Forecasting snow?...

It's less than a week now and I'm off skiing. In something of an impulse purchase I took over Anders' booking to go down to France and ski with Lena and Annette. So, when I'm not dancing I'm trying to work out what I need. Ten years since I went downhill skiing. You kind of forget...

Which I why it was good today to get in a couple of hours on the ski slope in Sollentuna. With my neighbour Karin for company I spent a happy couple of hours being dragged up the slope and then skiing down. We could have gone to Bruket - which I can see from my window - but the slope there is short and steep and they don't hire out equipment. Horses for courses...

I was pleased to find I'd not completely forgotten everything.. and two hours was enough to get a taste for trying the real thing. Next week - in Serre Chevalier!

Looks like I might need to pack a good sweater :-)

Chips and dips...

Saturday night and the winter cold is warm with latin rhythms... the apartment is full of dancing feet and glad chatter. I like it like this :-)

On the excuse that it's six years now I've been in Sweden I gathered a few friends.. made some tasty bits to eat - cracked a bottle or two, pushed back the furniture and set on some salsa. A genuine home-grown party - and quite a good recipe if I do say so myself. Happy smiles all round.

And now... some pictures even..

Hemmafest feb 07

The best laid plans..

..of mice and men, of cabbages and kings

Well, I got home all prepared to do some baking in advance of the party on Saturday (err... yes - a party on Saturday, didn't I say?). ..but as it turned out the filo pastry I bought wasn't. It's something nearer to shredded wheat - and I'm sure I've got a recipe somewhere that can use it - but it's not much good for salmon parcels.

So I got on with my 'filo-cigars' using the other filo from the freezer.. but strangely enough this recipe for 30 only lasted to thirteen. Oh dear. I feel a re-planning on the catering front coming on.

Still - I got the music sorted. Mostly salsa -as you might have guessed - but life would be dull without a little cha-cha and merengue don't you think? A little reggae, and some reggaeton - calypso, disco, some soul and something very "drum machine" off that 'Trainspotting' album John gave me. Perfect.. There's always the fast forward button :-)

Gone skating...

Ice. Smooth, black and hard like glass. See the bubbles and fine cracks as you look down into it; the breaks where a crack runs right through, the white schism going down to meet the water below.

Ice. White and marbled, rough and rugged. Upwells of lake water, refrozen meltwater? Ice like cobbles beneath the skates.

Ice. Ground together, or pulled apart. Long scars tracking to the horizon. Windblown ripples frozen fast. New ice meets old. Broken ice refrozen; tesselated- grey, white, black...

Today's ice... still there after yesterdays skating. :-)

The New Ice Age

The ice has come.. last weekend in fact. One day it's a little bit hemmed in behind the reedbeds, with flocks of tufted duck swimming out around the jetty and the next morning the waves are gone and the icy sheen stretches to the horizon.

Pretty to see - but skatable it is not. The following day it snowed, a pristine white blanket, and then thawed , and now it looks grey and uninviting and certainly not strong enough to take the weight.

Temperatures are up again. Will we get good ice?
Winter just isn't winter...