Saturday, June 24

 

 

We woke up about 10:45, feeling as though we might have celebrated midsummer in the time-honoured way. I decided that I should take the rubbish to the bins at Tirmo and have a preliminary look round the shop, to see if anything had changed. This made a certain sort of sense, since the box from the new mower needed to go somewhere and wouldn’t fit in any basket or bin we have.

I make it to the ferry to discover that it has no cars or other passengers at all. Obviously we didn’t celebrate midsummer hard enough or we would still lie fast asleep in bed like everybody else. I take the rubbish and wander round the shop. They have changed the direction of all the shelves. They used to go from front to back and now they go from side to side.

I will feel that the voyage has proved worthwhile.

In the afternoon we will do more mowing and weeding, and this time the rain will stay away. Irma will remember that Erika advertised an ice-cream special called I Just Missed the Ferry and so we will wander down to the ice-cream kiosk to see them. For 10€ we will get five giant scoops of ice-cream, covered with two sauces and sprinkles; in a festive bowl that you can keep. We will sit for twenty minutes working our way though them, before trudging home full with our different coloured bowls.

We will, of course, have to go back next week to collect the other two bowls and complete the set.

Later we will have a couple of ciders in the garden in the period when the wind drops and the sun comes out. We will sit on the new terrace in the pink chairs. I will look at them and Irma will remind me that her father used to have similar ones, because they constitute a Finnish tradition. I will point out how easy to make they seem and suggest that I might make a set. She will suggest that I do it in Kontula, where Pate can lend me the tools. Sounds good to me.

Having kickstarted my career as a furniture maker, we will go indoors to listen to Radio X3M and eat and drink. We will have farm vegetables, and like them.