The cherry trees in central Spånga are already done and pink petals are piling up in small heaps on the sidewalks. Now it’s our trees’ turn.

It’s been ages since we played any games. I don’t know where all the time goes.

But today at least we played Carcassonne.

This is the last one, I promise!

… because I can’t get enough of them.

Cherries are flowering in Spånga.

I’ve been doing the first dozen or so stages of Sörmlandsleden consecutively, but skipped a few to walk stage 20 today. This stage passes through Henaredalen, which is described as “botanically interesting, wonderful late spring/early summer flowering”. Sounds great for a weekend in May.

It was rather underwhelming. The Henaredalen valley turned out to be a only few hundred metres long, so just a tiny fraction of the 6 km walk. The rest of it was the usual Sörmland pine forest. And while there were flowers in the valley, it wasn’t exactly breathtaking. I suppose it is more “botanically interesting” than impressive for the general public.

Nevertheless a nice walk – not least because it was very empty. I ran into a single walker on the trail itself (a local bird photographer), and three people at the far end. On my way back I didn’t see a single human being.

The beautiful weather helped as well – we’re just a few days into May but already it feels like summer, and I was walking in just a tank top and thin trousers and a sandals. I thought the choice of footwear was a bit foolhardy perhaps – early May can be quite wet still – and was mentally prepared to get all muddy, but there was none of that, except in the river valley.

The coolest flowers I saw was the common toothwort (Lathraea squamaria). It was impressively good at hiding in plain sight. Its shoots are quite large and thickly covered with flowers, but those are unassumingly pale brownish pink and somehow the eye just glides over them, especially among dead brown leaves. But once I had seen one, I started seeing them everywhere.

Friday night finger food: mini spinach and cheese quiches in a muffin pan.

I’ve volunteered to be the kitchen manager for Spånga scout group’s spring camp. Now that both Ingrid and Adrian are scouts, and getting so much enjoyment out of it, I felt I should contribute at least a little bit.

This evening a few of the scout leaders responsible for the arrangement went out to Gåseborg to recce the intended camp site – to plan out where the scouts’ tents will be, where to have the evening gathering, where to put the kitchen etc.

Much of the area was still quite wet, but we’re counting on the ground drying up in the coming weeks.

I volunteered as kitchen staff at a summer camp two years ago, so I have a rough idea of what is involved, but the step from just chopping and stirring to planning the whole thing is big. I hope I don’t overlook some essential part so that we end up with 150 hangry scouts!

Still working on the cardigan.