I’m just back from my annual ski trip, with a week of no mobile coverage and hence no blogging. And I was a bit behind even before the trip. Catching up commences now.

Transportation day.

First from Jokkmokk to Ritsem by minivan, 200 km. First a normal public road up to Stora Sjöfallet, along the Lule river. At that point the road turns into a private one, owned by Vattenfall, so the road threads its way between the river with its dams and hydroelectric stations on one side, and an endless line of power line pylons on the other.

At Ritsem we packed ourselves and our equipment into snowmobiles. The initial plan was that today would be a warm-up day: we’d be dropped off somewhere between the Akka huts and the Kutjaure huts, and ski the last couple of hours. Due to near storm-strength winds that plan had to be abandoned and the snowmobiles took us all the way to Kutjaure.

In good weather the snowmobile trip could have been scenic. Now it was so windy that all we could do was huddle down in our warmest puffy jackets and pull up the old sleeping bags we had for blankets to protect us from the wind. I didn’t even think about taking of my mittens to take photos.

When we stopped near the Akka huts, one of the snowmobiles refused to start. The trailers got reshuffled so the remaining working snowmobile could get all of us out of the storm, and the skis and bags and pulks got left behind to be picked up later.

In the early evening the storm died down, so we could go out for a small circuit when our equipment caught up with us. Just enough to get familiar with the rented equipment (for those who had that) and for the guides to see that everyone could make their way up and down gentle slopes without falling over.

A day of mostly hanging around and waiting in Jokkmokk. Took a walk, checked out the local supermarket, read my book.

The night train took me to Murjek, and from there I continued by bus to Jokkmokk, where I arrived at 9. Checked in at the hostel and then just sort of hung around, because the group for the trip only met up at 15.

I could have visited Ájtte, the Sami museum, but I was rather tired and groggy after a night on the train and couldn’t muster the energy. First I slept badly because I had the top bunk and it was hot and stuffy up there. Then I had to get up early because the train was supposed to arrive in Murjek at 6:35. Then the train was delayed but with little to no information about it. There were no announcements on board the train at all (too early in the morning for that, I guess) but there’s a website for up-to-date traffic information. Enter the number of the train, and it gives you the latest estimated arrival times for all upcoming stations. Except that information was getting updated with a delay – at 7:19 it was still telling me that we would arrive at Murjek at 7:14. And it kept stopping at random points in the middle of nowhere, sometimes at places that looked like they could be train stations, and once even at an actual (disused) station. So I was constantly, anxiously trying to figure out – are we there yet? did I miss the station? almost there? do I need to grab my bags now? And when we did arrive, I think the train literally stopped for 3 minutes without any announcement so inattention would have been really bad.

In the afternoon we met up with Mirja from Laponia Adventures. Got to know the other group members, had our information meeting, went through the route etc. Thereafter we went through all the equipment that we’d be borrowing from Laponia Adventures, in particular the ski pulks that we’d be using to transport everything. The huts on this trip will be unmanned ones, apart from the first and last ones, so we’ll need to bring all our food with us. Most of the group were also renting skis and boots and needed time to try those on for size.

Then dinner, packing, and to bed.

I’m on my way to Jokkmokk on an overnight train for this year’s ski trip.

I’m trying out a new travel company this time, which I’m both looking forward to but also a bit anxious about. I’ve mostly been doing my ski trip with the same guide and the same group, so it’s only nominally a company and mostly just a group of friends by now, and we always have a great time. I strayed from that group once, with STF, and was rather disappointed with the outcome. (The group was too large, some of the people rather annoying, and the guide was clearly not very enthusiastic about being there.) It’s taken me some years to work up the courage to try again.

This opens up some new possibilities, though. This year’s ski trip will take place in Padjelanta national park, which is rather remote. It’s not like in the Norwegian mountains where you can step off the train and be at a DNT hut after 5 minutes of walking (or skiing). This is a train ride + a bus ride + a minivan ride + a snowmobile ride and THEN we can start skiing. Arranging this on my own without local ground support would have been impossible.

