I went for a walk late in the evening in a nearby park and there was birdsong everywhere. There was one bird sitting low down in a tree, belting out its call so loudly that it was almost uncomfortable to be nearby. I never saw it so it was probably something small and brown.

Blackbirds are the best. They often sit on the roof ridge or the TV antenna of our neighbours’ house and sing all evening.

I don’t have the equipment to photograph them, so here’s yet another a spring flower instead.

The Viburnum x bodnantense has been trying to flower all winter, since November, and is now finally letting loose.

I first planted a Viburnum next to the front stairs in 2012, but it died there. I made another attempt in 2015 in a more favourable location – more sun, less shade – and it seems to thrive better here.

Likes:

• Captain Underpants. Reading in general, especially late in the evening when it’s bedtime.
• Cycling.
• Board games. We’ve been playing Secret Code several times recently.
• Minecraft. Playing the pocket edition on his iPad is no longer enough. I’ve now set up an account for him on my computer and installed the real deal, so that he can play on public servers etc. Just like Ingrid at about the same age.
• The Mumin books (which Eric is reading for him) and The Brothers Lionheart (which I just finished reading for him).
• Climbing. Particularly in trees, but other objects – such as large rocks, sacks of earth, etc – also work. He is disappointed that we don’t have more and better climbing trees in the garden.
• Most foods, except for tomatoes, unless they’re turned into tomato sauce. Well, that and anything sour/sharp, line vinaigrettes and such. Most recent surprise favourite: kohlrabi.

I’ve started spring cleaning in the garden, cutting back last summer’s dead perennials etc. Adrian came out to help me but lost interest in the work quite soon, and found better places to be.

Ingrid ordered squishies online and they finally arrived.

Squishies seem to be small cute animals – especially cats – in some sort of squishable, almost gooey material. I have no idea what the point is. But apparently they’re all the rage right now. Best thing ever, says Ingrid.

Yesterday I was in winter, and today I am in full spring. The snow ended somewhere between Gävle and Uppsala. And during the week I’ve been gone, it’s also disappeared from Stockholm.

It feels odd to be surrounded by random strangers, who are mostly unaware that I am even here.

It really strikes me how many of them are staring at their phones all the time. And how many are wearing very impractical clothes.

Likes: mostly computer games. Minecraft and Overwatch particularly.
Drawing.
Reading Kalle Anka. The best days are the days when a new issue of Kalle Anka Pocket arrives in the mailbox.
Smoothies.
Avocados.
Her new red Converse sneakers.
Long hugs and cosy chats in the dark with me when she’s gone to bed and turned off the light.

Ingrid has chosen to switch to a vegetarian diet not only at home (where she has little choice) but also at school and elsewhere, for the sake of the animals and the environment.

She still likes to listen to Sheila Chandra’s A Zen Kiss at bedtime. It’s become a solid routine now. I’m glad it’s such a beautiful album, I have no problem listening to it night after night.

We discovered that she has very dry skin, almost breaking out in eczema in places, and she’s now treating it with various creams and lotions. (A moisturizing cream for most of her body, a mild hydrocortisone cream for the red and itchy parts, a fatter salve for her dry toes, and a special salve for a sore area by her nose.) She likes being/feeling organized, so she drew a chart of her body, marking out the areas that need treatment.

Abiskojaure to Abisko tourist station, 15 km. Heading back to civilization today.

The day’s skiing started with the usual lake. When we got to the other end, the main Kungsleden trail went off into the birch woods but our tour leader kept us on the river so as to avoid the unpleasantly bumpy snowmobile tracks in the woods.

However Abiskojåkka has some rapids and falls which are not passable on skis, and at those points we left the river and made our way through the forest. Skiing in the forest, on uneven ground between rocks and trees, was quite eventful at times but we all got down without breaking any body parts or equipment. Even though many of us fell over or got stuck in unexpectedly deep snow at some point.


After the last rapids the ski trail in the river canyon was very pretty, and I imagine it would look quite picturesque in the summer. It was also very easy to ski – as we were getting closer to the tourist station it was almost like a highway, with well worn-in tracks, and even two lanes at the end. The skiers we met here were a different bunch, day trippers in neon lycra and skinny skis. They’re obviously skiers just as much as we are, but somehow they felt like a different species.

And then all of a sudden we reached a highway and a railway and the tourist station, and were back in everyday life.

The water hole at Abiskojaure

Unna Allakas to Abiskojaure, 24 km.

Flat, flat, flat all day. Along and across small lakes at times, and then through alpine birch forest. The flat isn’t bad, as it makes for efficient skiing, even though it isn’t super exciting. But following snowmobile tracks through forest is no fun at all. When a bunch of snowmobiles all follow the same narrow track over uneven ground, the track gets very icy and bumpy. It’s almost like moguls on a ski run. I have to concentrate on every step, I get no flow and I’m stumbling and losing my balance all the time.

Yesterday’s beautiful weather continued and we had blue skies much of the day. The spring sun was so warm that I stripped off all windbreakers and jackets and was skiing in just a wicking top. Our first lunch on a sunny little hill truly felt like a spring picnic. (The second one was chilly and cloudy and brief.)

Since we were lower down today, we saw more animal tracks: hare, fox, ptarmigan. Among the trees there were blue tits singing, and during one of our breaks we actually encountered mosquitoes or something like them.

Twenty-four kilometres was a lot of skiing and the bumpy forest track was tiring for mind as well as body. Or perhaps it’s the full week of skiing that is starting to take its toll. In any case, for the first time this week I felt really tired when we got to the hut. The other days I’ve been visiting the sauna only to get clean, but today I actually sat in the sauna to rest and relax.

The group split up today for various day trips around Unna Allakas.

Four of us headed north towards the Valffojokka shelter. Like the tour from Vistas to Nallo, this was nearly all uphill on the way out. With the wonderful weather (brilliant sunshine for the first time this week) and nearly weightless packs, even the constant ascent didn’t bother us the least. Plus with a small group there was less stopping and starting, and we got a much more pleasant flow.

In the end we didn’t go all the way to the shelter. We stopped at the highest point, with just the long descent to the shelter ahead of us – and just didn’t see any benefit in continuing. The sun was warm and there was hardly any wind, so we sat on that rocky little peak in the sunshine and enjoyed the views, all the way to Kebnekaise in the south and the Moarhmma massif in the east.

On the way we found numerous wolverine tracks.