Ingrid and I went to Kyrksjön (Church lake) for a late night swim.

The older I get, the less fond I am of of bathing or swimming in cold water. I rarely go swimming in the Mälaren nowadays. Kyrksjön is small and sheltered and gets really warm, so today even I went for a long swim.

For Ingrid, the best part of swimming is the jumping and diving.

The electrician did his work today and we can finally move into our new kitchen. Now we can do the dishes in the kitchen instead of the laundry room – and we have our dishwasher back! And we can unpack all our glasses and plates and cutlery and utensils.

One of the best things with the new cabinets is that we have far fewer of them. Instead we now have drawers wherever possible on the lower level. There will be no more digging in the deep corners of a cabinet while crouching or even kneeling on the floor. Especially Adrian has really been struggling to reach some of the plates and bowls. Everything cannot be at the front of a cabinet – but with drawers, that’s not a problem, because even the things at the back are easy to reach. Best thing ever!

Now that we have the oven back, we immediately made potato gratin, which Adrian has missed for so long.

Nearly there! Apart from the floor and some electrical work, everything is in place – and most essentially the stove is back in its place and plugged in and ready to be used. For weeks already we have been dreaming of all the things we will be able to cook when we have access to an oven again. Pizza! Cannelloni and, lasagna, potato gratin and stuffed peppers! Bread and cakes! We’ll just have to be careful about not spilling anything until the floor has gotten its finish.

I enjoyed a doubly luxurious breakfast. Firstly, the food itself: cereal with yoghurt and a mound of fresh berries of various sorts. We splurge on fruit and berries all summer. Secondly, the circumstances: since the rest of the family is away, I could eat exactly when I want, which generally means odd hours, with no advance planning and no concern for anybody else’s hunger levels, preferences, plans for the rest of the day, etc.

I like mending clothes and other such things. There’s something deeply satisfying about it. It’s almost as good as making something from scratch, but with much lower effort, and it’s inherently un-wasteful.

Today, while the rest of the family are visiting Eric’s parents in the countryside, I spent half a day mending things: a hoodie, a pair of Adrian’ stretchy trousers, some tights, a pair of woollen liner gloves, and finally my autumn/winter outdoor trousers. Those last ones took a good two hours, because each leg needed two patches, and the fabric was both thick and slippery. But it felt so good to have finished them. And now they’re almost better than new!

It’s Friday, which means movie night, which means dinner that can be eaten in the sofa. Ingrid is cooking us a beetroot risotto.

We got some rain today (most welcome) and that brought out the snails.

I tried to photograph them, but it was harder than expected. Slow as a snail, they say, but they moved fast enough to make it hard to catch a photo of them from a good angle before they moved under a leaf or into a gap between stones. And so easy to disturb! Even just removing a blade of grass that was blocking my view made them pull in their tentacles.

The new kitchen cabinets are now all in place, with handles and recessed lighting and everything.

Still missing: countertop, sink and tap, electrical outlets, wall tile, floor.

It’s the last day of the school year, and the last day ever at this school for Ingrid. As a graduating grade 6 student she finally gets to sit on a chair (while the younger kids all sit on blankets etc on the ground), and she gets a rose from the one of the kids in grade 0.

I still remember when she was in grade 0 and sitting at the very front, and how handing a rose to one of the big kids was a big thing. And how old the grade 6 kids looked to me then!

Afterwards we had our traditioal conveyor belt sushi lunch at Zan in Kista. Ingrid is working on her chopstick skills: she has learned an odd grip, with the chopsticks crossed, and is now trying to unlearn it to get a better… um… grip on whatever she’s trying to grab. With slippery metal chopsticks and slippery, hard watermelon pieces, it’s quite a challenge.