Nynäshamn has been bathed in absolutely glorious sunshine for several days and it has made an enormous difference to the mood of the town. Everywhere you go, people are smiling and greeting you, laughing and enjoying the sunshine in their gardens. The whole world is truly re-awakening and the feeling is uplifting.

We spent a productive morning in the garden yesterday repotting some of my root bound pot plants. I have been meaning to do this for a while, especially as watering them has become slow as well as difficult and I want it to be easy for Marianne to care for them while we are away. We did it together which made the work go much faster. Lars-Göran performed the surgery on my "mother-in-law's tongue" plant.




It's hard to believe that this was two lonely leaves just a couple of years ago. For some reason, my plants grow really quickly and well, so much so that our apartment resembled a jungle and recently I had to sadly give away some of the plants that had become far too big for a studio apartment. Luckily Pia at the boat club gladly took them in and they now grace the foyer of NSS. Anyway, we managed to get four decent sized cuttings to repot from this single plant.




We also had to repot my spider plant that had broken out of its clay pot. Again we split it into four and repotted them in their own pots. All the time the sun was beating down and the tiny forest birds were singing. It was a perfect morning, though some members of the family found it all rather underwhelming.




Working like a dog? Who wrote those lyrics again? While I spent the afternoon gathering more supplies from the supermarket and organising the packing, Lars-Göran went down to see if he could get the outboard for the dinghy working again. After winter it has refused to start - just another headache for him. Or so I thought. What I didn't realise until he came home with the evidence was that the engine chose today to decide to work and that far from slaving over it, he took the dinghy out for several hours "test run". Who can blame him on such a gorgeous spring day, when the sea was dead calm and the only sound was gentle lapping of water and the call of the birds out on the rocks. What, I ask is the point of it being spring if we're too busy to enjoy it properly?




Other people were also out on the water enjoying the day. This is a fairly typical sight here, especially as a boat is the only form of transport for those living on the islands around here to get into town. And there are numerous islands nearby which are inhabited all year round.




The locals use small dinghies for doing their weekly shopping, for físhing and for visiting family and friends. I always enjoy the sight of these small craft, more often than not featuring a true sea dog sitting proudly and happily in the prow. I wish one dog I know could learn a lesson from these puppies who enjoy their boat trips.




There were one or two sailing boats out in the harbour despite the lack of decent winds. At the guest harbour there was a yacht from Finland - the first of the international boats for the season. In the next few weeks we will see the flags of many European nations flying from the afts of boats in the guest harbour as well as out on the water. Sweden is a very popular sailing destination because of the sheltered archipelagoes and the long hours of daylight during summer. Come on, Kissen, stop slacking around, time to get going!




Across from our pier small groups of birds have set up nesting sites. The gulls and oystercatchers seem to be getting on well together and they are vigilant in protecting their bit of space. I never get tired of watching gulls and am fascinated by their beauty and hardy resilience. I was reading somewhere that they live for forty years!





The gulls I like to watch most are the single birds flying high above the others, gliding on the thermals and majestically scanning the world below their steady wings. I know a lot of people consider them common and a nuisance, but I think they are graceful, wonderful birds. Somehow the sea would not feel like the sea without them.




Over towards the island of Bedarön are the nesting sites for the eider ducks. These beautiful birds are instantly recognisable by the striking colour of the males and the rather straight "roman nose" like beak. I still can't get over how different the male eider looks from the female eider - I had thought that they were a different species altogether. In a few weeks the males will all be gone and the females and young ducklings will live together in large nurseries.




Moving over towards the reeds in a sheltered part of the inlet, there were a mating pair of the very shy but elegant crested grebes. These birds, with their quiet ways and long, swan-like neck are a firm favourite of Lars-Göran. They are so unobtrusive that you barely know they are there. They feed by diving and all you hear is a tiny splash. You can never tell when or where they are going to surface again and more than once we have been surprised at how far they have swum under water.




Another busy little bird is the tern and they are wonderful to watch on a summer evening, darting here and there, dive bombing from great heights to catch small fish and calling to each other in their high pitched and distinctive voices. In the afternoons you can see them noisily circling the water about 15 metres up in the air. Without making a sound, they suddenly freeze in midair and then dive, barely breaking the water as they plunge beneath it. Within seconds, they pop back up, with their catch in their mouth and swiftly fly off.




Back on shore, over by the mast crane, the local children have created a make-shift swing and are out enjoying the warmth and sunshine.




Three weeks ago, on April 15th I posted this picture. Yes, it was sunny but there was still ice in the water and the kids were well rugged up against the chill. How very different it looks today. You really can believe that summer is possible.

I have received quite a bit of nice email via the blog in the last few weeks and I'm afraid that I've been more than a little slack in answering it. I will try and get around to it all, but I have spent very little time online lately as the preparations have been consuming any of my spare time. There is a lot of planning, shopping, packing and paperwork to think about before we leave. Rather annoyingly, my tennis elbow injury has returned which is restricting me just at a time when I can least afford it to do so. This also makes typing extremely painful, so I'm restricted there as well. Not that it has stopped me blabbing on here!