If our own tree has a disappointing cherry harvest then I can just go to the store and buy some, can’t I?

Yes, but nope. Our cherries have a rich, deep, sweet flavour. These store-bought ones were sort of sweet but mostly bland and watery.

I don’t even understand how I could expect them to be the same. I know that about every other kind of fruit and berry – you can’t just buy any old thing and expect it to taste good. Golden delicious apples will never be anything but blandly sweet. Belgian and Spanish strawberries will never compare to Swedish ones. Please, my Belgian friends, do not take this personally – that is just the way it is.

I wonder how much this is due to geography (the longer days and cooler nights here in the north are good for strawberries, from what I understand) and how much is simple selection. If you’re going to transport your berries all the way from Belgium to here, you would naturally prioritize a firm texture over juiciness and flavour. So perhaps we here in Sweden just get the firmest but least flavourful of Belgian strawberries.

Even when there is a box of macaroni in the pantry, it doesn’t mean that we actually have macaroni. Or, well, I guess technically we do have macaroni, but the amount is a rounding error.

How hard is it to actually empty the box? Would cooking these last 25 pieces of macaroni really have made that lunch portion too large? Argh.

Our old toaster died, after serving us well for 19 years. Or rather, it started behaving in dangerous ways (heating up so much that I could barely touch it, and burning bread instead of toasting it) so we were forced to retire it.

Here’s the new one. Transparent sides! It’s a bit gimmicky but also rather cool. It also gives more even results than the old one, so it’s actually an upgrade. A toaster is a toaster, I thought, it’s just aesthetics, how much can the results differ – but they do.

The build is very solid so hopefully it will last us as long as the previous one.

Look at me totally adulting the heck out of this day with a hot cooked meal and everything, even though I’m still all by my lonesome. (Carrot pancakes.)

When I was a child, I always got this one particular kind of redcurrant cake for my birthday. I don’t have the recipe so I thought I would just google for something similar. Shortcrust pastry, redcurrants, meringue topping – easy, right? Nope. The end result was good but nothing at all like I had imagined and hoped. The filling was too sweet and didn’t have enough redcurrants; the meringue was waaay to sweet. I really hope my mum still has that old hand-written recipe somewhere.

Ingrid and I went out for sushi and treated ourselves to ridiculous passion fruit drinks.

It’s still super hot so I try to come up with cold meals for dinner. Getting tired of salads, trying to think of new things.

Adrian’s palate has really matured these past few years. He now happily eats anything and everything the rest of us do. Asparagus? Bring it on. Sun dried tomato spread? Sure. Avocado? Yes please.

I feel a bit bad about depriving the family of home-grown strawberries (even though they probably don’t really expect me to provide any) so I’m solving the problem by throwing money at it and saying yes to buying strawberries whenever Adrian asks for them. It’s a good thing he does ask, because I would be stingier if I was buying just for myself.

Adrian and I often eat cereal with yoghurt and a generous heaping of fresh strawberries for breakfast. (Meanwhile Ingrid sleeps until late morning and doesn’t really do breakfast at all, and Eric has already left for work after a much earlier and simpler meal.)

Brought my brother over from Uppsala for a visit. Cooked a semi-fancy lunch, played board games with him and Adrian, and even made a rhubarb crumble. The crumble tastes much better than it looks, believe me.

With the whole covid thing, I haven’t been driving much at all outside the suburbs here. I am out of practise when it comes to driving longer distances. The two return trips to Uppsala were good practise.

Midsummer lunch, with herring and eggs and new potatoes. And a decadent strawberry and elderflower cake.

In the evening, Ingrid and Eric watched the movie Midsummer. They’re the only two in this family who like scary movies.