I’m just back from my annual ski trip, with a week of no mobile coverage and hence no blogging. And I was a bit behind even before the trip. Catching up commences now.

We visited Vårsalongen, the Spring Salon, at Liljevalchs art museum. Like last year, the works are all available for viewing online.

Paintings, sculpture, videos, textile art, mixed media etc.

There were plenty of impressive paintings but not many that left a lasting impression.

This intricate drawing/painting of ptarmigan – where the feather patterns hide everything from miniature lemmings to snowflakes – captured our attention.

Whereas this bee-themed one mostly made me think that this could be turned into an embroidery.

There were several textile works that I liked. Especially those that utilized the possibilities of thread and fabric and yarn for something more than just a flat image.

These rocks were my favourites: from a distance they just look like lichen-covered rocks, but up close you can see that it’s all woven tapestry and embroidery. Soft pretending to be hard.

Others left us all puzzled. A rectangular hand-woven piece of fabric in black and white. (Next to it there was another one that was all yellow, with subtle variations in tone and shade.) What made this so special that it stood out from the thousands of other works submitted?

Yet other works sparked different kinds of questions. These five colour-coordinated stacks of men’s ties, seemingly just hung over a hook. How did they transport this work? Probably in parts. Who hung it up again? How did they ensure the ties were hung in the right order, and with acceptable (lack of) precision?

There were also numerous fun sculptures, including one of “seven kinds of cakes” in stone, inspired by a Swedish fika tradition.

If I had room for sculptures and knick-knacks in my home, I would rather like something fun like these fish:

More about the works above: Ptarmigan, Rocks, Fish, Cakes, White yarn thing, Ties, Black & White Weave. Couldn’t find anything for the bee, probably because it was part of the Young Spring Salon.

I planted a Hellebore in the new flowerbed in front of the house last year. I’m never quite sure what will survive and what won’t, even when I follow all the recommendations about sun and shade and soil conditions, but this one did, and now it’s flowering!

Painting Easter eggs, as per tradition.

Also as per tradition, Ingrid makes the most artistic ones, while Adrian makes the crazy ones. This year his eggs had body parts – a giant eye, an ear, a mouth.

Afterwards somehow the women ended up cooking dinner while the men snoozed.

I went out cycling. Initially I was going to go drive to Säby gård to take photos of blue anemones, which I assumed would be out. But Eric and Adrian would need the car a few hours later (to drive to Mall of Scandinavia to watch King Kong battle Godzilla on a big screen) and I didn’t want to have to keep an eye on the time at all, so I took the bike instead, and headed for Järvafältet closer to home. I could have headed on to Säby from there but somehow didn’t think of it. Instead I rambled around South Järva, then Ursvik, and Ulriksdal, before cycling back.

Didn’t see a single flowering thing. No anemones or anything, not even hazel bushes. But there was fresh air and sunshine. Also, mud.

I only remembered to take a photo when I was leaving Järvafältet and entering residential neighbourhoods again. By that time the sun was gone as well.

Viburnum. As beautiful and pleasing this spring as it has been every spring.

A whole new quarter of apartment blocks has been constructed along the railway tracks over the past few years, replacing the worn office block and warehouses that used to be there. Mostly student housing, from what I’ve understood. And more is appearing on the other side of the tracks.

It’s a great location – the near end is just five minutes’ walk from the train station, and there’s a bus line along the road so those living at the far end are only two or three bus stops away from the station. There’s a Lidl, and a gym, and a cheap pasta & pizza restaurant. Probably more services will pop up as more people move in.

Already the new housing has led to the opening of a large new Coop supermarket, one size up from the ones we have at Spånga torg. The grand opening was a week ago, with special offers and food tastings and whatnot, so we went for a look.

Large, spacious, and well stocked, and with a wider range of most things than “our” Coop. More exotic vegetables, and funky mushrooms. And this fridge, of like, 10 metres, is filled from edge to edge with just vegetarian products – tofu and falafel and meatless burgers and vegan cheese and so on. Nice.

I started on a jigsaw puzzle for the first time in a long while.

Realized, then, that the last time must have been before we got Nysse. Because cats and jigsaw puzzles clearly don’t mix. And that’s not a surprise, I was all prepared – laying the puzzle on a felt puzzle mat so that I can cover it up when I take a break.

Except Nysse didn’t even wait for me to take a break, he jumped right up on it and started attacking my hands when I tried to assert some ownership over the puzzle pieces.

Fine – I’ll just work on it when he’s not there. It’s spring and he’ll be spending more time outdoors. I’ll cover it up in the meantime. He’ll probably sleep on it.

Except Nysse for once did not just want to sleep on the new thing, but for some reason took it as a toy, which he never does. Is the felt surface so intriguing? Does he feel the puzzle pieces through it? Who knows. In any case, I now cover the cover whenever Nysse is around (with a sturdy rubber cutting mat).

Progress on the puzzle will be slow like this.

I thought we were done with winter but apparently not. The temperature outside is freezing again. And the almost ten-degree temperature difference outside hits by a degree or two inside, so I’m back to layers of wool upon wool.

Right sleeve of sweater. I liked the way it looked, rolled up around that little ball of yarn.