Aunt Natalia's Apple Tree

Very long time ago when August was young, the love of his life Cecilia took another man. August had lost his father Gustav in the Crimean War - the English navy had taken him as their pilot and he never came back. That left August the oldest son in the family and responsible for over 10 sisters and brothers. Cecilia was a reasonable woman but her first husband died and by then August had become a pilot himself. He decided to try again and this time Cecilia said Yes! 

They got married and with Cecilia followed her children from the 1st marriage. One of them was a girl called Natalia. Here are August and Cecilia with their oldest grand-son Uno, the grand-father of my son's father. 

She donated this apple tree to the Pellas farm and it is the only one of the old fruit trees that survived the terrible cold of the Winter War 1939-40. The apples are quite small and best in jam but the tree is strong and full of lovely flowers promising a new harvest again in August.

This spring I have been attending a course in garden horticulture. During one of the evening lessons in Tuorla we were taught how to plant a twig from a fruit tree to a stronger base root, and I took with me some twigs from home. 

 Here are now twigs from Aunt Natalia's apple tree planted to a new mother-root and taped.

The new apple-trees were then put in pots to get started with their growth.

Now they'll be held in their nursing pots few weeks before I plant them to their "kindergarten". After 3-4 years they will hopefully be big and strong enough to be planted  in the fruit garden... Until then let's hope for a nourishing  childhood with my vegetables!

Strange Fish

Today we are going to have smoked fish and mushed potatoes - I have the most fabulous parents-in-law! Yesterday we got to taste grandmother Anita's fish soup made of perch and whitefish. It helps a lot in the busy everyday-life to sit down and enjoy a meal someone else has made for you and your family and have your own hands and thoughts in something else.

This time Ahti the god of sea gave some mysterious fish as well. On the right there is a perch, on the left a ruffe  and back in the middle that's a flounder.

 But who are you?

 It turned out to be a lump sucker, a fish I had never seen or even known we had around here. It is a quiet fellow who likes the bottom.

And in the belly side it had even a suction cup to stay there!

La Lunette

A Window Like a Half-Moon...

We had been searching for an old lunette but in vain. We wanted to have one with six windows like in the old Pellas veranda above the main-door. 

We decided then to order one from a carpenter and found Staffan Engberg's firm Tammipuu in the mainland quite near us. We got it home last week! It is beautiful.

We have to decide now the colour. I suggested English red like at the other window frames but heard that usually the window above the door is painted with the same colour as the frame of the door..

Our old reliable carpenter retaired and our main door as his last job.. Now we know where to order new windows and doors next time.

www.tammipuu.fi in case you became interested, too:)

Green Rooms of Garden

I am Mary of the Secret Garden when the spring begins, pale after winter but after every day out in the garden stronger and stronger. 

Keväällä olen Salaisen puutarhan Mary, talven kalventama ja muhevasta tuoksusta voimaantuva varovainen askeltaja. Kurkistelen sinivuokkoja ja ihmettelen lintujen uskoa laulaa.

This year the spring has come with tiny steps, so every flower has been a small miracle and every new bird so welcome.

 Kun perii vanhan puutarhan, pitää malttaa odottaa, mitä vanhoista penkeistä nousee. Syreenimajaa uskaltaa avartaa ja viimeiset talventörröttäjät saksia, mutta ei parane kaivaa missä vaan.

I herited an old garden of my mother-in-law. It was planted by her mother and ancestors before. So I have to respect their efforts, wait and see what comes up.

 Satavuotias omenapuu selvisi talvisodan pakkasista. Vanhojen marjapensaiden silmut pullistelevat. Leikkaan hellällä kädellä ja lahjon kompostilla ja tuhkapilvellä.

The old apple tree was planted by aunt Natalie some time in the beginning of 20th century and it is the only one to survive the terrible cold of the Winter War in 1939-40. 

I give the old lady some compost and ash like the other trees and bushes in the garden.

