Suuri Seikkailu ja elämä nyt!

Hyppäsimme käsi kädessä! Olemme saanet aitoutta, pysähtymistä, heräämistä, hetkeä. Nyt elämme hirsiä ja pellavarivettä, banaanilaatikoita, teinejä ja taaperoa, koiranneniä ja lampaita, kaartelevia merikotkia ja huikaisevaa halua merelle.

KOTIKALLIO

KOTIKALLIO

25.12.2013

Christmas of the Islanders


This year it was a Christmas full of music and festivals it seemed. Our small community has many lovely traditions and we were lucky to have children who lead us the way...
The First Advent
Grand-father in the choir and..
Isak's first performance in the children's choir, Hoosianna.

 At every occasion the children and their leaders had made a huge effort preparing several songs and plays - Thank God I remembered my handkerchiefs -  and there is no better way to find the Christmas spirit than by following the small ones.

X-mas by the Kindergarten...

Our local church and the Betania church arrange a club for the small ones every Thursday afternoon, where the children sing and play instruments and listen to the stories from the Bible with these charming old picture - do you remember these figures made of cloth that made the stories alive?
To Betlehem, to Betlehem...
And then 13th December came Lucia with light to darkness... At home we have turns, this year Iris with Isak as the star boy and the light was needed because of the power-cut, so it tasted especially nice to get hot chocolate and Lucia buns to bed! In Korppoo it was Jennifer's turn to be Lucia and our Ellen was one of the girls in her escort.
They began their day early from the local Old people's home Rainbow and continue to homes, school and in the evening with almost all islanders to our church St.Michael.
It is like a wonderful play, carefully performed and prepared by every step.
Last year's Lucia lit the crown.
Afterwards we were lead like a caravan around the centre with Lucia, the local young firefighters with their torches and one of us got even a chance to sit on Lucia's vehicle...
We had been preparing items to be sold at the local Christmas market for weeks at the table of parents. And so had many others. Local entrepreneurs, school classes, hand-craft enthusiasts... What a way to get something personal and something you cannot find from any supermarkets - woolen socks, honey by the archipelago bees, tomato juice glögg and...
puzzle toys, dried herbs, napkin holders, home-made carpets...
And of course Lucia came, too, to our island's meeting point, Kommunalgården, where we then met again at school Christmas festival few days later...


The school children had prepared songs and plays and the mystery play of the older ones was hilarious! Comissario Closeau had a case of smugglers in Korppoo and many locals had their fingers in the plot, too.
At home the evenings and weekends were full of preparations. Girls and I had picked up herbs to dry and now I could made wonderful teas and baths for Christmas gifts.

Lisää kuvateksti
 Our X-mas mood was topped by a trip to Turku to visit museum Ett Hem and its old-time-Christmas and to see the native scene in Cathedral by an Italian artist this year. A choir was preparing for the ceremony singing like angels, people was touched by the lights, sounds and scenery. What I have thought most this season is how every effort is useless without the nearness and love-ones to share everything with. I have watched people how they touch, smile and come near, care and show it. Send messages over ocean and through the country to say that you are in their heart.



                        Merry Christmas!

http://web.abo.fi/stiftelsen/ett_hem/english.html
http://yle.fi/uutiset/valtava_seimi_tuo_italialaisen_jouluperinteen_turun_tuomiokirkkoon/6937194




21.12.2013

Forest Works...

I walk at our estate with owner's steps, heavy on the big boots carrying a billhook on my shoulder and dreaming of a strong all-terrain vehicle that could take the wood nearer to the farm.. Here used to cattle pasture in the old days.  I am trying to find trees down by the latest storm. They'll end up to warm our home when chopped and dry. 
Saapastelen tiluksilla vesuri olkapäällä ja haaveilen mönkijästä, jolla saisin raahaamani rangat pellonlaidalta liiterin kulmalle. Nyt on varustuksena vain kumpparit kosteikkojen ylityksiin ja kohmeloisten kyiden varalta, jotka taitavat kyllä jo nukkua. Koitan katsastaa myrskyn kaatamia, josta saisimme polttopuita. Siihen se tämän metsän hyöty tyssää, sillä vieri vieressä on vain metsälaissa mainittuja erikoiskohteita, jotka on paras kiertää kaukaa ansaintamielessä. 

