Ingrid has been saving up for a Nintendo Switch. Apparently sharing the one that Adrian has is not good enough. It’s her own money, so whatever.

Buying a completely new one is expensive, so she searched on Blocket and found several ads. Normally when buying via Blocket I’ve met up with the seller and done the deal physically. These sellers were not in Stockholm though, so that wouldn’t work. But a Switch is so expensive that paying up front and hoping that we will get something is not an acceptable risk.

Blocket has various suggestions for services that help mitigate the risk when buying online. The first seller wasn’t willing to use those services. That made loud alarm bells ring in my head and we decided not to deal with that guy.

The next person was more willing. We exchange all kinds of information and signed an online digital contract with our official e-IDs.

And still! As soon as the contract was signed and the money paid, the seller went no contact. Didn’t reply to our chat messages or SMS:s, and didn’t pick up the phone. Eric called Blocket and Blocket looked into the information they had on the guy. Whatever information they found led them to recommended that we should file a police report immediately. Sigh. Despite all our precautions, we got scammed!

Ingrid was in tears. Not because of the money, because we said we’d cover the loss, but because she had been looking forward so much to playing Animal Crossing and Zelda and all the other games. Now we’d have to start all over again.

She was in luck, though, because almost immediately she found a new ad, and this time in Stockholm. So I drove there and we did the deal the old-fashioned way (well, not very, since the payment is digital) and she got her Switch after all.

Now she is overjoyed about all the cute things she can do in Animal Crossing.

Last night’s sunshine was all gone this morning. Hot porridge and hot bread from leftover bread-on-a-stick dough went down quite well in the cool, cloudy morning.

The bread/cake/bannock things were not part of the meal plan at all, but were so delicious that I think we’ll plan for them next time.

After breakfast, Adrian tested the hammock – fired up by Ingrid’s talk about how wonderful it is to sleep in one. And during much of walk home, he was already planning the next hike, when it would be his turn to get the hammock. We’ll see.

Walking home is never as much fun as walking out. The distance that felt like nothing yesterday, was suddenly long for the kids’ legs. “Are we there soon?”

Had this been a normal spring without a coronavirus pandemic, there would have been various scout hikes and camps in May. With the pandemic, all larger scout events have been cancelled, along with so much else of society. Instead we went camping/hiking on our own.

There are several beautiful nature reserves around Stockholm, and Paradiset and Tyresta are the ones I like best. Adrian and I camped in Paradiset once before and it was such a nice spot that I thought we could go there again, this time with the whole family.

A closer look at the map showed that the shelter where we stayed last time, on the shore of lake Trehörningen, was just a kilometre from the parking lot. Back then Adrian was six, didn’t want to walk any long distances and left all the carrying to me… This time there’s four of us, all with strong legs and proper rucksacks, so we could walk a bit longer. The first scenic spot is likely to be the most popular one – further away we might find a spot with fewer people.


That was the plan. There were several tents in the woods around the first shelter, so we didn’t even turn that way. When we got to the second shelter on the shore of lake Långsjön, we found quite a crowd there as well. Eric spied a flat-looking place with what seemed to be a fire place on the other side of the lake, so we headed off there. There was no shelter there, but a good flat spot for a tent, and much more peace and quiet than at the shelter. Technically you’re really only allowed to camp at designated spots… but this spot had clearly been used for camping before, so we figured it would do no harm if we stayed here.

The original plan was for Eric to sleep in the shelter, me and Adrian in the tent, and Ingrid in a hammock. Everyone gets their preferred “roof” over their head. (Ingrid had tried sleeping in a hammock on her last scout hike and absolutely loved it, best thing ever.) Without the shelter, we were three in the tent, which was a bit cramped but OK for one night. I don’t really expect to get a good night’s sleep on a hike anyway.

Now that we had shelter, the next question was firewood. With all these people out in the woods, the nearest box of firewood was already empty when we passed it. I emptied my rucksack, and Adrian and I walked back to the first shelter to pick up firewood there. Luckily the box there still had some.


When we got back with the wood, it was definitely time for dinner: falafel wraps with salsa romesco and cucumbers.

The firewood wasn’t for the dinner (its easier to fry up falafel on a stove) but for even more important things: bread on a stick, and a grilled banana dessert!


