midsummer & midlife, part three AND/OR stuff i loved in june

There was a distinct but unidentified whiff of something being off coming from our fridge that we just couldn't put our finger on. It was slightly cabbage-y, and had we had some sauerkraut in there we'd have been sure that was it. Alas, there was no sauerkraut because we never seemed to finish the organic jars of it that we used to buy before their use by date. So the first ones to go were the cherries, which we proceeded to promptly eat, then moved on to other things. There were lots of potential sources to be honest, as it had been a very hot week, and let me tell you, I do not handle heat very well. (Give me -30 and a meter of snow any time, but +32? That's when you'll find me in bed.) There was the left-over cauliflower from a rather long-ago venture into Summer soup, a classic Finnish June dish, and then there was the left-over kimchi that I had been meaning to turn into a cold kimchi noodle thing but hadn't. As much as I hate throwing away food, in the bio waste bin it went. The whiff lingered on for a while, until one morning it was gone, and I still have no idea what it was.

And this, as a matter of fact, is a perfect analogy for my relationship with June, the month. As much as I say I don't like spring, April and May always come and prove me wrong, but then June hits... And at the end of it, I always feel like it was a huge void that just sucked me in and handed me too many cans of diet Pepsi and left me with no recollection of it. I don't know why that is, except that it's usually when my social media game is totally k.o. and I have no desire for a round two, so did it even happen if there are no pictures of it with a sufficient amount of hearts clicked below? Therefore this is a post about THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS JUNE, to prove they happened. A gentle reminder, for myself, that nice things do take place in June, too. (Writing that just reminded me of this old gem.) 

Several rhubarb pies were baked, together with my daughter and alone, of which I also made a video for Instagram which by the looks of it seems to have been somewhat popular, which is why I'm planning an all things rhubarb video, because rhubarb is actually in season all summer long, contrary to what one might assume if only consulting Instagram and other forms of social media. I don't know if people will be interested in rhubarb syrup, ice cream, cordial, and things like that, but I for one am, so making a video like that will make it easier to return to all my favorite recipes in one go. (We also made this super delish strawberry meringue cake for Midsummer, as a whole family plus one guest effort, but there are no pictures of it so did we even have said cake?)

The country slowly started to reopen and we had people over. My daughter's had at least four sleepovers with friends, and family's been visiting. First it was my brother's family a week before Midsummer (that's my nephew in the picture, digging into gravel at his "worksite" where he was really busy), then my sister's family during Midsummer (when we, among other things, ate the invisible strawberry meringue cake and went to the beach, of which there is ample proof below), and now even my sister and her partner, who's a government official at the Prime Minister's Office, have come to visit from Helsinki, so I'm convinced it must be ok to travel now, right? Right? 

And so we've been to the cabin a couple of times, of which there is proof also:

I'll top this post off with a list of other interesting things I've done this month, so you and I will know I didn't spend all of it in bed, just the freak +32C heat peak day.

READING:

Katja Kettu's novel Rose Is Gone has long been on my TBR, and when the library reopened it was one of the first books I snatched & proceeded to read in record time. I just couldn't put it down. The same happened when I re-read one of my all-time favorite novels On Beauty by Zadie Smith (this book has been mentioned in this blog countless times, among other posts here and here). I also read (and bought!) French short stories from the likes of Anna Gavalda and Claire Castillon. I always love French women's writing when I'm reading it, so why don't I read more of it I wonder? (In fact, Alice Zeniter's L'Art de perdre was one of the most memorable novels I've read this year so far.)

I also need to direct you to three articles worth reading:

We Don't Have To Halt Climate Action To Fight Racism (found via Erin)

My brother writing about the power structures our saturated lives (only in Finnish)

And Erin's post on how to make your own indoor compost bin, which we'll certainly be doing next winter because all our outdoor composts always freeze by December.

READING IN THE BATHROOM:

I've recently taken to reading poetry in the bathroom because poetry requires concentration and it's very rare to be interrupted in the bathroom, so it's the perfect place for reading your way through Atwood's selected works or the new Finnish translation of T.S. Eliot's Waste Land. Incidentally, planning for the opening scene of this rambling blogpost, i.e. the story of the fridge that stinks, I was reminded of an e.e. cummings poem 'A salesman is an it that stinks Excuse', which I also read in the bathroom after googling it, because I could only remember the opening line despite having analyzed it to death in an essay for a poetry class in uni a couple of decades ago. (That's what the possibility of googling does to our brains, folks.) Anyway, reading in the bathroom is a free tip from me to all mothers of the world, so there you go!

LISTENING:

I've been knitting and baking and cooking a lot this month, and that's when I do my best listening. If there are no irl people talking to me, I'll listen to podcasts, music or audio books, so I'll mention a few worth mentioning.

1619, a podcast from The New York Times, fascinating, informative, and way too short.

Wind of Change, a podcast about the connections between the 1980s rockband Scorpions and Cold War espionage. Very intriguing!

Phoebe Bridgers' new album Punisher, which will most certainly be my autumn soundtrack this year. Listen to the song I Know The End!!!

Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things To Me is also a solid audio book to listen to while knitting. The combination of the two, however, curiously makes me bite my teeth together so hard I get banging headaches that won't go away. Recommending the combo nevertheless because Solnit's book somehow speeds up my knitting?!?

WATCHING:

Apart from binge-watching Normal People twice at the beginning of the month, I haven't watched anything new or noteworthy. Never in my life did I think, thirteen years ago or later, that I'd still be watching the same episodes of Gossip Girl with the same guy thirteen years on, but life's weird like that, isn't it? Sometimes you find a gem and get to keep it, which is really something that deserves a post on its own, so look forward to an ode to my man and/or Gossip Girl in July.

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Gosh that was a lot of non-affiliate links to throw at you. There are two more at the bottom, but for now, it's over and out from me and June. See you in July (when I'd be happy to send you some affiliate links too, should opportunities present themselves)!

Midsummer & midlife, part one

Midsummer & midlife, part two