There are bright blue skies and big puffy clouds after a day of Spring showers. The sunny, warm days are quickly out numbering the cooler ones and with the sun rising at around 5a.m. and setting around 8.30p.m. we are speeding towards the summer of long, light days. What a contrast to deepest December with less than four hours of daylight.




There were more spring signs today. The local kiosks and small harbour food outlets are begining to dust off the cobwebs and get ready to open for the season. Not everything is open and still after all of this time I marvel at the fact that they can make a viable living out of shops that are only open from late May till late September. One shop that has reopened is the harbour grill, where I saw a sign that made me laugh:




This is the hot dog guide. Apart from the fact that they look so unappetising and foul, I seriously laugh at the way that there appears to be a lack of communication between the sausage makers and the roll makers. Wouldn't you think they'd get together and make sure that their products complemented each other? What is with the long bits of sausage hanging over the edge of the rolls? Are they trying to look like those historically inaccurate horned viking helmets? And how gross do they look, topped by weird things like mashed potato (though that one looks a bit like a friendly cow), gherkin mayonnaise or prawn salad! *shudder* These signs always make me smile. I also used to puzzle over the way hot dogs were sold in the supermarket. You can buy a package of ten sausages, but the rolls only come in packs of eight or sixteen! How does that work, I wonder?

Another harbinger of spring that caused a smile was the emerging spring fashions.




The little girl approaching this pair of trendsetters was looking sideways at them and openly laughing. Little does she realise that in a few short years she too will be parading around in something equally ridiculous. I can remember my daughter going through a brief "goth period" when she was around 14 or so. That winter, we went up to Queensland's Gold Coast for a vacation to escape the cold Adelaide winter. While everyone was swanning around in tropical shirts and bright, summery clothes and sandals, she was decked out in long, flowing black robes and shawls with Doc Martens on her feet. Quite a few people stared at her and several years later she looked at the holiday photos and said accusingly to me "How could you have let me do that?" as though I had any say in the matter.

The ones who currently amuse me are the gangs of young teens loping around town, dressed in expensive designer tops, low-slung baggy jeans at least two sizes too big for them and flashy gold jewellery. They seem quite unaware of how silly they look and sound by trying to dress like pimps and walk and talk like tough black 'gangstas' from some American inner city ghetto. Like my daughter, I guess they'll grow out of it.

From what I've seen of this year's look, it it retro 70's again. I now wish that I'd kept my wedge heeled and cork heeled sandals and my big plastic framed sunnies so I could be really fashionable. Not that it would matter when out on the boat. The seagulls don't care what you are wearing - or do they?




This is a pair of black-faced gulls. They are called skrattmås in Swedish (literally "laughing gulls") and they look like they are following along behind someone mocking them, though in reality they are engaged in some kind of courtship dance. Sometimes it is funny when you come home and look at the photographs you've taken and see a moment that makes you smile.

And more varieties of flowers continue to surprise me each day. Today it is s small clump of the very pretty tidig blåstjärna (Scilla bifolia or alpine squill).




In the very dawn of spring (and indeed often in winter) this plant bears rich masses of dark blue flowers and every year I marvel at the intensities which these early bloomers bring to the garden - so fragile, so tiny and yet so resilient. These vibrant blues are essential elements of Spring returning to the north. I have a deep need to gather up these special times, places and my own thoughts as I walk through the wooded trails observing the turning of the seasons in my new home.

It's a busy day tomorrow for us with a small swap market at the boat club in the morning, followed by good friends coming to visit and stay for dinner. I'm really relaxed and everything is already organised, so I can simply look forward to their company and to enjoying my precious weekend. Lars-Göran is off helping Björn fix the sails on his client's boat, so it will be a late dinner for us tonight. We were also really lucky and managed to score some great books yesterday. Lars-Göran had gone to the boat club just to start checking out the position of a boat he has to lift this week and to pop into the office to pay our winter electricity bill for the boat. There he came across a pile of books that were left at the club to be sold at the swap meet - and would you believe he came home with fifty-six books! They are all about sailing, with many of them about long distance voyages in both English and Swedish. I think we'll have plenty to read onboard this summer. Where are we going to put them all?