Urgent shoe shopping for Adrian today. His old shoes (on the right, in case there is any uncertainty about that) are about two sizes too small and falling apart. Apparently he now has size 38 – the same as Ingrid who is 4 years older.

It’s an awkward combination of size and age. He’s ten going on eleven – still very much a kid. His tastes and habits are those of a kid. He needs durable shoes with flexible soles, made for running and playing – and for easy access. Especially at school they’re putting their shoes on and taking them off again all the time. He’s got no patience for tying laces. His shoes need velcro closure or some kind of elastic solution. Otherwise, as experience has shown, he simply leaves them so loosely tied that he can slip them on and off without doing anything. Which doesn’t exactly make for good fit.

There are “junior” shoes that go all the way up to size 38, but few go beyond that. Men’s shoes on the other hand mostly start at size 40. I’m not sure what is supposed to fill that gap or what we’ll do when he outgrows this pair. I don’t expect him to like laces much better in a year’s time.

Two guys, four screens.

Both are playing Genshin Impact. Adrian is supplementing the game with music on YouTube, Eric is looking up something or other.

I’ve been making do with small pieces of scrap yarn for stitch markers for years. I don’t even know why. These green things cost like 35 kr for a few dozen. Or actually double that including postage, but that is still nothing compared to the cost of, say, alpaca yarn.

They are ugly but useful. Which wasn’t really a surprise. One benefit that was a real surprise is that because they are of uniform shape and size, I can see just by looking at them whether all my increases are equidistant from each other. Of course I still count my rows but if I did happen to miscount, I’m pretty sure that the resulting misstep in the rhythm of the line of markers would make the mistake very obvious.

Memm, jag har någonting till dig. Och nej, vi ska inte slänga dem.

“Mum, I’ve got something for you.” (Doesn’t even need to look at me to guess what my response would be to seeing this thing.) “And no, we’re not throwing them away.”

All right then. Mending it is.

The cucumber plant we’re plant-sitting has produced exactly one crooked, fist-sized cucumber.

I don’t eat fish often but if I go without for a month or so, I can get a mild craving for seafood. Ingrid is a stricter vegetarian than the rest of us (except when it comes to sushi because it is her favourite food) so I try to satisfy my craving when Ingrid is away.

Another day, another walk, another set of dramatic clouds in the sky.

The sky was threatening rain and thunder when I went out for my walk today. I went anyway and just stayed close-ish to the house, zig-zagging the nearby roads instead of venturing farther, so I could rush home if/when I got drenched.

The rain never came, even though I could literally feel it in the air. The clouds kept appearing and vanishing right over my head.

For some reason I expect weather to arise somewhere else and then arrive here. Even though I know very well that that is not how later-summer thunderclouds work – hot air rising up and all that. But it still felt weird to literally see clouds appear from nowhere.