Big J

This is most certainly me 😄

They are certainly slimmer and healthier, but the proportion that live in urban settings is actually a little higher than here (86% as opposed to 83% here).

I agree, alongside better (cost free) access to outdoor spaces. It doesn't help that we live in the smallest houses in Europe. It's almost impossible to maintain any social distance with anyone in your typical 3 bed new build.

But why can a country like Sweden go through the pandemic with no masks and have a statistically insignificant death rate and an infection rate much lower than us? I've been twice in the past 9 months and didn't see a single mask on anyone at any time. Their current situation is much better than ours and their overall situation compares favourably too. I don't think that it's as simple as "everyone put on masks and keep 2m distant". In the UK we've been treated like total idiots. We've had all personal responsibility stripped away from us through much of this, and then randomly been given it all back in a rush. Think Eat out to help out and now the 19th of July. Infection rates are going to skyrocket again because there is no happy middle ground where the individual assumes personal responsibility and shows mutual respect. It's government diktat or total personal freedom. I expect that before the schools go back in September that the government will have reimposed restrictions of some description.

I am inclined to agree. I think that the factors having the greatest influence on the spread of covid (and the death rate) don't relate specifically to lockdowns or PPE. Look at the US. They're more or less fully open, have a less compliant public and a lower vaccination rate than us. Then look at Sweden. Totally different approach with minimal social distancing and no PPE at all. Then Germany - harder lockdowns than us and more more militant use of PPE. Here are the current infection rates per 100,000 per week based on the 7 day average: USA: 62.8 Sweden: 15.9 Germany: 10.1 UK: 461.2 But then compare death rates per 100,000: USA: 0.52 Sweden: 0.001 Germany: 0.16 UK: 0.41 What this indicates (in my opinion) is that different approaches don't seem to offer especially different outcomes, that vaccinations make a difference to death rate within a country (compare wave 2 to wave 3 in the UK), but interestingly, in the four countries I've picked, those with the highest vaccination rate have both the highest infection and death rate. I wholeheartedly support vaccination, but I don't think that social distancing by diktat works. I won't be wearing a mask in the UK again and I won't comply with any further restrictions if they are reimposed. We're close to herd immunity and the very high infection rate in the UK is largely asymptomatic or cases of very mild disease. Shutting down a country for what is now less severe than flu (in terms of health outcomes) is nutty.

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?