Remember last month, we went out with our friends Lennart and Anna for a hike around Lake Mälaren? At that time, in early February, the lake was frozen over with a good solid thickness of ice. Since then, it has been extremely cold, plus a fair bit of snow has fallen and the lake is now not suitable for skating anymore. What it IS good for, however, is skiing! No, not that skiing - this skiing:



It is beautiful out on the ice in clear sunny weather and despite the fact that this in an outer suburb of Stockholm, there was nobody around at all. What lies ahead is a long stretch of untouched, smooth snow surrounded by the forests, peace and quiet and the strong scent of pine - Scandinavian winter at it's best.

This day, the ski trip was up to the nearby historic township of Sigtuna, considered the oldest town in Sweden. We have sailed from Upplands-Väsby to Sigtuna several times when we lived there and on a good day, with the right winds it takes around an hour. On skis it takes a little longer, but see Anna enjoying herself in the sunshine, I think you'll agree that it was worth it:



One of the joys of being in Sweden is the simple pleasures that you enjoy. One does not need to carry large amounts of equipment or worry about starting bushfires. You can ski over to the nearest shore, gather some kindling and fallen wood and make a fire to heat coffee or grill a few sausages or just to keep warm while you munch on some sandwiches. And Lennart is the undisputed master at building a fire out in the woods. If I was lost out in the dark, dark forest, I would want to be lost with him!



The important thing is to relax, take in the scenery and simply enjoy life. It's pretty hard to get lost as one can always retrace the tracks back to where you started from.



While skiing back, Lennart noticed something dark on the ice and wondered what it could be. On approaching closer, it turned out to be a sweet little forest mouse, sitting all scrunched up and trembling. It was not afraid to be approached and just sat and looked at these giant creatues that surrounded it.



Anna was upset that all of the sandwiches had been eaten and there was nothing to offer the poor, shaking animal. It would appear that the mouse had ventured out to cross over the large expanse of ice and became too tired or cold to continue. It seemed cruel to just leave it there and Lennart searched through his rucksack and found a plastic container. He helped the little mouse into the container and quickly skied over to the edge of the woodland and let it free among the spruce twigs, where it scampered away quickly.

Even though it is getting lighter, the sun still lies low in the horizon and soon it becomes quite cold.



There is a special quality to the winter light in Sweden and you learn to appreciate those golden rays whenever you see them. After a trip like that, you just have to ralax and take it easy as it is quite tiring, even to Swedes who do this all of the time. How anyone ever manages to ski the 90km of the big Vasaloppet that was held yesterday is beyond me. I prefer to watch that from the comfort of my warm, cosy apartment.

A very stern letter has been sent to the owner of the website I spoke about last time who stole our pictures and tried to pass them off as HIS boat. It does contravene Swedish law and the applicable law and penalties were quoted along with the assurance that it will be pursued seriously, so we are waiting to see what will happen now. The man who owns Märtha is also following it up, as is the website owner for the OE Yacht Club, so I expect some action soon. In also saw a picture of Märtha under sail being passed off on a "boats for sale" website as a different boat, too. Why would they do that? I really hate sneaky people!