No weather, hot or cold, snow storm or crazy draught, will stop a Viking from having a barbecue if he wants one. This is something my dad taught me when I was a teenager. I remember he was standing outside in the snow on our porch, with boots, shorts and a winter jacket. No gloves either as that would be troubling when drinking beer.
Ever since that day we have had plenty of Viking barbecues. As I live in China I sometimes only go back to Sweden once a year, and that sometimes turns out to be during the cold winter.
It can get as cold as -20 to -30, but it's a nice cold that awakens the inner Viking. You can definitely feel the power of the nature as the winter grabs the landscape and puts everything in slow motion. Everything gets more quiet and slow and calm until...
Until the evening when my dad suggest a good old Viking BBQ. I never say no to that. We get some logs and make a nice fire in the middle of the snow. We place the beer in the snow and let nature do it's job.
In a nutshell I think these barbecues are simply about defying nature and showing who's the boss. Of course nature always wins and we have to move inside after some time :)
But during that time when we are outside, me and my dad, by the fire drinking beer and laughing and barbecueing some hot dogs, that time is often the best moment I know of. If you want to do something, most times it's the mind stopping us (well also sometimes luckily it's common sense). Anyways, my point is that sometimes it's nice to let go and just live a little and not let the environment control our mood but instead feel the way we want to feel and do what we want to do.