Big J

I was actually looking forward to a bit of drizzle when I got back from Sweden but it's almost as hot here, but with the lack of lakes to swim in, it's rather more unpleasant 😄

I can't see myself ever topping that. Certainly not on the length anyway. We weren't really expecting anything as the water was so very warm. I just got lucky.

Haha - sorry for the vagueness. In my defense, it's been over 30c for 4 days now and my brain is toast. It'll most likely just be me. No manual work - just machine work. A harvester can process the timber far, far more rapidly than any manual work. There isn't much motor manual work in forestry in Sweden really. Unrelated to the swimming, but I was taken out at dusk on the lake by a very kindly local and caught my first ever zander whilst trolling. He said it was the largest zander he's known of caught by rod and line on the lake and he's a life long local and lives on the shore. My zander fishing can only go downhill from here on out 😄 81cm and 5kg (11lb) exactly. It was also completely empty, save for one small bait fish. A fuller belly would have put another 0.5 - 1kg on it.

Well I wouldn't have guessed that! 100% humidity would kill me. The high coast is high on my list of places to go, but it'll have to wait until we're here.

It works out at about 20-25 cube a day, cut and extract. 400-500 trees. The machines can consistently do 80 an hour or so. I hadn't realised that you had that Swedish connection! You should do it man. The east is especially dry and precipitation in the winter usually falls as snow anyway. The days aren't that short in the south in winter. You'd have the same issue as me though that you'd be up against lots of skilled machine operators, but I'm sure there is work to go around. Capitalise on all the English wanting to move to Devon and buy a palace in Sweden 😎 I've been keeping an eye out for kräftor (crayfish) but that's the only one I've caught so far. Had a wonderful day today, invited to a new friend's farm and forest. I toured 110 hectares of beautiful forest, saw his stunning house, swam at the family swimming beach with his family and had 'waffle fika' with his extended family, who all live nearby. A real treat and made for the best day of the trip so far. Here are a few photos from today. The Mule belongs to the boys (11 and 😎 which they use themselves around the farm and to go swimming. Unsupervised too.

A few more from the last couple of days. I've been in 10 times in the last 48 hours. It's been exceptionally hot here (31c, 32c forecast today) and the water is very consistently warm. All three places I swam yesterday (after purchasing the thermometer) were 25.5 or 26c. Even my 07:00, pre-breakfast swim was 24.5c today. It's going to be hard to go home tomorrow, truly.

It looks lovely, and no need to apologise. We need a wild swimming thread 😁 I went swim trekking this evening. I walked around the lake (10km of lumpy, up and down trekking) and swam three times, bringing the day total to 5 swims. I'm exhausted, but grinning. Some photos of the swims and the walk:

End of July, start of August next year. When my girls finish their school year.

I had a meeting with the district manager of a large harvesting company today. He says that whilst it would be easier for me to start as a driver for a company first, starting out self employed with a machine is doable. I probably need to harvest 6000 cubic metres of first thinning annually to make a good living.

The first photo is the view of the town from the ski slope. The second two photos were this afternoon's swim in the lake. It's absolutely perfect for taking kids in there as the water is a uniform 1.1m deep the whole way across the bay. The air temp is close to 30c and a third swim will be happening later!

Nobody needed to see the mankini 😄 It's a place called Virserum, in northern Kalmar, in south eastern Sweden. The first photo there is actually from the school carpark - speaking to the kindergarten summer school class (on a tour of the school with one of the teachers), they'd been in for a swim yesterday morning as a class, as a part of their normal activities. On the far side of the lake is a ski slope, which is used extensively by the school in winter. They actually teach fishing as an activity that the kids can choose and there is an ice hockey rink too. It's a different life.

Nuts! I knew there was something I'd forgotten! A few more from the last couple of days. All generally amazing and I'm now in the town we're most likely to move to. It's genuinely stunning here. Lots of holidaying Germans too, so brushing off my rusty German too.

Palloni che tornano a casa! 😉 I feel for Rashford, and it's an awful way to settle a game, but I felt that Italy deserved to win.