After dinner – and before dinner, and during dinner – Ingrid and Adrian played with slingshots. I once tried to make some using some random elastic bands but those didn’t work too well at all. Now I had bought some proper slingshot bands, and they made a big difference.

Rocks flew best, but there were almost none in the forest around us. There were plenty of pine cones, though. Ingrid experimented with different techniques and angles and differently shaped cones, trying to shoot them as far as possible.


The weather was absolutely lovely, with blue skies and a hot sun, and barely any wind. And we were on the east side of the lake and thus had the evening sun shining on us until late. Only after the sun went down behind the trees on the other side of the lake did it get a bit cooler.

I’m still thinking about the large mossy patches in the back garden. Could it be because the soil is more acidic there? The soil there is definitely different than in front of the house, much sandier and less full of heavy clay.

We should have some pH indicator strips somewhere, and even an electronic gadget to measure acidity, for the pool. But we seem to have put those away in such a good place that we can’t find them any more, even after searching through the kitchen, the laundry room/pantry/mud room, and the basement shelves.

We could buy new ones (and will have to, anyway, for the pool) but I wanted some answers today, now! Instead of shopping, we did home chemistry. Dug up soil samples, mixed them with water, and then tested half of each sample with white vinegar and the other half with baking soda.

The results were very boring. No fizzing anywhere. So I guess the soil is neutral. It is of course also possible that our chemistry experiment was too crude – perhaps we should have taken more of something, or mixed it better… but whatever, it’s not really that important.

But chemistry that doesn’t go fizz and bang and change colours is very dissatisfying. When we were done with the testing, Adrian got to pour the vinegar-mixed sample onto the bicarbonate sample to at least get some proper fizzing out of it. Much better!

In the afternoon we planted more strawberry seedlings. That is, Ingrid planted strawberry seedlings, while Adrian planted my hand tools (in neat, straight rows and at equal distances and at the same depth!) and I took photos.

We now have one box with older plants of either Honeoye or Zephyr (the sign says Zephyr but I thought we had Honeoye there) and three plants with this year’s seedlings: Polka, Florence and Senga Sengana.

Ingrid, like Eric, prefers the Kindle to paper books, and often borrows mine. She often comes back to a few favourite books, such as Ender’s Game, and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.

The best way to read is lying down.

Ingrid did her laundry today. Hanging up laundry is boring, so she usually asks me to “help” her but really to keep her company.

While she was hanging up all her numerous dark hoodies, I hung up her socks.

When I hang socks, I naturally pair them. I pick up a sock, look for its twin on the hanger, and hang them next to each other.

Ingrid doesn’t. She wants her socks mixed. I think initially she just couldn’t be bothered to sort them, but now it’s become her thing. She rocks her socks every day. Not only did she hang them all in a jumble – she purposely mixed up all the pairs I had paired up. It almost hurt my brain to hang up socks like that… She can even pair an ankle sock with a crew sock! The mere thought of it is enough to make my ankles itch.

Breakfast outside. Me over here, the family over there.

Social distancing in the sofa. Me in one corner, Adrian at a safe distance.

He misses cuddles and hugs more than anyone. He keeps coming to me because that’s what he does, and I keep having to tell him to back off. Which is no fun for either of us.

Ingrid also woke up with a slightly sore and phlegmy throat. Now the two of us have dinner in the dining/living room, while Eric and Adrian sit in the kitchen, so we don’t all breathe our potential germs at each other all the time.

It feels weird.

The soreness in my throat is so slight that several times during the day I thought I had only imagined it. Hypochondria, due to all the talk about covid-19. But occasionally it comes through more clearly, just enough to confirm that, yes, it’s there for real.

The old planting boxes are rotten through after ten years of sun and rain. I’m putting in place new ones, with fresh new soil and new strawberry plants.

Some kind of horrible weed had invaded several of the boxes with strawberries. It has thread-thin stalks and roots that break as soon as you try to remove it, so it’s impossible to get rid of. Replacing the soil will give the boxes a fresh start; maybe we’ll get a few years without that thing.

Adrian helped me assemble the boxes. Then Ingrid came out as well and they “helped” each other. There was so much monkeying around that there was almost no progress on the boxes… when they gave up and went in, it was almost a relief, and I could finally get the last boxes done on my own.