Summer holiday

Well hello! Long time no see. Whew, we have been busy, we have not spent much anytime at home. Hmm.. where to start... We've been allover Finland. Well first at Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki. It was Likka's first time in an amusement park and she went to six rides already, to some with me, to some with A. Then we headed to Tammisaari in south of Finland to a friends' cabin. There we made a beach. Which means that we shoveled one truck load of sand into the sea. It was lot of work, but it was fun to do some hard labour for a while. Also at the cabin we did some boating. 

After one night at home we packed the car again and started a road trip to Ostrobotnia where my father's father lives. We drove the whole five hour drive there on one day and I must admit that it was a bit too much, we were awfully tired when we were finally there, the problem was that Likka was not tired much at all since she had slept most of the trip. Well we slept the night at my father's fathers condo and next day visited his lady friend, whom we had not yet seen.

On the afternoon we continued our journey and headed to Tuuri, but on the way there was Isokyrö, a place where a school friend of ours has founded with four other guys a rye whisky distillery - Kyrö distillery company. I tried to call our friend to get more info where the distillery is and if he would happen to be there so we could even get to see the place from inside. Unfortunately I was unable to reach him, but we resorted to locals and asked a random passer-by if she would know where to found the distillery and of course she knew where it was and also was able to tell us that next to the distillery is a harvester and agriculture fair (!) and that in the distillery they are having tours every hour. So even though I did not get a hold of our friend we were still able to see the distillery from the inside and hear stories about the history and distillation process. We also visited the agriculture fair, clearly we were not the target group for it, but it looked so fun and what are the changes of running into such an event anytime again.

After spending a few hours in Isokyrö we drove to Tuuri (picture of the giant horse shoe is from there). In Tuuri is placed one of the biggest shop of whole Finland, it is one single giant building and ridiculously large parking lot in the middle of nowhere. The stuff in the shop is nothing special, same stuff you can buy anywhere, but the place is a sight, so ridiculously big and as mentioned located in a place far from any bigger town or city. After spending way too much time in Tuuri we drove to Ähtäri where we had booked a  farm accommodation for one night.

In Ähtäri on the next day we met a mommy friend of mine, her husband and their son who is five days younger than Likka. We went to the Ähtäri zoo together. Unlike most zoos it has mainly local animals, which in our case are bears, dears, foxes and so on. I was pleasantly surprised with the zoo, there we actually saw lots of animals, usually in zoos the animals have hidden somewhere and you can only see what appears to be an empty cage. In Ähtäri we also experienced one of the biggest thunder storms I've been in, luckily we had left the zoo area already and were in shelter looking at the lightning.

From Ähtäri we drove to Virrat, where another friend of ours has a cabin. There we spent couple of days and then headed home.

Well then on the third vacation week we went sailing. A's parents had sailed our boat to Kasnäs in south west parts of Finland and there we changed the crew. We had only sailed very short trips with Likka before so I was bit afraid if it's going to go well, but Likka took the sailing very nicely. The biggest problem on the boat with Likka was the sun and the heat. We had to somehow shade her all the time but so that she would not feel too hot. We dressed her into pajama overalls and tried to keep her in shade and offered water to drink frequently. We had a bike seat for her on the boat which we attached to the spray hood. She mostly enjoyed sitting and even sleeping on that seat, so it was easy to sail with her. We sailed on a fairly small area and ended our sail to Hanko where A's parents took over and are now as I'm writing this sailing the boat back home.

So far we have had an amazing summer holiday. Sorry for the long absence from the blog, but I have been way too busy with all the traveling. I'll post soon again.

Midsummer magic

Today here is celebrated the Midsummer. It is Midsummer eve. In olden days, maybe still a bit, Midsummer has been considered magical. On Midsummer one can perform all sorts of spells to enhance your luck in marriage or to get magical powers. Maybe particularly Finnish but most of these spells should be done nude and most spells are for single women looking for a spouse. 

One of the spells says to collect seven flowers and place them under your pillow. When you sleep you will see your future husband in your dream. I once did this and oddly I saw a dream where there were only women in a shoe store that only sold those high heel shoes that have all coloured fur decoration over the toes. Hmm... I wonder what that says of my future husband...

Other spells say that on the Midsummer night if you look into a well you will see your future hubby in the reflection of the water. Preferably this should be done nude. Then if you run from a sauna, nude of course, through fields and after crossing the ninth ditch you will run into you future hubs.

Appears to me that it is the nudity that brings the future spouse in close contact with the women...

Happy Midsummer to all!

Rhododendron park

As Alana suggested in a comment of one post I am showing a place close by us. It's not in walking distance but about 15 minutes by car in Helsinki. It is a rhododendron park, I'm not usually a huge fan of the rhodo, but in a settings like this where the rhodo has plenty of room to grow large and it has good conditions to grow these bushes get truly impressive. Some of the bushes had bloomed already but it seems that the flowers are almost as beautiful on the ground as on the branches.

Amazingly I had never been there before, although I have always lived quite close by it. A friend of our suggested this place for us in facebook and also one blogger I follow had been there just a short while ago. 

What's up

The last post I created was three weeks ago, lot has been going on since then. I've visited two countries and have enjoyed the hot summer weather we had here in Finland (now it's cold again). 

