I will say something nice about you at your funeral!

“I will say something nice about you at your funeral”, Elsa (8) said to Ingrid (10) when she climbed up a steep hill looking for mushrooms this summer. We didn’t find any and luckily we never got close to any funerals either. However, Ingrid did twist her ankle and fell into a river.

We are still in the beginning of August but I’m starting my third week of work and Jochem is back commuting between Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy. For us the summer is almost over and I am ready for the next season to make its entrance. Maybe it is the Swedish summer light that makes me live life in double speed when summer arrives but now I look forward to apple picking, making use of the plums and pears in September and enjoying a good book when the rain is pouring down outside. We had many wonderful visits this summer from far and close by and despite the weather I hope you all return to explore this part of the world soon again. July offered the most rain in a hundred years time and our summerhouse did not get ready on time. One of Jochem’s boats almost sunk, half of the things we wanted to do never took place and I didn’t see everyone I wanted to see but we did many nice things in a chaotic kind of way. Next year we will be better organized or maybe not?

Last night the children held a competition in counting the number of bruises and wounds they had. Falling out of trees, showing off nearby a rusty piece of metal or baking with hot ovens takes its toll or as Jochem said;
- Well, at least they can prove that they did a lot this summer.

Maybe bruises or visits to the local doc is not the way of measuring a good or a bad holiday but maybe the way they explain how they got them tells us something about a world full of adventure. A summer full of swimming, hiking, canoeing (with a dad who almost sunk the canoe!), travelling, heartbreaks (yes, even young hearts suffer), sleeping in tents and staying up really, really late. Next week we go fishing as Jochem’s family arrives (prize winners in fly fishing) and maybe Jochem can pick up some nice new recipes when Yann and Ceciel arrives from France in ten days. Yann showed Jochem how to make an “impress a lady dinner” 13 years ago and obviously Jochem was a very good or maybe smart student. He won my heart and did not cook anything again for ten years but now he is slowing picking it up and surprising me ever so often!

Lets enjoy the last summer weeks!