Dear Fredrika,

greetings from lovely winter weather! 

I thought about you today when baking your muffins. Yes, the ones that you always baked for your dear late husband...

He loved them - and hunting, both wild game and women. And you raised the children, decorated your home - I admire the beautiful stencil painting you did - and sat beside Johan Ludvig's bed when he was paralyzed and needed company. I heard you could read from many languages aloud and translate simultaneously to Swedish. And you could write, too.

What did he do? He wrote, I must admit, beautifully. Poems about stubborn but brave Finnish people. Our national anthem Our Land. Farmer Paavo and his wife who struggled against the frost that took their harvest time after time.

So I baked to honour him, too. Tomorrow it's your day. We took a head start today...

- But mum, what shall we do the whole winter? - At least now we'll have some coffee. Tove Jansson.

When shall we bake for Tove, too?

http://www.runeberg.net/runeberginkoti/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson