Sunday, June 18

 

 

This morning we leapt out of bed to discover that summer had stopped as suddenly as it started. Grey clouds hung in the sky and the temperature had dropped. We breakfasted indoors.

Irma calls to me from the garden and tells me to bring my iPad. The poppy bud we uncovered yesterday has bloomed overnight. Irma says that they usually only last for a day, and so we crowd round it capturing it for posterity.

We will do some more gardening and weeding, and then we will drive to Jysk to buy two over-mattresses. From there we will drive to Kamppi for Irma’s father’s ninetieth birthday party. Naa will arrive before us as will Marja, Susanna, Arto and Vanessa, and Jussi’s sister and her husband. We will sit and chat for a couple of hours, eating Susanna’s vegan sandwich cake (with smoked carrots standing in for salmon, and giving a remarkably realistic performance) and a huge strawberry and custard cake.

We will drop Naa home and then I will take out Irma’s bike and pump up the tyres. She will go for a ride, and I will move the left-over roof tiles from their temporary home behind the house to their new permanent home by the verandah.

I will fall asleep seconds after getting into bed.