At this rate, it is going to be a pretty subdued summer due to financial limitations. But, I am hoping that the girls will be happy enough spending time in the garden. Of course, whether it is enjoyable or not depends a lot on the weather, since being there if it is cold and wet sucks. Even though there is still snow on the ground, I am going to have to get out there and do a little bit of prep work, like wrap the thujas in shade cloth before it gets too sunny and burns the new growth, as we only put them in last year and they aren't strong enough to fend for themselves yet. And then prune the apple tree.
If the weather is good, a simple summer is welcome and with Puusti, it means we can't travel too much anyway. Hopefully, we can do some forest trips and perhaps borrow some gear from friends to go camping or something, to test it out. There is no point buying all the gear only to find out we are not campers. There are a few national parks close by, so even if not camping, we can do some short hikes through the forests.
The plan was to build the rest of the decking this year, but I think that unless something dramatic happens for us financially, that will have to wait a bit longer. What I might be ab le to do is hand dig the foundation and lay the foam down to stop the ground freezing, but even that is a maybe. And hand digging such a big area 50cm deep is going to be pretty back-breaking work, especially as it is also under a birch tree. Though, perhaps it is what I deserve.
Heavy manual labour.
It would likely take me several weeks to dig the area deep enough, so if the weather is good, I wouldn't need to go to the gym too often to get some exercise in. Though, I am still probably would. There is something in me that says that working in the garden doesn't count as a workout, so to get the mental benefits, I would have to go and do something - even if it is only on a bike. I also think that when the "intention" of the activity isn't to exercise, it doesn't have the same effects on the body as intentional exercise. I am not sure if that is backed by science though.
Normally I look forward to summer, but since I haven't been working that much lately, it doesn't have the same appeal. It will be nice to have some warm weather and be able to sit out on the terrace, but otherwise, not much changes for me. Of course, once Smallsteps and my wife are off school and work, then it is nicer again, but I feel that until then, it is just going to be a bit lonely. Maybe though, I will be able to get a lot of gardening clean up done whilst listening to some audiobooks or something. And then of course, if it is really warm, then we can splash around down at the lake, eat ice cream and have plenty of grills. That would be about as good as it can get perhaps. Simple, enjoyable, cheap.
Personally, it doesn't take much for me to have a good summer, but I feel that my wife kind of feels that it isn't a relaxing summer unless we do something, go somewhere, and get out of the house and city. Many Finns grew up going to family summer cottages, and then now many travel internationally, but sitting around home has never been the usual practice. For me, sitting around home was every summer. It changes the expectation for the rest of life it seems. Childhood memories and all that.
I try to forget most of those memories. To no avail.
But yeah, with the shift in the air and the increasing warmth when the sun appears, my mind is making the mental shift from winter into spring, looking around at what needs to be fixed, what needs to be cleaned, and making a list of where to start. It is a long list at the moment, but luckily I have the time.
Taraz
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A lot of people struggle to afford summer holidays now... Not much money and everything got so damn expensive, now even worse with the war
I love summer, if not for summer holidays at least I can take the car and go a day at the sea at 1 hour road from here, winter is kinda depressing for me
Yeah, it definitely isn't just us in this position - unemployment is 11% here at the moment and it sucks.
And we will try to do similar. There are many lakes close, but the beach is a different kind of thing, isn't it?
Oh yeah, at the sea you also got sand, which is quite a good perk for kids compared to the lake!
I know my wife good enough to know that unless a five star resort is involved she would not appreciate camping :)
And I think she feels the same way, unless we get out and go somewhere else it is not a vacation...
Yeah, my wife doesn't seem like a camper, but I know she used to love the caravan road trips as a kid. not glamorous sometimes, but fun. I just want Smallsteps to have some memories of something she clearly enjoyed.
Mmmmmmm be carefully very carefully, around 20 years ago, i lending a sleepingbag to a friend and he went with a girl and those night was hard very hard and he give pregnant to the girl and they get a baby girl and his life was a hell because the girl was bad woman and make a hell to my friend, fortunately he fight for his daughter and winner the custody of her, but he loses a lot of money in the process, i have the guilty because i lending him the sleeping bag, one day recently y talk with him and said hey i have a gift for you i have this sleeping bag.
