You know the winter has been long and cold when...

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Here in Lund there is a statue of Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus ) because this is the university where he had his first/early education, and for quite some time (decades at least, don't really know when it originated) there has been a tradition (sort of a student prank) of putting fresh flowers in the statue's left hand. It's to be done during the night, because part of the prank/tradition is that the person or persons putting the flowers there should not be seen or noticed, when the sun rises the flowers should just be there. And actually, most days, there are flowers (or at least branches, or leaves, or anything in that category) in his left hand, relatively fresh ones, even during winter. But the last time I passed the statue, and turned my head to see if there were any flowers in his hand, I couldn't tell...because both his hands were hidden by the thick and warm blanket someone had lovingly wrapped around his shoulders... I guess that's how you know the winter has been a long and cold one...When I went to the wikipedia site to find the link for the wikipedia page on Linnaeus, I found that a photo of "our" statue illustrates the page. And yes, of course, there are flowers in his left hand on this photo... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Carl_von_Linné_i_Lund.jpgWe had spring for a short while, but winter is back. Today there is even snow on the ground...love/Reb