It’s “health week” at tretton37, which includes both a step challenge and group activities, one of which is a hike of the first stage of Sörmlandsleden (which gave us plenty of steps for the step challenge).


The leader of our group had prepared and packed a picnic dinner for us all, which we ate on a pleasantly secluded little cliff shelf by Sandasjön lake.


On our way out we spotted a sleepy slowworm on the gravel road. The first one I’ve seen in many years.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Stadsteatern. This time the actual Shakespeare play, not a ballet, and this time the whole family went. Eric and I obviously knew roughly what we were in for; Ingrid enjoyed it; Adrian was mostly restless and not particularly spell-bound.

I found it all pleasantly modern while still true to the spirit of the original. (No microphones!) And of course Shakespeare would have wanted battery-driven hobby horses for his actors, if he had had access to them.

I will remember the wonderfully zany costumes. A bizarre mixture of fashion from Shakespeare’s era (ruff collars and puffy knee-length trousers) and Greek-themed decorations. Lysander and Demetrius wore sweatshirts, one a souvenir shirt from Athens and the other with University of Athens branding. Exaggerated face paintings reminded me of the masks used in Greek tragedies.

There were no photos allowed during the performance of course, so the photos below are official press photos from Stadsteatern.

Went bouldering as an after-work activity with my team.

It was a lot more fun than I had expected, mostly because I had expected the roped kind of climbing. With bouldering there is no harness, no rope, no queueing (at least not at the centre where we were) and no standing around half the time securing your partner. Just climbing.

It was hard work as well. Especially for a beginner like me – when you can’t rely so much on skill, you have to fall back on brute force more often. My shoulders are sore.

A new plum tree, to replace the one that our neighbour crushed. This time the variety I wanted was in stock so I didn’t even have to wait half a year to get one. Let’s see if it gets a better chance than the previous one.

Ingrid bought two chili plants last summer. They grew, produced a few flowers, and even a couple of fruit each. And then they dropped most of their leaves – but not all! – and somehow stayed barely alive. Occasionally a handful of new tiny leaves appear in some fork, and even new flowers occasionally. They look mostly dead, except for that fruit still hanging on, but according to Ingrid, that counts as still alive, so we’re not allowed to throw them out.

Stage 21 of Sörmlandsleden, there and back again, 21 km in total.

Much of this section of the Sörmlandsleden follows a ridge (or an esker if you want to be technical about it) through a narrow strip of woodland. Easy walking, but not particularly interesting, after the first novelty wears off.

Not much in terms of views, either.

Unlike stages 19 and 20, this one never let me forget that civilization is just around the corner. There was a large road parallel to the trail (or the other way round, I guess) that I could always hear and sometimes see, and smaller roads even closer.

Some spots here probably look quite spectacular when the lilies of the valley are in bloom.

All in all this was more exercise than a nature experience, and while it was an OK walk, it’s not a stage I see myself revisiting.

Aren’t they magnificent?

The younger one, closer to us in the photo, is about twice as tall as it was when we moved here in 2008. It’s almost caught up with its older sibling behind it.

Here’s the oldest photo I could find of it:

Without the discipline and routine of the bi-weekly embroidery club, how will I make any progress on this during the summer?

I bought some antique wine glasses a while ago. Tried to photograph them, but it was hard to do them justice.

I don’t drink beer or wine or champagne or anything like that, but I do like a splash of something sweet occasionally, such as a home-made dessert wine. And when I say “occasionally”, I mean like once a month maybe. I’ve made do with whatever receptacles we’ve had at home – plain water glasses, or Eric’s whisky glass – but then I ran across these and thought, why not. 19th century antiques for a pittance, probably because there were only three of them, so I bought all three.

As I said, the photos don’t do them justice. Delicate and intricate, and gently green.