Saturday 13th July

I took this at 12.25am- showing that it's not dark here even in the middle of the night!

I was following speedway on the net last night until late, so I didn't actually get round to writing about yesterday as I was tired when it finished, so I'm writing early about it now on Sunday.

Leaping again into the lake!

Sandy and Olivia with Alexsi and Alvar.

With Petri and Sari.

Fun in and around the lake.

Time to relax!

How to describe yesterday? Firstly, the weather was absolutely fantastic, the best day since we arrived! Cloudless skies, very warm, with the temperature hovering around 25c most of the day, no wind- just perfect! And the lake was noticeably warmer too again. It's just beautiful to jump into at the moment, after you come, sweating, from the sauna! Oh man- it's fair to say that we all really adore it here. 

And yesterday, we had our friends Sari, Petri, Aleksi and Alvar here too. They arrived at about noon and were soon exploring the place, admiring the cottage and the garden too. Then we were in the lake, before lunch and during the afternoon we were repeatedly in the lake, the sauna, the hot-tub, in between eating lunch and dinner. 

Sandy and his pal Alvar.

Keith loves it here. He is swimming an incredible distance each day in the warm sunshine. 

Olivia posing by the trampoline...

...and showing off!

By the local beach, about 3 or 4 km away.

Jumping off the small diving board.

And from the bigger one!

I think we'll return here again!

Once they left in the evening, we returned to swimming once again, and Olivia and I decided to drive along to the next lake, about 3 or 4 minutes away, where there is a public diving board and beach, just to check it out. While we were away Keith continued with yet more swimming here, with Anna and Sandy just jumping in and out. Petri commented while he was here that he had never seen someone swim as much as Keith- and we reckon he must have swum several kilometres yesterday! Anyway, at the neighbouring lake, Olivia and I found a good few folk still swimming and diving, even though it was now about 8.45pm. The water there was equally warm, so I think we'll maybe return there with everyone one day this week. 

Later today, Anna's family will arrive from St Petersburg, and it is already very hot there this morning...