We switched to unperfumed laundry detergent when baby Ingrid (then a few months old) had problems with dry skin and rashes. To keep it simple we used the same detergent both for her stuff and all our other laundry. Then about two years ago I took the next step and bought a laundry ball, which sounds like black magic and too good to be true, but it does actually seem to work. For really dirty stuff, like anything that Adrian’s worn, I take a tiny amount of (unperfumed) detergent, about two tablespoonfuls, which is about a quarter of what the manufacturers suggest. Everything still comes out looking and smelling clean.

By now my understanding of “smelling clean” is very different from most other peoples’. Now that my nose knows what clean laundry smells like, the perfumed detergents and conditioners smell disgusting. There is no way I will every buy any of those again.

Once I happened to cycle right past the air vent in a communal laundry room in an apartment block, probably coming right from its tumble dryer. The perfumed steam almost made me gag.

Any time I buy second-hand clothes (which I do often when it comes to baby clothes or nursing wear) the first thing I do is to hold them to my nose. In the vast majority of cases I then throw them straight in the dirty laundry hamper, because they smell of chemicals and synthetic perfume. I inspect the clothes again after washing, and sometimes send them back for a second round.

Ingrid loves picking flowers. There is no end to the amount of flowers she’d pick if given the chance. I ask her to pause when we run out of vases in suitable sizes.

We limit the picking to flowers in our own garden (with bulbs like daffodils and crocuses off-limits) and in no-mans-lands: outside fences, on roadside greens etc. And we try to leave flowers that are large and beautiful but few, such as if there’s a small stand of poppies just outside someone’s fence.

Other than that, she’s got free hands, and I don’t guide her. She picks anything that flowers. Scillas, hyacinths, wood anemones, daisies, cowslips, dandelions, forget-me-nots, pennycress, buttercups… cow parsley or something like it (hundkäx/harakputk), deadnettle (vitplister/piimanõges), greater celandine (skelört/vereurmarohi), etc etc etc. I think we had about a dozen species on our kitchen table as of today.

It turns out that cowslips, grape hyacinths, daisies and deadnettles keep very well in a vase, for many days. Both cowslips and daisies can even recover after wilting when running out of water if the water is then replenished. Scillas don’t live long in a vase; anemone flowers survive for several days but their leaves wilt quickly; buttercups spread lots of annoying yellow particles around them.

My only online source of Estonian news just threw up a paywall. And it’s not what I would call cheap, either. Not expensive, really, but given that the quality of journalism is less than stellar, not worth the money. Postimees.ee also hides its longer articles behind a paywall. So where will I now keep up with what’s going on in Estonia?

There is something very cool about seeing the shadow of an airplane pass right over me. It happened to me three or four times last week, as I was on my way to preschool to pick up Ingrid. (There is a minor airport on this side of Stockholm, not very far from here.) Just the right combination of my schedule, flight schedule, wind direction and angle of the sun, I guess: all coincidence but still cool.

It’s been over two years since I bought my MacBook Pro. And I still cannot get used to the fact that the apple on the lid is upside down. Whenever I put it down (after taking it out from a bag, for example) I naturally turn it with the apple right side up, feel for the groove to open it, and then realize I’m doing it wrong again.

I know, I know, the apple is there for whoever walks past or sits opposite me… but in my case nobody does that. Except perhaps some fly on the wall next to my desk.

I think I need to put a sticker or something on the bottom edge of the lid.

Unravelling the mess that is our home. The living room and kitchen have been mostly restored to normal order; the fridge has been restocked.

Much of the snow appears to have melted while we were away, and there are snowdrops and eranthis flowering in the neighbours’ yards. Still the temperature today was near the freezing point.

Seen outside a restaurant in Maspalomas

For the non-Estonian-speakers among you, “lihavarras” means “meat skewer” in Estonian, and Estonian is just about the last (European) language I would expect to meet in Gran Canaria.

Temperatures this morning:

• Outdoors: –16°C
• Kitchen: 16°C
• Bathroom: 12.5°C
• Kitchen floor: 10°C

When I was looking for party game ideas for Ingrid’s fourth birthday, one of the pages I stumbled upon said, roughly, that a kids’ birthday party is a success if the child feels special, and none of the guests break down crying. I.e. don’t make it too hard for yourself. That struck me as very sensible advice, and I’ve adopted it for Christmas, too. It helps me keep away from the mummy trap, the one that makes mums struggle to make a perfect holiday for their families (especially the children) while they themselves have no time or energy to enjoy themselves.

So I kept my Christmas preparations relaxed and included nothing elaborate, nothing that felt like too much work. No gingerbread house, for example, and not much in the way of Christmas decorations (apart from the tree). A very simple Advent calendar for Ingrid. Gifts that (hopefully) were appreciated but not stunning, perfect, best-ever, because that’s what I could manage.

The best part of this Christmas holiday for me was having my mum here. She and Ingrid like playing with each other. So with 3 adults for 2 kids (my brother was here too but he’s not the kind who plays with children) we could keep all the kids happily occupied and still have one pair of hands free for preparing meals etc. I’ve been enjoying myself cooking semi-fancy meals, (a) because I could concentrate and know that I won’t be interrupted in the middle of an important step, and (b) because someone would have time to enjoy eating them. Even two desserts!