Friday, August 2

I got up and did a lot of editing and writing. At 8:45 I saw Camilla and Mikael outside and went to ask them if they needed Auo today. They decided they did so I got her up. She was very happy to be working again.

Irma got up and we did two loads of laundry, after which I painted thin blue lines around the edges of a newly white cupboard.

Auo arrived home excited and happy at 15:00 with a bunch of huge sunflowers. Today she had been working with Ann-Sofie on onions, beetroot and potatoes. At lunch they had all sampled a new variety of potato – Melody – that Mikael had been growing experimentally. Auo described them as “more floury than Timo, but still nice”.

After lunch she was promoted to cutting and gathering the sunflowers, and then making them into bunches. The biggest ones cannot be sold, and that is why we have some of them.

We put one in the kitchen but the face hung down. I suggested cutting off the stalk and floating it in a bowl. Here it is.

After Wednesday’s all-night escapade we will feel a need go to bed early and be asleep by 22:22.