I'm sitting here on the balcony summarizing the past weekend and looking at the weather forecast for the next 10 days. Could it really be true? The sun is shining in the favorite app and the temperature looks like it will continue to stay at Mediterranean heat for at least 10 more days. Our apple tree has blossomed today, little sweet pink bunches of fragrance. The only thing that disturbs the weekend's idyll is the numerous visits by really fat wasps. At first I thought it was some kind of queens looking for new nests, but I'm starting to think that this year's wasps have simply grown a little extra in the early summer heat. Of course there must be some downside to this lovely warmth.
The weekend started with a barbecue evening in the sun Boule & Berså by the canal at Danviksbron. We usually try to manage to go here at least once a year, but I almost think this year's menu was one of the best we tried. I cooked vegetarian soy barbecue skewers with feta/basil cream, roasted potatoes and coleslaw. Really good! The feta cheese cream was so good that I also happened to eat my daughter's. The daughter, on the other hand, was a little dissatisfied that the canal burger did not come with bread, but despite the bread disappointment, there was nothing wrong with the appetite. The man's ribs also went down.
Saturday was a bit of practical fix and trick, before we went out in the afternoon to Firstviken for a forest walk with sugar-laced coffee on the beach. Lucky we brought the boules, because otherwise we would have probably all fallen asleep in the sun and woke up like red tomatoes. It's really not often that you appreciate that the sea cools the wind in May, but today it was really needed. Swimming was out of the question, the sea is still barely a toe-dipping temperature. I can only hope that this jump-start to summer brings slightly warmer sea temperatures this summer than we usually get here in Erstaviken.
Today offered the first outdoor breakfast of the year. So, how wonderful it is to write that sentence! The first outdoor breakfast of the year - it's almost like poetry. 17 degrees at 8 o'clock, it was just a matter of throwing on a Houdini on the pajamas and getting out with the coffee cup. Calm wind. Fragrant. I don't think the longing for summer right now could be any bigger.
In order not to get stuck in practical fixing and tinkering, we made another short excursion Sigtuna for a lunch in the sun on Plåt-Pelle's café and an ice cream break in the shade at Strandvillan's café. Lots of tourists already, lovely to hear German and Hindu talking about each other in the alleys. Plåt-Pelle's café was very nice by the way, if you're passing by and want to eat a fresh lunch, they had both salads, pies and grill plates with fresh ingredients and a really nice garden with many tables in the grass. A big plus was the incredibly sweet toffee-colored little house dog that went lap after lap and greeted the guests. By the way, Sigtuna is always a pleasant day trip from Stockholm, summer and winter. Just stroll along the car-free main street's pastel-colored small wooden houses and all the big city stress just drains away.
Now it's probably time to have another cup of coffee on the balcony before the evening gets too cold. Hope you had as wonderful a summery weekend as we did, now we're all keeping our fingers crossed that the ice cream weather and shorts temperatures will stick around until well into September.
A few more pictures: First from the walk to Erstavikens bathing area and then from Sigtuna