Vaikka mielessäni näen haravoitujen hiekkakäytävien halkomat palstat ja mietityt kasvupaikat, tiedän, että en voi mullistaa. Vaikka puutarha on kuin kaulus pyhäpuvussa, vahvistaa ja kuvastaa sen keskellä kohoavan rakennuksen tyyliä, minulla on nämä penkkinsä valinneet akileijat ja juolavehnät, kellarille kaartuva polku ja viivasuora tähtäys ulkohyysikälle. Keskellä kohoavat kalliot, joihin Petter ja Alexandra hakkasivat häävuotensa. Nämä neilikat ja malvat kylvi esi-anoppini.

So I have an old garden where I can enjoy the grown-up trees, bushes and flowers and carefully add my own fingerprints and paths like this one to the cellar by the maple tree.

Kaupunkien porvariskoteihin ja maaseudun pappiloihin kotiutuivat ensimmäiset perennat ja hyötykasvit. Saaristolaistiloihin niitä alkoivat istuttaa nuoremmat miniät, ja moni koristekasvi oli myös apu vaivoihin tai vaikka koin karkoitukseen. Vanhoissa valokuvissa kylämaisema on karjan lyhyeksi nyhtämää niittyä ja kuritettuja pensaita. Säleaita suojasi talon ympäristöä kotieläimiltä, mutta muuten pihapiiri yhtyi peltoihin perinnemaisemaksi.

In the old photos the scenery is bare, eaten by the cattle and divided by fences to protect the first planted flora. Did you know that bergenias here behind Laara the Dog help skin to remain youthful..? Perhaps people in the old days were more practical; they planted plants that help against diseases and gave taste to the food. 

I need fences, too to protect my lovage, rumble and other plants - and to give us privacy in the middle of the village.

Sitä avaruutta vaalin, mutta säleaidan sisälle luon vihreät huoneeni.  Haluan piiloutua kesäihmisten katseilta syreenimajaani. Haluan ilta-auringon säteet kylpytynnyrin kupeeseen. Haluan pöydän, jossa voi lounastaa heinähelteellä. 

Garden can be a festival hall like when we celebrate all the girls in the family with their name day in July. We were this many last summer!

Jokapäiväiset toimet ja tarpeet sijoitetaan lähimmäksi, ja pottumaa ja mansikkapenkit voivat kasvaa vähän kauempanakin. Kun pihapiiri vielä vilisee lapsia, pitää uskaltaa haistaa ja maistaa.

Daily tasks and needs are situated nearest the house - like the new potatoes, herbs and salads.  And when the house is full of eager children you have to be able to taste everything without a fear - so instead of poisonous flowers and decorative bushes I plant berries and let the dandelions grow. 

Niinpä sormustinkukka saa häädön, ja salaattirivi kylvetään perennapenkin reunalle. Kallion helmassa leviävät yrtit. Parhaita puutarhakumppaneita ovat sellaiset, joissa yhtyy ilo ja hyöty monin kerroin.

But first the fence, otherwise my blueberries will never bloom... At least the  young apple trees don't need to be cut for years!

Ensimmäisenä on saatava se aita. Ahne Agnes tuntuu aina löytävän vuohenmentävän aukon. Omenapuitani ei tarvitse leikata vuosiin!

Our School on TV!

Tänä iltana telkkarissa MEIDÄN KOULU ja TUTTUJA, ehkä! Let's see! 

19:30 Yle Nyheter TV-nytt: Yle Nyheter TV-nytt — paikassahttp://svenska.yle.fi/yle-fem.

During the last weeks there has been a lot of discussion about the speciality of our school on our island - or it's right to continue to be special. At our school there are actually two schools under the same roof and with a lot of common: the class-rooms, some teachers, school-yard and projects together. And in two languages! 

We have two official languages in Finland and Korppoo is a bilingual island with a majority of Swedish-speaking people - like half of my family - and many with two mother-languages. So, our children share the kinder-garten and then go to two different schools on either of the languages but side by side. They learn to see the advantage and to be tolerant, not at all a bad start for a life-long-learning!

So, this week we had reporters visiting us and interviewing how it feels to live in a continuous sea of language... We are already making pop-corn and sitting by the tv!

5th May

Our school appearance on tv wasn't yet the other night, so now we are making pop corn every evening, watching the evening news and waiting... Hopefully in the beginning of next week:) Otherwise there's no more pop corn left!