The sun is still shining! Summer Solstice, museums and weekends

It's gone from long beautiful sunny day to long beautiful sunny days interspersed with torrential rainfall. I can't count on one hand the number of times I've unwittingly ventured out wearing just a tshirt and leggings in +20c just to arrive home half an hour later like a drowned rat. I'm so grateful for the last few weeks (months?!) of gorgeous weather, but part of me isn't ready for it to end yet. I'm spending all of July in Ireland, and that will be a surprise to the system, I'm pretty sure.

It's the Midsummer celebrations tonight so we're going to a local park to watch a bonfire and eat strawberries. It's rained a lot today, so let's hope it lets up until tomorrow. I love both the Winter and Summer Solstice. There's something magical about those times of the year, it's so unique. 

This weekend I wasn't working very much (actually, I did a two hour shift and that was it), so I've been switching off the 'worry, you need money' side of my brain and enjoying long cycles outside, trips to museums, free coffee and snacks at my friend's café, a trip to see Only God Forgives (oh God, so bloody, so violent), and thinking a lot, as usual, about the future.

Was very impressed by this coffee, was not impressed by the pretentious coffee snobbery of the baristas

OMG! Collection of Oddities at the Geological Museum

Stuff in jars e'er day

Best balcony

Cake Making the week before last

Sheer Concentration

A work of art

What's that? A section about Foucauldian theory in an art book? Ok, cool!

Maybe it's summer now?

...I just don't know. It's sunny a lot, but most of the time there's a biting wind and every few days it buckets rain and my waterproof trousers fail me on an ill-fated cinema trip. I don't trust the weather, any more than I trust the chain on my bike, which pops off infuriatingly every time I hop off a curb. In addition, someone where I live stole the elastic wires that I usually attach things to the back of my bike with. Maddening.

I've been working a ton lately, and to be honest I've been fairly exhausted most of the time (8am class starts, 8AM!!), so I haven't been blogging at all, but as usual Leo never stops taking pictures. Here's a bit of what we've been up to:

Distortion was last week. For those not in the know, it's 5 days of street parties, in a different neighbourhood every night. Thurssday was in Vesterbo where we live, so it would have been rude not to go. We got a packet of balsamic and salt crisps (salt and vinegar, they were not, European crisps are so disappointing), Leo had some cans of beer and I had coffee and cinnamon cookies.

We didn't so much participate as observe, but that's my favourite thing to do at such events. I don't drink, I don't like dance music, and I don't really get group mentality stuff, but it was fun to see mild-mannered Danes get really really drunk. For the record: nowhere near as raucous as Irish people after drinking half as much, it's a culture thing.

Disco ball hanging from a crane. They played YMCA

Here's some of that beautiful sunshine I talked about. And a little model Leo made.

On Friday evening a guy from our class had an open day at the studio he paints at. I thought it was a pretty novel concept, but apparently it's quite usual here to rent a studio space like this to work at. Every artist opened up their space, cleaned to varying degrees, and put some of their work on display. I've been there before at night, and during the day the light is beautiful, the walls are white, and the place is so calming. I could happily live there, I think.

Everything looks beautiful at dusk

 I've been experimenting with a different route home every night (the same route gets so boring), and I pass the big old Carlsberg factory a lot of times. I have a rubbish phone camera, but Leo managed to get a nice shot of it.

 Full Dark No Stars is the most recent book I've read (after Micro-serfs, also amazing) and I just couldn't put it down. It's sickening, it's mesmerising, relatable, beautiful and tragic. I'd recommend it, but probably not on a full stomach...

The End