Friday, June 30

YEAR:  2017 | Tags:  | | | |


House, 11:13


Yesterday evening, when I phoned Irma, we talked about the way the weather forecast kept changing. In the morning it had said that today would have a lot of sun with some cloud. In the evening it said that today would have heavy rain from 7:00 until 21:00 with no sun at all. When I woke up at 7:45 I checked the weather forecast and found that it now said today would have no rain but would have heavy winds, and that rain would start at 20:00 and continue all night.

I have begun to feel that I could earn a living as a weather forecaster, if the job involves rewriting your predictions every hour or so.

When I got up I found that the wind came from the opposite direction to the other day, and that this time, although blowing very hard, the wind felt warm.

I had breakfast and then had, what we completely inaccurately call, a shower. It actually involves a water heater for a sauna, a tank of cold water, and a bowl that you use to mix hot and cold water which you then pour over yourself. In this way I washed my hair and body, before running into the wind to dry my hair.

Every two days or so I vacuum clean and wipe surfaces. The fact that the house lets in air, and we keep the doors open as often as we can, makes this necessary. Leaves, cut grass, and straw all arrive, and insects seem to come in to die. I use a vacuum cleaner that we inherited from Lasse when we took over the house. I have not seen one like it before although Irma assures me that I must acknowledge the Elektro Helios as a traditional Swedish design classic from a bygone era. Whatever its real status I like it very much. It has a quiet throbbing noise and it never seems to give up. It certainly feels like a design classic.

At midday I will decide that the wind, although not unpleasant, makes working outdoors pointless. When I put something down it will blow away and I will run to fetch it. I will decide to begin this summer’s writing project in earnest and retreat to the warmth of the sauna house. Sunshine trotted off in the middle of the morning but has learned to come to the sauna house door if the main house is closed, so he will appear when he wants to.

In the middle of the afternoon when my concentration momentarily lapses I will look up Elektro Helios on the web and find this on the Electrolux website:



And there you have it: always believe Irma, who knows about these things.

Later I will look at a row of bushes and wonder where one has gone. I will turn round and find one of the sheep in the garden. It will see me and run back. They have trampled the fence down in their excitement to eat our bushes, and so I will wander the farm to find Mika before they run through again and all escape.

Irma and Naa will arrive about 18:00. We will unload the car and chat, until we realise that the forecast rain has no intention of appearing. Naa will go to make her bed and then we will sit on the new terrace in our big puffy jackets with a glass of cider looking at the place in Nice that Irma has booked for her and Naa in late August, just after I have started work again.

When even the thick puffy jackets, that Irma and Auo bought in Nepal, no longer seem enough, we will move back indoors.