Tuesday, June 19

Sundö, 18:20

It rained heavily in the night, and the morning was damp, grey and cold. Naa went grumpily to work at 9:50. I reluctantly washed my hair in the sauna.

I spent the morning tidying and then working. I set the laptop up in the sauna house and, except for my (very) cold feet, it was working perfectly. I created a structure and a working method which will, I hope, enable me to approach the material I have harvested for my thesis without being overwhelmed by it.

At about 13:45 Naa came home. Camilla had decided that they had done all that they could do, given the constant wind and drizzle. She has given Naa tomorrow off because she has decided that they will work a twelve or fifteen hour day on Thursday to get everything ready for the Midsummer Market on Friday.

After making lunch I dug a bed for the onion bulbs and then planted them. Throughout all of this the cat showed no interest in going out at all. It has spent two days moving from one bed to another and from one room to the other, and it has shown no inclination to expand its horizons. Given the weather, nobody blames it.

I spent another hour or more in the sauna house freezing and writing.

An hour ago the Kotijäätelö van came to the end of the road, and Auo and I went to get the two boxes we had chosen from the catalogue; one set of cornettos and one set of ice lollies for Naa. I also got a free ice-cream, because there was a coupon in the catalogue.

Now it is not exactly raining anymore. Rather there is a thin damp in the air that is somewhere between active mist and passive drizzle. I am outside looking across the bay, and I cannot see the other side because it is almost obscured by the drizzle-mist.

We will spend the evening inside reading and talking and, when we go to bed, the flies will come out to play with us. All night.