Monday, July 31

 

 

I woke at 8:30 to discover that it had rained in the night, as advertised. I moved the bench from the sauna back into the garden, and set up the water heater; putting it back on the wall, filling it with water, and then switching it on.

I made and ate breakfast, which involved a visit from Sunshine who appeared to regard me eating as a sign that he should eat too. Then I washed and shaved and switched the water heater off again. Life here, I have come to realise, involves a chain of events like this. I have also come to realise that I like it.

Having eaten I take my crockery to the summer kitchen where I wash it, which uses the water in the buckets. Naturally I then take the empty buckets to the tap, fill them, and walk back to the summer kitchen with them, in another comforting and ritualistic chain of activity. Once I have done this I stand again in the summer kitchen and look around. I notice the ikon that Jyrki mad years ago, and which now hangs here. I photograph it and upload it to Instagram.

Irma and Naa will arrive on the 13:15 ferry.

We will unload the car and sit outside; and notice the arrival of another chicken. This time Sunshine will just sit and watch it as it walks round him. He will take very little notice of it; seeming to regard it as a nuisance rather than a threat.

Later in the afternoon we will take the rubbish to Benita’s and fill our water canisters. In the evening I will finish Looking Down, a crime novel by Frances Fyfield that I purchased in a bundle costing 1€ from Lillbodan.