The cake is delicious and moist and flavourful but also very filling. The first time, we all served ourselves too large slices. We’ve learned now to cut what seem like slivers only. The recipe says the cake will serve 6 to 8, but in reality it’s more like double that. A sixth of that cake is like a whole dinner.

Adrian loves chocolate cake, and he loves raspberries, so for his birthday he wished for a chocolate and raspberry cake. We found a recipe for a fancy multi-layered chocolate cake with raspberry mousse. It took Eric and Adrian half the day to make it. Totally worth it, in my opinion: it was delicious.

Cyclamens are like magic.

I give up on watering them during summer. Even in winter they are thirsty things, needing near-daily watering. In the hot sun and the dry air of the summer, it’s hopeless to try and keep them watered and alive. So they wither down to dead-looking lumps.

And then suddenly they decide that the world is now in a liveable state again and send out new shoots. That’s when I bring them back to the kitchen from their exile on the living room’s shadiest windowsill, and start watering them again.

The air fryer; Happy Socks with food motifs; a scout knife; Japanese sweets.

Birthday coming up tomorrow.

That giant, IKEA-wrapped gift at the bottom is an air fryer. Adrian and Eric both like kitchen machines – pasta maker, ice cream machine, dough kneader… Adrian has been talking about an air fryer for months now. I think it’s due to all the ads on YouTube. It’s a bit of an odd birthday present for an 11-year-old, and really a present to the whole family rather than just him, but I know for sure that he’s the one who’s going to be most excited about it.

1.

I am amazed at how close these three yellow things are in hue. The tights and the sock yarn and the shoes could have clashed – one slightly warmer, the other slightly cooler, the third one shifting towards green – but they don’t. I once heard or read somewhere that the fashion industry “agrees” on current colours to some extent, so that consumers can match the clothes you buy from one store with accessories from another. I wonder how true that is. It sure looks like it.

Except I very much doubt that lady who made my hand-dyed sock yarn has any kind of connection to the fashion industry. Although of course she has to buy her dyes from somewhere, and the textile dye manufacturers might of course adapt their offerings to fashion industry standards.

My tights are several years old by now, far from the peak of this year’s fashion. But perhaps these colour standards are more stable than fashion in general. The industry standard for “mustard yellow” could be more or less set in stone, who knows.

2.

The new shoes are so close to perfection. Soft leather in a beautiful colour, great fit, flexible soles with a good grip. After trying them on, I went ahead and ordered two more pairs of them. If you find a good pair of shoes, hold on to them, because fashion is fickle and you can be very sure you can’t buy the same thing two years from now!

Then I wore them for a slightly longer walk and found out that the perfect shoes were not perfect after all. They turned out to have a lining that doesn’t breathe well and makes my feet hot and sweaty. So those two extra pairs will go right back as soon as they arrive. Sad.

All set up for Adrian’s remote parent-teacher meeting.

Remote meetings for everything feel so normal now. The other day I participated remotely in a meeting between Ingrid and her orthodontist. I’m sure schools will go back to IRL, face-to-face meetings. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that.

The back lawn was sparkling with dewdrops this morning. Some patches were sparkling more than others. Looking closer, I noticed that the ground was dotted with dozens of tiny, irregular spiderwebs. Each no larger than the palm of my hand, each with a little spider in the middle, on the underside of the web.

Two pairs of too-small hiking boots. Timberland, size 35. Lowa, size 36.

Are your kids in need of boots? Let me know.

More blacks, fewer whites.

More browns and greens.

Still plenty of red-white-black combos.