After a couple of days of gentle spring rains, the sun has made a welcome reappearance. The rains have made such a difference to the surroundings - there are the beginnings of fresh, new leaf buds on the trees, the grass has lost that dead brown shade and turned a rich, verdant green and more and more flowers are popping up. While walking the dog yesterday, I saw that in many gardens the daffodils, jonquils, grape hyacinth, tulips were starting to flower. I especially look forward to seeing the tulips start. They must be some kind if city flower here as there are beds of delicate red and gold tulips in many public places all over town. It was not easy to convince the dog to go out for a walk, though. She seems to have a radar-like instinct for weather conditions and does not like rain or snow, preferring to snuggle on the couch with daddy rather than getting her tootsies wet.




The cycle of birdlife here is also like a barometer. They tell me when the seasons are changing in a far more reliable way than the local weather forecasters. In recent weeks I have heard swans, ducks and geese flying overhead, their familiar honking or quacking drawing my attention to them. In autumn when they head south, it is the the harbinger of winter, but now in the spring, they herald the arrival of warmth, of new growth, of life beginning again.

Yesterday evening as I was heading past centrum, there was a flight of birds travelling overhead in a familiar v-formation, honking for all they were worth. I stood for a brief moment in the parking lot of the supermarket and watched as literally streams and streams of birds went overhead. I don't even know what kind of birds they were - ducks of some kind, I think.




I watched in awe as they flew north, then after a while I went into the shop. When I came out, the flock, which appeared to be never ending were still flying overhead. It must have contained thousands of birds as the line of them stretched four to five kilometres. When I reached the exit of the parking lot, a few stragglers were making their way past. Where is the camera when you need it? What an amazing sight; one of those events that transforms a dull, ordinary trip to the supermarket into a vision of beauty.

Ahhh spring, don't listen to the weathermen, don't listen to the soothsayers. Just watch the birds and marvel at their instinct that it is spring and hence time to head north to breed. And speaking of birds breeding I see that the cormorants have returned in large numbers to breed.




I'm rather fond of them, but they appear to be universally loathed by the fishermen here who have been running a long standing and illegal campaign to plunder the nesting sites, destroying as many of the eggs as they can. This has been outlawed by directives from the EU, but continues anyway as desperate fishermen see these birds and their voracious appetites as direct and unwelcome competition for the dwindling stocks of fish and eel. Apparently due to centuries of systematic hunting and human persecution cormorants had been wiped out in the Baltic by 1900. However, after a long absence and better protection status in European Union countries, they are slowly returning and there are several small islands just ouside of town that have large numbers of breeding pairs. I'm sure the fishermen are less than delighted.

We are both being kept really busy these last two weeks with work and setting up the boat for our trip. One thing I'm trying out is seeing if I can successfully make bread in my pressure cooker. Fresh bread is something that we need every few days and I don't want to have to search around for towns to moor at during the summer mayhem. How much more practical to be able to make our own bread as we need it. I have baked bread on board before, but it uses a lot of fuel to run the oven and I was looking for a stove top way to do this. I had considered buying a stove-top oven but then read about using the pressure cooker. We use this a lot on board anyway to prepare quick, nutritious meals and it seemed a viable solution, so I'll be trying it out today at home and seeing if it works.

I can hardly believe that we cast off in less than two weeks!