I'm in Sweden at the moment. It's mainly for work, but I am finding plenty of time to swim inbetween. I adore wild swimming, but haven't found anywhere in Devon since moving here. It's either the sea, or a splash in a river, and there isn't anything close to us. So I've done more swimming in the last 48 hours here in Sweden than the last 3 years in Devon. Here are some photos from my swims so far (5 times in 48hrs 😄 ) This is from my first morning in Sweden. I did get a nice swim the evening before, but no photos. So I had the place entirely to myself and it was recommended by a friend who'd learned to swim there. I swam before breakfast (07:00), the water temperature was over 20c and it was absolutely perfect. The evening's swim wasn't so well planned due to a lack of time, but I found a nice and popular beach at the SW end of Vänern (Western Europe's largest lake). It was a bit choppy and a bit too much like the sea for my liking, but still very pleasant. Water about 20-21c. This morning's swim was excellent. We'd had heavy rain overnight, and the air temperature was a little low when I left the house, but the area I drove to was very sunny and warm (22-24c). I again had the lake almost to myself. This is a village swimming area in a place called Mölltorp, and had fantastic facilities. Changing rooms, fully disabled accessible (including ramp into the water), volleyball courts, diving platforms and sandy beach. Water was 20c plus and I stayed in for ages. I pretty much just went straight from there to the next swim, about 25 minutes away at Granvik, on Lake Vättern (Sweden's second largest lake). The water is different there, being famous for gin clear quality and being a little cooler. Still a solid 19c, with a dramatic coast, beautiful harbour and nice cafe. I'm going blueberry picking with my brother in law and sister in law in the morning, which I'll couple with a swim at a place called Hindens Rev (terminal glacial morraine peninsular sticking out 5km into Vänern.

Very much agree. Harry Kane's feet seem to be magnetically repelled from the floor if he's challenged by another player. That repulsion only gets stronger the closer he is to the goal.

England deserved the win, but not by the manner that it was achieved. The penalty wasn't justified. They did control long parts of the game though. Denmark were superb, especially considering their population is a tenth of England's. If they win on Sunday, the question will no doubt be raised - can England only win a major championship at Wembley?

The fire is now on. Never thought I'd be doing that in Devon in July, but hey ho. Better that than uncomfortably cold.

I suspect I'll put the fire on today. It was very grey, raining and only up to 17.8c yesterday. Highs of 16 forecast today and the living room is down to 18c. It'd only take one stoking, but sub-20c just isn't pleasant. Where is summer?

Bloody great useless lunking animals 😄 The strength of an ox, the brains of a rabbit and the nerves of a cat. And more expensive to keep than a mid sized car.

Not a joke as such.... I'm in Sweden later this week for work. Being half German, I've always felt the irresistible draw of sandals and socks, but being married to a English lady (notably not suffering from a visual impairment) I've never been allowed. So in Sweden I'm going to go nuts. Sandals and socks all the way. Kathryn asked for photographic proof. I asked if it that could be considered sexting. She said no - it's the exact opposite 😄

Hahahaha 😄😝 Everything has grown like mad lately with the regular and sometimes extreme rainfall (Chard had 90mm in 3 hours last Monday). I felt like a bit of a dwarf amongst those monster foxgloves

I'm in the process of tendering to thin a decent sized oak compartment near Buckfastleigh in Devon. About 40% of the block is to be winched, and I no longer have the machinery to do it. I did last year's thinning, so I imagine that I'm in a good position to do next years. If anyone is interested in winching about 350-400 cube of nice quality and nice sized oak, please get in touch. It probably averages 38cm at chest height, the slope isn't too steep and it's very clean. I'll admit to hating winching, but this isn't bad work at all. Some of the runs are a little long, but there is plenty of space and all the crowns will be left on the hill. There is space to stay on site in a caravan, it's ruddy scenic and all the timber will be felled ahead of you. It's ideal work for the kind of alpine that would fit on a 3.5t trailer. This is how we left last year's block:

Thanks for the mention Adam. They certainly seem like the dog danglies as far as excavators go, but we're planning to emigrate next year to Sweden, so my need for one down here in Devon is no longer the case. I'm not discounting the idea of an excavator based harvester for Sweden though.