Day 89

First coltsfoot of the year. Remember last year? This is from Daniels old blog, but the date is exactly the same! Amazing after this rough winter.

Day 88

Grandma picked Linus up from kindergarten, and when they got here we had meatballs and pasta (Linus' favorite) for dinner and then cake with a 5-candle in it.



Of course there were presents. Here are we all trying to put it together. There are lots of small pices!



One happy soon-to-be 5 year old Linus.



And here's a picture to show the final result of the cupcakes from yesterday. I used cream cheese, powdered sugar and a little lemonade and so the food coloring I bought while we visited San Francisco. I think the color turned out great, precisely what I was looking for. Next time I will try to put it on in a more fashionable way. =)

Day 87

Linus will turn 5 years old on Thursday, but the celebrating starts already on Monday when grandma comes to visit. So today I've baked some cookies. Here are mini-cupcakes with blueberries. Tomorrow they will be decorated with frosting as well. They are quite small, I used "knäck-formar" to bake them in.

Day 86

Another sign of spring; grill-season has started! We grilled chicken and beef, but of course we ate inside as it is just about 12 degrees (54F).

The actions on this photo are from Pioneer Womans sets. They are also available for those of you who uses Photoshop Elements.

Day 85

The sun was shining as we went from work, and it was actually a little warm outside. We immediately headed for our patio to relax for a little while.

Day 84

Spring is in the air everywhere now. The snow is almost gone, and the buds have started to sprout in the trees. This is a fantastic season, when everything awakens once again.

Day 83

Our evening snack.

Day 82

We decided to go out with some friends for work to have a beer and a chat. It turned out Tuesdays were quiz-night at our pub, and we also got the questionairs to participate in the quiz. Unfortunately it was extremely hard questions, so we didn't get so many correct answers. Anyway it was a fun night out.

Day 81

Ebba has played with her bed and teared the bottom out of it. But she still wants to sleep in it. Remember when I first brought it home, and she didn't even want to look at it? It has completely changed by now. She will get a new bed, but in the meantime she is very happy with the remaining of this one.

Day 80

The orchid still carries flowers.



At night we went downtown to an English pub and had a salad and a couple of beers. It was very calm there, with just a couple of other guests. We just stayed for an hour and a half and it was a nice ending to the week.

Day 79

We went to Åtvidaberg to visit Daniels mother, and was surprised to meet his brother and girlfriend there as well, as they live out of town. We had a very nice Saturday with a walk in the sun with the dogs, and tacos for dinner.

Day 78

Long time no see... There are still some snow on the sides, but the pavements are clean. Linus is very happy to be able to bicycle again.

Day 77

A nice fish-dish that Daniel cooked for us today. Carrots and broccoli on the bottom, then white fish and a citrus sauce and some cheese. Luckily for us there were enough for a lunch-box as well.

Day 76

Daniel brought me these treats from his trip. Tax-free are always fun! =) These are Anthon Berg chocolate liqueur bottles. They are perfect with a cup of coffee when you want some luxury.

Day 75

We dug out Linus' bike from the snow-pile today, as the sidewalks are now free from snow and allows for bicycling. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera on our walk, but I got a picture of the bike anyway. It will stay on the patio now so the sun can melt away the rest of the snow on it tomorrow.

Day 74

He is home! =)

Day 73

The beautiful tulips that Britt-Marie brought to me yesterday. Love the color!

Today Daniel should have come home from his work-trip to Beijing. I went to visit his mother during the day, and planned to pick Daniel up at the airport in the evening. Unfortunately it snowed in Beijing this morning, and their plane was delayed about 8 hours. That meant missing the late flight from Amsterdam to Linköping, and he had to stay over night in Amsterdam. Ebba and I felt very sorry for ourselves, and so did Daniel!

Day 72

Ebba on our afternoon walk. The sunshine was lovely, but we had to get back home as we were going to have company this evening. My friend Britt-Marie came over to dine, drink, talk and play Wii. We had a great evening and stayed up way too late.



Here are the cats enjoying the warmth from the music machine. They agree that Spotify rules. :P

Day 71

Here's where we live, with the snowy surroundings. Ebba and I have been out in our forest and are now on our way back.



