summer – Nokisuu

Day trippin’

29.6.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

We did a short day trip today to a nearby old ironworks factory called Ruotsinpyhtää or Strömfors in Swedish. The village was chosen for ’the Village of the year’ in 2018. The factory dates back to 18th century and is an idyllic place to visit. There is a smith show on Wednesdays which is nice imo.

The old church has an altarpiece painted by Helene Shjerfbeck but unfortunately the church was closed when we visited. There were some interesting looking fir trees outside and the WWII soldier’s cemetery is always nice to browse and meditate for a bit. You can spot them in every village and city you visit here in Finland.

There was some art exhibition in the old stables and some of the pieces were really nice but I haven’t yet won the lottery so had to leave them there. Afterwards we walked to a lunch restaurant which served a really good lunch and then headed home.

Winter pelt

22.6.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

Here in Finland we call the first swim in nature waters after winter ’throwing one’s winter pelt’ and since it’s been quite warm weather these past days I got rid of mine. The sea was wonderfully warm, I was expecting the water to be colder and was surprised when it wasn’t. I could have stayed in the water for all afternoon yesterday but.. Hubby doesn’t like to swim in ’cold water’ as he says and youngest one wanted to skim the stones off the water surface.

We’ve celebrated the Midsummer just being at home and enjoying it, I’ve read outdoors and already have nice tan. Middlest son has been mostly with his friends since he is going to the army in the early June. His friends cut his hair, it was to his shoulders but now it’s shaven 1mm long. He looks so much older it makes me a bit weepy.

Tomorrow is my first official day of summer vacay but I took Thursday off already and it feels like I had already been several weeks away from the office. Our new work desks came but they can’t be put on place yet since the acoustic wall-to-wall rug must be washed during summer. Well, it’s nothing we can do so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Due to the Covid19-situation the public swimming halls have been closed among other things and I thought that since hubby is working on Tuesdays and Thursdays now I’d go for a swim in the mornings since we can’t do any short trips until he gets off. I missed swimming during the closing, it’s my fave sport (pilates is another of my faves).

Since we are not traveling outside Finland this summer I have time to go through the cupboards I’ve used to fill with things when we get guests. I should also go through my book shelves and re-arrange them. Whoo boy.

School’s out

31.5.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

Yesterday was quite different than I expected in January. We were supposed to have a big graduation party for middlest son but now we only had nice dinner with all of us here and it was okay too. Some of our relatives and friends are coming here on June 13th to celebrate him so it’s all right.

I did a test-cake of rhubarb and strawberry filled cake with meringue-cream icing and it turned out pretty good. I’ve never made meringue icing so it was interesting to learn that too.

Youngest son begun his summer holiday yesterday and he got good grades too. Both of them went to school to get the paper and later in the evening middlest son went to his friends house and came home in the afternoon.

As I said to Rachel we have my MIL’s old recipe booklet for pizza from the early 80’s. It’s got recipes for all kinds of pizza’s, i.e. one with liver and another with kidneys or anchovies and European cisco (fish). Eww. Here is a pic of Pizza with Sardines, the lack of other pics is due the fact the booklets didn’t have nice pics. They looked more just mushy and were not clear enough for photographing.

There’s a bonus pic of Sirius. I was reading on our balcony and she came to sleep on me. I love when she does that because our old kitty Sysi was much more reserved after being in a shelter as a small kitten and hardly ever slept on or with anyone. Sirius was born on an pony farm which had puppies born at the same time and she is a bit like a dog, i.e. she comes when you pat your knee and some other small things too. I really loved Sysi too, don’t get me wrong, she was an awesome kitty and was very protective of our boys when they were babies but she was shy. Only when she was old (18-y-o and forward) she slept on my lap in the evenings. But as a cat-person I love being a cat-mattress.

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Going again

20.7.201920.7.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Tomorrow I’m going away for two weeks again, this time to our summer cottage in Central Finland. Actually it’s not ’our’ cottage but my late Mom’s and now my brother’s but he is kind and lets me and the boys and the cat stay there couple of weeks every summer.

I’ve almost always during my 48 years been at the cottage some days or weeks except when I was studying and had to be at work but then I spent some weekends there with my parents. These days it’s a kind of net-break too because the Net only works on one place on the grounds if you hold your phone in a Lionking pose and also on the lake side which is about 200 metres from the cottage.

