Ingrid brought one of her uniform jackets home with her. It’s a brand new jacket that she was issued when her other one went into the laundry after a field exercise. She needs to sew on the collar tabs for her… ummm… branch? specialty? thing. I had nothing better to do when I woke up early in the morning and volunteered to do the job for her.

I only realize now that the two tabs are mirror images of each other, and I have no idea if I put them on the correct side of the collar.

Ingrid is at home this weekend!

We had planned to go to Gröna Lund, but then, firstly, I found out last minute that Adrian had a class trip this weekend, and Ingrid has over-exerted her ankles to the point where she’s walking on crutches and has been instructed to preferably not walk at all. (Plus she had all of two hours of sleep between Thursday and Friday, so she’s not exactly overflowing with energy.) So – no amusement park for us.

Instead we had a restful and luxurious day. We drove to Skyddsvärnet, the huge charity shop here in Spånga, and browsed at our leisure. Ingrid focused on clothes; she’s a pro at finding bargains that fit her style. I looked at textiles and glasses and flower pots.

Then we had grilled sandwiches for lunch at Spånga Konditori, and followed up with their homemade gelato. Then crosswords and a relaxed afternoon, and sushi for dinner.

Skyddsvärnet have unbelievable amounts of old-fashioned coffee sets and I doubt if anyone ever buys any. Does anyone still use these?

Treating myself to cake and a crossword in the sun after lunch.

I am actually enjoying this – crawling out of the slump, then.

The cake is the last piece of the rhubarb and mascarpone cake from this past Saturday. With the dairy-based filling, I was afraid it would go bad before I managed to eat it all, but it’s still really good. If anything, it’s getting better with age, as the fillings soak into the sponge cake.

I’m in an energy slump, where I don’t want to do anything and don’t have the energy to get anything done. Today at least I dragged myself out for a walk. That’s a step (hah) in the right direction at least.)

Adrian getting ready for his ninth grade graduation ball. Learning to tie a tie, and wearing a suit for the first time in his life. Green is his colour, so he got a linen-mix suit in greyish green, and a party shirt with green ferns and flamingos.

Got my boobs squeezed by the boob squeezing machine, crossways and sideways.

The nurse keeps pushing the button that pushes those plastic plates together until I think “this is not just uncomfortable but actually starting to hurt” and then I think that it’s only 10 seconds and that’s totally doable.

The whole process was very streamlined and efficient, I was in and out in no more than fifteen minutes.

The sweet smell of lilacs is everywhere.

I was going to sit there to eat my dinner. I guess that spot was nice and warm for him.

Met up with a friend. He’s an avid outdoors bather and suggested that we go take a dip in a nearby lake. I’m usually not so tempted by cold-water swimming (and it cannot be anything but cold at this time of the year) because my body is not so good at regulating its temperature, but I’ve also decided to be the kind of person who says yes and tries new things, so I said yes. The place where we got into the water was a slippery rock, so there was no way to ease myself in while shivering and commenting on how cold it was. Diving right in was the only option. It was pretty horribly cold at first, but the body did acclimate. We swam all the way across the northwest arm of lake Flaten and back again.

Afterwards we baked a roll cake filled with a rhubarb compote and a mascarpone and lemon curd filling. Decorated the slices with more of the mascarpone and lemon cream, topped them with raspberries, and it looked very festive. And tasted quite delicious. If I ever bake this one again, I’d take more of the rhubarb compote and try to make the mascarpone filling a bit less sweet.

This was supposed to be lilies of the valley, with ground cover in between.

On the left, Omphalodes verna.

On the right, Tiarella cordifolia.

The latter is by now purely theoretical-historical; I can’t spot a single live specimen. Already two years ago they weren’t doing so well, and now they’re all gone. I can’t say it makes me happy, but it is definitely interesting that a supposedly reliable ground cover plant for shade is not just languishing but just completely gone after a few years. It really didn’t like this spot.