I went out for a lunchtime walk and came back to find an unexpected window cleaning in progress. We do have an agreement with a company for general cleaning every other Tuesday, so I wasn’t entirely shocked to find people there. And when I took a closer look, I recognized the guy hanging halfway out through the window, so they were actually cleaners and not burglars.

Usually the extras are planned and announced in advance, which would have given me some time to clear the windowsills of plants and to move my mini-office. Now I ended up working in the kitchen. In the cold kitchen, because half the windows in the house were wide open. At least I had no important meetings scheduled for this afternoon. Trying to hold a technical interview surrounded by people with buckets would have been awkward.

Ingrid cooks dinner at least twice a week, to earn extra money that she saves for the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea in 2023. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, open for scouts from ages 14 to 17. And an expensive one. Ingrid has been planning and looking forward to it and saving up money for it since last summer. We even have an Excel chart where we follow up her savings and compare the total to a target line. She was going to try and get a summer job as well, but covid-19 put an end to those plans.

Sörmlandsleden stage 16, there and back, 10 + 10 km.

Walking the same stretch of the trail there and back again feels somewhat boring. But even though I considered all sorts of variations, I couldn’t come up with any better alternatives. With all the restrictions in place I can’t use public transport to get to and from the hike. I could ask Eric to drop me off and pick me up again, but so much driving for just a one-day hike would feel like wasting his time. I could do a longer hike with an overnight stay but with the short daylight hours I would spend way too much of the day in my tent in the dark. So I just made the most use of those daylight hours: got up at 6:30, left the house at 7 and was out walking shortly after 8. By the time I started driving home at 16 it was near dark.


The day was fine and sunny and pleasant for walking, even though the sun barely got high enough to reach me. I knew it was there, though, and I could see it gild the treetops here and there. And the mere presence of bright daylight and a blue sky did a lot to cheer me up.

The ground was sodden and muddy everywhere after the recent rains and the footbridges (which are many on this part of the trail) were incredibly slippery. I fell down once quite painfully and decided to be more careful. There’s a certain way to walk on slippery surfaces with some reasonable speed still, rolling from heel to toe, never pushing away. But as soon as I don’t think about it, I forget and revert to a normal brisk walk. After falling again for a second time, hurting my bum and unpleasantly jarring my whole spine and head, I crossed them very, very carefully.

For some reason that made sense yesterday when I was packing, I left my macro lens at home. I think I didn’t expect anything photo-worthy at this time of the year. It’s all mostly rotting leaves and brown grass.

That was a mistake. I walked past some really odd-looking funguses thriving on all that rotting vegetation. I know I could have taken better photos with the right lens.



I also spotted the remains of a dead animal right next to the path. I first noticed the tufts of coarse gray hairs spread out a few paces. Then a vertebra, then another, and then many more bits and pieces, including both halves of the lower jaw. All were clearly old and thoroughly cleaned by scavengers big and small, so the ick factor was very low.

A cervid of some kind, clearly, with a jaw like that. Moose? Deer? The jawbones were quite large, as long as from my fingertips to my elbow, so perhaps a moose?



Bones remaining intact after a long time are no surprise, but I hadn’t expected hair to last so long. It makes sense, though. Hair is tough, made to last for a long time on your body, and it’s not digestible (other than by fungi and bacteria).

Now I had to go google about the decomposition of hair. I found out that human hair can take two years to decompose, and is considered a problematic type of waste. I also found an article specifically about microbial decomposition of keratine which was mostly too technical to be interesting to me, but I did learn from it that:

• the word for “hard to break down” proteins is “recalcitrant”,
• keratin is the third most abundant polymer in nature after cellulose and chitin, and
• it is a component of not just hair and nails and horns but also fish teeth.

My knitting basket is overflowing with nearly-finished socks. First I knitted one pair, to give away. Figuring out the sizing took a few attempts, but the second sock went fast because I now had the pattern worked out for this exact size and this exact yarn.

Well. If the first sock is the time-consuming one and the next one goes fast, why not make more of those fast ones? I have the pattern now, and I have one more skein of the exact same yarn, so let’s be efficient and make use of this! I know more than one person with size 42/43 feet who might benefit from a pair of sturdy woollen socks. Actually, most people in this part of the world probably would.