Two summers ago we only stayed for a week with youngest one there since it was the most horrible and rainy summer and it rained all week and you really can’t do much when it rains, just sit in the cottage and hope it goes away. We were also both miserable because it was the first summer without my mom and eldest son was at the army and middlest son was in Lapland hiking.

Last summer was better, me and youngest went to cottage first with the cat and eldest son came later with middlest one and his girlfriend and it was nice until they left to grocery shop some days later and trying to avoid a truck eldest son took the car too far onto the shoulder and the car broke, it went really badly on the other side and the motor broke and so on. They were lucky to walk out of the car but it was a Volvo so they got off just with a scare. Luckily the old Volvo was so old we had already discussed about buying a new car (a Volvo) and so we had to. It was a bit of a puzzle to get us all back to city in time for the school but my hubby and my brother helped and it was all right.

I hope this time everything goes well and we’ll have a nice warm two weeks off line. Here are some pics for you. The buddha was my sister-in-law’s idea and I find it oddly comforting, my mom was first a bit taken aback but later agreed with me. On the second pic you can spot the cottage and then there is the sauna and finally the lake which I really love. We only have a small pier where you can go swimming and we have a rowing boat but it’s usually upside-down unless my eldest goes fishing with hook and line. I like to meditate there and watch the clouds and small fish.

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Finally

15.7.201915.7.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

I’m at home again, have been since Friday morning. Hubby came to pick us from the airport at 1am even thou he had to go to work early in the morning. He is so sweet. Now I’ve been loading my batteries over the weekend and finished two books, an introvert after too much peopling so I decided to write something here too.

On Sunday morning we, me and youngest son and my friend Heidi, found ourselves in London. I almost lost Heidi when we changed underground trains in Green Park as the train left before she managed to get on board. So she took the next one to Southwark (luckily the only possibility) and I spotted her sitting in the car and called her from the door. There was only one man so I didn’t quite die on embarrasment. After we had stored our bags to the hotel (LSE Bankside, a dormitory for LSE students with very cheap accommodation during Uni holidays) we took ourselves to the British Library. On our way there we popped by Forbidden planet, mine and youngest son’s fave shop, and then we walked to the BL via Russell Square which did good after all the sitting on the plane.

At the British Library we met Heidi’s daughter Mira who lives in London. She had got a bit cold and was sneezing all the time. Inside we saw the ’Treasures of British Library’ exhibition which had beautiful old manuscripts (poor monks in their cold cloisters) and also Beatles lyrics and so on, very interesting even on youngest one’s mind.

From there we went to the hotel to see if our room was ready (it was) and then we had some dinner and went to bed.

On Monday we visited the Science museum with youngest one, Heidi went to visit Mira for the whole day. When we were back on the street we noticed the Natural history museum’s ads and went in to see their exhibition of volcanoes and earthquakes, it was interesting but a video of the tsunami in Japan at 2011 reminded me too much of the Thailand tsunami on 2004 where my cousin lost his family and I just tried not to cry. Afterwards we realized we had been there over five hours, made a quick tour to Covent Garden where we watched a man ride a uni-cycle and jongleur with knives, he was very good. Then we had dinner and went back to the hotel.

On Tuesday we visited the National Gallery and especially the impressionists. Oh yes, the Monet paintings were wonderful and I recognized Turner’s art because of the RA-film.. so one can learn things watching good movies.

After that I went with Jimi to Science museum because he wanted to change a gyroscope he bought since it was keeping a noise it shouldn’t have. Heidi was going to Mira’s again. When we finally got out of the Science museum I called Heidi and she said she was going to Mira’s later since Mira was so feverish she was trying to sleep so we agreed to meet at Harrods. My phone died after I had sent a message to Heidi that we were going to the pet supplies (what a joke!) and finally we met Heidi there. As I had anticipated my phone to run low on batteries I had the charger with me and so we spent about an hour in a corridor in Harrods. Then we walked a bit around Knightbridge and went to eat fish and chips to a pub and then Heidi left to Mira’s and we went home.

