Team lunch at Kagges Sillcafé in Gamla stan. So much herring and other good food! Half the team are newly relocated to Sweden and I think some of them found the herring and the gravlax rather weird, but were too polite to say anything about it.

Now that it’s summer and the days are hot and the nights are light, Nysse is like a teenager. Often gone all night, out doing cat things. Comes running in through the door a minute after I open it in the morning, goes straight to the food bowl, eats his fill, and then sleeps, until it’s time to wander off again. We’re getting rather fewer cuddles than we did in the winter.

But this life seems to suit him well. We’ve stopped rationing his food now that he’s so active, and even switched to a more energy-dense kind, because he was always hungry. Less stress for both us and him.

Of the two supermarkets in central Spånga, Coop is far more spacious and has a much better organic selection, while ICA has a much veggie selection (both better quality, and more to choose from). The vegetable stand in the square can be hit and miss: they’ve got things that you’ll never find at Coop or ICA, but the quality can be so-so. Case in point: peas in the pod (which aren’t commonly sold in Sweden, believe it or not) but so dry and wrinkled that I couldn’t find even a handful that I was willing to pay for. That’s what you get for lack of refrigeration.

A lot of building with Legos is about searching for the right piece. Especially the tiny, gray ones.

Poppies are so red it’s difficult to capture them on photo. It’s like the camera sensor is so overwhelmed it gives up.

Got the strawberry planter boxes cleaned and netted.

For the first time ever we had two end-of-school ceremonies to attend. (At first Ingrid and Adrian were in the same school, and then with covid-19 there were no ceremonies for two years.) We started at Ingrid’s and moved on to Adrian’s after a while.

The ceremony at Ingrid’s school was a “bring your own chair” affair. (At Adrian’s it’s “bring your own blanket” and only the oldest ones get chairs.)



There were a lot more parents at Adrian’s school so basically it was impossible to see anything. And the ceremony has been the same for the last 9 years – same songs, same speeches, same order – so hearing it was not very exciting either. But it’s tradition.


Going out for a buffet dinner after school is out is also a tradition.

Early June was cool, but now it’s finally actually nice to sit outside.

It’s as if he was posing for the camera. Especially after I nudged his tail to where I wanted it.

I found a forgotten bag of potatoes in the cupboard. The potatoes were clearly determined to make the best of the situation.

(Also it’s Sweden’s national day today but none of us were interested in doing anything about it.)