Another trip to the recycling centre in Bromma with various old junk, cheap old plastic toys that not even a charity shop would want, worn-out clothes and broken electronics. Adrian always comes with me here and loves every part of the experience: from pushing the cart around (or sitting on the cart and being pushed around) to throwing our junk in the giant containers with a big clang, and especially watching our trash getting crushed.

tretton37 treats us to a buffet lunch once a month. Today was one of those days, so we walked to a hotel restaurant nearby, just on the other side of Sergels Torg.

Even though I work right in the middle of Stockholm, I barely see any of it. Either I cycle to work and then I see mostly suburbs and cycle paths and half of Kungsgatan. Or I take the train and the metro and then I see nothing but stations, because our office is right on top of a metro station. I don’t go out for lunch normally since I bring a packed lunch, and I rarely have time to just go out for a walk.

The two things that stand out are the construction works just off of Sergels Torg, which have been going on forever, and the electric scooters, which have been around for a much shorter time but are now everywhere. First there was one brand and then two and now I think there are at least five competing scooter firms in town.

And scooter riders, of course. Nearly always helmetless, usually quite uninterested in traffic rules and in the traffic around them. I always feel anxious when I see one of them near me because I feel I cannot predict what they will do, not even what speed they will move at. When the rider is a tourist, they sometimes even try to read a map on their phone while continuing to drive.

Electric bikes meanwhile are so common now that I am getting used to their patterns now.

Right now I should be doing my weekly review and getting on top of my to do list, because I know there are important things I should be doing. But I don’t even want to look at my to do list so instead I am procrastinating very productively by knitting on a poncho for Adrian. It’s nice, easy, soothing stocking stitch in a soft woolen yarn, and this early in the project there’s no fitting or adjusting to be done, so it’s all pure pleasure.

Hot day, hot night, dinner outside. Wasps are almost a given when we eat on the deck at this time of the year. They turn up when we’re halfway through the meal, then buzz around and find nothing to their liking (too many veggies and too little meat) but the smell is enough to keep them circling for as long as the plates are there.

This summer we have more earwigs than I’ve ever seen. They seem to be everywhere! They crawl out from under the edge of the door, from under the garbage containers and the flowerpots, from inside the mailbox.

Photographing Ingrid’s old doll for selling it.

Monday is Adrian’s day to cook with me. Most other days, Ingrid wants to cook dinner both to earn money and because she is coming to enjoy it. Some days they actually argue about who gets to cook.

I have spent much of today helping Ingrid sort through all her old stuff. She enjoys buying things, but then generally discovers that owning them is not that much fun because she doesn’t end up using them as much as she thought. She’s also a bit of a nostalgia hoarder – instead of giving away old toys and such, she just stores them. Now that she is moving into a new room, she needs to find a place for all those things. And she is discovering that actually she can part with quite a lot of them.

A few favourites stay in her room or go into a storage box in the basement. Some things can be sold. But a fair amount of it is basically junk.

Old crafts projects are the hardest ones. There are so many, and most were made with a lot of work and care. But how many can we possibly keep?

Ingrid’s new room has a new sofa. The poor girl was forced to get up at 10 so we could pick up the rental trailer at 11 and then go buy the sofa from a lady in Duvbo shortly after that.

The sofa was an utter pain to get down and up narrow stairs, and some parts felt like they weren’t very strongly attached and might fall off when carrying the sofa, but there were no other parts to hold on to either. I was quite relieved when we got it in place with all parts still in place.

Ingrid reports that the sofa feels great to sit in and lie on.

There are cooking wines that you cook dinner with, and then there are cooking wines that you drink while cooking dinner. I very rarely drink any alcohol at all, but the fruit wines that Eric has made are all delicious. I usually don’t remember them, again because I don’t have a habit of drinking. But sometimes when I go to the pantry to fetch vinegar or olive oil or some other bottle, I notice that lovely bottle of wine next to it. So that’s when I pour myself a splash of it.

Ingrid preparing to make beetroot risotto for dinner.