Masses of spring flowers everywhere

It feels like spring in all ways but nothing is green yet.

We have a pretty sweet office with lovely views and a very central location. But because I’m only there once a week, I have none of my personal equipment in place – everything I want, I carry with me. Computer of course, but also charger, mouse, mouse pad, web cam and speaker. And indoor shoes – I really don’t understand how other people’s feet can cope with 20-degree swings in temperature in the same pair of shoes. And knitting. It’s a fair amount to lug along every time. I could try and make do without some of it, like I make do with whatever cheapo keyboard I find, but I don’t want to.

The neighbours diagonally across the crossing have sold half of their plot, for another house to be built there. Today the new owners started work. Trees are being removed and I guess they’re evening out the ground. The first photo is from two days ago, the second is from today.

The two large oaks are protected, though, and will remain.

There’s not much space there. I’ve seen the drawings from when the whole thing was approved by the municipality and I know that it is technically possible to fit a house there, but they’re going to be very close to their neighbours. I get it – if you can earn a few millions by giving up half your garden, then it’s probably hard to say no. I’m kind of glad that it is impossible to do so with our garden.

Gardens always shrink with time, and houses always grow. Nobody buys their neighbour’s house, only to tear it down and extend their garden. And nobody ever knocks down the extension to their house.

I was today years old when I learned the best way to warm butter to room temperature. Well, not technically today but a few weeks ago, but still, almost.

I’ve always used the microwave, because I never plan far enough ahead to take the butter out a few hours ahead and let it just warm on its own. The microwave method isn’t too bad, but it’s a bit tricky, because if you go even 10 seconds too far then the butter starts melting.

My brother taught me to instead put the butter in a bowl with lukewarm water. 10 minutes later, pour off the water, and you’re done. No tricky timing whatsoever! So much easier.

Today (actually today, for real) I discovered that there’s a bonus effect: if you then start e.g. creaming the butter with sugar in the same bowl, the thin layer of water helps keep the butter from sticking to the bowl, which makes for less butter on the sides of the bowl and more of it where you actually want it.

Any piece of cloth on a raised surface is a cat bed.

A kitchen towel on the kitchen table. A half-knitted cardigan on a sofa table. A pile of snow pants in a basket in the hall. A basket of newly folded t-shirts, or a pile of unwashed sheets in the laundry room.

It doesn’t even need to be cloth – even a newspaper will do, in a pinch.

Anything, that is, except an actual cat bed. I bought one for Nysse before we got him, and he didn’t use it even once. I ended up giving it away to a charity shop.

Eric was re-sanding and re-oiling the kitchen table. It’s not as moisture-resistant as it could be.

Nysse was watching his movements, almost as if he was hypnotized and couldn’t turn his gaze away. There’s something about rapid, repetitive movements back and forth that just captivates him. His head goes back and forth, and he looks like he’s about to pounce any moment.

A full-day workshop at work, about “brave conversations”, i.e. conversations that are difficult but that you choose to have anyway, such as giving people feedback. Lots of introspection and interesting discussions.

My cardigan-to-be looks like a geometry puzzle, not like a cardigan-to-be. Like a middle school maths problem, where you get two measurements and have to calculate all the rest, or something.

A day in the office is a day of commuting.

Much of the Stockholm metro system is very photogenic.