Maybe soon

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Another pic from Paris last summer, of people doing a very normal everyday thing (and little me taking their picture). A question that came up at the beginning of lockdown was what the first thing you would do once it was over would be. Mine was to go for a swim at the Ladies Pond, but it isn’t anymore. It now looks like it will open on the 4th of July, and it will be rammed, and warm, which is the exact opposite of what I loved about it this winter. I can’t think of anything in particular that I want to do now, but just seeing people sitting at a café outside like this again will be good enough for me.

Saturday morning

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Every Saturday morning for the past three months me and my fellow Swede M, who lives two streets away from us, meet up around 8am and walk to the park that’s at the end of my road. We used to go swimming every week together before the Ponds closed, so we came up with a new routine where we could meet up and decompress from our respective weeks. We go for a stroll and at some point we pull our thermoses out, and last Saturday we chose some logs near these giant flowers as our fika spot. It was the first day in ages that was actually warm, and as life feels so scaled back right now, we really noticed. I also couldn’t help but notice how matchy M was with her greens and reds :0)

We’re almost completely out of lockdown; non essential shops could open on Monday, and Oomoo goes back to school next week, but we’re all so settled in our ways it feels quite strange to “get back to (the new) normal”. I’m overcome with inertia and find it really difficult to get things done. Anyone else feel the same? I’ve been so happy with life on pause that starting it up again feels weirder than going into lockdown did. Bird watching, bike rides, jigsaw puzzles and my tight circle of people have been more than enough for the past 12 weeks, but now I’ve got to work on opening up my little world again...

Into the woods

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The woods in our neighbourhood has kept us sane in the last few months. We’ve lived near it for seven years, but it’s only in lockdown that we started going to the southern part of it, and it feels like being somewhere new. There’s a homemade swing that we visit, which is ridiculously high as you swing out, and you definitely have to take a leap (swing) of faith as you go on it. If this had been near where I grew up in the 80’s, me and my friends would have been going there on our own, but sadly that’s not how kids around here are experiencing childhood anymore - which is a great shame. Still, I think Oomoo and his pals will have very fond memories of this place when they’re adults, even if we parents were there, lurking in the background and keeping a watchful eye on them.