Adrian is doing homework; I am keeping him company.

He has struggled in the past with setting aside sufficient time for doing his homework, and has repeatedly ended up leaving way too much work for the last minute. He’s also been rather resistant to any kinds of suggestions for various alternative ways to schedule time for homework. After school he wants to rest; weekends he wants to game with his friends. But now he’s found a new routine, which – most importantly – involves planning ahead and figuring out how much time he will likely need to spend on homework, and making time for it. It’s way later in the evening than I would ever choose for myself, but whatever works for him!

He is much more productive and happier when he has study company. (So is Ingrid, for that matter.) I get to practice French vocabulary, learn obscure Estonian spelling rules that I had no idea about (the spelling just is that way in my head, without any rules) and hear about different types of sports injuries and how to treat them.

Meanwhile I am working on my black and white embroidery exercises. I added a layer of watered-down acrylic paint on the embroidery that wasn’t quite black enough, and I’m doing the groundwork for the next one by sponge-painting a newsprint-like pattern.

Adrian is now a mere 2 cm shy of Eric’s height. Given that he grew 10 cm in the past year and the same in the year before, he’s going to make that distance up soon.

Adrian, opening the giant Lego set he got for his birthday – the tower of Barad-dûr. Forty bags holding a total of 5471 pieces.

Adrian’s birthday isn’t until Tuesday, but baking a fancy layer cake is not something you just whip up after work, so we had the cake today instead.

Eric and Adrian and I went to the movies to see Deadpool & Wolverine. We watched the first two Deadpool movies at home, and thought that the third one deserved to be seen on a big screen.

When the movie came up in conversations at work (people talking about their weekend plans) two separate groups expressed their surprise that I’d watch Deadpool. And I can see their point – I don’t watch comedies much. Many comedies get their laughs out of putting some character in embarrassing situations, and I can’t find anything enjoyable about second-hand embarrassment. At all. But the humour in Deadpool is the opposite – he’s so unashamed, so proud of his crudeness and ass-slapping, that it’s liberating.

That being said, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the last two. The first one had the best writing; the second one leaned into its ridiculousness; this one just felt repetitive and nonsensical. Barely any of the characters’ decisions made sense, apart from Deadpool himself. The studio decided to “waste” less money on writers, I guess, and spent the budget on actor salaries and special effects instead. I rather enjoyed the running gag in Deadpool 2 about the studio not being able to afford all the X-men.

Movie theatre popcorn, by the way, is ridiculously expensive. 75 SEK for that bucket of what is mostly air!

Back from a week at scout camp. Tired and hoarse and happy.

Ingrid drove us to the pickup point and then back again, and helped carry the packs.

Knackered. He only has a day and a half for recovery, and on Monday morning he’s off to Göteborg to spend time at a friend’s summer cottage.

Got home from Estonia. Now I’m tired. Lots of driving yesterday, lots of driving today (to take my brother back to his home in Uppsala), lots of boring waiting in between. No photo for today. Instead, here are some more photos from Estonia.

From our visit (one of several) to our favourite restaurant, Veg Machine. Its combination of vegan food, flavours we like, low prices and great location, has made it our recurring favourite.

From ice skating at an indoor arena in Lõunakeskus, which is a nice way to pass time together with friends. Kids skating – with a lot of horseplay and monkeying around – and adults chatting.

From my late-night walks with one of my best childhood friends and her dog. More opportunities for leisurely talking about everything between heaven and earth, while getting fresh air and stretching my legs.

We walk along local streets and paths rather than any fancy parks, so this has also been a great way to see how Tartu and especially my old neighbourhood has changed. Where new supermarkets have popped up, where an old meat processing plant has been torn down and replaced with greenery, where the railway serving the plant has been converted into a path for bicycles and pedestrians, and where the scruffy industrial underbelly has remained as it ever was.

Repeating a favourite activity from last year – canoe rafting from Taevaskoja to Kiidjärve.

We were slightly fewer people (and dogs) this year, so we fit on a single raft. Which made things simpler and somewhat easier, because not everybody had to paddle all the time. On the other hand I had fewer photo opportunities, because I was right on top of people all the time.

Except when we made a stop to walk the dog!

The paddling itself is not much of a challenge these days, with lots of young, strong people who’ve all done this before. It got more exciting the further upriver we came, as the river narrowed and the fallen trees grew more numerous.

Another day in the countryside with my father and his wife. More stacking and splitting of firewood, in between sudden rain showers that make us hurry inside. And the stack of firewood we moved last time made possible a whole queue of other tasks, including repairing and painting the woodshed wall that the old stack was pushing against.

Afterwards we made sushi, which has become a yearly tradition by now.

Same procedure as last year?

Same procedure as every year.

I was a teeny bit worried that Ingrid and Adrian wouldn’t find this exciting any more, after climbing a via ferrata, but this poses a different kind of challenge and was still fun.

The last obstacle on the last climbing course, the “Tarzan jump”. Was pretty scary the first time, a little bit scary the second year, and barely makes us pause now.