We’re just into the second quarter century of the twenty-first century since someone started counting. Up here in the northern hemisphere, the earth is tilting its axis back towards the sun again. The days are longer, the temperature is rising slowly, and the migratory birds are returning from their winter holidays somewhere south. It’s the magic cycle of nature repeating again, and it’s just as amazing every year.

It’s been an eventful spring. On the one hand, humankind is showing some of its uglier sides, turning polarised and hateful rhetoric into senseless and devastating violence.

On the other hand, life goes on. Here in Sweden, where we are still lucky to live in peace the winter passed, spring arrived. Nicolina gave birth to Eira, our first grandchild, Cooper sired another litter of puppies, and I retired from nearly 30 years with Volvo.

The cold weather hung around for a while. We drove up to Rätansbyn, just south of Östersund in the middle of Sweden at the end of March to visit Marie and Kalle, and Aila, then mother to be of Cooper’s puppies. 1400 km there and back in an electric car in winter temperatures. Was no problem at all.

The sun has been very active lately and we got to experience some pretty amazing Northern Aurora from Orust. Our property is full of trees so it wasn’t ideal but managed to take some photos to prove that we had actually seen it.

Speaking of trees, the storm Dave ripped through the west coast of Sweden with brute force and took down a couple of our largest fir trees. The irony was that our old pine tree out the front has been worrying us for a while that it would come down over the house so we had a guy come around and look at what it would take to take it down just a week before the storm. The pine tree survived the storm but not the firs. The pine finally succumbed to Rolle Polle’s chainsaw a week later.

That was the update for spring 2026. Enjoy the pictures.