So, yes, I have been traveling. First Likka, me, my mom and my sister left for Vienna, Austria where my aunt and her family live. We all, except Likka, have been in Vienna many times before and so we mainly hung out with our relatives and did not spend much time in the city. We went to see my aunt's garden plot and did some gardening work there which was fun. On one day we visited the morning exercise of the Spanish riding school in the city. We went there with Likka, but after waiting in the queue to get the tickets we found out that children under three are not allowed to get in. That was a bummer and I thought that now I was forced to spend two hours outside alone with Likka, but luckily with the ticket you were able to get in and out from the place so I first went in with the ticket while my mom took care of Likka and then we switched and my mom was also able to see the horses.

We returned to the heat of Finland to notice that the cherries had already bloomed, the apples were blooming and the weather was hot and just perfect for sun bathing on the beach. I did manage to get some gardening done on few mornings and then it was time to leave for another trip.

Two friends I've met during maternity leave and their two children, both just over one year old, visited Tallinn. We went with a boat and stayed there for one night. The first day there was beautiful and we enjoyed a lunch on the terrace of a restaurant. Then we headed to a park to drink some wine. Later in the evening the weather got colder and we walked next to our hotel to have some dinner. Next day was totally different than the first, it was cold and rainy and we spent most of the day in cafes, restaurants and in shops. We had a really enjoyable trip.

Pest control

We got an invasion of bees the other day to our conservatory. We have no intention of becoming bee keepers and I decided to do something to prevent the bees getting in. I have no idea if the bees wanted to make nest into our conservatory or if they just collected nest material from there or what was their motivation and I don't mind a single bee flying around in there but there were tens in some point and that was bit taunting.

Most of the bees flew in and out from the opening near the ceiling of the conservatory (those places pointed out on the third picture of this post). From those openings also some wasps fly in during summer and the mosquitoes later in the summer and also some birds have flown in from there once in a while and not to mention the biggest pest the squirrel also finds it's way in from those openings.

I invested in stiff mosquito net, I have seen metal ones too but this plastic one is easier to handle. I cut out strips from the net and attached those with a stapler. I like that the net is white, it does not jump out from the white roof beams. The shorter pieces right next to the ceiling are not attached to the ceiling in any way. Because the net is stiff I'm hoping the upper edge does not need any fixing, it is just stretched between the roof laths. In theory a squirrel could be strong enough to break through the net if it's really motivated to get in.

Now I think the only problem is that if some pest does get in (like from the open door) it now does not have many places to get out from. I hope that does not turn out to be a huge problem.

Float of toys

On our backyard is a small creek or maybe I would call it a ditch. It collects rain waters from the streets, that means the water is not very clean, and that is why a ditch sounds more appropriate. The ditch runs underground and comes on surface next to a children's playground. All sorts of toys float on the ditch once in a while. When I see toys floating on it I usually take out my rake and rescue the toys from the water. Previously I've thrown the toys to trash or taken to the playground of our apartment building. But now I'm keeping the toys for Likka. We already have a ball and a shovel for her.

(Of course there is also trash on the ditch, when I see them I pick those up too and take those to our trash bins)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter and spring to all.

Spring is far here already and the coltsfoot has flowered here for a while, but that is about the only flower I've seen blooming so far. The leaves of the coltsfoot are not the prettiest but the flowers are cute, so petite.

I've been having bit of blog tiredness lately, perhaps you've noticed. It's mainly because I have not done anything DIY or similar lately. Those sort of things I normally would blog about and I'm not that great with lifestyle blogging in my opinion. I guess lack of projects results from Likka. She now needs more attention than she did before. She does not sleep as much as before and requires constant attention when she is awake. Also I find it easier to entertain Likka outside home. We go to family cafes, lunches with other mommies, to the open daycare center, free museum tours, or anything that does not cost a fortune and gives us something to do. That means that I'm not at home doing projects when ever Likka does sleep and on the evenings I feel worn out to start much anything. Well, this is the phase now. Maybe I regain my DIY energy after a while. But I wanted to let you know why the blog has been so uninspirational and why it might be so for some time.

Rabbits... sigh

Those little buggers, rabbits. They have eaten my Christmas roses and I think they've eaten bit of my pine bonsai too. So annoying!

I find it odd the rabbits have decided to eat all the Christmas roses, those are poisonous after all. I wish the rabbit got at least some bellyache from those.

Here is what the Christmas roses looked like in December.

~ ~ ~ ~

But on a more joyful note, because we had a quite warm winter the spring is here really early. The snowdrops are already blooming. Yay, spring is here!

Is it echoing here?

Hello...hello...hello

Am I hearing an echo from last year or actually from two years ago? Again I made a wreath for the front door. I over estimated how much material I have and used too much first and had to then ration it for the remaining parts so the wreath is now a bit bottom heavy, but I don't care.

I found the material for the wreath while on a walk with Likka. I know some of you have wondered where I collect all the natural materials. Well, by the side of the roads, this time the city (I assume) had done some logging by the side of one of the ring roads of Helsinki. 

There is always branches and other logging waste left over, so I collected some from there. Also parks and road sides have often fallen branches that I take with me if I need them. The road sides are also really good places to collect flowers.