Sweet Days of Hush

Memories and thoughts along this autumn...

Some days are just like the door of our fridge!

Does your door look like ours?

And then you need just a small reminder...

that there is not rush...

but hush.

And walking in the garden makes the days seem endless in the same way as...

I could just sit and watch the new family members, the kittens Trissa and Elissi when they start their gymnastics after the breakfast table - I have trained them well, haven't I?

And Isak 6 years learnt how to write before he learnt to read.

Very useful scill now that we are waiting for the Christmas...

so Santa, here it comes!

But first some work!

The windows are getting frames one after another.

Then the pleasure! A day-trip to Turku - and with only a short to-do-list...

The river Aura and the cathedral on a crispy autumn day

Can you guess what are we about to do? 

Our new favourite Osteria Ovo 

But no pictures of the main course - they just vanished!

If I have learned something this autumn,
it is to have less rush and more hush,
shorter to-dos and longer to-bes.

A Day at the Continent..

Every now and then we have to leave our escape and visit the mainland with a long list of to-do's and shoppings. Today was one of those days. We wake up early and to make it all the way to Parainen, Pargas -  one and a half hours journey and two ferries - we always have with us sandwiches that we eat at the second ferry between the island of Nauvo and Parainen. And newspapers, make-up-bag to make full use of the 5 minutes crossings and sometimes tea in a thermos if we are really early.

"If you lived here, you would be at home already..." Wellcome to Korppoo!

The journey is beautiful - old oak forests, hills, bridges over to new islands. We try to see sea-eagles and at this time of the year count christmas trees. The narrow archipelago road is winding. Everyone living here carries a timetable of ferries in the car and you can guess that the next one is soon to be leaving when people start driving faster... If you have a red permit card at the window you get to drive in first - we don't so sometimes we have wait for the next one if the ferry gets too full.

One of the high-points of our busy day at the continent is the choosing of the lunch place - some people just feel happy when listening to their stomach. Today after visiting the bank, library, hard-ware-store, supermarket... my husband said he knows perfect place to eat near there. I first thought it must be a joke. No restaurant in Finland can be called The Golden Elk, Kultainen Hirvi. It did, and it was a lovely place with good food and friendly service - many Finnish meals like the baltic herrings fried in butter with mashed potatoes that I had today. So we recommend!

http://www.kultainenhirvi.fi/?o=0&k=2&s=0

On a Big Ferry!

For such a short distance we have dashing ferries - from Turku to Stockholm. At this side of the bay we call them the Sweden boats and on the other side they are called the Finland boats because of their destination. We decided to have an overnight-cruise between the two countries last weekend with the children.

Turku harbour early on Saturday morning

The both archipelagoes are lovely, first with old wooden villas by the sea and then islands where the vegetation gets fewer the more we reach the open sea, until they turn to bare cliffs. 

We got a climps of Mariehamn by the harbour, the capital of Aland islands at a brief stop there and then  the evening lights of Stockholm before taking some passangers and turning back.

Inside the ferry Amorella we had a luxurious buffét-table - this time with a hint of autumn and x-mas menus - and had a lot of fun trying the bingo-game (won a new cruise..), following the karaoke and Isak at the ball pit. 

After the Tax-free-shop we all had a cloud of perfume around us and favourite chocolates for the coming x-mas holidays. 

A ferry over from Nauvo to Korppoo on Sunday morning

When returning in the morning to Turku and on our way to Korppoo a frozen white archipelago was waiting for the home-comers.