For a long time, I'm talking about decades, I've had a wish to go to one of our old barns in a field further away in the woods, sleep there and check out the animals. Yesterday I suddenly decided it was time! I have been painting like crazy for the past days, trying to get everything ready until D comes back from his long stay with his dad. I feel a bit guilty, I didn't have much time for him before the stay, it's hard being a full-time mum and trying to renovate, cook etc etc at the same time. I guess renovation always gets on the nerves, whenever you do that.
Anyway, we've had a real heatwave for the past days - I'm talking about temperatures close to + 30, so I've actually just been happy to be inside. Our house is cool in the summer (and cold in the winter :) and I didn't feel like going to the seaside alone. I'm hoping the weather holds for a few days still so I can take D to a proper beach! Yesterday, when I finally finished the painting, I headed to the woods at 7.30 at night. A bit too late, but better than not at all.
First stop was a sandpit, where I made a new friend :). After a quick dip I continued to the field within the woods.
When I was young I used to make hay with my dad and uncle here. We also got hay by tractor in the winter, it was a bit of an adventure, since it's about 9 kilometers from our house. Have to dig out those photos at another time. Now I just wanted to get away from the smell of paint in the house and finally get a bit of me-time. At home I just saw everything that needed to be done - and besides, I had also painted my bed, so I would've had to sleep in another room anyway. Please click twice on the collage - that way you get it enlarged.
At the fields I immediately saw two young moose, running towards me, probably trying to get away from the million of mosquitoes around. I was lucky to be able to creep a bit closer in the cover of some trees - but
unfortunately I'd need a bigger objective to get better photos at a distance. I hadn't packed very well, so I had to take two turns to the car to get everything, and on the way back the second time I also snapped photos of grass and flowers when I suddenly felt someone watching - another moose! It really must've wondered what kind of strange creature this is :)! Again I tried to take photos, but it was too far away. Even if I walked to the car and then back, it just stood there watching. I think it was quite a big one.
Then it was time for my humble abode :). I suspect some of you will be shocked to see a person voluntarily wanting to kip in a derelict barn! I had brought a tiny little tent, in case the mosquitos would be really bad, but since I had sprayed on a lot of repellent, I decided to just sleep on the hay left at the bottom of the barn (I had brought a sleepingbag etc). That evening I didn't see anymore big animals (there was a swallow's nest up in the ceiling...) and tried to go to sleep. Not the best nights I've ever had....even if the mosquitoes weren't biting, they kept "zzzzzz-ing", you know the irritating sound..? Then there was a cuckoo calling all through the night :( etc etc. And around 4.30 am I got up with the rest of the birds. I had forgotten my phone in the car and was too tired to walk through the high grass a third time, so I didn't know the time while in the barn.
While sipping my coffee
(terrible photo, but I like the colours :) - it became a bit cold during the night) I heard cranes calling far away - and suddenly the answer came, just outside my barn!! I was glad I was already awake, otherwise I would've gotten frightened,
it was a really loud sound that close. I crept quickly up and got my camera. If you enlarge (clicking it once, then once
again) you will see a crane and its baby almost in the middle. Not a good photo (again), but I was fascinated to see the small ones!). It turned out I had forgotten to change to the better lens in my hurry, if I had, I wouldn't have had any problems getting nice close-ups. The big crane came as close as
about 20 meters from where I was standing! My problems with getting control of the art of photography continues :(. Still, the experience was awesome!
There were no moose this morning, so pretty soon I packed up, dragged all the stuff to the car and finished with another dip (at 6 am - hasn't happened before!!) before getting home.
Last week I spent Thursday to Sunday just filling up with energy at Qigongcamp by the sea in Pietarsaari. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to sleep in a tent, next year I'll give it some more thought...didn't sleep much during the first night due to hard wind and threatening clouds and just a general "hype" after the first afternoon of training. It did rain at some point, but the little piece of plastic I had attached to the tent helped, but I was a bit cold. The next two 
nights I slept well - but the nights were short, we had our first training session at seven in the morning and I didn't get to relax until around midnight.
But it was really lovely - most of the people I knew from before and due to the meditative training, everyone are relaxed and happy (well, maybe the others are like that all the time, the training makes me relaxed and happy :). The food was vegetarian and there were a few lectures about mindfulness and how to handle stress. Nothing new really, but really wonderful to have time to think about my life and what I could do to make it less stressful. One direct change has been our meals - I'm really trying to make them into a calm event. Everyone at the table, no tv, even I try to sit down and not run around doing a lot of other things. I've also tried to involve D - and was surprised to find out he already knew how to set the table (well, the cutlery :) - they had learnt that in daycare! 
