Midsummer in Sweden is always a strange kind of limbo. The days are already darkening now, although it doesn’t feel like that. You feel like sleeping in the day, staying awake at night, it’s a time to slip away from routines, eat strawberries, swim in lakes and get away from the cares of the world. Or should be.
Yes, when not sitting with my mandolin leaning against a birch tree I have had my face glued to the iPhone, reading hourly newspaper reports from home and following politicians and musicians on Twitter at all hours of the 24 hour day. All the British musicians I have come across were for staying in the EU, although it is evident many fans were for Leave.
I am a stayer too and like many others I am deeply saddened, shocked and worried by the news. I have no idea how it will pan out, we have never seen such chaos. The EU has been great for me although I know that not everyone sees it that way and that there was a lot wrong with it.
It is a time for people to show their true colours too. Yesterday Mike Harding tweeted ‘David Icke is right – they really are all lizards in human skin’. Boris? Gove? And who would have thought the Guardian newspaper could be so pro Cameron and anti Corbyn? I have come to expect that from the BBC, but not the Guardian. We are also being reminded just how many racists there are among us.
Up to now I have resisted the desire to make a political blog, there is just too much going on. I feel it’s more a time to listen, especially as so many voices are talking at once. I don’t know how all this will affect me as a Swedish resident, and there is no-one to ask. So I will just go back to my porch with another coffee and my mandolin. Maybe check my iPhone to see how Jeremy is getting on.