magic meet cute and other tiny stories of the day

Remember the three TBE shots I took last year? They needed to be topped up this year and after that it's every fifth year - whether or not the planet will exist in a state that calls for TBE-refill-shots in five years, that's another story... So as things are, I was very grateful there are several mobile vaccination centers doing the rounds over the summer here.



So today I took a walk to Lidl's parking lot, which was the vaccination bus's stop for the day. When I was getting closer I saw something that, in my vivid imagination, looked like a guy who'd lay down on his back in the tall grass and was taking pictures of the trees and the sky. (I know, that's such a weird thought...).



Then suddenly a roe deer appeared on the path and stood looking at me. I was so worried she might turned back to the road instead of heading in to the woods, but she crossed the road. Moments later a little fawn appeared, and also stood looking at me for a while, before s/he followed the mama.

Pure magic. And as I was the only human around on the walking path this moment was truly mine alone, with a roe deer and her baby. Three is a magic number.

As you can only do so much with the iPhone camera, if you're not close enough - and I wouldn't dream of zooming because heavily pixelated photos are awful -, this is what I got. And with a smartphone camera the distance to the photo-object gets significantly prolonged compared to the reality, so the meet cute was quite a lot closer. You'll have to squint and imagine the beautiful sight. (Or click on the image and zoom on Flickr.)



I got the vaccination, so now I at least don't have to worry about tick-borne encephalitis - I have enough to worry about, thank you very much -, quite common in these part of Sweden. One of the judges at my previous work, 20 years ago, got it. And that man, so full of joie de vivre before, never was the same again. Living with cats and dogs also obviously makes it more likely you might get it. I love most animals (as opposed to humans, they're impossible to love as a species), I can coexist with the others, but ticks, they're just evil and only cause pain and destruction. Like too many humans I suppose.



Then I got this vegan nicecream from Danish plantbased company Naturli, at Lidl. To be honest I haven't been a fan of the brand since I first tried their vegan butter spread, awful thing that completely destroys a pleasant sandwich experience. But the flavours sounded delicious and it is palmoil-free, so we decided to try a couple of them. Little Mum and I.



Happy to report they are both absolutely delicious, so much flavour and great creamy texture with crunchy bits. I'll just have to go back and get some more tubs and also try the liquorice flavour. It's good to find new favourite products, when old ones break your heart.

As this evening also held the very last (forever? Which if so is sad, since I thought the last season definitely picked up in quality plot-wise) episode of Midsomer Murders, the dairy-free icecream was a perfect treat for that too. The Swedish summer season generally both starts and ends with MM (would be a pity if it ended in late July already, but nothing is given with global warming, the seasons just aren't what they used to be...), so maybe this treat also was a a farewell to the summer of 2020. Hope not. Fingers crossed it will be with us until early September, as the summer it once was.

With the smaller, more restricted lives most of us are currently living, most things that used to feel nonsensical and just one of those everyday things you see, do, experience without really noticing, are suddenly very meaningful, rich enough to be savoured, to feel gratitude over - or deep irritation for that matter - and write a little blog post about. 

Today was a good day. And I'm grateful, for every little bit of it. But most of all that magical meet cute, that crossed my path. Thank you, Universe, for a new treasured experience and loved memory.