Some bushes are still completely bare but others are well on their way. (This is blackcurrant.)

I’ve been procrastinating about more or less everything recently. Just don’t feel like doing anything. In fact I actively feel like not doing the things I could be doing.

But today I mended a broken pendant (superglue!), set up for knitting the heel on my socks, measured the cardigan, and then topped off the day by doing a load of white laundry, which means hankies, napkins and linen towels – and then ironed the whole load as well. Now I totally deserve to spend the rest of the day reading.

Most weekends I wake up the same time as I do on weekdays, which is around 7:30. The sun is well up and hits the living room sofa straight on. It’s warm and cosy and I love sitting in the sun when I read.

I like having the sun on me and around me, but it’s hard to read with it in my face. Until around 8 the sun is low enough that I can hide behind the top of the shade of the thuja. When it gets higher into the sky, I position myself in the shadow of the middle pillar of the French doors. And shuffle along the sofa as the sun moves. When the sun no longer warms most of the sofa, it’s usually time for breakfast anyway.

My cardigan project is still in need of measuring and fitting, and I need to check my pattern notes for my ongoing sock, and I just haven’t like doing either of those. But by now I am completely addicted to knitting during long meetings, or while waiting for some sluggish deployment process to complete. Luckily I remembered my travel crochet project, nearly pocket-sized and super easy to pause and pick up at any time. Phew.

I really need to get on top of the knitting, though. Soon.

I went out for grocery shopping after work and put on my lightweight spring coat because it looked sunny and warm. Shouldn’t have trusted the looks of the weather, should have looked at an actual thermometer. Because it was definitely colder than it looked and I had to walk really briskly in order not to shiver. It’s spring, but not as much spring as I keep wanting to believe.

I’ve reached middle age and become lactose intolerant. Sharing the symptoms with you would probably be TMI, but suffice it to say, they’re not fun. I can still eat small amounts of dairy without any problems, but a few days eating, say, pasta in a creamy sauce will really mess up my stomach.

So I’m now buying lactose free stuff, somewhat reluctantly. It doesn’t quite taste like the normal stuff. Lactose free butter and cream cheese both taste kind of blander and sharper. I guess my taste buds miss the sugar. I guess I’ll get used to it.

What bothers me more is that there are so few organic lactose free products. I want my milk and butter to come from happy cows who are not pumped full of antibiotics and who get to spend their days outdoors. But I also still want my butter to be butter, not an artificial alternative.

I was happy to see that at least when it comes to heavy cream, there is an organic lactose free alternative. Too bad it’s one of those semi-fake ones, with a thickening agent compensating for the lower fat content (36% instead of 40%). Organic, thickener free, lactose free: choose any two out of three.

Three deer lazing around in the spring sunshine in the garden. Clearly feeling right at home here.

The cardigan is now at roughly the same point where I ripped it up last time. Time to try it on again soon.

I’m making good progress on it, and on the socks I’m also working on, with all the online meetings we have. Knitting is the perfect filler activity for meetings where I am mostly a passive participant.

But meetings are only good for a certain kind of knitting: the kind that I can do with half my attention. No measuring or fitting, no casting on new things, no tricky counting. I try to make sure to have at least one of my projects in a meeting-ready state by each morning. I wouldn’t want to end up in an hour-long meeting with no knitting just because I’m stuck behind the start of a heel or something like that.

This work-from-home thing is really spoiling me.

The libraries in Stockholm have been in covid mode for the past year. Some are closed, some just discourage visitors. And no late fees have been charged.

I’ve had an overdue children’s book at home all this year. The library in Spånga has been closed and I just haven’t bothered finding an alternative one to return it to.

I got an email telling me the grace period ends on March 31st, so I got off my backside and cycled to Vällingby to return the darn thing. It was a relief to finally get rid of it.

Vällingby felt mostly deserted.

After last week’s lack of energy, I’m glad to be back to feeling normal again.

Today was warm enough to open the window during my workout, but unfortunately wet. I’m looking forward to moving my workouts outdoors. But spring is deceptive – it always takes much longer than I expect.