That seems to be the best profit we can get out from our forest that is mostly special objects mentioned in the forest law - cliffs with old tiny pines, small bogs between them, over hundred years old trees, wells - objects to protect, not to get rich with...
The ground is so poor that the trees clone themselves instead of growing new cones every year by rooting a branch near the mother-tree.
Sitten se alkaa, voimaantuminen, joka tuntuu ensin vain reisissä mutta vähitellen myös mielessä. On niin kaunista, hiljaista, tuoksuvaa. Tämä on nyt sitä viheraltistumista, ehdin ajatella. Metsä voimistaa, mutta myös nostaa esiin niitä voimia, joita minulla jo on. Hiljentyneestä ajatuksesta pulpahtelee uutta. Liikutun.
Then it begins, I can feel it first in my legs that get warm from the climbing, then in my mind that gets calm. This is it that they call 'empowerment by the Green'!  Fresh thoughts get room to step forward. I had all this strength inside me but couldn't get hold of it before now. I am touched and I can breathe.
Minun metsäni oli joskus merestä kohoava kalastajien taukopaikka, tilan lehmien metsälaidun ja jossain välissä itänaapurin taistelupolku, mutta se ei ole tämänpäivän talousmetsää. Käkkyrämännystä ei ole kuitupuuksi, sillä se on toista sataa vuotta kasvanut kallionkolossa kippuraan. Jyrkänteeltä on kymmenen metrin pudotus kalliotasanteelle, ja lähteen ympäristö on kosteikko, joka ei jäädy kovimmallakaan pakkasella. Tämä onkin luonnonarvometsää!

My forest has another kind of value that I had understood. Here used to the first hunters and fishermen stay when the water was much higher than now on my high cliffs, the cows find water from the ancient well that never gets frozen and the passing armies rest during the struggles between the neighbouring countries.
It is said that inside a well there are pre-historic colonies that have survived the turmoils of the earth - alga that can be ancient. 
Raihnaisessa ryteikössä lähteen syvyyksissä saattaa asua kaikista maailman myllerryksistä selvinneitä eliöitä. Ikiaikaisista männyistä ja kuusista voi kaartua niskahirsiä. Heikunkeikun-metsän haavat kasvavat paanuvärkkiä ja vesikouruja, lepät paneelia ja puu-ukkoja. 

One could make a hiking stick of an old juniper, a fishing rod of a rowan, rain gutters of aspens, special boards of alder... 
Kaipaamani vaellussauvan saisi katajasta, onkivapoja pihlajasta. Jämäpölleistä lovettaisiin ryhdikäs pyöräteline ja lisää samettiturpia; yksi meillä jo onkin, Tuisku, joka rotupaperien mukaan on aito norjalainen pöllivuononhevonen!
Would it be exciting to build a rope bridge between the cliffs? Is this ring of stones a cooking oven of the Russian soldiers from the 18th century or even older?

Olisiko köysisilta alas jyrkänteeltä jännittävä? Maastopyöräura huimapäille? Onko outo kiviympyrä venäläisten soppatykki? Miten ennallistetaan metsälaidun? Ketunlieko kiemurtelee jääkauden jyräämällä kivirinteellä, jota pehmeä tumma sammal peittää. Metropolissa syntyneelle metsä on pelottava. Meillä on vielä perimässä tietoisuus, että metsä on syli. Miltä tuntuisi nukkua siinä?
 
A place for lean-to and camp fire to sleep overnight...

And a Christmas tree... 




19.12.2013

Christmas from the Archipelago - The Pike!

Every year the president of our country gets the best gift from people of the archipelago of Turku - A PIKE! - and this year, too, to be prepared for the x-mas table.

Jenni and  Sauli admiring the famous pike, caught in Iniö waters this year and about 4 kg.
                                               We are so proud!
Having a pike at the x-mas table is an old tradition here and it is cooked with some salt and white pepper. My mother-in-law remembers when she was little how once the ice had frozen and they couldn't get the pike off from the well where it was put to wait. Next spring had the father lifted the well and to everyone's surprise had the pike jumped back to the sea...

6.12.2013

Happiness is... a Milk Platform!

Every year they search for the best village of the area - ours has a bit poor changes when we are so few here and  most of the houses are only vacation homes for city people. The village of a year is an active centre but even if we feel there is action all the time here  it is not that kind of action they are after. Children, saws and hammers, dogs and sheep, Agnes on the run, deer eating up our vegetables and apple trees, the post car once a day...


