Friday, August 11

Sunshine had stayed out almost all Wednesday evening, arriving home at about 4:30. He had then slept until about 13:00, and had gone out in the afternoon, returned just before Naa arrived, gone out again soon afterwards, and returnedin the middle of the evening. He went to sleep when I did but then woke at about 2:00 wanting to go out. I ignored him but he refused to give up. He woke me about every twenty or thirty minutes from 2:00 to 6:15 when I finally got up and opened the door.

I would have thrown him out but but he shot out so fast under his own steam that I didn’t get the chance. I went back to bed and woke up groggily at 8:00. I staggered up to wake Naa because she came down yesterday in order to work on the field today. She wanted to do at least one full day’s farm work this summer; a feeling I can readily identify with because I really wanted to do the hay work.

Naa got to the field about 8:30 after speed-eating her two sandwiches and gulping down several glasses of water. I washed my hair, washed the dishes, cleaned the dining area, and sat down to read a student thesis. I finished reading at 13:00, and wrote a long and complimentary letter with bone fide bullet points.

I noticed that the weather forecasters had got it almost right today. The wind had died down overnight and the sun had come out to make a bright, very warm late summer’s day.

I catch the 15:15 ferry with two water canisters in my hands. At the end of summer I get what Auo would recognise as a result. I jog off the ferry as the cars leave, fill both my canisters, and jog back onto the ferry as the last cars drive onboard. It helps that at this time on a Friday cars completely fill the ferry, but it still counts. There and back on the same ferry: we used to always try to do that.

As I get off the ferry I pause in the layby opposite the ice-cream stand to let the cars pass me. I could tell by the problems with the parking that the ferry contains a lot of tourists and I want to avoid getting knocked down. I look over at the ice-cream stand and wonder whether I should buy one. I remember that we still have a variety of ice-creams from Jatskiauto in the freezer so I content myself with looking.

Naa will have arrived back from the fields when I walk into the farm. She will go off for a swim and then settle down to sunbathe. Sunshine will wander in and out of the garden.

Irma will arrive about 18:30 and the fun will begin. The cat will join us and we will sit with a cider chatting.