Ladies in Action

Korppoo island has an ancient centre with a medieval church and the charming cemetary, one grocery-shop, a multi-function post-office, Anna-Lena's flower-shop, a hair-dresser, a bank and a pharmacy - and in the old smuggler´s house restaurant Hjalmars. On the opposite side of the small market place in the middle is the former kindergarten, so called Mäkelä's house - after the smuggler Jalmari Mäkelä. It is full of life - no more kids but three energetic women who have started business of their own, each one of them under the same roof. They call it DAG-15 or Dagis, Swedish word for kindergarten.

We enjoyed our morning coffee with ice-cream there one morning after being donated the high-grown bushes by the small brook beside. They will be the winter-sweets for our sheep after being dried in the barn.

Anne owns the house and has a boutique Örtti of ecologically produced clothes of the Earth Collection for example. She also sells the Himalayan salt that we use on our steaks and the Indian sugar that we love on our morning porridge. And food for our dogs, this time we got home with frozen kneecaps! Now she is starting courses of well-being - it will be exciting.

Terhi fills our homes with beautiful old, re-produced old and self-made beauties of decoration. She is our savior when in instant need of a gift to give... She also sews by order. Her place is called Amalias Hem.

Sara has opened a café with bright 70's-style decoration. Baguettes from our local bakery filled, sweets and soft ice-cream. We decided with the girls to console ourselves in the winter after a dark, damp and stressfull day at school with a cup of hot chocolate and a muffin - even if Pappa thought it will ruin our food budget for good... If not the hot drink melts you, it will be Sara's warm smile!

http://amaliashem.blogspot.fi/
http://www.ortti.com/Suomi/Ortti.html
http://www.facebook.com/dagfemton

When the time stands still on Midsummer...

These light, clear late hours of the day, when the wind goes home for the night and the next morning is almost here - I can feel summer with all my sences. Perhaps it is the magic of Midsummer or I just let go of all the worries of the world for one night.

We enjoyed the nordic Midsummer evening already yesterday when packing our boat for an over-night trip to our island Svidi. We had half an hours drive from our pier to the cliff shore where we dropped the anchor, cooked evening tea and watched the silent moments of a summer night when the sun never goes down.

The sheep that we had there every summer for five years did a good job and now the island is airy and only the ancient pines are left and strawberries, blueberries and meadows.

We followed the paths and investigated small animals of the sea, swam in the  cool water and would have stayed if not the every day tasks were waiting and the food-basket was empty - but tomorrow again if we have the weather on our side.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Midsummer Eve, raise the May pole decorated with wild flowers in the middle of our village, perhaps take few dance steps and sing the old sailor songs, taste the new potatoes and try to find nine flowers to put under the pillow - in the boat - in the evening.

Happy Midsummer!

Café Cecilia made me glad today!

Our first pop-up café ever was today! And we had such a great fun - both prepairing for the day and opening our home for people who popped in for a Sunday coffee and cake.

The whole family and grand-parents helped with the preparations and bakings and the closer we got the pop-day the more there were new ideas popping.

Some we had time to try out and some will have to wait for the next pop-up.

The bakings succeeded splendidly - even if our muffins became too healthy: we had forgotten the butter from the dought...

Luckily they didn't look too healthy!

The Italian chocolate cake, torta di ciaccolato is our favourite and the queen of every big celebration in our family.

The Kisses are baked according to an old recipe and are dopped in melted butter and sugar.

It was lovely to meet new people and have time to chat with old friends, and of course, tell about the house and Cecilia...

        Thank you for your visit - we had a great day!

Popping up wishes...

The time flies this spring and it is already June. We have been working outdoors ploughing, planting and planning... 

Pellas II has got a new shiny tar coat and is waiting for a good day to start summer-sailing.

We have been planting potatoes, tomatoes and new flower-beds - oh, I just remember the poor lilac I have forgotten under the bushes, tomorrow, I promise.. - and working with the vegetable-land to fill our cellar and our plates with salads, carrots, onions, beetroots, parsnips and other goodies.

And notice: no scaffolding in the front side..

And planning! We decided to try how it would feel to have a café, so just for one day,
a pop-up café Cecilia is born next Sunday - Welcome all! We got so excited when noticing the add of a pop-up-day in Parainen in the local news paper and wanted to arrange something on our island, too.

So we had our first planning meeting testing the products and enjoying one of the first warm days in the garden.

"Cecilia" because she is one of the strong women from the history of this house full of strong women today, the wife of August who built the main building in 1870, and an interesting figure otherwise, too.

We are hoping for a good weather so that we can enjoy our cakes and cups of coffee under the old apple-tree. Now we have ahead of us few busy days of baking and prepairing... Wish us luck!

Through the Lens

At the same time in several places in the archipelago and Turku we were wandering, looking through the lens and observing with new eyes familiar paths, roads, streets - cliffs, beaches, neighbourhoods.