I went in to "Systembolaget" (the Swedish alcohol monopoly) when I went shopping tonight, and picked up a few beers; all ales. I only had one tonight, but this is a Swedish ale, and it was very tasty.



Zelda is, contrary to most cats, a little clumsy. I have actually no idea, looking at the picture, how she made it up on to the counter, but she did. This is in mid-air, and she made it up in the same jump.

Day 70

We took another tour for our afternoon walk today; past the birds lakes. But they were all frozen and snow covered now, so no birds. Yet. Comes spring, comes birds!



The sun has been shining for a couple of days, and even though it is freezing at night, by day the sun warms the snow. Here in the woods it hasn't melted away, but the top layers melt and gets beautifully shiny.




Our precious Ebba.

The frame is by Something Blue Studios.



More blue skies and sunsets.



We had an accident at home tonight. It was completely my fault, I can't blame it on anyone else, and it involved an airborne thingy. Another plant was also injured, but otherwise there were no material damage. And I'll stay on the ground.

Day 69

Ebba and I got out rather late today and the sun was already setting.



The rest of the world was covered in a soft cold light once the sun was gone. Not below zero, but close. Still it was a nice walk, not many others out, and the clear sky was so peaceful.



More action when we got home. Zoey has lifted the lid on the floor in the shower. For some reason very interesting things happens down there. And the water is just amazingly tasty (I find it hard to belive her).



Ebba is watching, wondering what is happening down the hole. She dare not go too close to the cat, but this is obviously the place to be. The excitement can start whenever!

Day 68

We had sunshine on our morning walk today too. There is something with the light.. it tells about spring.



Love

Day 67

Today I felt like changing the 17-55 mm lens to the 50 mm. It is not necessarily better than then 17-55, but a lot lighter! Suddenly it feels like I have a compact camera again. But the 50 mm is a little limited, as will be obvious later on.

Another walk-photo. The sun has been shining the whole day, and the snow really melts now. Still, there are a lot of snow to melt. Here it looks like it will last for a while.



The little brook swirling through the meadows has only been completely frozen for a couple of days this winter. Now it is even more open than usually, and the ice forms interesting patterns at the border.



The problem with the 50 mm lens and short arms... self-portraits are extremely hard to get. Sorry for my close-up nose, but this one is for Daniel. =)



A little memory card reader, for the memory stick micro that my cell phone use. I've gotten tired of connecting the phone to the computer when I want to transfer music, this is a far more practical method. I got it from the cell phone shop at work, that too is very practical. =)

Day 66

Here are some pictures from the walk Ebba and I went for in the afternoon. The snow has started to melt due to the sun, and the top layer glitters from the melted and then frozen snow.



We climbed our little hill to look at the view, but it was a lot more fun watching Ebba playing with her leash.




Looking backwards when we went down the hill. The snow is about 50cm (20in) thick, and in some places it is possible to walk on top of the snow, but in some places we just sunk. It was a hard walk. A lot of people had skied there, probably a lot more easy than walking.



I used the morning to vacuum our flat, and when we got home I brought out the mop to wet-wipe the floors too.



My dinner; pie made of taco left-overs. It turned out real tasty, and it was enough for a couple of lunch-boxes as well.



Todays picture: Ebba trying to convince Zoey into playing. She didn't succeed. Zoey just looked at her, but didn't move or punched Ebba on the nose like Zelda would have done. Ebba was very disappointed and whined a lot before I played with her instead. Sometimes they are like children!

Day 65

We went to a local caravan store today as they had a small fair showing off the new caravans for the season. It was fun to look at all new stuff and dream about summer. Here is a huge caravan, it is over 10 meters long, and with two doors. As a comparison ours is merely 5 meters! But we wanted a small caravan as it is easier to drive with. These large ones are more for those who place it on a camping site and then us it as a summer house.

Day 64

My loved ones! =)

There will be lots of outdoor pictures now that the sun has found its way back here. I love it! After the dark winter the light is so welcome.

Day 63

Ebba on our morning walk. She was very reluctant to look into the camera, everything else was a lot more interesting than me.



This is from our afternoon walk. The sun was still up when we went out, and just when we got back it began to set. It was so beautiful.