Another long early-summer weekend, so a hike was more or less a given.

Then the weather forecast started promising pouring rain for all of Friday – up to 5mm per six-hour forecast slot, for the entire day – and I was preparing mentally for having to cancel. Four days of just catching up with household admin would not be a bad thing at all; my to do list is overflowing.

By yesterday evening the rain had been downgraded to nearly nothing, and – forced to make a decision – I said “go”. (My brother comes here to cat-sit for Nysse when I’m out on a long hike, so I need to commit at least a day in advance.)

At this point I wasn’t even sure that I wanted this – the idea of a long weekend at home had really taken root. But I’ve never regretted going on a hike, so I’m sure it’ll be great this time as well.

Gymnasium graduation is a whole thing in Sweden, and more components seem to become necessary traditions with every passing decade.

One very central part is the utspring, the “running out”, where graduating students exit the school building for the final time, en masse, and are met by their families in the school yard. Families have signs with photos of their student, often cute pictures of the student as a baby. I imagine it originally started as a way to find each other in the teeming mass of hundreds of people, and then took on a life of its own.

I kind of remember it being a DIY thing, but maybe I’ve got my nostalgia-tinted glasses on. Nowadays in any case there’s plenty of services that deliver ready-made signs with photo, text, and handle, all assembled. I’m old school, going the DIY route. Today I picked up my photo of Ingrid from the photo printing shop – and half the shop was filled with stacks of graduation signs.

One thing they have that mine won’t (not easily, at least) is a plastic cover. If we get a rainy graduation day, I’m going to have to scramble a last-minute solution. What mine will have, though, is decorations and trimmings!

When I first set up the planters, I lined them with geotextile in an attempt to keep weeds out. “Weeds” in our garden includes not just common couch but also lilacs and cherry trees, both of which spread their roots everywhere.

I tried a non-woven kind of textile in some boxes and a thicker, woven kind in another. I don’t think they made any difference against the roots whatsoever. All they did was make it harder to pull out the weeds that got through. (Or that elected to grow in the space between the box and the fabric.)

There were weeds in the boxes that sent their roots out through the fabric which made it harder to get rid of them. There were weeds that came in through the fabric from underneath. And, in a final insult to the fabric, there were weeds that nonchalantly sent their roots in and out and in through the fabric again, totally unbothered by it “blocking” the way.

Now that I’m trying to remove the fabric, I sometimes have to cut the roots first so that I can even get the fabric away from the ground.

I was out digging.

Nysse was out digging.

No wonder the lawn looks uneven and has dents and holes in odd places.

Active Solution celebrated the start of summer with a day at Gröna Lund amusement park for all the employees, with families. I haven’t been there for ages and was very happy for this opportunity.

We were offered armbands for unlimited rides, or a bundle of tickets for the various competitions. I’ve always been fond of roller coasters, and absolutely chose the armband. So did both Ingrid and Adrian, of course.

We were ready to enter when the park opened. Even a bit before – the gates opened before the rides started, so we were literally on the first round of the first ride. The park was nearly empty, almost spookily so. Teenagers sleep late, of course, and the chilly, windy weather was also on our side. (I was properly layered up but was still cold most of the day. Some poor folks in their t-shirts must have been freezing.)

We went straight for the roller coasters. For the first hour or so, we could go on the most popular roller coasters with barely any queueing at all. Twister was one of our favourites – a classical roller coaster with wooden tracks.

Monster was another favourite. On a busy day, the queues to Monster are 30 to 40 minutes, according to Ingrid, who’s been coming here regularly every season. Now they were next to nothing, so we waited a few extra minutes to get front-row seats.

Three or four back-to-back roller coaster rides later, I was actually feeling a tad queasy. Am I getting too old for this? Probably not – mostly it was the abrupt braking at the end of Monster that shook up my stomach. The rides themselves were no problem. We calmed down with less challenging attractions like the “funny house” and “tunnel of love” and the “scary train”.

After lunch, the kids convinced me to try the Catapult. It’s like a free-fall ride, but goes both up and down. I was afraid it would be too much for me but said I’d try it once – and it was my favourite ride of the day. No shaking, just flying! And with wonderful views.

More roller coasters. Monster sitting at the back instead of the front (less wind, less view, more surprise, more swoosh). Häxkvasten, like Monster but tamer, which used to be my favourite. Vilda musen, which I remembered not liking, and also did not like this time, because it was all rattling side-to-side (to the point where I was afraid I’d end up with bruises from being thrown into the side of the cart) and no soaring at all.

We had planned to go on the Eclipse, a giant star flyer, way up high, but were turned away at the entrance – it was closed due to the evening’s concert. Which we had been informed about, kind of, but the info just said “closed during the concert” – not that it would close two and a half hours before the concert started. Bummer.

The old-school wave swinger was nice, but not quite same.

The park was getting crowded now, and there were actual queues. (Many visitors probably came in the afternoon for this evening’s concert with KAJ, the Melodifestivalen winner.) One last ride, we said, and went back to the Catapult.

After that we all felt we needed some sugar to boost our flagging energy levels. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for Adrian and myself; candy floss for Ingrid.

Last year I started removing the planting boxes, but then got distracted by other things. Now I’m at it again. A gentle deadline always helps: I want the garden to look tidy for Ingrid’s graduation party in three weeks’ time. (So does Ingrid herself, of course.) Now that the evenings are light, I can work on this even on weekdays after work.

Closing session for the embroidery club for this season, with a mini-exhibition and a potluck meal.

I almost managed to finish mounting my work in time, but gave up at midnight yesterday and left the last bits until later.

This season’s first lunch out on the deck.

The lawn needs mowing, but the primroses are still flowering, so it’s a precision exercise to mow around and between the primrose clusters.

Today Ingrid finished the last exam in the last subject of her last school year, which we celebrated with ice cream at Spånga Konditori. She’s been studying so hard that she deserves all the ice cream.

Adrian still has more tests to get through tomorrow, and we’ll be celebrating that with all the fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries that we can eat.