A lovely day by the sea

What a day(s) :)

Sun, swimming (first dip on Friday this year at local sandpits, but couldn't call it swim yet...), last bits of stress of the winter melting away...oh joy!The weather here has been incredible for the past week - unfortunately we haven't had any rain for some time and some trees are even becoming yellow due to the heat and drought.




In the afternoon I took D to his dad's. I think he'll hate this photo when he grows up :), took it two weeks ago - he usually always falls asleep in the car - trip takes about 50 minutes.

When I got home it was time for my weekend of gardening therapy! I've been the gardener here since I was a teenager, but I've wanted flowers, my mother was more interested in vegetables. I've replaced as much as possible of the lawn with flowerbeds and now there isn't even space for any vegetables anymore due to trees and bushes, which I've planted to try to decrease the effect of the cold nothern wind. The weeds had again taken over and when D is home, there isn't much time for the weeding. Now I had all of Saturday, and the sun was shining :). Some days it's really hard to get yourself going (at least I'm that way, I'm slowly learning to respect my rhythms - the result will be better and less strenuous if I try to wait for a better day if possible), yesterday was a day when I was so energetic weeds and nettles just flew away! I really wanted to do what I was doing and was enjoying it wholeheartedly! I also planted and moved some flowers and washed D's carseat.

I still need to fix my chainsaw and on Fridaynight the lawnmover partly broke. It is ancient and I'm always so surprised every year when it works, but now the bits and pieces are giving in. The handle won't stay up anymore on its own and it's rather heavy, I suspect the mower is't either exactly the most ecological one, but I hope to fix the handle somehow, don't really have any cash for a new one right now.

But my focus yesterday was on the flowers and I hope you can see the difference in the photos (before and after) - I'm sorry, I'm too lazy to use photoshop now, so they are a bit too dark, but I want to continue today (still lots to do...) until D comes home, so I shouldn't sit inside by the computer too long....
This part of the garden (next photo) I haven't had time to do anything about, but it's not too bad, I think. I've become better at simply removing plants that spread out too much, before I've wanted to let all the flowers/weeds bloom - that's also why my garden is rather different from the beautifully planned and organized ones you see in the magazines. I'd love to have one with elegant rows of flowers, but mine is more of a wild haphazard thing that has grown into what it is today during thirty years, most of which I didn't even live here, but visited for shorter or longer periods during the summer. Still I'm happy that I've managed to now have something blooming most of the time from early spring until late in the fall.


The day ended perfectly. Even if I was scratched, bitten (I think it's so unfair, we have are long, cold, dark winters and when warm weather finally arrives, so do all kinds of nasty insects :( ), had soil under my nails and bruises on my legs from before - in other words not really a body to show in a summerdress, but I still wore one - a bright red one :). I won't go into weightissues, let's just say I'm not exactly in summer shape, but I don't care that much anymore (or at this point at least...too relaxed :) - D doesn't mind about the extra kilos, and he is the only man in my life :).

A friend with a new house and fiancé :) had invited friends for dinner - incredible to be able to sit outside until 9.30, when the mosquitoes arrived and it became a bit cooler.

Later we went to a local restaurant in the marina (hmmm, that sounds a bit bigger than it is....) with live music and dance. It was really great and I managed to stay to the end (2 o'clock) thanks to three cups of coffee and three glasses of coke :) (normally my bedtime is far earlier :). I even danced with a few gentlemen :). I really enjoy seeing people more again and being able to do things I used to before D - maybe last year was the hardest and life can from now on be more a balance with chunks of everything - friends/family/work/house/my own time/trips... I hope and think so!

