SUMMER FOLLY

The Summer Season seems to have a profound impact on the mind of us Swedes. Not so much on people of my age of course. For us old-timers, Summer means mainly sleeping bad at night and staying sleepy during day-time, combined with a welcome lessening of pain in joints and muscles. But the youngsters become a lot more lively in the warm season with its long days; a lot of partying is going on and extending long into night and even mornings.

Yesterday morning I woke up early – as so often happens to me in June and July – and tiptoed out to the balcony to inspect the scenario of Hammarby Sound in the early morning sun, already shining at 4 am. All was quiet – no breeze disturbing the view – and I delighted in observing the sky's rosy locks being mirrored in a wondrous way by the calm waters underneath.

Suddenly, a terrible screech shook me out of my meditative trance! And, with a woosh!, a swarm of seagulls sailed by me, one of them only inches from my head. I am glad it managed to bypass me at the last instance, otherwise who knows what had happened to my scalp! The ruckus got worse by the second and gradually it dawned on my that all those birds were rising from the large harbor crane standing on the quay some 100 meters to my right. Looking at it closely I saw, to my great surprise, a whole flock of the gulls attacking some youngsters who attempted to climb the crane! Juvenile exuberance being met by angry birds, disturbed in their nesting activities, I have to assume.

Swarted by the valiant defenders, the youngsters quickly abandoned their climbing expedition and proceeded, in a rambling fashion, along the quay in my direction. With rambunctuous shouts and hootings, waking up the whole neighborhood, they stopped just below my balcony and exclaimed that it was bathing time! No sooner spoken than the first braves were already undressing and jumping into the (ice-cold) water. This suddenly sobered them up and, considerably subdued, they continued their journey along the quay. Soon, calm reigned again over the sound and I returned to bed for another hour or two of uneasy sleep.