Digging in the dirt and soaking in the sun

I'm a tad behind on my posts recently. Much has occurred since I last wrote, including a nature-filled trip to Borneo with my cousin Libby (I'll fill you in on this adventure in a separate post ASAP). Before heading off to a warmer climate, I went back over to Midtdalsbreen to study the proglacial sediments and squeezed in a visit from my Leeds house mate, Katrina, over the midsummer weekend.

Lena, Benny and Sven on the LIA moraine

The aim of this summer fieldwork was to dig sections through the glacial moraines I had been surveying and see what sorts of sediments were there and take a look at the sedimentary structures inside. For this I needed the help of my supervisor Benny and the glacial sedimentology don, Sven, from Lund University. We, along with Sven's PhD - Lena and two Master's students - Alex and Mattius, spent 5 days at the Finse Alpine Research Centre, hiking up and down to Midtdalsbreen and the adjacent glacier Blaisen and digging numerous holes up there. We were blessed with great weather for the most part (very unusual for Finse!) and managed to find some exciting sections for me to return to and log, now that Benny and Sven have given me the skills to do so.

Overall, it was a successful trip and I now expect to work with Lena further as we collaborate on our

River crossings via a snow bridge

PhD projects. My final day was a little less successful however as I managed to get achilles tendonitis in both heels, making the walk down from the glacier exceptionally painful so I had to remain at the field centre on the Wednesday with my feet propped up on a chair, willing them to make a miraculous recovery ready for my walk to the train station that evening. Sadly they didn't fix quite that quickly so the 2 km track to the station was covered at a sluggish plod. Luckily the car was an automatic so I was able to share the driving with Benny to Honefoss that night, where we were stopping over, and onwards to Stockholm the following day.

The midsomarstangen

Within 15 hours of arriving back in Stockholm, I'd unpacked, made use of my carefully timed laundry slot and prepared my apartment for its next guest, Katrina. Katrina was my house mate and course mate during my Master's in Leeds and is now a physics teacher back in her home town of Aberdeen. She'd arrived just in time for the longest day of the year, so after dumping her stuff at my place we headed straight over to Vaxholm, the gateway to the Stockholm Archipelago, to join the midsummer celebrations there. For once, shockingly, we had a gloriously sunny day for midsommarafton (the day before midsummer when the celebrations take place), so we found ourselves a shady spot in the park and dug in to our picnic (complete with snaps of course!). After a quick stroll around the town, it was time for the raising of the maypole (midsommarstangen) so that the dancing could begin. To start with some elderly town folk performed a few traditional dances and then we were invited to join in. I dragged Katrina along to take part in shuffling around like a little frog, pretending to knit socks and many other odd actions involved in these Swedish songs! As the dancing came to an end we decided it was time to head back to Stockholm, ready for dinner, so we caught a boat back through the beginnings of Stockholm's many islands then made our way along the waterfront to Herman's.

View from Herman's

Herman's is a vegetarian buffet restaurant, set on a cliff top overlooking the sea with views across to
the city centre and Grona Lund theme park. I've been wanting to go there since first arriving in Stockholm and had heard so many rave reviews, so was very glad to finally have an opportunity to try it out. There were so many dishes it was hard to get around to trying them all, but I gave it my best shot and certainly wasn't disappointed; what a feast.

Swimming spot Hellasgarden

Neither Katrina nor I are particularly city people and the centre was pretty deserted for the midsummer holiday, so given another sunny day we escaped to the tranquillity of Hellasgarden, the national park 20 minutes south of the centre. There we went for a slow (my heels still hurt) walk around the lake and took a dip in the surprisingly warm water along the way. On the Sunday we stayed a little more central with a walk around and picnic on Djurgarden (the island with a royal park), a trip up the city hall tower to take in the views, the first of many cinnamon buns for Katrina and a very chilly dip in the sea.

Katrina on our Hellasgarden walk

Given all this time I'm spending out of the office, I thought I should probably actually go to work for
a couple of days so Katrina explored the city while I went in and worked on my conference poster then we met in the evening for a Stikkinikki ice cream (I'd been craving one all weekend but they were closed for the holiday!). Come Tuesday it was time to say goodbye to Katrina as I needed to get my apartment in order and pack for my coming trips, ready for my flight home the next day.

Stockholm from the city hall tower

Given that the Thursday was to be Mum's birthday I'd decided I would surprise her and return home a couple of days earlier than planned. With great assistance from Dad and Tom and particularly detailed planning from Dad we managed to pull off the impossible and surprise Mum for her birthday! I was so glad I could be home to join Mum for her birthday breakfast and cryptic treasure hunt from Tom followed by a delightful lunch at the Hand and Flowers in Marlow then home for tea and cake in the evening sun.

The following days involved a hot trip to Kew Gardens, a few quick catch ups and many preparations