In the evening we went paddleboarding. Or “SUP riding”, which in Estonian sounds identical to “soup riding”.

There were heavy showers earlier in the day and heavy clouds even now; even some warnings of thunder. Thunder would have forced us to cancel; heavy rain would have been unpleasant. In the end we were lucky to get neither.

We had a safety and technique lecture on the shore, and then we were allowed on the boards and the water. Initially we were all wobbly and stayed on our knees, while swarming in the little bay we started in.

We left the bay and started paddling our way up the Emajõgi river. When we had worked up a little bit of speed, it didn’t take long for us to find our balance and stand up, like the name suggests you’re supposed to. It took longer for the knees and legs to stop shaking slightly from all the balancing that was going on.

The stand-up paddling was OK, but most of us concluded after a while that the standing-up part was rather unnecessary. You get much more leverage and control when you’re closer to the water. Canoes just make sense. Some of us went back to kneeling; many sat cross-legged.

I was all set to be camera-less during this activity, but the life jackets turned out to have a zippered chest pocket which fit my phone, and I had a little waterproof bag that also fit my phone, so I could take photos after all. I struggle to get the exposure right on the phone – in many non-standard lighting situations the photos come out way too dark and I need to adjust them a lot afterwards. But I’m glad I have these.

We got together with all of our Estonian friends for a grill night at a public picnic spot. I completely forgot about my camera and didn’t even take out the camera bag from my big bag. So, no photos of us eating all the good stuff, nor of the beach volleyball or badminton games, or anything.

All I have is two phone photos of the grill, which looked rather sad and worn. The bench on the far side of the picnic table had collapsed, and the grill itself was rusty and graffiti-ed. But once we got going, we forgot all about that.

Visited Ahhaa science centre with a bunch of friends of various ages. Their interactive exhibits captured everyone’s attention for hours.

The current temporary exhibition was AI-themed. We got to try out AI attempting to deduce our emotions, recognize images, drive a toy car, etc. Very well done.

The exhibition also included a kind of a poll about visitors’ views on AI. Would you trust an AI diagnosis? Fly an AI-piloted flight? Would you be more inclined to forgive a human or an AI for a mistake they made?

I’ve got mixed feelings about this. It’s easy to be distracted by LLMs and other generative AI, and forget about all the other kinds of AI out there, doing more workmanlike tasks. I rather like AI analysing X-ray images and sifting through tons of data to find anomalies.

The statement I was most positive about was “I can imagine AI teaching me”. And I absolutely can. An AI-curated, individually adjusted learning path, instead of listening to pre-prepared hour-long videos where I find myself skipping half – yes please. Then I thought about AI teaching children, especially at a younger age, and my immediate reaction was a visceral “no”.

In the evening we gathered and played “Bang”, which has for many years been our go-to game for large groups. I might be growing just a little bit tired of it, but we only play it for a few evenings each summer, and it’s become a firm tradition by now.

Our Tartu trip has yet again coincided with the Hansa market. We shopped for honey and artisanal karask bread, and browsed all sorts of other interesting stalls.

There are things that are a natural part of life in Estonia that barely exist in Sweden. I spend the entire year missing some of them.

Honey is one of them. Technically, yes, of course you can buy honey in Sweden. Except that most supermarkets offer you “solid honey” and “liquid honey” with little more detail, and both are from “a mixture of EU and non-EU sources”. Whereas an Estonian supermarket will have an entire end shelf with several brands of artisanal honey gathered from specified plant species, and fresh honeycomb, and flavoured honey, and more.

Women’s clothing is another such thing. And again, yes, Swedish stores sell women’s clothing, but it’s all either very dull or very “fast fashion”. It doesn’t take many minutes walking around Tartu to notice the differences in how women dress here. They wear colour and patterns! Of all my summer dresses, only one is Swedish. The rest I’ve bought in either Estonia or London. Every single clothing-oriented market stall has all kinds of interesting dresses. Linen dresses with embroidery! Spiral cut skirts! Dresses with lace detail! Sadly I have all the dresses I need right now and can’t justify buying any more.

On the ferry to Estonia. Taking the cheaper and faster cargo-oriented ferry again this time, from Kapellskär to Paldiski.

We keep going back and forth between our two travel alternatives. One year we take the Tallink ferry, effectively a floating hotel which leaves from Stockholm proper at six in the evening and arrives in central Tallinn at ten in the morning and does their best to sell us expensive buffet meals and tax-free shopping in the meantime. The next year we think of all the wasted time onboard and all the expensive meals, and we swing for DFDS, which has a bare-bones ferry (though clean and tidy and in good shape) which leaves at nine in the evening and arrives at eight in the morning, and puts all the focus on just getting us there. And after those trips we sigh about having to drive all the way to Kapellskär, and the thin cabin walls and the fact that there aren’t even any lounges to hang around.

The so-called sun deck is in reality a smoking deck.

The last meter of the deck before the railing is roped off and marked as “restricted area”. Did people use to, I don’t know, spit on the car deck below? Can’t have nice things because some people are idiots.

The soil is all in place for the new planting area.

Even the way this area is now, with bare earth, it’s nicer than the lawn that used to be there. Not having to mow around and underneath the elder is a relief. This won’t last, of course, weeds are sure to invade any moment, so I’ll have to get on with the planting soon.

I’ve postponed all of that until after our Estonia trip, because you never know with July weather. I don’t want a sudden heat wave to kill everything. Once I’m back and can water regularly, there will be bushes!

There’s an unexpectedly large amount of soil left over – maybe a third of the bag. I expected there to be a little bit, but I didn’t take into account all the soil I would reclaim from the old planting boxes. I guess I’ll use the rest to fill up some uneven, bumpy parts of the lawn.

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If you’re comfortable reading about the details of my divorce, click here to read this post.

Why is the content hidden?

If you’re comfortable reading about the details of my divorce, click here to read this post.

Why is the content hidden?

If you’re comfortable reading about the details of my divorce, click here to read this post.

Why is the content hidden?

If you’re comfortable reading about the details of my divorce, click here to read this post.