We have a hiking vacation coming up, and needs new gear. Unlike Adrian, she definitely wears adult sizes now. Not that that makes things much easier. She’s got my genes, in that she has curvy hips and a slim waist. Sounds normal for a woman, right? The classical hourglass figure? But somehow most trousers sold in Sweden don’t fit that body type. When they’re right in the thighs and hips, there’s a massive gap in the waist, enough to fit an entire fist. It’s not just Swedish fashion, either – I remember having the exact same problem in the UK, many years ago.

With a rain suit the fit doesn’t matter much, but hiking trousers need to actually fit reasonably well to be wearable. Ingrid tried on about 15 pairs, I think – when she was done, the rack by the fitting rooms it looked like someone had just brought everything they found there. We were close to giving up, but a helpful sales attendant found some more for her to try. And of course the only pair that fit was by far the most expensive one she tried.

Oh well. At least she’s hopefully finished with her growing, so these could last her the next ten years or so.

When it’s just Ingrid and me for a meal (and sometimes with Adrian) we tend to watch Robinson, which is a Swedish version of Survivor. A bunch of people on an empty tropical island, with very little in the way of equipment – surviving, competing, and voting each other out, until only one remains. We’re not invested enough to watch it outside of mealtimes, so it’s taking us far longer to watch it than it took for the actual events to take place.

Today we had strawberry cake to go with the entertainment, because Ingrid felt like baking.

Ingrid has been practising driving, off and on since autumn. Started on a parking lot with stopping, starting, basic manoeuvering and shifting gears; then moved on to an industrial area that was mostly abandoned during weekends. Today we went out into actual traffic and drove first to Vällingby and back, and then to Råcksta and back. Both times on roads that Ingrid is well familiar with from all her moped trips. The moped driving has been a very practical way of warming up to driving a car – she’s used to traffic, speed limits and all that, and all she needs to get used to now is handling the car.

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.

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.

Ingrid’s moped has been acting up for a while, and now won’t even start. She’s been doing her best to fix it herself, but ran out of ideas and energy. We’re taking it to a repair shop for servicing and fixing up. Which, given that the thing doesn’t even start, is a bit of an exercise. The trickiest part was to get it up into the trailer. I was thinking we could make do with a thick plank, but after some consideration, Eric bought a steel ramp.

Even with a purpose-built ramp, it was a three-person job. One in the front to guide (“a bit to the right!”), one to steer, and one to push. It’s not like you could grab it and hold it up if it went over the edge – it’s over 100 kg of expensive, breakable machinery.

Ingrid is studying WW1 at school, and her teacher had recommended the class to visit the Army Museum to learn more. She asked for company, so I went with her to the museum.

The permanent exhibition was much smaller than I had expected given the teacher’s express recommendation. And it was very much about the army and its experience of the war, rather than about the bigger picture, the whys and the wherefores. Still, well presented and rather interesting, and we learned things. About the breakneck pace of technical innovation during the war, for example. And that guns are heavy.

We breezed through the rest of the 20th century and didn’t visit the section about older history at all. What we did spend time on, though, was a very topical temporary exhibition about historical relationships between Sweden and Ukraine.

I had no idea that there were such close ties between the royal families, and important political alliances. Starting Ingegerd Olofsdotter, daughter of a Swedish king, marrying the Grand Prince of Kiyv, which I had never heard about. Then Karl XII allying with Ukrainian leader Ivan Mazepa against Peter I of Russia – what I remember about the Great Northern War from my years in Swedish school is all about Sweden warring against Russia, with Ukraine coming up only tangentially as the place where the battle of Poltava took place. (And the parts of GNW that were discussed during my Estonian schooling were mostly those that took part in Estonia, i.e. the battle of Narva, and the fact that it brought with it the end of the “good old Swedish days” and the passing of Estonian territory from Swedish rule to Russian.)

I also (re-)learned that Gammalsvenskby, an old village in Ukraine of people of Swedish heritage, was originally settled by Estonian Swedes from Dagö/Hiiumaa. Sadly most of the village has been destroyed now in the war.

Our ski passes and ski rental are valid for another day, and we could have gotten another good four of five hours of skiing in. But the weather is getting worse rather than better – even windier, even wetter – and it really isn’t looking the least bit tempting, so we’re packing up and driving home instead.

Adrian’s snowboarding technique is improving steadily, and is now actually better than his skiing, I think. He is faster and more stable on the skis, but pretty much just snow ploughs straight down, whereas on a snowboard he gets pretty nice curves in now.

Anyway, he was feeling confident enough that he and Eric also got onto blue slopes. The longest slope here in Stöten, “Mormors störtlopp”, is green and gentle one, and very nice if you want an easy and relaxed ride – as a skier. But the topmost bit is a long, flat, narrow section that is not at all good for snowboarders. Ingrid and I have had plenty of time to explore the pistes, and found a blue run that we thought would fit the snowboarders’ needs as well. So we could all go down together, for the first time this trip. Which was nice – and gave me great photo opportunities.

The weather was no better today than before. Still windy and with low clouds and lousy visibility at the top. Around lunchtime we got some sleet, and while that stopped for a while, it later came back as almost-rain.

One thing we re-learned yesterday is that about 90% of all Swedes head for lunch just after noon. It’s almost like a law of nature. Water flows downhill, fire is hot, lunch is at twelve. Making use of that knowledge, we made sure to be out on the slopes between twelve and half past one, to make the most of the empty slopes and the almost non-existent lift queues. Skiing is best with no other people around.

The weather today was cloudy again, with such high winds and bad visibility at the top that the lifts to the top were shut down in the afternoon. Here’s the staff taking down the fencing around what, in the morning, was the queueing area for one of the two seated lifts.

Like yesterday, Eric and Adrian were snowboarding on the lower, gentler slopes, while Ingrid and I zig-zagged down the blue pistes. Ingrid kindly took some photos of me as well. I was also there.