A relaxing day by the lake...

Early this morning, I finally caught up with the highlights of Andy Murray's fantastic match in the Wimbledon final on Sunday. What an amazing match it was! Meanwhile, when the rest of the family woke up, we decided to try out some porridge made from rye- which turned out to be really delicious!

Our Opel Vivaro rental car. It's a 9 seater, which will be useful when Anna's family arrive at the weekend.

In the centre of town this morning.

Waiting for pizzas to arrive!

We drove in to Jyvaskyla mid-morning, as we wanted to do a bit of shopping. Keith bought a T-shirt, and we wandered about the centre for a while, before having some lunch in an Italian place- pizzas for all. By now, with the sunshine getting hot, we decided it was time to get home to the lake, and the various delights there. Before leaving town though, we bought 3 litres of peas, and a litre each of strawberries and cherries, which all disappeared by about 30 minutes after our return to the house!

Keith sets off for a "wee" swim this afternoon!

I'm aware there's a bit of a heatwave in Scotland right now, but here, the weather is the same as it always seems to be in July. Since we arrived on Sunday, it's been simply glorious. Sitting in the garden, or by the lake, it seems really heavenly. And with the day lasting so long here, it's great just to sit in the sunshine until late in the evening. Having said all that, the weather for tomorrow is saying it'll be cooler and a bit wet perhaps, but from Thursday onwards, it's back to the usual sunshine and warmth again!

In the hot-tub. 

Anna now wants one of these!

And that little stove heats the whole thing up to a remarkably hot temperature!

I filled up the hot-tub again this afternoon, and lit the little stove that is so efficient at heating the whole tub up. While it was heating again, we repeatedly jumped in the lake and enjoyed the sauna, with Keith spending most of the afternoon and indeed the evening too in the water. I don't know exactly how far he swam in total, but it was a hell of a distance! While the rest of us swam out maybe 20 to 40 metres from the shore, Keith repeatedly swam a circuit that must have been about 150- 200m round- and he did this perhaps 20 times in total today. So, he swam an amazing distance!

Fooling around in the warm water.

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Dinner time by the lake.

None of us wanted to eat at the usual time, as the sun was so gorgeous, so we eventually had dinner by the lake at around 7.30pm, and after this, we had a short visit from our very friendly landlord, Timo, who brought us a replacement washing machine, and fitted it in a couple of minutes. After he left, the sauna and swimming sessions continued, with Keith finally coming out of the lake for the last time today at about 9.15pm!

With Timo, the owner of this lovely cottage :-)