On Wednesday we walked to Postman’s Park which is located near St. Paul’s Cathedral. I’ve wanted to visit it for years, I saw pics of it the net some time ago and now I finally got to see it and it was just lovely. From there we took a underground train to Baker Street. Oh yes, the famous detective himself. There was a bit of a queue but finally we got into the small house and it was lovely. The shop was just as lovely.. Then we had coffee and took a bus to Oxford Circus where we met Mira who was better. We did some shopping and walked to the Forbidden Planet where I bought some books and Jimi got three Funko figures. Well, actually two are his and I got Bucky ❤ Heidi and Mira left to have something to eat as Mira was feeling not so good. We took our shopping home and rested a bit and then went for dinner to restaurant Zizzi at Southbank. Oh boy the food was so good! and they were really busy too but very nice staff. Back at the hotel I tried to pack my suitcase and then Heidi came with Mira, who had gotten a huge migraine and fell asleep on Heidi’s bed. Heidi did some shopping and in a bit after Mira woke up she was feeling much better and Heidi walked her to a bus and her boyfriend was at the other end of the bus route to get her home.

On Thursday we checked out and left our luggage to the hotel to wait and went for a walk. First we visited Tate Modern and took the lift to 10th floor and also browsed the 4th floor free exhibition. I have always walked through the Tate Modern’s ground floor because it has good shops. This time I found just a fridge magnet. We walked to the Blackfriars bridge and had coffee and watched a pair of swans and enjoyed the sun. Then we got our luggagge from the hotel and walked to the Waterloo station, did some window shopping there too and took a train to Heathrow where we were in really good time. We did some shopping, had dinner and I and Heidi found ourselves in Cath Kidston sale and bought handbags for both of us.

Our flight was a bit late but we managed to get home nicely, hubby drove us home via Heidi’s so she got home too with ease.

Nice trip and I love London.

Aloha

8.6.20198.6.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Hello! Last Saturday was the kids last schoolday and later in the evening I went with a friend to see Lenny Kravitz sing and play for us in Helsinki. The show was very good and Lenny and his mates played over two hours. My legs were jelly.

On Sunday afternoon eldest son dropped us (me, hubs and two younger sons) to the airport, where middlest son’s girlfriend was already waiting for us. Hubby had insisted to take ourbags to the airport on the previous day which was good bc one of the luggage tracks had broken down and there was huge queues so we passed them all.

The first leg of our flights was from Helsinki to Tokyo, a 9-hour-flight and it was quite allright. I even managed to sleep about five hours. In Tokyo we had a 10-hour overlay so we took a train and traveled to Harajuku Park. I had looked for tips from TripAdvisors pages and found that. I thought some walking would do us good and it did. It was quite a warm day but we walked in the park, there was a nice shinto temple, and did a turn on the Takeshita Street which is popular among teens and cosplayers. We were quite tired and so were back to Narita airport on good time and walked a bit there too. We found a very nice paper shop among other things there, I need to do some serious shopping on our way back home there.

We left Tokyo on Monday evening and arrived to Honolulu on Monday morning, a bit funny. Got our car and drove to Makaha. We are staying third time at the same house complex there but in a different flat. It’s a nice place with peacocks everywhere and a short drive to Makaha beach.

Yesterday we hiked to Ka’ena Point and I managed to burn my shoulders even thou I had put sunscreen already on at home and again before beginning the hike and again at the point. Today as we went to the Waimea beach I put so much sunscreen on I had white shoulders and they are not as bad as they were ealier.

Yesterday we had dinner at the Kahumana organic farm with our last time neighbour who is a very nice lady. She’s leaving to Italy next week but we wanted to meet her and it was nice.

You can see my travel pics from my instagram feed which should be visible on the right sidebar. I only have my phone and tablet here so I can’t fix any pics.

Anyways I love Oahu, I could easily move here if I had the chance.

I should

11.5.201911.5.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

There’s quite a list I should be doing but instead I’m just sitting here and staring at the net. I’m so tired. It was my first full week back to work since during wintertime I work only four days per week due to the indoors air problems I have. Since it’s been colder outdoors we must keep the rooms warmer and so I get more symptoms again, just like in the fall when the heating period begins.

Yesterday I met my good friend after work and we had coffee at one of the oldest bookstores in Helsinki. It’s one of our fave cafes and I love their tuna salad. There’s also the great thing of browsing books before and after coffee.