Ha! I am not sure if you should feel guilty for lending the sleeping bag - It seems there were many other influencing factors in that story :)
Sometimes I am glad that I don't travel anywhere. Our favorite neighbor's daughter and her family are stuck in dubai. They seem to be safe at the moment but I still think that staying there around longer than they planned is really expensive. Also Lithuania helped only a small portion of lithuanians to get home and left others to look after themselves...not fair. But what is fair in life? after all according to one anime character the only one thing is equal for all and that is death...
Besides the cost, I think it would be a great experience for many people to get a little taste of what actually happens in the world. I had a couple colleagues in Dubai who are now home. They hopefully have a new appreciation for stability.
I remember seeing sports news- one basketball player who was also in Dubai and claimed that now he has seen everything. This is a rich celebrity talking so I assume that he still experienced only a fraction of what Ukrainians were feeling for years...
I've already started looking at our deck and what needs to be done though we have some more snow coming this week. I am sure my wife is going to want to power wash it before we really use it this summer. I've been thinking about getting some lights and another set of curtains for the canopy though.
Yeah, I am not getting too ahead of myself yet. It is still early.
Always a good idea. Not sure if we can do ours yet, as it needs a few years to grey up still. Will have to ask at the lumber shop.
What kind of lights are you planning?
Our is composite, but the parts that don't get a lot of sun tend to get a bit green with stuff growing on them. I think she wants something with skulls... :)
Do you notice any major changes when cold? I have heard the joins can get quite wide with composite.
No, not really. It just creaks a lot more. They have to run the boards underneath closer together too, but we never have to stain it or seal it or anything.
Yeah it is a huge bonus not having to stain it. Ours is wood and is treated in this "stone" stuff so we supposedly don't have to stain it. Just brush it down occasionally.
If you choose to go camping, take care about the monsters in the forest. Remember “Wrong way” the movie.
Unfortunately, there are no monsters here. The forests are so boring.
I can understand the wish for a simple life (which I wish too) and appreciating nature, even if it means being near home around the garden.
Yeah, it could be worse. At the moment at least, we have a garden.
It is possible that your own garden in a quiet corner of our planet and a lake are better than a hotel in some hot country.
I don't care for hotels or even international travel that much. But it is nice to get away from the city for a bit and change the scenery.
Don't underestimate the power of that combo. I reckon you're in for a surprisingly good time by yourself
Yeah, it might be alright. I just spend so much time by myself already, and I am not the best company :)
Somehow I doubt the last statement 🙂
the best things in life are free.. but lots of money sure helps to make all those things accessible and/or possible.. like maslow's hierarchy.. need all the basics before work on the good stuff happens. (and also those base needs, like food, is a big
pleasure in life too.)
Your post really made me think about how much our expectations of seasons come from childhood memories. Some people grow up with summer meaning travel, cottages, and activities, while others are used to simpler summers at home. Like you said, those early experiences shape what we later feel a “good summer” should look like.
AKA stuff is put off indefinitely even if actually critical to life.
I wish I could loan you Youngest, he loves digging holes for some inane reason and I'm not even exaggerating when I say that doesn't sound like a problem for him (he would probably be disappointed that it's not deeper).
Is that similar to the thing in me that rather than feeling the satisfaction of a job well done when everything is finally clean and tidy and organised (at least for the next 10min or so) I just feel a very deep resentment that I had to do most if not all of it?
That sounds really nice ^_^
"It depends". I grew up going overseas every year with my family (mostly to Asia, though we did go to America once, I was little and don't remember much beyond Disneyland and even that's mostly a gigantic lollipop bigger than my head, a Mickey mouse pancake that was actually three pancakes and a roller coaster which I found scary at the time but would probably find quite entertaining now). I really, really, really hate the travelling part of travelling. Unfortunately it's something I have to put up with if I actually decide that I want to go and experience that place on the other side. I am perfectly happy to stay local and be boring.
Having said that I really wouldn't have minded if we'd had the opportunity to do that kind of thing with the kids when they were growing up. We never got that chance though as we were never going to have enough money.
I hope you're much better than me at prioritising tasks x_x good luck with the list :D