Onni on... maitolaituri! Se tekee kuulemma ihmiset iloisiksi, ja luulen, että se on se, joka puuttuu. Alan olla viimeistä sukupolvea, joka vei tonkkia kärryillä odottamaan maitoautoa mummon kanssa. Tankkiautojen aikakaudella maitolaiturit pääsivät lahoamaan maaseudun hiljentyessä, ja tilojen tonkista tehtiin kukkapystejä. Maitolaitureilla on kuitenkin laskettu olleen kolmisenkymmentä käyttötarkoitusta. Niillä on odotettu muutakin kuin maitoautoa, pidetty sadetta ja kädestä, kohdattu ja erottu. Maitolaituri on kylätien majakka.

What we are missing is a place where to gather, see each other - the brave few facing the coming winter storms.. - where to hear the latest gossip and where to set the date with the secret boy-friend mum doesn't know about, yet!  A light-house of the village...


Pian julistetaan taas vuoden kylä - ja kylähullu! Ne ovat sellaisia puuhakkaita ja iloisia molemmat.
I think the answer is a MILK PLATFORM! I am one of the last generation of children spending part of their childhood summers on a farm and helping the grand-parents to take the cans of fresh milk stored in the well to the milk platform by the village road. Milk platforms were built at the time after the war when people didn't have big farm tanks to store the milk but it was collected in cans by a truck.
Meillä ei ole mitään saumaa ilman maitolaituria, sillä missä sitten pääsemme yhteisen alkuun. Koko kesä on kylässä touhuttu, kuopsutettu ja käynnistetty mutta tarkasti omilla pihoilla. Me olemme jo katsastaneet lippamalleja ja porrastyyppejä. Pian meilläkin voi tavata, odotella poutaa ja istuskella. Varmasti keksimme ainakin ne kolmekymmentä tapaa ottaa siitä ilo irti.

Red painted milk platforms had though other functions, too, although those I missed being to young to understand the value of a good gossip. I had't started of dreaming of my prince either, so I haven't had any dates set on a milk platform. But I think it isn't too late! And it has been counted over 30 other purposes of the milk platform as well.
Maitolaiturilla voi herkistellä hyvästejä puhaltavia kurkia, joiden trumpetit saavat palan kurkkuun. Siellä voi kuunnella peukalonkokoisten hepokattien ja pienempien ruskeiden viuluniekkojen siritystä ja kuvitella eksyneensä tropiikin yöhön. Ja voi suudella seuran puutteessa rupisammakoita, noita puutarhurin ystäviä, joiden takia meidänkin perheessä on uusi ulkonaliikkumissääntö. Ei ilman otsalamppua! Ajakaahan väistellen siinä kylätielläkin.
We have already found the place, now we have to choose the model. Shall we build the kind Pellas had or shall we choose a model from the childhood memories of Ostrobothnian countryside..? But of wood, of course, and with stairs to sit and view the village life from the best balcony! And they have just published the research how the tree material heels. Walls made of tree lower the stress level and keep the mind quick.
Ja puu parantaa. Sekin vielä, nyt mustaa valkoisella. Niin kuin löylyhuoneessa kylpeminen laskevat puiset seinät stressitasoa ja virkistävät ajatuksenjuoksua. Vain aito kelpaa, sillä jäljitelmä on piraattia, ihminen tunnistaa sen oikean. Oikeastaan koko saariston voisi julistaa terveysvaikutteiseksi, sillä elämän voi täällä paneloida kaikille aisteille.
And the interesting is that the mind recognizes the fake imitations! Actually the whole archipelago could be declared a healthy product for all senses. It is so quiet that I get startled by a cone falling from the pines. 
Täällä on niin hiljaista, että säikähdän putoavaa käpyä. Keltamatarassa haistan jo hunajan. Uskallan syödä tienposkesta vadelman. Puhun itsekseni, ja silti uskon, että joku kuulee. Tuutko maitolaiturille?
I can smell the honey in flowers. I eat small strawberries growing by the road. I talk to myself and still believe that someone hears me. Will you meet me at the milk platform?

Ps. they are also searching "Village Idiot" of the year - do you think one of us could have chance in there..?
http://www.maitolaiturimuseo.net/english.htm
 - the smallest milk platform museum of the world...
http://www.maaseutuplus.fi/fi/etusivu
Ja hauskoja naisia maalla:
http://maitolaiturinkyllikit.blogspot.fi/