Saturday, July 14

 

 

We wake up just before 10:00 and get straight up and off, with no breakfast. We plan to eat at the sommartorg.

I meet Janne Nyberg there, with his wife and dog. The weather has warmed up to the point where it feels as though the promised heatwave may actually have begun. Janne has a candle and some serviettes that he has won in the lottery. He confidently expects to collect a canoe from Magnus when he takes his remaining ticket there. We have arrived just too late to buy a lottery ticket.

I take a photograph of Mika and Camilla’s market stall where Ann-Sofie sells potatoes to visitors and summer guests.

At midday we will have a late breakfast in the garden, after which Irma will wash the carpet from the sauna house in the sea and I will leap in and wash my hair. Trulle, Gita’s cat, will wander onto the jetty to watch us. When we put the carpet on the railings to dry and Irma goes swimming he will stand on the edge of the jetty watching closely as she splashes in the water.

Later I will lie on a mattress in the garden to sunbathe and get soaked when Irma decides that the most entertaining thing she could do would involve pouring a bucket of water over me.

After the laughter has finally died down we will eat fish and new potatoes before taking Naa to Borgå. She has to work tomorrow and she has an early shift. We will buy her an ice cream and leave her at the bus stop to catch the bus that stops at Itis.

In the evening we will watch Belgium beat England 2-1 on Irma’s iPad. They will leave the World Cup with fourth place.