First it seemed that my inner lens needed some cleaning and my artistic eye wasn't finding anything special - 

 - the road to Almas and the lovely beach of our home village Rumar had too many memories of winter sledge rides, hot long days at the beach with books and picnic baskets and magical night swims in the waves. I could see them all. 

But I truely enjoyed - the spring air and the dimmering evening sun, the brave flora raising their heads and the eager companions chatting and running, creaping and observing the small and the wide. 

And at home I realised that I had managed to catch quite a lot with my dusty lens and baggage of memories. 

It is interesting to see what the others saw and caught: 

http://www.varkultur.fi/varkultur-2012/fotovandring/ 

- our guide was Renja Leino, our local photo artist: 


http://www.renjaleino.com/

Vappu!

When I was little it seemed that everyone else had already changed to summer outfits except our family that had woollen  hats and steady boots at the market place of  the 1st of May. Perhaps that is way I enjoy my own family's tradition to take the first swim this spring and "throw away the winter-coat" in an ice cold sea - sometimes in the middle of ice-cubes...

Owen sand-bathing after a swim

Meillä piti aina olla pipot ja lenkkarienkin kanssa oli siinä ja siinä ettei talvimonoissa saapasteltu Vaasan vapputorilla kaikkien kesähattuisten ja popliinitakkisten kaupunkilaisten joukossa. Oman perheen vappuperinne on ehdottomasti talviturkin heitto mereen!


Hauskasti vapputouhuista kertoo Elli: http://elli-neidin-unelmia.blogspot.com/2012/04/valpurin-yo.html

Then the next best thing of Vappu, 1st of May is to be out in the garden, make lunch and enjoy it together or have a picnic with friends.

Vappu 2011 in the garden

The classical drink of our Vappu is 'sima', a kind of self-made lemonade. This year I tried the recipe of Jenni Silvennoinen who should know how to make good sima, she has a brewery of her own near Turku!

Sugars and honey is melt in hot water and the lemon is added. When the water has cooled you can add a tiny piece of yeast, size of a pea...

After few days when bottled and held in cool the sima is ready!

http://ciderhouse.fi/in/

        Hauskaa Vappua!

Today we remember...

the war veterans of Finland - and the brave women and children of the home front!

So I began my day with the flaghoistering this morning.

It was on 27th April 1945 when the war in Lapland ended and the Second World War on Finland's behalf. My both grand-fathers fought in the war in Karelia front but like many veterans didn't tell much about their war time memories - it was too painful and I was too young.

There weren't many men left here in Rumar village either during the war and the women and children had to do also the men's work on fields and in forest. When the Russian aircraft flew over the village people took shelter in the old cellar of Pellas.

This little thing had took shelter under the cellar roof when we were renovating it two years ago.

http://www.tuntematonemanta.fi/trailer.html

Aili was the mother of Pellas household at that time, a former town-girl who had to take the horses and cut the hay for the whole village when everyone else was so afraid of the dangerous hay-machine and the big horses.

Uno and Aili

Her husband Uno was back safe quite soon and could tell how the few Russian words he had learnt from the Russian navy visiting Rumar waters when he was small had saved him in a confrontation with the enemy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3437012581680213431 - This is a film called Fire and Ice made of the Finnish Winter War 1939-40 if you got interested.

Skepparens vik

The first brimstone and the glittering sea - perfect weather to work in the forest and by the shore! In the end of the village road there is an area called Kattlot and a tiny beach called Skepapera - Boatman's bay - that belong to our farm. We had decided to clean up the area last weekend and prepare parking for cars and boats for cottage owners.  There are people who have cottages at the near-by islands and need a place for their car and smaller boats during their stay. For us it is a way to earn and beside it a way to make people feel welcome to our village.

A lovely old school-path of our grand-mother leads through the fields and forest to Kattlot. Pellas in the back-ground and here in the front what it is left of the old 'Riihi', a drying barn of Pellas.

At right side you can see the boat harbour of Rumar and on the opposite side the old coast guard base in Fagerholm and the old pilot base in Killingholm.

Big cliffs rise high, huge old pines try to find their foothold and especially the beach had had years to grow bushes and collect litter, boats here and there and everyone parking where they had found it most suitable.

We enjoyed the work and the spring weather. We fell down trees, sawed away bigger branches, carried wood to be burnt.

We sat on the boats and warmed our lunch by the fire, had a cup of tea and watched people passing the bay with their boats and listened to the concert of birds from the forest.

Suddenly after a long winter sleep the archipelago was full of life.

And then on Sunday evening so quiet and peaceful when town-people had rushed to catch their ferries to the mainland.

In the end of the village road is also a summer restaurant and a small-boat-harbour Rumar Strand Marina. The house was originally the school of Rumar village, where for example our grand-mother learnt to read and write. The teachers were legendary and taught the village children new skills like how to find mushrooms in the forest. This was the nearest school for the children from outer archipelago and many stayed at Pellas during the school-weeks.

Ps. there are still few parking places left...

http://www.rumarstrand.com/ENGLISH/Welcome.html