While wandering down near the harbour and enjoying the warming sunshine and the clear blue skies, I glanced over at the mooring poles along the pier and immediately thought of the Danse des cygnes from Act II of the ballet Swan Lake:



They looked so much like a chorus line of ballerinas that I laughed as much as I did when I spotted the rabid rocks a couple of years ago. Who ever thought that ice could form it's own sculptures. The ice around here is very thin, mostly because this is the sea and does not freeze as well as the fresh water in the lakes. You can see that the warmer temperatures this week have weakened the surface and the buoys are starting to float free.



The main channel beyond the piers is already ice free and the boat is starting to break free as well, so I'm feeling a sense of spring in the air, despite Lars-Göran muttering about "We haven't had February yet!". I would never venture out on this ice, but people who love long distance skating have been flocking to Lake Mälaren to enjoy their sport. Yesterday that ended in tragedy for two skaters who were among a group that fell through weak ice and died. I believe one other of the dozen or so who had to be rescued is in a critical condition. One can never underestimate how dangerous the cold can be over here and how fragile that solid looking ice can be.



This picture was taken four years ago in Stockholm when a group of friends went out on what they thought was fairly solid ice. While out on the lake, far away from shore, they heard the unmistakable sound of the ice cracking and within a short time they were marooned in a sea of ice cubes and had to be rescued. That same weekend, a group of 30 were rescued in similar circumstances near Trosa. I tell you, these Swedes are crazy. It's open fire, tea and crumpets and a good book weather, not the weather to be tempting mother nature.

But on days like today, it is great to be out while the sun shines. Certainly the days are increasingly longer, it is lighter during the days and yesterday I saw this harbinger of spring appear in town.



If you peer very closely, you can see that there is a grey heron over by the reeds. I haven't ever seen a heron here before March, so I'm hoping it knows something promising about the weather. The air is also full of birdsong - grey sparrows, blue tits (blåmes) and even a couple of early arriving skylarks (sånglärka).

I can just feel that spring is on the way.