Books for the stormy days...

Our New Year's divination promised some of us problems - a peanut, some are waiting for money - a coin, some are afraid of the waiting poverty - a piece of dried bread. And the lucky one who got the barbie's shoe will be the party queen of the year... We had our traditional "The Cups Will Tell" -game on New Year's Eve at home with the family and always write down the results. It is funny then before the next game to see how it actually went.

Now we have all been on a flu, been coughing like in a sanatorium and filled our days with games, books and films.

Today we needed some filling in our shelves - especially when the weather forecast promised us a new storm and probably new power cuts. So it will be reading in the candel light then...

We have a small but very good public library on our island and a friendly librarian who helps to find some reading, remembers what you especially like and for the teenagers who just gobble books she orders from other libraries. Libraries are something very Finnish and to me personally a magic place since my childhood. All my children have got an own card when they have learnt to read and that has been a big and exciting day. I still remember my first day as a real customer...

There began my gobbling age...

My today's prey:)

I took a head start already today with a new book by a Finnish Jari Tervo. Layla is a story of a young Kurd girl who ends up in Finland - it is touching and a strong statement for the rights of women. I am afraid I  can't sleep before the last page tonight... 

First Snow on the Last Day of the Year..

Suddenly we remembered that we had forgotten to take up the leeks. 

The mild long autumn had been on our side when the renovation and the garden and everything had taken its time this year and when our only possibility to wash ourselves has meant a brisk run over the yard to the old sauna. So on the last day of this year we fetched the last harvest of the year.

We were very thankful for the deer that they had left us this much to have in the cellar - our favourite are the sandwiches with butter, mustard and leek plus a lot of cheese grilled in the oven. 

And that we remembered our pour leeks - it was the first snow... Beautiful big flakes and suddenly there was so much light and the feeling of winter when the sound of snow under the boots. 

What else have we forgotten, I don't know. Let's hope we can still save it tomorrow.

Happy New Year from Pellas!

Lights on!

We have twenty liters water all the time in big kettles on the wooden stove, batteries for the flash lights, matches and candles, canned food and juice, a generator at the shopping list. We are prepared but this latest storm lasted for hours. Our christmas tree had fallen by the village road - though it was quite a small misfortune compared with that the 23 metres high Christmas tree in Helsinki had fallen, too and compared to people who had had trees fallen on their house.

We had electricity off over 16 hours and got it back just in time to keep my 20 kg meat frozen - I had filled our storage before Christmas.. We buy all our meat from a fabulous local farm Nystu Lantbruk that has their sheep and cows grazing at the forest and meadows by the sea in Wattkast village in Korppoo. I didn't want to loose my steaks!

It's our fortune that we have a wooden stove to cook on and the other ovens keep us warm. It is cosy to sit in the candel light but a bit difficult to actually do something. So we were getting a bit bored with the dim atmosphere when we decided to take the car and drive to centrum of our island and to church to sing Christmas carols. We could see which of the houses were out of electricity because there were no X-mas lights, only a weak candel light from the windows. 

In the centrum and church they had electricity, so people sat on their seats and enjoyed singing both old and new carols. Then in the middle of the Silent Night the church went dark. The organ faded away. People continued to sing. I was moved and all the complexities that we had had without running water, difficulties to do every day chores became unforgettable. 

When writing this I can hear our roof banging again and I know many on our island are still sitting by the candel light, so I hope it won't get so bad  during the night. We have been working outdoors for hours today saving our building material when the tent over them had flown away. Please, no suprises next morning... And we haven't lifted up the Christmas tree yet, just in case.

Seeing stars...

The Christmas chores are extra joyful so the days have been quite long when baking and finishing the presents - decorating the cards, writing poems. Everything is almost ready now for the Christmas to begin.  One more poem left for the present hiden behind the green house..  The rhythm of our day is usually peaceful and now our steps are getting even slowlier, eyes follow a raven flying over the field to the forest and the carring of water to the sauna, hay to the sheep and firewood inside are calming routines.

Some Christmas routines make you jump up in the morning like the advent calenders for the children, we adults share a calender on the kitchen wall. The most popular suprises have been cards like "Today you get to choose the dinner" - we have had fish and chips quite often now...

On Advent Sundays we have sung a special song, one new verse every Sunday. The song tells how a candel is lit, how the Christmas is nearer every week and how the light is growing and we are waiting. And on every Sunday we light one more candel. Now we have all the four candels burning - and together eight verses sang because we sing on the both languages of our family,  in Swedish and Finnish.

And the Christmas holidays of school have begun! This year  the celebration at school was nominated to light and winter because school wanted to arrange it also to non-christian pupils. I missed the gospel and the angels but otherwise the celebration was warm and the pupils had prepared a wonderful program, decorated the festival hall and baked hundreds of ginger-bread cookies themselves.

