You may be surprised, but the summer vibe is still going strong. Full and intense without holding back one bit. (a lot of people seem to think that it’s always cold and winter in Sweden 🙂 )
Earlier this week I stayed up all night, als long as I could before falling asleep. I managed to stay awake until just before the sun came up again. And I mean the real sunrise. Because it doesn’t get completely dark. Even at the darkest hours when you would think the world is asleep, a yellow-orange glow hangs fiercely above the horizon. No wonder the plants grow like crazy!

All that warm summer weather requires a lot of swimming moments of course. We try to get out of bed early to catch some beautiful light and evenings are for BBQ by the lake. I make my homework in the hammock and enjoy the sun on my skin (for a while, I never stay in the sun very long).

The photoshoots are sometimes hard to plan because the most beautiful hours light up at reasonably impossible hours: between 3 and 5 in the morning. And the hay fever has also caught me this week. It is, of course, difficult to avoid grass, never to forget the nose- spray or pills, but on the other hand, I can be content that it really breaks through late May / early June while in Belgium it sometimes started in February or March.

I remember that there was one summer that I was almost allergic free in my entire life. As a pleasant side effect of a medication that I received for something completely different. Too bad it was the only good effect of that medication so it was a one-time thing for now. For the first time, I could walk with bare feet through high grass, mawn the lawn without wrapping every inch of skin completely or even sit in the grass in shorts (!). Who knows, maybe one day …
Until that day I will not participate in grass roll races or the World Cup birch climbing but there are plenty of options on land, at sea and in the air ?

I was not allowed to take photos of Joeri’s skinny-dip, so here’s another series of doggies:

Mo and Oona are always wearing their EM-collar and for now, I have found only 1 tick on Oona – which despite the product they also received was quite thick. Whether or not these EM beads work is difficult to say, even after a whole summer I do not know if I can be sure, but the band looks nice, is cool to make and if it does not work, it does not harm.

The moment that we see this, we know we have to be very strict and reward her a lot for recall:

On may 28th, it was Ravasz his 13th birthday, or at least, it would have been. Sadly he wasn’t here to celebrate 13 years of adventures and stealing food with us. But we made some Ravasz-bread for us instead. Why this bread? A while ago, Joeri made this fresh bread with raisins when friends were visiting. The whole house smelled sooo good and we couldn’t wait to taste it. But we went out for a little while and when we returned, the WHOLE bread was gone!

The light in Belgium vs Sweden:

Sunrise B: 5h26
Sunset B: 21h53

Sunrise S: 3h36
Sunset S: 22h14