The second pair will be for a secret Santa gift exchange at work. They’ll have some nice tretton37 styling in duplicate stitch, i.e. embroidery that looks like knitting (maskstygn/can’t find the Estonian name). I’m excited about doing the embroidery so I’m all focused on finishing the second sock in this pair and getting started on the decorations, and putting off the much more boring work of weaving in the yarn ends on all the finished socks. 3 socks 99% done, 1 sock 90% done, not one 100% done.

The windy front has blown past with its sleet and clouds, and the sky was blue almost all day today.

This also brought colder temperatures. I’ve gotten used to the +10°C November we’ve had and the cold took me by surprise. I should have worn a warmer hat.

I don’t understand how some people can walk around in freezing temperatures with no hat. If I ever go out without a hat, it’s not just cold I feel, but that my ears hurt and feel as if they are about to fall off. Those other people’s ears must be fundamentally physiologically different somehow.

I was feeling lazy today and didn’t want to go out cycling in this wind, so I went for a walk instead. Several layers of clouds went scudding across the sky and the weather changed all the time. I had clouds, I had sparse but heavy rain drops, and I had brief, bright flashes of sun.

The weather turned this afternoon. From 13°C(!) yesterday to 2°C this evening, with gusty winds and sleet. I was too lazy and comfortable to go out for groceries in this weather, so I made do with what was in the fridge and made pancakes for dinner. It feels odd to be having cake for dinner, but it’s undeniably delicious.

I notice that my few photos of cooking here tend to be of making pancakes. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps because a pancake dinner feels special.

I eat leftovers for lunch most days. I did the same when I worked in the office – I like my own cooking at least as well as restaurant food, and often better. Plus it takes less effort, less time and less money.

Back then of course I had to decide and pack my lunch in the morning. Now I decide when I get hungry, which means I have a lot more flexibility. And it sometimes leads to odd combinations, when there is not enough of any single leftover to make a full meal, or when I find leftover pasta sauce but no leftover pasta.

Sometimes it leads to two-course lunches: half a serving of soup followed by half a serving of lasagna, for example. That almost feels fancy.

Other times I opt for convenience, and instead of getting two separate bowls and heating two separate dishes, I mix them up. Not soup with lasagna! I’m not that crazy yet.

Yesterday I had carrot soup with pilaf rice, or perhaps pilaf rice in carrot soup, because there was more rice than soup in my bowl.

Today’s lunch was sweetcorn chowder, but the hot smoked salmon was all gone, so I topped the soup with fried herring instead and added a pinch of smoked paprika for that smoky flavour.

Both combinations looked a bit odd but tasted great.

The herring chowder would make no sense to cook from scratch – why go to all the effort of dipping your herrings in egg and flour and frying them, only to put them in soup where they immediately go soggy? But the carrot and rice soup was great. The rice made it more filling and gave it texture. I’ve just never thought of it before. But spinach soup with rice is a thing, so why not carrot soup with rice?

(Now I had to google it, and there are recipes for carrot and rice soup out there, but the ones I saw all pureed the rice together with the carrots. Less work, fewer pots, but that would take away half the niceness of this combination.)

As if the universe heard my complaining yesterday, there were intermittent periods of blue skies today. And when I went out cycling during my midday break, I actually had actual rays of sun touch me.

For about two minutes. But still!

I felt ridiculously grateful for those minutes.

The days are dark and gray. Heavy, thick clouds hang so low that there is little difference between morning, day and evening. Even in the middle of the day it is so dim that I have to turn on the lights inside, although I sit right next to a window.

I wish there was sunlight, at least. There isn’t much else to be happy about, or to look forward to.

I wish there was something to look forward to.

I’ve come out of October’s slump where I had no energy at all. I think I may have the exercise challenge to thank for much of that change.

Now that I have more energy, though, what do I do with it? Indoors I am restless. Outdoors all is mud and gray. I thought of going on another longer hike but there’s only 8 hours of daylight, what would I do with the other 16?