish supermarket where I shopped with the locals was packed with interesting supplies. Beyond the colourful display of fresh fruit and veg, the products became more and more unrecognizable. Fish, both fresh and frozen, dominate the options. Later when my twin nieces, aged eight, order dinner, it is a plate of sushi. I can’t imagine any eight-year-old in Ireland downing so much raw fish as a treat!

I think it was David McWilliams who reckoned that the Scandinavians got well ahead of the game in infrastructure and development because of their diet of salmon. All the Omega 3 in high protein seafood enabled their survival in such harsh conditions. It would be hard to imagine how they do it. While the standard of living is high, the challenges of the Arctic weather, the long winters and the dark days must be draining.

But last week, the Swedes were blissfully happy in the summer sun! 

Our family was extra happy because my nephew was celebrating his marriage with a beautiful garden party and knees up at his place. Family reunions are precious when people live so far apart.

While walking in the forest on a small Baltic island I wondered how the Swedish family were coping with all the changes in the world. In a country that like ours has been neutral for generations it has been fairly traumatic for them to suddenly be confronted with such a serious threat from their neighbour Putin.

“Thank goodness for Finland,” my nephew told me. Yes, Finland has a huge border with Russia, which acts as a buffer for the Swedes. The Finns have ever-ready underground bunkers with medical facilities, transport, living accommodation etc. Enough for every citizen in the country!

Sweden had to decide to join NATO, they have started to expand the military and provide the arms required for defending themselves. The war in Ukraine has impacted all the countries along the eastern borders of Europe. This conflict feels so much closer there.

Being a tourist for a while it was lovely to wander the wooden houses, traditional farms, fishing villages and pristine landscape. Swedes care about nature, living closely with the damage of climate change.

However, the Baltic Sea is so polluted that you cannot eat the fish from it anymore! DDT, PCBs, mercury, microplastics, pharmaceutical residues, dioxins, flame retardants and oil spills have made it the most polluted sea on the planet. Is it only a matter of time before the rest of the oceans on our planet catch up?

When it’s time to leave there are tears and hard goodbyes. I think of all the Irish at home in Ireland on holidays too as they return home to far-flung places. We just can’t be in two places at once so we go with our hearts and our dreams.

Later in the evening, when of course it is still bright, we hear the sound of what turns out to be a huge flock of Arctic geese. They fly just over our heads, during the wedding speeches. Just as the summer ends and our summer swallows and house martins return to Africa, the Arctic geese heading south is a sign of the end of summer for the Swedes. The children start school this week and they all head into another winter.

Home in the wild garden here, everything has gone to pot! The plums are so profuse this year that the tree is bent and broken under the weight. Blackberries were early and abundant and, finally, there are plenty of butterflies to report. Unlike the last few years they are thriving again.

The weather has been wonderful but everywhere I go I hear people wondering about the changes in our climate. Maybe they were right 20 years ago when they predicted this? 

From the north of Sweden to this little Atlantic island, we are all wondering about what will be next.