flowers

i have mostly spent my springs in finland, but every year i'm moved about the finnish spring and its little steps and signs. my mum and aunt found a sinivuokko forest close to the bakery. the flowers are sharing the ground with a motocross path. C and V by a big tree V tried to climb. "it's hard, but i try!"

today is Y's 33rd birthday.


i decided we can bring 7 blue ones home (we have plenty of white ones on the yard, they are much less delicate), but they are definitely best viewed in the forest, so many shades of blue...

bathing

the bath tub is great! i waste so much time in the shower, that i think i use less water if i take a bath. finland is rich in water so i don't feel bad about using water, but wasting electricity is of course a different matter. it takes money too. now i wish we had built a system where water would be heated with the fire of the oven. that's how we're gonna heat in the winter.

this has been my favorite photo for the past weeks. it is my desktop picture. V is going to get some cold water down her neck there; taking bath with dad is full of screaming. below: kitchen side table (Y found in some barn, found out who is the owner and bought from him this forgotten and abandoned piece of furniture) (Y is getting a bit bored with my praising of him, he thinks i'm overdoing it. but it's for real...). and the top of shelf in the blue room.


(weird mix of stuff, now we're off to hang laundry)

story of boxes

before i got sick (the famous watershed) one project was this: a kitchen shelf. here the boxes are outside to be dusted. they have been waiting upstairs since K & D left. they found all these wooden boxes in the trash in Helsinki (very close to our old place) when they were still living in finland. they wanted to take them back to germany, but we got to keep them if we use them well. hope this will do... in the background V is playing with her new friend, 4 years older H from across the street. H is staying at her father's just on weekends.


step 2: a housing complex for toys. step 3: all dry food stuff + kettles + towels + cooking books fit in. i was happy to notice almost everything is organic! (i can't seem to take a straight picture.) step 4 would be to change the handles. Y has found very nice ones, but maybe the heavy boxes need to keep these handles; not nice but fitting for their purpose.

this was a weekend of visitors, dear friend V from Marseille and C and baby M. C has been here many times, since the very beginning, but for V it was the first time, she was acting super nice! amazing, amazing!

new week starts with lots of tasks.

adjusted

today i went out walking, just to the bakery and back, and i felt that now i have moved. i got a comment before, that sickness is a form of adjustment, and i was thinking about that. now i have arrived tot his place. this is my yard, this my street, this is my bakery lady and she knows my kid's name. she also knew that V is the strongest girl in the world. it's hot (hot for a finnish spring day) and quiet. we had Eskimos (ice-cream) in the swing. my mum and aunt are here again, to help and play. i have too many things to blog about, so will be hysterical for a long time still. anyway, this is my first project here: handkerchief curtain. i wanted to make a half-curtain, but i don't know yet how to hang curtains anywhere, we don't have any system yet. i thought checkered curtains for kitchen, so this is it. maybe. not permanent.

from the girl of beauty

i got a package last week, from Y. every Ö in it's right place.
there was a chain of happenings: i've been making translations for M & K 's shop common. i told M i have this blog, she told told me about their friend's blog, and from a link from noninoko i came across Y's new book. we haven't been in touch for a while, but i found out that she finally(?) has her own home-page. i wrote to her and very soon i found beautiful package full of beauty in my mail box. she is one of the sweetest and gentlest creatures on this earth. and she's strong. and talented. i know her through another favorite person, C. they came to finland together. i visited her home in 2004. there, i had a dream about a little girl who was my daughter, and we had the most wonderful time together. she had the same mouth as Y's sister, so i knew in the dream she was Y's daughter as well. i wrote to Y that we should have a child, and i always expected to have a girl (V doesn't have that mouth though). while i was away, Y also got a phone call about Manteli, and we made a long-distance decision to buy the house too. somehow i feel like Yuko is involved in these big matters. i miss those days at her place. bicycling. soft and calm. only nice things around.

one favorite spread. they are cut-paper illustrations.

then

i got sick.