We even got to see one of the short-films the pupils had made during this autumn at the YoBaNa -project school is attending, a lovely animation film about the sea - I hope they will soon have it at their YouTube-page. Have a look at their other films! We parents have been very proud of them...

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB6731041813CAACD&feature=plcp

What I have enjoyed most during the past days are the stars. Jupiter is very bright here, the star of Bethlehem. Orion is near the horizon on the eastern sky. It is like a puzzle when you find one it is easy to find the next one. When lifting your gaze up from the chores to the stars all the hurry seems useless and all the things undone are forgotten. Let's just breathe... Have a

Merry Christmas!


ps. If you want to find the stars, too: http://www.ursa.fi/taivaalla/tahtikartta/ 

Tree Falling!!

Odd things happen when you get divorced and this is one of them. After my first marriage I inherited the chain-saw like some people get the sailing-boat or the volvo. I never used it for almost ten years - until now.

My Husqvarna

This autumn I have attended a course as a part of my agricultural studies in forest management. I have learnt  a lot about wooding and cutting, special areas to protect and how to stretch between the jobs -
fabulous vhs-videos from the 80's and sweaty evenings in the forest in action!

You learn by doing - so true - for example I was heading with a Valmet tractor of school up a steep slope  that was muddy and slippery to fetch some trunks. I had the first gear on because I was terrified the tractor would fall but it moved slowlier and slowlier even if I pressed the pedal as hard as I could - until our teacher jumped to the cabin and said if I tried the gas instead of the brake...

We were to have a test and I seemed to need some practising, so we headed to our own forest with my chain saw. We needed to take down few trees because we will hire parking and boat places next summer for those cabin owners who have their cabins on islands.

I got down two, it was exciting and fun.  I am now eager to start practising more but I need to get a protection outfit.

And I got through my test at school. The teacher said I should try and play the lottery, too, because I really had luck on my side that the tree fell and to the right direction. He had already started to look for an excape...

Mission Possible?

I was very flattered to get post this week, especially because I am the only married woman in the whole country to receive it. I got a x-mas card from one of the leading hardware store in Finland, K-Rauta! Thanks!

When we started renovating I went to open an account there so that it would be easier to order or fetch material from there and then get the bill home every two weeks. Well, I started wondering that I didn't get any bills but my husband did and ring their custom service. They didn't find me. They found my husband.

"Oh no, it is our policy to register always on the name of the husband because it would be confusing otherwise! No one is registered on the name of the wife."
"What if there is someone without a husband, she can't renovate then, or?"
"Well, that is another case then but in your case.."
"Have you heard that Finland was the first country in the whole world who give women the right to vote despite their wealth or position? Over hundred years ago? Do you know that we have had a female president almost 12 years now? Have you heard of the law of equality?"
"Yes, but.."
"I registered our account and I want to have my own bills. If I don't get my own bills, I will cancel our account and..."

So I am the only wife with own bills from K-Rauta. Thanks and merry x-mas to you, too, Mission Possible!

The Gingerbread Family

Why to put a lot effort and time on something that cannot be eaten before it has gathered dust almost a month? Because it is so beautiful, so funny and it spreads the Christmas scent all over the kitchen.

This year we had a new model for the house, our new home Pellas. It was the most difficult I had ever made but it is now ready and placed up on the cupboard - to be seen but not to be touched by the dogs or the small admiring hands... Thanks for the talented architect who made me the model!

In the previous life I use to bake a much more simple cabin with my girls but with a lot of symbolic features. There were I and my girls, our dogs - also the ones in heaven placed on the roof - and then our dream-come-true servants Pentti and Hillevi. I was a single-mother hands full of work and we use to dream of having some helping hands like Pentti who would cook us delicious meals and clean the house and his wife Hillevi who would clear the snow and carry to firewood inside - the strong feminist in me here educating the daughters about facts in life!

Then before moving in to our new home with our new family we had the lighthouse to show us the way through the months of renovation and all nine of us around it like the Moomin family on their way to the adventures. As you can see, I take this house thing seriously...

So it all began with baking the parts - and to make them strong enough you have to make a special house dough.

Then the parts are baked - perhaps a bit harder than the ordinary ginger bread cookies - and then decorated. Everyone gets a part  and free hands to use own imagination - and sugar-mix and sweets, lots of sweets! You should let it dry few days and then melt some sugar in a frying pan and dip the parts or with a help of a paddle pour the hot sugar on the edges. And a puff of powdered sugar!

And there is our whole family! Until the 13th January, the day of Nuutti, Knut, the day the Christmas time is over. All Christmas decorations are packed in their boxes, last bottle of the Glogg is warmed and the ginger bread house is eaten together. Can you guess which parts are the most popular...?