Monday, August 6

We did most of the necessary packing yesterday, so we got up and finished. It took an hour or less.

We walked to the fields and picked some sunflowers, while Johan and Tanya rode round the farm in a tractor, transporting things from one field to another.

The promised rain never materialised but the promised wind certainly did. It howled round the farm, rattling the trees and making conversation difficult. We put everything that might get blown away in one of the huts.

I decide to take some final summer pictures. As I walk down to the jetty I see the ducks for the second time this summer. For some reason they have camped on the other side of the bay this year. I stand for a moment and watch them as they reluctantly get into the water and swim away when they decide I have got too close.

We will get the 12:30 ferry, within Sunshine asleep in his box, and get home just before 14:00. Sunshine will climb out, take stock of his surroundings, and wander off on his usual patrol.

I will walk for an hour, after which we will go to K-Rauta for a new washing line and Prisma for some fresh salad.

Naa and Sampo have gone to his parents’ mökki in Karelia for a week, so we will collect her two guinea pigs and bring them home. They will hide for a bit and then start running around.

Sunshine will, fortunately, show very little interest in them. In fact, none at all.