Selma

8

This Easter I have been tending to my balcony. Replanting baby tomatoes, chilis and marigolds, planting seeds of nasturtium and wild strawberries. Making plans for wooden structures for the plants to grow in and up against. This home quarantine has turned me into an overly ambitious amateur carpenter and balcony gardener. Only time will tell if my balcony ends up living up to my lush, green vision. And while I tinker, I listen to the audiobook of Anna-Karin Palm’s incredible Selma Lagerlöf biography. Lagerlöf, Swedish national treasure and first woman to win the Nobel prize in literature. She might have appreciated my balcony endeavours. She often wrote with great admiration and insight about the hard work and skill of farmers and craftspeople. And in 1894, her first trip with Sophie Elkan, lifelong travel companion, went to Visby. Every day, they had lunch and dinner in the botanic garden pavilion. 124 years later, I discovered that the very same garden was a marvelous place to sit and read in, surrounded by dahlias and roses. And so my Easter break goes full circle.

Photo: The Botanical Garden of the Bathing Friends in Visby, Sweden, September 2018. Posted on Instagram April 13, 2020.