With Ingrid off for several days of scout camp and Eric working even though it’s weekend, Adrian and I went on a mini-hike of our own. He appreciates camping much more than the actual walking part, so we did much camping and not very much walking at all.

I picked Lake Trehörningen (“Lake Triangle”) in the Paradiset nature reserve. True to its name, Paradiset is a lovely place, and the walking here is very pretty. The Sörmlandsleden trail passes through there and I walked here in January and even passed the same lake, but I didn’t recognize it at all – the forest looked so different now without snow, and I came from the other direction as well.

Initially we were going to sleep in a tent, but as I was packing I realized that my pack would end up quite big and heavy. The lake isn’t far from the parking lot, only about a kilometre and a half, and I wouldn’t have any real trouble carrying it all, but I would enjoy the hike more with a smaller pack… so I skipped the tent and we slept in a shelter instead.

I really like the Swedish hiking shelters. I didn’t photograph the one where we stayed this time, but it was just like the shelter the kids climbed on near Skottvång. The bare fact that they exist is great. They are open to anyone, free of charge, whole and clean and well kept, and usually in a pretty location as well. In nature reserves there’s often a supply of firewood nearby as well.

There are at least three on the shores of Lake Trehörningen. We aimed for the one that I thought was “just far enough” and had the nicest views. When we got there, we found a father with his two sons there, but the shelter was just large enough to fit all five of us. We didn’t exactly become best friends but it was nice to have a bit of company, especially for the kids. The boys showed us where to find tadpoles; the dad offered Adrian “stick bread”. I didn’t offer anyone anything.

I swam in the lake; the lake was small so the surface water was pleasantly warm. The shore was stony and steep so Adrian could only go a few steps in.

Unfortunately I always sleep like crap when I’m hiking or camping. The combination of a hard sleeping surface (even though I have an inflatable mattress), the constriction of the sleeping bag, light, noise, and unfamiliar environment means that I wake up countless times during the night. At some point during the night a large buzzing insect (either a wasp or a bumblebee) found its way into the shelter and circled it several times, inside and out. Later, when it was getting light (so maybe around 3 in the morning) two gulls landed next to the fire pit and started squawking loudly at each other. They kept at it so long that I woke up enough to start considering getting out of the sleeping bag so I could throw pine cones at them, but at that point they finally left.

For another two weeks, Adrian spends his days in summer care. Too bad grown-ups don’t get 10 weeks of summer break.

Ingrid is too old for that, so she has to simply stay at home. I’m working from home some days to keep her company, and leaving her on her own for some days. Today was one of the latter. She of course stays inside all day, even though it’s a beautiful day. So when I get home, I chase her off the sofa to go with me to pick up Adrian.

Summer care is in a different location than normal school, and it’s a slightly longer trip. Still no more than 10 minutes by bike, even at the kids’ leisurely place.

There is a large, fun climbing structure in that schoolyard, so instead of cycling straight home, we stayed and climbed for a while. (It was large enough to support mums, too.)

Adrian loves building things, and has been asking me for a long time to build something in wood together with him. He’s also been asking for a bed for one of his toys. Today we had a woodworking day when we got both projects done.

I built a minimalist four-poster doll bed. The four-poster bit was essential and actually what got this project started – Adrian had a bunch of small bead projects that he wanted to hang over the doll, so it can look at them while it’s waiting for sleep.

Adrian built a boat. He did the design, we measured together, I cut and drilled, and finally Adrian screwed all the pieces together. Then he ran off with it before I got a chance to photograph the final result.

I like the way Adrian’s imagination works. He takes a piece of thick plank for the bottom, adds a section of square rod as a mast, and there’s his boat! He did add more detail to this one (two more pieces of rod for railings, a little post with a wooden button for a wheel, a block as a cabin) but in his mind it was already a boat without those. If I was asked to build a boat, I would probably aim for something more clearly boat-shaped, which would be a lot more work.

I have so little time to just be in the garden, especially recently. Or to just be, period. So I make sure we take our meals outside when possible. Sometimes the kids (especially Adrian) grumble over the extra distance they have to carry everything (at least 10 extra metres each way, poor kids!) or about the sun or the heat, but I overrule them.

The deck on the east side of the house gets sunshine in the morning, and it usually isn’t too hot at that time of the day. By lunchtime we get shade from the cherry tree so we don’t get baked. We’ve arranged furniture in such a way that we can get the juice and butter out of the sun, and we have a power outlet so we can plug in the toaster as well, so we have all we need.

Today was the last day of school, which the school celebrates the same way each year, with singing by the kids and speeches by the staff and other ceremony as well. It was sweet the first time I saw it and has gradually come to feel more and more boring and routine.

We have a tradition of our own, to celebrate the beginning of summer break with conveyor belt sushi in Kista, which we also did this year. After that the kids tried out the VR rigs at the mall at Kista, mostly on Ingrid’s initiative. Ingrid enjoyed the experience as much as she had expected; Adrian found it a bit scary and nauseating.

We skipped the traditional national day picnic and replaced it with a sausage grilling hike around lake Källtorpssjön near Hellasgården.

It was a beautiful day for walking – warm and sunny without being too hot. We walked mostly through the usual Swedish rocky pine forest, with the occasional beautiful clifftop view of the whole lake. The trail was nice and varied, following the edge of the lake at times and getting deep in between trees at other times, and had just the right amount of ups and downs to remain interesting. The parts nearest the parking lots were relatively crowded, but there were fewer people further away, on the other side of the lake.

The trail’s only shortcoming was a lack of suitable picnic spots. Finally by early afternoon we were so hungry that we set up our picnic and grill right next to the path. I have a love-hate relationship with single-use aluminium grills: they seem so incredibly wasteful, but at the same time they are so incredibly convenient. And the grilling is an absolutely essential part of a hike for the kids, almost the whole point of it.

The kids had packed binoculars and were amazed at how much closer things seemed when looking through those. The binoculars also allowed us to spy on follow the progress of a swimmer who swam all the way across the lake to one of the islets and then back, towing a very visible red buoy which made him/her easy to spot.

It’s a squeeze day and I was going to take the day off but the situation at work just did not allow that.

But I did leave the office early enough in the afternoon that we had time for ice cream in the garden and running around in the grass.

He builds fast and big, without any visible plan or design. He knows that triangles make for a strong construction, and just piles random triangles on top of each other until he runs out of pieces. And then suddenly, magically, it’s a castle, or an obstacle course, or a prison.

We went to see the Miro exhibition at Waldemarsudde. Nice weather, nice walk, nice lunch at the café, another nice walk to a nice fika afterwards at Rosendal – but the exhibition itself was underwhelming. “Yep, Miro, black squiggles” was what I got out of it. I don’t know what was lacking – perhaps Miro himself is old news now, or perhaps the works just weren’t presented the right way.