Talky Tuesday: Summer Solstice on the Lake

One of Teacher Dad's coworkers (from back when he was Engineer Dad, not Teacher Dad) had hunting cabin out in the mountains, which he alternated summering at and renting out to people to summer at. Every couple of years we drove up to New England and spent a week in the mountains, right up until Teacher Dad bought Disney timeshares. I wish he would have skipped the timeshares and just kept taking us to the lake, but oh well.

Not "my" lake, but close enough. // Image courtesy earl53 on MorgueFile

For the summer solstice this year, a friend of mine invited me to join a picnic at a lake. That's the thing about Stockholm: there's so much nature and water right within the city limits, or just outside the city limits. I've been remiss about taking advantage of that.

We grabbed a bus from city center, and after a surprisingly short ride (and, to be fair, a longer-than-expected walk), I could have cried, y'all. For a second I was back in the mountains on family trips before the onset of puberty and stress that was high school. A throwback to a more innocent time: lots of jigsaw puzzles and games of Clue (Lawyer Mom taught us how to play Clue incorrectly, and I didn't learn how to actually play until I was in 20s, but we still had fun) and taking bizarre artiste-y Dutch-angled photos in my Crayola camera.

I realize they're not actually much alike—where we vacationed in the US is much more mountainous than most of Sweden—but somehow my brain connected the two.

We had a guest during our lunch by the lake. :)

I had been advised to bring a bathing suit, and I was glad I did. I hadn't been for a proper swim in years, so I gladly jumped in and went for a paddle. If I hadn't been on other people's time table, I would have definitely done some laps back and forth across the short length. The heated pool in our basement is great in the winter, but nothing beats swimming in proper bodies of water when it's summer.

But a quick dip is better than no dip at all! We had sandwiches and fruits and things, and set up a little fire by the edge of the lake (just because) and sang and talked about our goals for the rest of the year. Someone in the area was playing a flute or panpipe or something, so once in a while we heard some plaintive music drift over on the breeze.

Life goals: be able to rent a cabin out in the archipelago for a week during the summer. I don't understand the national obsession with taking off right when Sweden hits, like, peak gorgeousness, but there you have it. July rolls around and people jetset off to the Mediterranean or to Spain or something. (And I guess the rest of Europe comes up here? Maybe that's why Swedes all get out!)

It was a lovely time and I hope I'm invited to participate again next year. :)