June 12

Thursday morning I was at the campus of Umeå. There was a colleague of mine and myself who guided 10 men from Ethiopia. They had come all the way to see examples of Sustainable development in Sweden and the university’s campus was one of the spots. We walked around and looked at some good examples of social and ecological sustainability efforts and we really had a nice time. They asked a lot of questions and were really interested. Afterward we had a photo session and we all posed in the sun. I would say this was the high light of the week.

The worst thing of the week was that all of the plants for the garden that I had pre-cultivated in the kitchen, died when I planted them outside. They froze to death even though I had put protecting fabric over them. Rest in peace cucumber, bean, zucchini and pumpkin. I miss you so much. I hope the potatoes and onions will show up soon and comfort me a little. They are still under the soil and can impossibly have frozen.

I’ll make a new attempt with seeds inside and hope for warmer days. While I’m waiting for them to grow I have started to build a protecting fence against the wind. I’m not giving in.

Even if it’s cold the evenings are amazing. It’s almost midnight and it’s still light.