Sunday, July 16

 

 

This morning we woke up to a genuinely hot day: the kind of day you might expect to have at the height of summer. We ate breakfast outside in the garden for the second time this year.

After breakfast Hari packed and Irma and I did work in the garden. Irma mowed and I pulled out a lot more weeds. I worked without a shirt and actually felt the sun on my back.

While I pull up the stubborn long grass that seems to have cemented itself into the soil, I notice that an iris has fallen onto the bunch of lillies. I take a picture in the hope that the contrasting colours will prove interesting. Since I fail to take another photograph all day nothing, by definition, will end up as a more interesting image.

Hari and Irma will leave for Helsinki about 14:00 and I will continue with the garden work. I will pull out all the plants around one side of the house. Since stinging nettles will form the bulk of the plants I will gloves and move carefully. I will still manage to sting my arms several times.

Before she left Irma pointed out that one of the plants in the middle needed a lot of care. I think she called it jimsonweed or Devil’s snare, a plant of the nightshade family. Anyway, she pointed to an article in Helsingin Sanomat which described it as one of the ten deadly plants in Finland. I will duly put a long sleeved jumper on and approach it with garden shears. I will pull it out by the roots, cut it into small pieces, bag it, and put it in the big trash bin.

After this I will have a “shower” and wash my hair. I will then walk round five designated areas of the garden, where we have planted flowers and bushes this summer, and give them each a bucket of water; pouring slowly and pausing until the water completely soaks into the soil round the roots.

I will decide that I have eaten and drunk too much over the last week and decide to have a cheese salad with cold water for dinner.

Sunshine will arrive home hungry at about 22:20 and, after I have had a WhatsApp chat with Irma, we will go to our respective beds.