I thought we were done with snow for this year. Was this really necessary?

Easter is behind us, but Easter food, just like Christmas food, generally lasts longer than the holiday itself.

I realize that I’ve never shared my recipe for pasha. Those of you who make your own probably have a recipe already, and those of you who don’t are probably not interested, but here it comes anyway.

150 g butter
70 g sugar

3 egg yolks
1.5 tbsp vanilla sugar

0.7 dl chopped almonds and hazelnuts
0.7 dl candied orange peel
0.5 dl dried cranberries
40 g dark chocolate (4 squares of Lindt mild 70%)

grated zest of 1 lemon

750 g quark, for which I use 500 g Kesella (quark with 10% fat) and 250 g Keso (cottage cheese with 2% fat) which I press though a sieve to break up the grains

3 dl whipping cream

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Cream butter with sugar. Add everything except quark and cream.
Add quark to the mixture.
Whip the cream and fold it into the mixture.

We visited Vårsalongen, the Spring Salon, at Liljevalchs art museum. Like last year, the works are all available for viewing online.

Paintings, sculpture, videos, textile art, mixed media etc.

There were plenty of impressive paintings but not many that left a lasting impression.

This intricate drawing/painting of ptarmigan – where the feather patterns hide everything from miniature lemmings to snowflakes – captured our attention.

Whereas this bee-themed one mostly made me think that this could be turned into an embroidery.

There were several textile works that I liked. Especially those that utilized the possibilities of thread and fabric and yarn for something more than just a flat image.

These rocks were my favourites: from a distance they just look like lichen-covered rocks, but up close you can see that it’s all woven tapestry and embroidery. Soft pretending to be hard.

Others left us all puzzled. A rectangular hand-woven piece of fabric in black and white. (Next to it there was another one that was all yellow, with subtle variations in tone and shade.) What made this so special that it stood out from the thousands of other works submitted?

Yet other works sparked different kinds of questions. These five colour-coordinated stacks of men’s ties, seemingly just hung over a hook. How did they transport this work? Probably in parts. Who hung it up again? How did they ensure the ties were hung in the right order, and with acceptable (lack of) precision?

There were also numerous fun sculptures, including one of “seven kinds of cakes” in stone, inspired by a Swedish fika tradition.

If I had room for sculptures and knick-knacks in my home, I would rather like something fun like these fish:

More about the works above: Ptarmigan, Rocks, Fish, Cakes, White yarn thing, Ties, Black & White Weave. Couldn’t find anything for the bee, probably because it was part of the Young Spring Salon.

I planted a Hellebore in the new flowerbed in front of the house last year. I’m never quite sure what will survive and what won’t, even when I follow all the recommendations about sun and shade and soil conditions, but this one did, and now it’s flowering!

Painting Easter eggs, as per tradition.

Also as per tradition, Ingrid makes the most artistic ones, while Adrian makes the crazy ones. This year his eggs had body parts – a giant eye, an ear, a mouth.

Afterwards somehow the women ended up cooking dinner while the men snoozed.

I went out cycling. Initially I was going to go drive to Säby gård to take photos of blue anemones, which I assumed would be out. But Eric and Adrian would need the car a few hours later (to drive to Mall of Scandinavia to watch King Kong battle Godzilla on a big screen) and I didn’t want to have to keep an eye on the time at all, so I took the bike instead, and headed for Järvafältet closer to home. I could have headed on to Säby from there but somehow didn’t think of it. Instead I rambled around South Järva, then Ursvik, and Ulriksdal, before cycling back.

Didn’t see a single flowering thing. No anemones or anything, not even hazel bushes. But there was fresh air and sunshine. Also, mud.

I only remembered to take a photo when I was leaving Järvafältet and entering residential neighbourhoods again. By that time the sun was gone as well.