Friday, July 31

No surfing today.

Nobody has used the paddleboard since last Sunday when Myy and Lilli explored the bay on it. The weather has forbidden it. I have not set foot in the water since then, except once when I had to bail the wooden boat out again after almost forty eight hours of heavy rain.

It had almost turned into a submarine by the time I got to it.

I wander around the garden in a thick cardigan expecting rain at any moment, and photograph the old swing chair with the board and a life-jacket resting on it.

Summer always seems to pass so fast.

Have I done as much writing as I hoped? No, but I have done a lot more reading than I expected, and that proved a necessary precursor to the writing I intended to do. So perhaps the overall process extended itself in a useful way and I travelled as much ground as I could in the circumstances.

Later today we will return to Helsinki and in ten days we return to work; whatever that means at the moment. I suspect that will actually mean sitting at home and talking to people on Zoom.

We will see.