Yes, it's a beautiful morning! The last two days have been perfect, glorious, spring weather. While sitting out in the sunshine with my cup of green tea this morning, I watched a beautifully-marked glossy-feathered svartmes or coal tit with a beak full of leaf litter hopping around the garden, then fly up to the roof of the apartment block to deliver its load of nesting materials to its waiting mate. If you click on the speaker icon above the picture in the link, you can hear their beautiful call. I am getting much better at distinguishing bird calls now and have my bird book with me to try and identify which one it is. The variety of tiny birds is staggering and they really are quite charming to watch.



I've had a busy weekend and next weekend is also looking equally as busy as is the weekend after. How does this happen so often? Still it won't be long before we can set off for summer sailing and then we are free of schedules for a while. I don't mind socialising with family and friends but we also look forward to quiet times together out enjoying life on the water. But first we have to get the boat in the water and so the work on her continues.

The walk down to the boat club is always a joy at this time of the year as there is a real sense of life returning to the town, with birds everywhere, plants regenerating and new flowers springing up continually. On the corner just a few metres from home, the first patch of lovely minature vårstjärna (known as glory-of-the-snow) has appeared literally overnight.



This is simply on a nature strip outside of the fence of a corner property and makes a beautiful display every spring, with the deep blue star shaped flowers with tiny white hearts contrasting with the grey of the footpath. In the sunshine, it looks like a bright blue carpet. Other bulbs are growing at a fast rate and I expect that the daffodils will be the next plants to flower all over town.

Before he could work on our boat though, Lars-Göran launched the first boat for the season, driving the mobile crane and hoisting our friend Björn's Hallberg-Rassy 352 into the water. You get the sense that summer is about to be here as you see the boats being returned to the water. The official launching season begins next week, but Lars-Göran is doing a few early ones for those whose boats are ready and who are eager to be in the water.



While he had the crane down on the wharf, the club also asked him to help install the renovated sliding mechanism that is used by some of the boats to launch. So the straps were attached to the huge galvanised steel piece and he swung it over to the ramp so that it could be affixed to the rails and ready to be used later this week. As you can see, whenever you start to work on something like this, "the panel" always arrives to stand around with their hands in their pockets, offering their advice.



It's funny that the minute the crane is out, suddenly there is an audience, so poor Lars-Göran always works with people watching him. I think big machines fascinate people and I know that even after nearly five years here, I still love watching him swing these big boats into the water. Except when it is OUR boat and then I feel very nervous and pray that the straps hold, the crane works etc. In other words, I'm a worry-wart. But Lars-Göran knows that each boat is special to the owner, so he treats them all carefully, as though it was his own boat.

And as another, more unexpected sign of spring.....



I really had to laugh at this decorated bike. And here I was thinking Swedes were always purveyors of bland, minimalist decoration in the very best possible taste.

Well, I guess the owner will have no trouble picking it out from the other monochrome bikes on the local railway station bike rack! :)