It was warm, really warm, the last half of May. It culminated in a fabulous first weekend of June. 25 degrees in the air 19 degrees in the water. Naturally we spent it at the summer house on Orust. Woke up Saturday and had breakfast on the veranda in the morning sun, before heading down to the water and the first swim of the season.

The sea is like a mirror. Not a ripple on the surface when we arrive. Cooper is first in. He doesn’t hesitate and throws himself in the water after the stick that Anna throws. There isn’t much dog underneath his furry coat, very obvious when leaps back out of the water again with his trophy stick between his teeth.

The wind picks up a little as the morning turns to noon, and sailing boats barely fill their sails as they drift pass. Boating season is here and a variety of vessels and craft pass us by, everything from canoes to homemade houseboats.

The warm weather is brewing thunderstorms. Above the sky is blue with fluffy, friendly clouds, and the sun is shining, but all around us ominous thunderheads (cumulonimbus) are billowing up over the horizon. It looks amazing, maybe a little scary, like mushroom clouds. We stay until we feel we’ve absorbed enough sunlight before trekking back to the car.

The next day, Sunday, we repeat the process all over again. The thunderheads do too.