Last night after myskväll, Anders and I watched Grabben i Graven Bredvid*, a much hyped Swedish film that came out in 2002 and which we somehow missed seeing then, though it was very highly recommended by everyone we knew. It lived up to its reputation and we both really enjoyed it. I’ve seen the leading man in 3 movies now (Så Som i Himmelen and Vägen Ut) and listened to him lecture live onstage during an “Inspiration Day” I attended for work a couple of years ago, and have been increasingly impressed with his acting.
Later, long after we had gone to bed, but not to sleep, I got up to go to the bathroom and then walked through the darkened house to the kitchen for a drink of water. As I stood by the bay of windows looking out at the silvered darkness with the dew already on the grass, a clump of flowers in the front flower bed suddenly got up and detached itself from the earth and went on walkabout…a little nubbly moving meatloaf. It was a big hedgehog, gliding over the grass and nosing about. Every now and then he would stop and lift his head in the light from the streetlamps and sniff about, then he’d toddle off again. Anders joined me at the window after I whispered to him and we watched until he went out of sight around the big silver-shining rock.
It’s nice to wake up, after sleeping in, to a smiling ring of faces chanting “Happy Mother’s Day!” at you and thrusting presents with eager hands. Even better when the presents turn out to be a handmade pop-up card, a bouquet of lovely peachy roses and 2 new CDs, one of which turns out to be just the kind of music you like best.
With that auspicious start to the day, how could it get anything but better? Even if the weather left a little bit to be desired, still it was warm and nice enough out. A lunch of yummy salad with delicious salmon, the sight of a field of white and yellow daisies, a zippy little Pied Wagtail bobbing along on our street in front of us when we came home from a walk, random hugs from my children all day long.
We went through several years worth of photos of us and the kids and edited them into a DVD slideshow to give to Anders’ mom for Mors Dag. In the afternoon we headed out, swung by the shopping center to get new gym shoes for Martin (and managed to suppress our exclamations of wonder at Karin’s decision to get a pair of silver flats!) and a new backpack for Karin, and then on to Oxie where we had dinner out on the porch with Anders’ family.
After dinner, while the sun was still shining, his mom and I took Martin, Karin and Henrik for a walk to feed the ducks. There weren’t many ducks this time, just a few green-headed mallard boys and a posse of screaming black-headed gulls with a flock of jackdaws as hangers-on. Martin was carefully flinging his bits of bread to the ducks, keeping score as to how many the ducks won, or rather kept away from, the seagulls. At one point, we had to laugh as an overly enthusiastic and obviously hungry gull dove in for a crash landing on a duck’s HEAD, shoving the poor bird beneath him completely underwater, as he grabbed for and scooped up a sopping bit of bread, before launching himself into the air, screaming sailor obscenities all the way.
A quiet weekend with lovely intervals, summer feeling and good, new music. To top it all off, I managed to get our family website updated, so if you’re in the mood for photos (though many of them have been previewed here first), feel free to check out The Ek Family Homepage!
Boatloads of Bright Belated Birthday Wishes to nannergo!
*The English translation of the title leaves something to be desired, since it was translated literally to The Guy in the Grave Next Door and sounds a bit too much like a horror movie if he’s IN the grave.