Before I met my friend I visited a fabric shop nearby and bought some cloth for swimming suit. I have a good tankini pattern with which I made one tankini for myself last spring but I need to check if it still fits me and besides it’s not an awful thought to have two tankini’s for Hawaii right?

I checked some other fabrics too and took a pic of one which had horrible pattern on it. My friend said it’d look like an ad for STD if one were to sew trousers of it (I had the same thought).

At work one of our head teachers is leaving for another job, he got headmaster’s place from a private adult education school nearby ours. I’m glad he leaves, he is a bit narcisstic so everything that doesn’t go like he wanted is wrong. It’s quite annoying and it sucks all positive energy out. When one talks with him it’s always about him, never about you or what you’d like. So tiring.

Middlest son’s gf is coming with us to Hawaii and we asked if her parents would like to come for a coffee or something to our house to see that we are not a pair of serial killers and she laughed and said they won’t since they are so introverted. I looked at hubby who looked back at me and we both heaved a huge sigh because we are both terrible introverts.

I had my dentist appointment earlier this week. It was nice since I like him a lot (still). I used to have a huge crush on him and he looked like Karl Urban’s brother which wasn’t bad thing. Of course now we are both older but he’s very nice man still. Before I found him I was terrified of dentists but he helped me to conquer that fear just by being kind and telling and showing what he was doing and why and took my fear for real.

I’m rewatching Broadchurch and now I’m on season 2. It’s good the weather has stayed cold since I’m knitting my cardi and it gets really hot with all that wool on my lap and the cat on my side.

2019-05-11 16.12.44 - Copy — One third of the colourwork ready.

On my to-do-list I have also letters to write, art journaling to do, beginning a new quilt for which I’ve had all stuff ready the whole winter..

Well.. there’s time. I’m off to Broadchurch now.

Life after Easter

23.4.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Today I went back to work after the Easter weekend which I started already on Thursday since I had the possiblity to take a day off. As my colleague was away on a Spring holiday and the house was very quiet we kept the library closed (there is only two and a half staff in our library).

On Thursday youngest son came home early and so went to the city centre to buy him new sneakers. The kid grows so fast, even faster than his big brothers at the same age. He has grown about 14 cm from the last Spring and will soon leave me behind and then I’ll be the smallest one.

We had very good weather during Easter, it only warmed more from Thursday to this day and I spent most of the weekend outdoors. On Friday I sat on our lawn chair and read, on Saturday I raked most of the yard while listening to an audiobook and a podcast, on Sunday I weeded half of the flowerbed and afterwards my hand hurt so effing much I couldn’t even knit (I couldn’t even write or use the mouse very good) and yesterday I read a book and sat in the sun.

All in all I read two novels and finished an audiobook (the not-so-good Jeff Archer) and listened two episodes of a podcast by a Finnish actor living in NYC with his husband. The only good thing in the Archer-novel was that it was read by Richard and after Easter meal I was so stuffed I think I napped a while with his voice in my ears. Lovely.

My Pilates class friend asked if I had new make up because I was so tanned already but I said I had been outdoors all weekend and we laughed.

Sirius the Cat had raw meat; she hunted a big rat and a mouse. I’ve never seen a rat here during these 23 years we’ve lived here and she had so much fun with it. We gave her first dose of anthelmintic yesterday and now I have four holes in my bicep. She didn’t like it.

Eldest son came for Easter dinner on Sunday. He is moving back here on late May/early June because their flat has pipe renovations coming up. If he gets the summer job near here it’s easier to go to work from our place than the flat because it’s on the other side of Metropolitan area. He’ll also be looking after the cat when we go to our holiday in June.

Due to hubby’s work he had to take June for his vacay and since my workplace (the actual house) is closed on July I’ll have a very long summer holiday. I think last time I had as long vacay was when kid’s were pretty small. I had a little scare since my boss had read the end date wrong from my holiday application and said we need to have a talk and then she asked why was I planning to be whole August on leave too and I was like what. Glad it was solved this easily as we already have plane tickets purchased.

Now I’m going to watch Umbrella Academy and knit. I’m about halfway through the cardi torso which is nice but it’s really hot to have the woollen cardi on my lap all evening. Soon I’ll get to the colourwork-part, yay!

Tomorrow I’ll be in the movies with youngest one and my two friends to see Avengers : Endgame! I can’t wait!