It has been snowing heavily for the last two days, with big flakes of snow falling from a sky that is dark and forbidding. We seem to have lost the beautiful blue skies and moved into the dull, grey stuff. Of course, Lars-Göran is feeling quite smug that his "We haven't had February yet!" predictions have come true, so we may have to widen the doors so his head can fit in.

I wasn't the only one fooled. Several bird species have returned to Sweden thinking that it really was an early spring. Out in the garden, blue tits are grateful for the seed balls left out for them :



I used to disapprove of this practice of aiding nature by leaving out seeds, thinking that it would only encourage them to become dependent on hand-outs. But after living through a few industrial strength northern winters, I'm actually prepared to invite the poor little mites into my home and wait on them hand and foot for the whole winter.

One of the joys of living in a coastal town is the sheer variety of water birds who make this their summer home. While a few hardy ducks and swans stay all year, it is the migratory ones that I watch out for most. After spotting a heron last week, I've now seen that one of my favourites, sothönor (coots) have started to appear in the harbour area.



I always thought these were moorhens, but have recently learned that while closely related, they are not the same bird at all. They are really shy birds and a firm favourite among the visitors to the little lake where they often nest. Also out on the water, I spotted some new gulls back from their southern sojourn and probably wishing they'd stayed there for a few more weeks:



How can they stand it out there? I'm cold just looking at them.

Remember me telling you last month that mad Swedes go out in freezing conditions to catch a wave? Well, one of my friends in Norway sent me a story to demonstrate that anything Swedes can do, Norwegians can do one better (yes, these inter-country rivalries are alive and kicking). She sent me a story about a moose surfing on a chunk of ice, accompanied by this picture:



What can I say? Norwegians are such show-offs. And Lars-Göran, being quick to spot a Norwegian trying to pull a fast one, noticed that the picture was a complete fake. It is not the actual moose surfing (the stupid berk who saw it didn't take a picture). This mock-up was done by fark user Random Swede. Noice!

Life here continues to trundle along. People have emailed and asked about the renovations and all I can say is that I am counting the days until it is all over. The noise is incredible at the moment as they are drilling up the concrete floor in the laundry, setting up scaffolding to install an acoustic ceiling out in the landing and just to add a little extra inconvenience, they are drilling out in the solid rock of the back garden to install bergvärme.



This is a type of heating system that relies on the warmth generated from deep in the earth. Even though it's hard to believe that any part of the earth is warm in Sweden. Apparently that drilling will be going on for the next two weeks. Kill me now! The poor man who does the work must have the world's most boring job. He simply loads the drill heads into the pipes that bore the hole through the rock. Every six minutes, he draws it up and replaces the drill head. Eight hours a day. I'll never complain about work again after seeing what he has to do all day.

We had the tiler here today to look over some grouting in the bathroom and kitchen that we are not happy with and the plumber came and looked at our new toilet which is not functioning properly either. He fiddled with it for a while, then muttered something about him not being able to fix it and he'll talk with the manufacturer and get back to us. Which is great, except that now the toilet does not work at all! And I only discovered this after I used it and it refused to flush.

Shit!