A sign of Spring

A chilly morning today. -2C. But it is supposed to get up to 10C in a few hours time. Been out on the bike three times now. And arriving home both on Friday and Sunday I noticed the first croci of the year on the lawn outside the house. But I was too tired to first go in, find the other Canon camera and attach the macro lens to it, but I did so yesterday afternoon. So here are my first real Spring photos of 2026.

Morning Dew

A vitsippa at my veranda. Another cold morning today. Maybe 6C. The forecast promises rain.

Hepatica nobilis

A few days with Summer temperatures this week. So everything will hopefully turn green again, soon. I photographed these "blåsippor" at Håga in Västerhaninge.

15C

And just like that we had a day, Thursday, with 15C. Nice to be able to ride the bike using my Spring uniform. Stopped at the Nedersta farm for a photo of a Tussilago. And just over an hour later time for another stop, this time at Enskede at a cemetery where I spotted this crocus. Nice also to be able to eat an early dinner outside on the veranda. Nearly the same weather on Friday. But the meteorologists came with a warning for colder weather, and possibly some snow in Stockholm on Monday.

Snowdrop

I have an English Flickr contact to thank for this photo. A while back he left a comment on a photo I took at Karolinska, a very modern university hospital. Paul mentioned that he was born at the hospital, and that his parents got married at the Medieval Solna church which is nearby, so I promised to stop at the church and take a few photos of it. And on route to Solna the other day I spotted hundreds of snowdrops on a lawn at Vanadislunden, so I stopped for a photo, as one does.

At the cemetery

I walked through the Scattering Garden at Skogskyrkogården a couple of days ago. A new section at the cemeterey. Known as Askgravlunden. Chilly. Maybe 4C. But warm for January in Stockholm. I spotted a few ice roses, and this Winter flower.

Tessinparken

Five photos from a park at Gärdet in Stockholm. Tessinparken. Named after the Tessin architects. Around 15 years ago all the roses here were replaced with 4000 new ones, as it looked a little down and out at the time. The new roses are red, white, pink and orange. Some of them are Leonardo da Vinci, others Astrid Lindgren and HC Andersen. No water in the fountain this time of the year, which is a shame, of course. The sculpture is called Ägget. The Egg. Made for climbing, it dates back to the 1950s. The fourth photo shows the entrance I used to get there. I really like all the symmetry in the park. It was designed some ninety years ago by Arvid Stille.

Macromania

Walking through Kungsträdgården, stopping for a few macro images. It was me and a couple of other photographers making our way around the flowers and the lunch eaters.

Gastropods

Out walking in nature. The plan was to take a photo of a house where there once lived a famous woman. She also lived at a nearby castle, which I had photographed 15 minutes earlier. But before I could my planned, photo, I snapped this of the two gastropods making out. We call them Vinbergssnäckor. The French eat them, I am yet to try that.

The definitive proof of spring

Two days this week with real warm weather. It was 15C when I decided to cycle through the Iron Age grave field in Jordbro to look for a special sign of Spring. The liverwort. Or, blåsippa in Swedish. The only problem was that I didn't have my macro lens with me, so I had to shoot with the 24mm lens.

Breaking News

We interrupt the flow of Stockholm posts on the daily photo blog with this breaking news story from my lawn in Tungelsta. After a cold night with-3C, the temperature rose to 7C and that is when this crocus woke up. Later in the day I also managed to sit on the veranda in the afternoon sunshine enjoying a mug of coffee while listening to a podcast. But this morning we are back at freezing from a very gray sky.

Chilly Day

This was my bedroom window yesterday morning. It was a chilly start to the day. The house is old, built by my great grandparents 120 years ago. Double glazing, but from way back when. Supposed to me much warmer today. The forecast says 0C around noon.

Flowermania

I jumped off the bike at The King's Garden. Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. Locked it, and went for a combined photo walk/lunch break promenade among the big flowerbeds. It was me, a huge group of busy bees, a few other photographers, and here and there people sitting down for a bite to eat rather than walking and eating!

Another sign of Spring

It is not a real Spring if I don't photograph some blåsippor. I have two places in Haninge where I know I will find them, and these two macro photos are from one of those places. It is a favorite spot for quite a few reasons. One, it is a nature reserve here called Gullringskärret that I always enjoy walking through. There is also a burial ground with graves from the Iron Age here, known as Jordbro gravfält. I have a flickr album with at the moment 199 photos if you want to check it out.

Hurrah!

My routine when I arrive home is to jump off the bike and park it on the lawn in front of the cellar door. I then hose it down as it is often a bit on the muddy side, especially this time of the year. Ebikes are heavy. Mine weighs 22 kilos, so after cleaning it, I roll it over to the stairs before I unlock the door. I then lift the bike up the stairs and into the house, where I clean the chain. I did all that yesterday as well, but not before shouting hurrah as I noticed this crocus on the same lawn. The first real sign of Spring!

Macromania

The weather forecast warned about a lightning storm, so my visit to the Hammarsta-Häringe nature reserve was a bit shorter than planned. It's a 20-minute bike ride to get there. My first stop was a pasture where you would normally walk around with the cattle, but they were elsewhere on this day. I shot these macro photos with my Canon 77D, using a 60mm lens.

What's in a name?

Out walking near the old tree a while back I decided that it was time to shoot some macro photos of the wild pansy, although I kind of like the Swedish name better. Styvmorsviol, Stepmother's Viola. The name comes from the fairy tales about Cinderella and Snow White. The Queen dies and the King quickly finds himself a new wife. That usually breaks up the family and one part is treated a bit better than the other. And if you look at the backside of the viola the blades look uneven, the bottom blade is the chair where the queen is sitting on her fat bottom! Next to her are her two daughters, each on a blade/chair of their own, but on the lone top blad/chair are the two step daughters. That is not fair at all! And obviously I should have have photographed the wild flowers back side, but I didnt.