Sorgliga nyheter

När jag kom hem i lördags ögnade jag hastigt igenom tidningarna som samlats under veckan. Jag fastnade vid en artikel om en dödsolycka i Nykarleby. Via FB fick jag veta att en 37-årig kvinna jag träffat vid mamma-barnträffarna omkommit i en krock. Hon begravs nu på söndagen. I hennes dödsannons stod det "Gud som haver barnen kär, se till oss som utan mamma är", undertecknat med hennes två små pojkars namn. Den mindre, som kanske bara är 1,5 år gammal, var med i olycksbilen men skadades inte, vad jag vet. Den äldre är kanske fyra. Det har varit svårt att förstå att det verkligen kan vara möjligt, och jag har inte hört vad som egentligen hände, men att hon skulle mista livet, istället för att komma undan med någon lindrigare skada, känns otroligt fel. Alla i hennes familj behövde henne så mycket ännu. Min sista minnesbild av henne är när vi körde förbi varann, hon med sitt vanliga vänliga leende - jag hälsade inte ens, för jag kände inte igen bilen och hann inte reagera förrän hon var förbi.

I morse läste jag på FB att en stor världstjärna gått bort. Jag kan inte säga att jag varit ett Michael Jackoson-fan, men jag har älskat att dansa till vissa av hans låtar. I Helsingfors var jag på hans konsert för kanske tio år sedan, men det kändes som om han inte var riktigt närvarande. Jag har speciellt gillat hans ställningstaganden i sin musik mot slutet, till exempel "Black and white" och jag har använt hans musikvideo i min undervisning...vad var det den hette, den där naturkatastrofer etc "går tillbaka" (Earth song...). Den berörde mig djupt.

Frid åt både S och Ms själar.

Show and tell: stadens ljus

Sista temat före sommarlovet blev lite besvärligt för mig, det har ju mest handlat om lantliga ljus för mig de senaste åren...dessutom är jag för lat för att börja bläddra i mina album för att se om jag skulle råka ha någon lämplig bild från tiden före det digitala. Så det får bli en bild från vår närmaste stad, Nykarleby, hem till bland annat sagofarbrorn Zacharias Topelius. Jeppo är sedan 1975 en del av Nykarleby.

Här har jag gått i högstadium och gymnasium, åkt buss 20 kilometer morgon och eftermiddag. Som nybliven lärare fick jag min första tjänst på samma skolor jag själv gått i, undervisade engelska i högstadiet och tyska i gymnasiet i två år. Jag valde att bo i egen radhuslägenhet i stan och inte hos mina föräldrar på landet. Orsaken till att jag valde att jobba i hemknutarna var att min pappa blev opererad och jag ville vara närmare mina föräldrar för att se hur de börjar klara sig efter det. Pappa fick blodpropp i sin fot, som blivit skadat i kriget. Till slut var det nödvändigt att amputera benet ovanför knät (där han också hade en skärva och det skulle inte ha klarat av en protes). När läget verkade ok flyttade jag till södra Finland, hade börjat klättra på väggarna... Nykarleby är en söt, liten stad, men för en 30-årig singel, som ändå inte hade ett nätverk i staden, kändes det ganska ensamt utanför jobbet (som förstås tog en massa tid då i början när allt var nytt).

Men igen har jag virrat mig långt ifrån själva temat :). På bilden syns kyrkan i Nykarleby, mitt i staden vid älven.

Blir intressant att se vad ni andra valt för stadsvyer! Skön sommar till er alla!

Better weather, lazier times!

The weather has been getting better and better, now we can speak of "summer". My mother came home on Monday, but almost right after, me and D took off to a summercottage about an hour away. My friend M, who lives in the States, was home visiting her parents and we went to see her. D also finally had a chance to go out in a rowboat :).



On Tuesday I worked - interviewing a family for a tvprogram (local tv). It was quite hard to try to "shape up" from the holidaymood, especially since this was something I haven't done before - interviewing for a whole "film" (well, I think it'll be about 20 minutes). I'll tell you more about it when it's finished (my part is more or less done already).

I feel different after my holiday with D, I can again handle small crises that arise without falling to bits. But to focus on work is hard, even making a call feels like a huge task :). Anyway, I should write a bit tomorrow, but then I'm basically off for a month (with some small tasks that might arise). Daycare is also closed for the month, so I suspect I will be busy keeping D happy. I pray for sunny weather, that would make it easy for me, we could then spend as much time on the beach as possible.

