After the recent heavy snowfall, there are teams of workmen on the roofs in the city, clearing the snow before it freezes and falls on someone’s head. They do wear safety harnesses of sorts but don’t seem to find them particularly important; I often see the harnesses sitting badly and almost falling off. If I was climbing around on an icy, slippery roof at the height of six or seven stories, I’d want to be pretty securely attached…

Back from the library with a pile of the books.

More snow kept falling throughout the night, and by morning we had enormous amounts of snow everywhere. Not quite to the point where we couldn’t open the doors, but definitely enough that I was glad it was Sunday and not Monday.

The kids had a grand day. The snow lay so thick on both stairs and street that the lower stairs could be used as a sledding slope – it wasn’t even noticeably uneven. And there were snow angels to make, and wading through the piles of snow, and rolling through the snow down a hill. Later in the afternoon we went to the library and the streets still hadn’t been cleared or sanded so I could pull the kids on the sled. (Good thing I’ve been going to the gym; Ingrid and Adrian together weigh more than I do.)


While the kids played, I shovelled. And then shovelled some more, and some more. The snow was heavy and thick, over 20 cm in places, and the two staircases and the driveway took me an hour and a half. (Good thing I’ve been going to the gym, again.) The pile where I deposited the snow from the driveway is tall enough to be a little sledding hill of its own.


The traffic chaos in town today must have been quite something. It took until later afternoon before the streets around here were mostly passable, and then they were still edged by massive piles of snow, the largest ones taller than me.

Lots and lots of wet snow today so we made snowmen. The snow was so sticky that the snowballs grew much faster than planned – I started my first ball around the corner of the house and hadn’t even reached the spot where I had planned to stand my snowman before the ball was too heavy to move. The same happened with Ingrid’s ball which was going to be the torso – it turned into the next snowman’s bottom ball instead. We were more careful with the next two balls.

Adrian’s collections of sticks and stones came in unexpectedly handy.

Lots of snow to shovel.

It’s parent/teacher conference day at school. Adrian is very seriously presenting his recent work to us.

Adrian, tired and possibly coming down with a cold, curled up under a blanket. On top of another blanket that’s peeking out from underneath the cushions.

We have so many comfy blankets in this house that I’ve lost count. When I go gathering them up at the end of the day, I often find more blankets on the sofas than there are kids – often they need one in each sofa.

The absolutely most beloved ones are these incomparably soft fleece blankets. Adrian got one as a gift and sleeps with it every day. Ingrid loved Adrian’s so much that she also got one that she now sleeps with every day. And then Adrian needed another that he can wrap himself in when he comes downstairs early on weekend mornings, half naked in the chilly house.

The cat doesn’t seem to mind scratchy fir branches at all and has made itself a nest in them. And keeps catching and eating little birds.

After several weekends of wanting to go for a walk but having to do other things, I actually got out today and walked section 5:3, from Hemfosa to Paradiset.

It was a beautiful day for walking – a few degrees below freezing, overcast but still relatively bright. The temperature has been below zero for a while so the ground was all firm rather than muddy. And the ground was covered with a fresh blanket of fluffy snow. I love walking on untouched snow, and that feeling of being alone in the forest.

There was a stretch in the middle where the trail went along roads, which I didn’t much enjoy, but most of it was pleasant walking through the usual fir-pine-bilberry-rock forests. This section of the trail is quite far from major roads and the commuter train lines, plus the snow muffled any remaining noises, so everything was wonderfully quiet.

The fresh snow and the lack footprints meant I could see a lot of paw prints instead. Fox, hare, squirrel, deer, and even moose I believe, plus tiny prints of unidentifiable tiny rodents.

All was great except lunch, which was very cold. My big mittens are warm and weatherproof but impossible to hold a spork with, so I had to switch to gloves, and even though I ate as fast as I possibly could, I felt like my fingers were going to turn into icicles and fall off. It took me a good while to get them warm again afterwards.

The last part of my walk went through the Paradiset nature reserve. I don’t know what it is about that place – it’s the usual pine forest over granite, but somehow it manages to look prettier than other similar forests. The moment I cross the boundary of the nature reserve, it’s like the pines become more elegant and the snow lies extra fluffy on their boughs. I noticed the same effect when section 3 crossed into the Tyresta national park.

The trail passes by Tornberget which is apparently the highest point in the greater Stockholm area. There’s a viewing tower with views of nearly endless flat pine forest in all directions. Uniform and not particularly interesting.

As usual the official distance is one thing and reality is different, what with having to actually get to and from the trail. The section starts where Sörmlandsleden crosses a public road, but it’s a kilometre from the train station to that spot. And the section ends in the middle of the forest, not even near a road of any kind, so there’s one kilometre to get to a road and then another to the nearest bus stop. In total the 15 km trail section became a 18 km walk. Starting at 9, finishing just before 15 – perfect use of daylight hours.