Once I fall behind on the blogging, catching up is hard. Today I spent most of the day doing just that. This was the last of my must-do items for this week, so anything I get done during the weekend will be a pure bonus.

When I got tired of staring at a screen and felt like my eyes and brain were starting to take on a rectangular shape, I baked cheese buns.

Continuing with the leafy embroidery on the table runner. The first leaves were all pure fantasy, but then I made an oak leaf, and now a maple, and now I’m wondering if the combination of real and fantasy leaves looks odd.

The rest of the day I spent on various errands. Threw out all the packaging from my IKEA trip, took some old stuff to the charity shop (including a children’s bicycle that was Ingrid’s first and that nobody can have used in the last 10 years at least) and other old stuff to an auction house. Also spent several hours angsting over which bushes and plants to buy for the corner I’ve dug out this summer, and finally clicked the Buy button for two Hydrangeas, plus some Rodgersia and Actaea.

Houseplant day. I bought a couple of plants at IKEA and more at Plantagen. Re-potted all of those, as well as one I had from before. Checked the roots of the Anthurium that looks unwell, in case the roots were rotting, but the ones I could see were all healthy, so I just moved it to a sunnier spot. Also moved and pruned my small jade tree, which I was actually considering throwing out because it looks so thin and spindly, but today is a day of new beginnings for houseplants here, so it gets another chance. And finally divided and re-potted an old Clivia, which was a real tentacle monster inside its pot. It is now four separate plants, all of which lost some roots in the process. It remains to be seen how many survive. I almost hope it isn’t all of them, because I don’t want four Clivias.

I find that re-potting is annoying to do for just one plant, because of the mess it makes, and because of all the stuff that’s needed. So it’s actually perfect to do it like this, in bulk. I set up a whole workstation on the deck. For the first time ever, this process felt efficient – time spent on setting up and cleaning up was less than time spent actually planting.

In the morning I spent several hours catching up with the scout club accounts, and some miscellaneous other tasks, but the afternoon was filled with an IKEA trip, and the evening with assembling the bed. After almost two years, I finally have a proper-sized bed.

Some of IKEA’s naming conventions are cute, some are funny, but for the beds, they were purely annoying There were three varieties of spring mattresses, and their names all started with an R. There were about seven different mattress toppers, all starting with an N. One of the mattress toppers was called Norrsele, while its closest neighbour was called Nordberget. It was as if someone had gone in for maximum confusion. “Which one did you prefer? The one with North something? No, the other one with North something.” So you really had to memorize the whole word to be able to distinguish between them. And you needed to know that there was another one starting with Nor…, because otherwise you’d start typing its name into the computer and pick the one that looked familiar, without even realizing that you have been misled.

For the fabrics, the choice was depressingly limited. Dark blue, grey, or another grey. Grey it is, then. I wonder if polyester can be dyed.

The mattress is supposed to rest for 72 hours before first use. The bedroom is now an utter mess, with two beds taking up nearly all the space and everything else crammed into a corner. But! New almost-bed.

Day 1 of a week of getting things done – baking day. Brownies for the freezer, a butternut squash pie for dinner, and Estonian-style rye bread with malt.

The bread dough looked like chocolate cake when it was done – until I put a tin with real chocolate cake batter next to it.

Dark, malty rye bread is one of those things that I always make sure to buy when I’m in Estonia, and from the Baltic store in Sollentuna as well. I have never tried to make it myself. I bought an Estonian bread book this summer, and then ordered malt flour online, and made my first attempt. Initially my hopes were low because the dough didn’t seem to rise at all. Then I just ignored the timings in the recipe completely and let it proof for about twice as long as specified, and it came out great. Tasted just like it should.

After we’d seen everything in the garrison itself, we went to see Rödbergsfortet, or the Red Hill Fort – a part of the fortifications around Boden. These were built in the beginning of the 20th century, and the last one was in active military use until 1997. These days they’re a tourist attraction only; you can get guided tours inside.

The finale of Garrison Day was a mock battle in a small field next to the garrison. The public were all issued hearing protection upon arrival, and then we lined up behind the red-and-white warning tape.

It was a bizarre experience to see a grassy field, bordered by a parking lot, a playground, and hundreds of spectators, suddenly be dotted by clouds of smoke, while the ground shook under our feet.

