Friday, July 18

This morning Naa got up at 8:00, because it was market day tomorrow. I got up with her and then went back to bed. I got up again a couple of hours later. I noticed that I was still red and that I felt like I had had too much sun yesterday.

We did three lots of washing in the washing machine, which meant I carried about 360 litres of water from the well. The well was very, very low, and so each bucket full was a long haul.

Afterwards I sat in the shade on the rocking chair on the dish house verandah, while Irma sat sunning herself. Rocking, with nothing to do, and not feeling very energetic, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of the gap that Auo has left. It felt wrong that she was not here to prod us forward with a plan of action, involving boating or trampolining. I realised that I haven’t rowed at all this summer, just as I haven’t bothered to set the trampoline up. Rowing around Sundö, and down the channels between the main island and the smaller ones (channels which are often almost blocked by weeds), was something we did every summer. It was always harder work than it looked, but it was always more fun that it should have been because of Auo’s enthusiasm and constant questions or suggestions.

To be honest I don’t feel like searching for a tiny channel that an old map suggests should be there, and then walking through stinging nettles getting bitten by insects, on my own. So I haven’t been rowing this summer.

Now I am looking out of the kitchen window drinking a glass of water. The tractor and trailer are still there from when we took all the hay from the field days ago. It looks like an almost cliched still life of a farm: the kind of view an amateur painter might seize upon.

In a few moments I will try to dig a trench to get the water to run from the sauna house down to the next field. I will manage to do something to improve the situation although more will need to be done later. Since the trench will fill with water from the recent washing machine fun, as I dig it, it will be a messy business in which I can see less than I would like. The area where I am digging is filled with large stones and tree roots, so digging will be accompanied by sawing and pulling.

Eventually, when I have done all I can I will run to the sea to wash. The water will be very warm, and the algae that plagues the archipelgo will be in evidence. The sun will still be very hot and I will be dry before I have walked back to the farm.