Early this morning, Mirinda carried out a few last minute checks of her luggage, paper work and electronics, before sitting down for a final ‘nice coffee’. This is a coffee made with our espresso machine. Her final checks were because today marks the preface to her Big Adventure: travelling to London from Stockholm, by train.
For three weeks, we’ll be all by ourselves – me and the girls, I mean – while she goes from one major railway station to another. I’d asked her to send me the occasional blog post. This is because her three weeks promises to be a lot more interesting than mine.
Take today, for instance. While Mirinda was in Swedish class, I was asleep. Actually, I’d returned to bed almost as soon as she left the house. Then, later, when she was heading for the Royal opera House and a performance of the ballet Gustavia, I was getting over our walk up Mount Trosa.
Incidentally, the ballet is the story of a young slave called Couschi who was sent to Sweden as a slave and wound up becoming a prince. His story is extraordinary. Mirinda said the ballet was pretty good too.
Anyway, we were mounting the mountain. The reason we went up the mountain was not simply because it was there. No, we were climbing the mountain in order to avoid passing a couple of very old people with Norwegian walking poles who were just ahead of us.
That might sound a bit arbitrary but, actually, the reason was simple. I prefer the dogs to be off lead, only attaching their retractable when absolutely necessary. Given we start the walk from our entrance to the woods, I can do an entire circuit without the lead. They prefer it, and it makes it easier for me with my balance issues.
So, upon spying this old couple ahead of me, I decided to skip the possibility of getting tangled in their poles and freaking them out at the sight of a couple of unconnected cockerpoos, and headed up the mountain. We then followed the narrow tracks towards home.
I never know if the tracks were originally formed by elk or mountain bikes. It’s probably a mix of both. But I love wandering up and down these trails. And today was perfect for it. Bright and warm enough not to wear too many clothes. Everywhere looked beautiful. It was a joy walking through it all.
Back at home, we settled in for the day, recovering. Well, I recovered; the dogs were keen for more. They didn’t get it.
Actually, the most excitement today was near the end of our walk. A deer suddenly leapt out of the undergrowth, startling all three of us. Both dogs flew into chase mode but didn’t stand a chance. Not that I know what they intended to do with the deer if they’d caught it.
After that, let’s hope we get some posts from Mirinda.
