When Sweden offers up days so warm you actually want to sit in the shade, it is a crime to spend time indoors. At most, we get like five or six such days a summer which is why I am sitting on our back porch tapping away (while glancing at the view)
Tapping away . . . will there come a time when people don’t even know how to write by hand? I hope not, because there is something so personal about someone’s handwriting—which is not the same as saying all handwriting is beautiful. Mine certainly isn’t . . .
Many Swedes are probably groaning in frustration today.
“Look at this gorgeous weather,” they will say, “look at the sun, feel the heat, and here we are stuck in the office. I bet next week, it rains.” You see, most Swedes are presently gearing up to the annual vacation, and the majority kick off their weeks of leisure on Friday this week. And yup, the weather forecast indicates rain next week…
In Sweden, everyone has a legal right to three weeks of consecutive vacation in the period June to August. Most people take four weeks, and while Swedes love to travel abroad—specifically to Thailand in winter and Greece, Spain or Italy in summer—of late more and more have embraced the staycation trend that hit us all during the Covid years. Most Swedes nurture the dream of a “stuga”, a small, red-painted holiday home in the forest or by a lake or—best of all, according to some—by the sea. The idea behind the “stuga” is that it is a place with very little to-dos. It is a place where we can relax, ignore the bustle of everyday life while lying in a hammock contemplating the fluffy clouds scudding over the blue, endless summer skies.
Except, of course, it often rains . . .
And even an itty-bitty cottage needs some maintenance.
And there are bugs.
Even worse, there is often crap Wi-Fi. Oh woe!!!
We, dear peeps, have fibre Wi-Fi in our country house. And, as you can see in the photo above, it is yellow and not particularly small. And yes, it requires maintenance. Hubby has just muttered something about all the window frames requiring some TLC. But frankly, there is something rather meditative about scraping and painting—I get some of my best writing ideas while sunk in monotone tasks.
I do, however, need to become better at doing nothing. I wrote an entire post about it some years ago – The Fine Art of Doing Nothing (and if I say so myself, it is quite a good post 😊)
Sadly, I must conclude that six years on, I have not become proficient at lazing about. It’s as if the moment I extend my body on a sunbed I start thinking about things like laundry or cleaning out the kitchen cupboards or what to bake for afternoon tea. No one else in my family seems to suffer from a sudden desire to leap up to bake or do the washing, so I am thinking this a behaviour I’ve acquired along the way and must unlearn. I mean, I want to enjoy sitting with my legs in the lake while watching the loons and the ducks, the odd grass snake swim by, not feel as if I am doing this due to a scheduled “take a break” moment.
What does relax me is reading. I think I have mentioned before that when I am in extra need of recharging my batteries I tend to re-read. Presently I am working my way through my extensive collection of Jayne Ann Krentz/Amand Quick/Jayne Castle books. (Yup: one person, three names) If you’ve never read anything by her, I really, really recommend that you do – I’d say start with her Arcane Society series.
I have also read a couple of new books: For those who enjoy books set in exotic historical settings, I really recommend Clare Flynn’s The Star of Ceylon. Stella Polegate is an intelligent, ambitious young woman who yearns for an academic career—an impossibility in 1906. Instead, her father is pressuring her to marry the horrible Gordon Blackstone, callously stating that is the only way for her academic research to reach an audience—i.e. under her husband’s name. Gah! Poor, poor Stella, I say, and my initial take on her father was one of intense dislike. He has no problem using her as an unpaid assistant during his field work in Ceylon, he even recognises just how bright she is, but he sees no other option for her than to marry Blackstone.
It all becomes very complicated, and as always in Clare Flynn’s books she does not shy away from the grittier parts of life. Plus, as always, she delivers a fascinating account of life and traditions bringing Colonial Ceylon to vivid life, all the way from the humble tea-pickers to the entitled British Colonial civil servants and their families. Warmly recommended!
A Stitch in Time sounded like it might be a time travel book (I like time travel books, for obvious reasons 😊) but was instead a rather grim depiction of life for British lower class, more specifically for Clara and her family who are framework knitters in the mid-19th century. Rosemary J Kind delivers a rather dark story, but Clara is a wonderfully determined protagonist who is willing to do whatever it takes to better herself and help her crippled brother.
Finally, obviously, should you really need a reading binge, check out my books!