äh, i wrote something i don't want to be writing here.
but anyway, another break.
maybe i'll be back with good news about V's daycare - now that it didn't go like a dream, it is so so hard.
all i want is vegetarian/organic orientated place with toys of natural materials, or at least not only plastic and especially not old cell phones and credit cards.
maybe it's a lot to ask.
i wanna get well and be able to do my job.
i want C & O not to break up.
i want everything to go well with dear J's pregnancy.
i want everything to go well with F's delivery, due date tomorrow.

hyperemotional hanna, who realised this random photo is heartbreakingly fitting, being sick divides me from my girl like a glass wall

100th

finally. finally! the modem arrived! feels pretty amazing. and this is my 100th post. i decided it will feature V's flower arrangements. flowers to mum. wood crocus and handkerchief crocus. krookus. in this kind of words she almost says R. and merikrotti (scary looking fish).
it feels very amazing too, that while i've been unconnected, i suddenly started getting so many comments! i'm guessing it has a lot to do with fine little day... tack! thank you everyone for sweet words (i make a speech). here in the countryside, you know, this blog thing will probably be an important channel to have more social life... i'm not worried about that though. i have exchanged the words "i'm happy you exist" with S yesterday, then moved to tears. i will write more about big emotions later (ha! whenever i feel like it!), now it's working time. V is outside with my mum. (yes, not in the kindergarten...)

a carpet Y has found somewhere, it has been hiding upstairs. i like it. i wasn't sure first. now it's on the kitchen floor. we are a bit new to having carpets. every carpet we had in town, the old cat N has peed on. in a house like this they are necessary anyway. no pee yet!

second week

...was mostly grey and rainy. kindergarten teacher got sick, so V's training got interrupted. she had a good start there on Monday and i got a permission to work at their office (all libraries are closed on mondays!?). but now my working time became zero.
but
there are modest little spring flowers here and there. lots of checking at ground level. i don't remember all spots where i planted tulip onions. cat hair on our yard that is not from our cats! where did they learn to fight so well?

the inside toilet is in use now! i'd love to bake something. our oven (from e-bay obviously) should arrive next week. the bird room is still totally unorganised... days go by so quick and especially the evenings after Y gets home from work. but he gets home, and he's at home on the weekends - it feels very luxurious after all this time.

we visited S & R and their 3 kids and met another nice woman with a little girl there. we can combine the kindergarten rides with them, so there will be less driving (which concerns me really a lot!) in the future. and i got vegan cake maker recommendation! they had just had a name giving and ordered cakes from one kindergarten mother and it was super tasty. not "alternative" or "healthy" tasting at all. i want one for V's birthday too! we are not vegans, just vegetarians (organic milk & eggs), but it's nice to have things suitable for everybody at parties.

photos from our Family Walk.

from the library with memory stick.

first week

-enjoying sun (i decided this photo of V is an hommage to H Schjerfbeck, a favorite artist)
-taking many baths (salvia and calendula)
-seeing many tractors from the window
-admiring different types of moss
-washing dishes on bathroom floor
-watching the outside toilet go overboard... then my mum came and changed the bucket there.
(the ventilation is still not installed, Y has had trouble finding the materials.
eco-toilet needs mechanic ventilation to avoid any smells)
-drinking a lot of tea (fennel and rooibos-lemon grass)
-eating lots of cabbage
(V calls herself kaalihullu, fenkoliteehullu and hapankaalihullu. and rusinahullu, taatelihullu, aprikoosihullu) (=crazy for cabbage, fennel tea, sauerkraut, raisins, dates, apricots...)
-watching Bergman: Scener ur ett äktenskap
-shopping: flowers from flower/funeral shop, fair trade bananas AND oranges from the worse supermarket
(but no organic carrots anywhere, the core element of my kitchen)
-wearing the same long cardigan all the time
-receiving first mail! i found the alphabet ribbons in the mailbox on the first morning. under them a house gift for us from me: M Isola fabric as a linen-cotton towel. for the kindergarten kid V.E. and some for her friend E.
(my first Etsy shopping, found through a tip from Marie/Là)

ps. our connection isn't working yet, but i'm free riding on someone else's, i don't know how that's possible with so few houses around!

from the library

so many comments while i've been away! THANK YOU!
we are without internet for one more week... i came to the library to do a whole lot of boring stuff and see how the blog is doing. Y ok'd some comments before.

i've noticed that i don't take so many photos without this blog making, so it's definitely a good hobby.

the weather is treating us well. Manteli rooms are very sunny. still full of boxes, not so nice to show. and the yard is a big pool of mud... i don't know what to tell now, so i'll start again once our connection works. just this: kindergarten process is a bit heavy, but V got to ride a pony on her first day!