Thursday 22 July 2021

Escape to the Country

This week so far has offered more pleasant summer weather than last week (which was too hot). More like Swedish Summer "should" be! (I think most people would agree, although how often it actually occurs, I would not dare say...) I.e. it has still been sunny and "warm enough", but no longer extremely hot. (This also means that the indoors temperature in my flat has gradually gone down to more normal as well - phew.)

Yesterday, I went on my first proper outing since my 2nd vaccination: I took the bus out to the lake and beach just north of the city. (Last summer, with the corona situation then, and no vaccine yet, I avoided the buses and hence got no further than my own feet would take me; which has pretty much just been to the city centre and back, for 1½ year...) 

The bus to the lake (weekday afternoons) passes by my nearest bus stop and takes me out there in 15-20 minutes.

 


I'm not really a "beach person" though, and especially not in a crowd; so I usually spend most of my time there (a couple of hours) going for a stroll away from the beach, and seeking shadow. I like to follow a small dirt road with the river on one side and an allotment area with small cabins on the other; and perhaps sit down for a while on bench and look at small boats passing on the river.


 






One of my favourite wild flowers grows here, along the river. In Swedish it's called Natt-och-dag i.e. Night-and-day. The Latin name is Melampyrum nemorosum (had to look that up again). I call it a favourite because I think I've only ever seen it at this lake - which is the same lake that is close to where my grandparents lived in my childhood, and my parents in their retirement years. (It's a rather large oblong lake and our house was close the northern end of it, while this beach that is easier for me to visit now is at the southern end.)

 

Sticking out into the lake, there is also a point of land with more woodland character, with tall pine trees and birches  - also reminding of the nature at the northern end.





(Who says there are no crocodiles in Sweden??)

Back at the beach, it's always nice to finish off with an ice cream at the café. In the most busy season/hours there is also a separate ice cream stall open. (The building in front of the picture is the café; the small one in the background is the ice cream stall.)


 

Barn across the road from the bus stop. (Nowadays home to a company of some kind.)

I stayed two hours at the lake, and the whole outing was only about three hours. Still felt like a mini holiday to a different world, after all the restrictions of the past 1½ years!

...

PS. (related to my previous post) Back on Monday, I walked into town and bought myself a "mini air cooler". It's not air condition, and it does not have the capacity to cool off my whole flat. But it's small and light and easily portable (and it was cheap). It uses water to increase the effect a little bit compared to an ordinary fan. It's not the kind of fan you leave on all day, but I'm thinking it may at least help to cool me off a bit temporarily now and then when it's too hot indoors. (Not really tested yet as the temperature has gone down anyway this week.)




Sitting on the window sill in my bedroom - quite close to the foot of my bed...


14 comments:

  1. I am glad you took advantage of the slightly cooler weather for that lovely walk in such beautiful surroundings - thank you for taking us along! The cabins look like everyone there has their own little patch of paradise, and the flowers are very pretty.

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    1. Meike, most of those cabins and their gardens are kept very neat indeed!

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  2. YAY for the air cooler, and good to know you have it and that your temps have dropped some... what a beautiful place to spend a few hours, i love the wooded parts best, expecailly the path through the trees on the edge of the water... too many people on the grass part for me but still a lovely spot to picnic or swim or just have fun... you did have a mini vacation

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    1. Thanks Sandra. Yes, it's a lovely place to be able to escape to for a couple of hours now and then in summer. Last summer I did not visit it because I didn't want to take the bus. Now, being vaccinated, I feel a bit more free again, that way. At least for a short trip like this :)

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  3. Let us know how that little air cooler works, I wonder does it increase humidity, which I do not want. The air coolers do intrigue me though. That lake is so pretty and seems very wild still. Almost like visiting a national park.

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    1. Terra, as the air coolers use water, and the water evaporates in the process, I guess it must increase humidity a bit. Since I got mine, the weather here has been dry though, and I can't say that aspect is something I've really noticed. It's a noisy little thing though and so far I've mostly used it in my bedroom for a couple of hours in the evening before bedtime - while I myself have been watching TV in the living room... But this week the weather has been a bit cooler anyway, and especially at night. I think I'll have to give it a longer test run before deciding if in the future I might find it worth while to invest in a bigger model based on the same system.

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  4. Looks like your trip was a huge success! The sky was beautiful, and quite a few people had the same idea. Love the Swedish Croc! And these flowers...I have never heard of them, but they are small beauties! We bought this same little cooler a few weeks ago! BUT, we had wanted something that did not need to use electricity for when we lose power, and when we got it, we found it does need to plug in. So we returned it.

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    1. Ginny I suppose one could run it on a USB "power bank" for a while but then of course that gadget in turn needs to be charged by electricity...

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  5. What a beautiful walk! Thanks for sharing ~

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  6. I'm like you, I don't like crowds or sitting in amongst many people, nothing to do with covid just I like being in my own small circle. I don't envy you having Summer, I'm not looking forward to it here.

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    1. Amy, I hope you'll have a "bearable" summer ahead. One never seems to know these days, though - seems to go from one extreme to another all over the world. (Perhaps it always did?)

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  7. It was good to return to the lake as a visitor to your blog. It's always seemed very peaceful to me. An air cooler at bedtime would be very welcome to me.

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    1. Graham, it is a beautiful lake, and as it's been part of my life all through my life, I'm glad to still be able to visit it now and then :)

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