Show and tell: Summer's day/evening (+ the trip)

My plan was to show you magical Finnish midsummernight photos...but as you know, our summers can be very temperamental, not at all behaving according to the wishes of the people living here. This year "Suomenneito" (~ miss Finland...er, no, I guess "maiden of Finland" - our country is portrayed like a young girl in dress, the outline of our borders) decided to save as many lives as possible. If the weather is warm on midsummer, more people drown...since most Finns spend midsummer by a lake or the sea, and rarely in a sober state, many lives are lost at this time of the year....This year there were not many that stayed outside, there were heavy rainclouds/rain and really cold outside. As you know, me and son headed south last Monday in pouring rain, the day before we had a sudden heatwave, + 28 degrees! When D came back from his dad's, I took him to our local "pond" for swimming (that'll be my "summer's day" photo) . The water was icy, so our first swim for the year will have to wait for later.

On Thursday night we arrived at the summercottage were we were supposed to celebrate midsummer. Like I said, the weather didn't cooperate and in the end we stayed only two nights. Plan A was to stay in a tent, which would've been great but we had to go with plan B, which was for me and D to stay in my friend's mother's cottage nearby. A really nice one, but I felt a bit uncomfortable for us to "invade" her space - a 3-year old isn't exactly relaxing company for an 80-year old, even if D behaved really well. We also went back and forth by car between the two cottages, in the end I was just exhausted and decided to head back home the next day. No photos of the evening, I went to bed fairly early with D and missed most of dinner and the dance afterwards. Here some photos which maybe tell you what the weather was like the day we drove down (400 + kms) and then Friday on the lake.

It was a really good thing to drive back home on Saturday, not a lot of traffic and today me and D have been able to have a relaxing day. The weather is finally warmer and sunny as well. All in all I'm really pleased with our trip, even if I was really tired at times - there were so many people I wanted to see and as usual I tried to squeeze too much in. I also realized it was quite a strain on D to be dragged here and there. He also was homesick, poor baby :(.

Finally a collage of our six days on the road (pls click on the collage to enlarge). This is what we managed to see:

dolphins in Tampere, an excolleague and friend in Sjundeå (night one - he saved us, we were supposed to stay the night in Tampere, but things didn't work out), two nights with my really good friend S in Helsinki, but also lunch with two ladies one day, another the next, visit to a café to meet a fourth lady, visit to the zoo, riding the bus and tram, visit an ex-colleague with a brand new baby, then off to see my cousin and his family and from there to the cottage.

Glad midsommar! Ha en bra´an messåman!

Tenkt att ni eingang sko foå lesa liiti dialekt, så ni vaar liiti allmennbilda :). Dähää e jåo ejentligen måodärsmoåli mett. He såm papp miin praata å såm ti flesta i byyn praata. För att papp va så gambe, så tråo ja att ja kanschi ibland taar till na riktit gambemåodi åol å uutryck - ibland a ja överasska me sjölv, fast no kåmbe ja it poå na riktit exotiskt... "He va narriibårt" bruuka papp sei tå an vart riktigt irriteera, veit it ejentligen va e betyyde. Åm man e "dåoli" så e maan jåo braa po naa, "dåolien flicko" eli "dåolian kaar" e bra poå att arbeit åftast. Vi haar alltså genus po åolen, "hedi båoli", "handi ståolan", "hondi dören". Men it hadd ja na nytta o he tå ja liest tysk, he stemd it riktigt övereins, fast ti å hadd hedi "der, die, das".

No ska ja byri pack, he vaar så råolit ti fara iveeg i mårån. Ska föst skjuuss mamm ti Hagalund å så kåmbe vi heim å fysyöke fo inn allt i biiln å så byri vi måra oå söderuut. Tjende me jätteleetta ti entligen foå fara i vieg. Vi hyörs åm en dryygan viko, haa in e riktigt, riktigt bra no i vikån å en skyönan messåman!

Happy midsummer - will be back in about a week!