An Archer unit made things go boom, and handful of tanks and other armoured things drove across the field and through a deep ditch. An infantry unit defended the contested area.

Exhibitions of military equipment were dotted around the garrison area. We spent a couple of hours getting acquainted with all sorts of vehicles and equipment. I learned a whole lot of terminology and interesting facts.

We started out next to the main square, where the A 8 regiment were showing off their stuff. Ingrid’s regiment is the I 19, an arctic armoured and and light infantry regiment (i.e. tanks, and troops on the ground). The A 8, their next-door neighbours, are an artillery regiment (i.e. cannons).

The Archer artillery system, I now know, is valued for being extremely mobile. It can be driven at 90 km/h, then stop, extend supports for stability, aim, fire, pull in the supports again, and be gone again in about a minute.

Next to Archer (and its friend Arthur there were tracked motor vehicles, almost like small mobile huts on treads, which you could actually get inside.

The driver’s seat was neither spacious nor ergonomic.

What it did have was lots of knobs and switches – the way I wish more cars were designed. Seriously, I’m so on board with military design principles. Just like I love the way that the troops all pack their backpacks the exact same way, so that anyone can locate the first-aid kit in anyone’s backpack, and that there are specific, pre-determined ways of expressing direction and distance to prevent confusion and misunderstanding.

To the other side of the main square there were several rows of older tanks. The oldest one was from just after WW2 – still in a driveable state. All of them must be, since they have clearly been driven here for today. Also: the foundation under the asphalt here must be something extra, to support all this weight.

The newest of the old tanks was an S 103 from the 1960s. This one was open, and interested visitors could climb inside, which we of course did.

Across a field, there was all the modern equipment of an armoured unit. Tanks, of course, but also all kinds of interesting special equipment. There’s an armoured recovery vehicle, which is like a giant, armoured version of a tow truck. There’s a whole portable bridge, the Krigsbro 5, which is transportable on trucks and can be put in place in 3 hours.

The S 122 is the newest model of tank in the Swedish army. This one we were not allowed inside of.

We tried out a recoilless rocket launcher simulator, which is supposedly like the real thing, but instead of shooting rockets, it shows you on a screen where the rocket would have hit. We were all very good at aiming.

Of course we also got a chance to see Ingrid’s dormitory, and their (identically organized) lockers.

Fun fact: inside the entrance to the dormitory building, there was a boot care locker. It had all the signs of getting serious use. I knew the soldiers all need to look clean and tidy at all times, which includes well-polished boots, but I had never given any thought to just how that happens.

Garrison Day in Boden. I went overboard with the photos so I’m splitting this day into multiple posts.

The night train arrived in Boden at 05:42. At that time, of course, absolutely nothing was open in town – Espresso House only opens at 8. The train station was just about the only place I could hang out at. Especially since it was also still dark, and raining.

The walk from station to town was grey and wet.

Ingrid had sent me a map of where to go, which was more useful than expected. Google Maps absolutely knew where the I19 regiment was located, and a whole bunch of people had already gathered at that main entrance half an hour before the gates would open, but we were all turned away because that entrance was not for us.

The day started with a ceremony at an open square in the middle of the garrison area. All the troops were already lined up, and had been since before the gates opened.

A colonel held a speech, a chaplain held another one. An orchestra played, and a flag was carried around. The audience huddled in raincoats and under umbrellas. It looked like we would get a very wet day, but by the end of the ceremony the rain had stopped, and there was no more of that during the rest of the day.

The ceremony was not very exciting, except for people falling over. Twice, someone in the front row of the ranks collapsed. Not enough practise standing at parade rest? The group leaders standing in front of the ranks were clearly prepared – they promptly got them upright, led them away behind the ranks, and the rest of the column immediately took one step ahead to fill the gap. A third person, likely feeling that they were also about to keel over, walked to the back of their own initiative.

Afterwards I located Ingrid and got some nice photos of her in her natural environment, so to say.

Her uniform is mostly made up of giant pockets. She is carrying a whole backpack’s worth of stuff in them – everything from a first-aid kit to notebooks, snacks, spare gloves, etc.

On a sleeper train to Boden, for the Norrbotten regiment’s “Garrison Day” or open house day tomorrow. A full day in Boden, seeing Ingrid in her everyday environment.

The train is almost fully booked – I guess a lot of parents and other family members are heading up there for Garrison Day.