FOUR THINGS THIS SUNDAY

In between of being away working on Friday and Saturday, and before starting rather hectic May, this Sunday was a day off, letting the to-do list be for a little while.

From snow to flowers in a couple of weeks! Apart from coltsfoot the scillas are always the first to bloom.

The cows are also out now. A sure spring sign!

Dag's bike is out as well. Practice-time! We haven't really been biking a lot out here as everything is so far away and there is not really much to bike to over here. This summer however I intend to help him ride properly and fix up my old bike as well (someone stole the saddle the year before we moved away from Tapiola and I haven't ridden it since) so we can bike to the little lake.

Then we had a popcorn lunch (because that is awesome!) and made Bear Grylls eat various yucky things and piss on a scarf to wear on his head. (To keep cool from the heating sun. You learn new things every day! )

It was really fun to watch / do You vs. Wild with Dag though! But the things I have learned, or come to realise from watching various shows with Grylls are:
1) I would so die in no-time and
2) not sure I ever want to get more than a hundred meters away from any main road, ever.
(Ok, I do live more than 10km from a main road, but the Ingå wilderness I can survive.)

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

Or, that were today.

Long time no smoothie! I have a bit of chaga at home of so I made an antioxidant-rich smoothie out of chilled chaga-tea, mango, some cherries and physalis.

Admiring my super huge (1,81m) Mucha-poster that I ordered from the Mucha museum. I saw the original sized theatre posters there when performing in Prague earlier this year but couldn't get it then due to luggage restrictions. I ordered it on Wednesday in the afternoon and it arrived in less than 24 hours on Thursday morning! I will glue it to a board and then hang it in our living room.

And then on with a lurex dress and out to listen to music! Went to the Russian centre of culture for a mesmerizing concert of Altai' music with Alexey Chichakov. (He is playing in Heinävesi Sat 13. and Tampere Sun 14., go listen if you have the chance!)

And oh! Next week season 2 of Vintage-Valtakunta starts. Tuesday 16th at 20, Yle 1! Finland only I'm afraid.

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY EVENING

Sunday evening moments -

Corrected a final seam to a jumpsuit I sew myself last night and intend to wear to the very last filming of Vintage Valtakunta season 2 tomorrow.

I also sew Dag a plush seal. It was the first plush toy I ever made. Dag has this new phase where ninjas have had to move over for seals! It's drawing seals x100 and facts and pics and videos about seals all the time.  He had even made me adorable instructions on how to make hime the seal.

Now it's hair colour time - roots and ends! I always mix a lot of different hair colours to maintain my hue, but the colour I've used for my roots for the past year and a half is Shcwarzkopf Live in the 'cool rose' shade.

And I intend to enjoy some tea, peanut butter-banana sandwhices and reading about space while the chemicals do their thing.

How was your first November Sunday?

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - AND SO IT WAS SUMMER

When it gets warm, and like now, when it STAYS warm, I keep on being amazed by how pleasant it feels. And by how light is is. You forget that during the darker months. Every time. The air feels nice and smooth and everything is green and growing and I am hoping it will stay like this until September (instead of waiting trough those short summer months of almost-there disappointments forcing you to pack a jacket with you wherever you go, like the two last summers turned out. Weather - we are at it here again...).

Everything is green and blooming here now.  I think it has never been this warm in May for such a long period here before. Woop!

Even our house is getting naked!

The summer lambs are back on our meadows.


And underneath my window the apple tree is blooming for a few moments still.

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: AND SO IT WAS SUMMER

This week I was in Strasbourg with  +27C and I was prepared to come home to boots and jacket-mode still but alas! - I brought the warmth with me and we celebrated  Mother's Day in +25C and sunshine. Weather is always such a factor here.

First outdoor breakfast (mmmm, ok: lunch) of the year! Which I made myself altough offered otherwise; oat-chia pancakes with peanut butter and berries. Not the prettiest, but more yummy than one (me) would think!

The outdoor-summer-renovation-mode for the house has begun. This home is in a state of renovation both inside-and out.

 Flower-mode is also on; in just a few days the leaves have turned green and flowers are blooming!

Flowers were also blooming in the pretty Mother's Day-sugar water painting Dag gave me!  Altough he nonchanalntely said that they were not really flowers "I just dotted some paint there".

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - IN THE AFTERNOON SUNSHINE

Four things right-right now.

The books above my head.

A cat in the after noon sunshine.

Reading the Egytptian Book of the Dead (but now I got distracted with a documentary on Marie Antoinette's coiffures.)

I want Mikael Hadreas pants.

As a side note; this was the first time I made a post in one sitting without moving anything else than my arms to take photos and grab the laptop. So now we know that!

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: IRANIAN COOKIES AND ALL THE STARS

Things are not too busy over here. I know, but meanwhile in real life I am very busy picking cocktail bites from a silvery platter of burnout. I apparently can't seem to both plan posts and actually post them, just either way, but here's a little bit of almost right here right now -

Eddi came home after a long stay in Iran and now I am having these iranian cookies wiht my evening tea -  a taste of honey, pistachio and cardamom with rose and orange water, kind of like something very sweet and buttery would be drenched in perfume. But they are strangely good.

I am about to assemble yet another Råskog cart for our home. Best little cart ever. But in order for that to go smoothly I had to switch my tea to something a bit stronger.

Karen Dalton is the soundtrack for that.

And outside the November sky is infinite.

(I have been thinking of buying a telescope for some time now. That, and a theremin. And then I'd sit at home with my wine and stare out into the void and play some eerie music. Am all set!)

Ps. My son told me it's only 37 days until Christmas. Toodelido!

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY

In a time when I kind of dream I would catch the flu so I could lay in bed and just watch Netflix  with a clean consciousness (that wouldn't be able to happen even if it did happen) a weekend off is a truly amazing thing.  Being in a rather constant mode of constantly needing to perform and produce things, even anticipated events in the free time start feeling like something that you have to accomplish rather than get to experience and thus becomes harder to look forward to. They turn into another task to manage yourself trough. This weekend however was totally off-duty-time and on Friday I got into a real relaxation-mode as I attended the first night of the Superwood-festival (more on that later). And then I got to spend the rest of the weekend at home! Eddi is off on a three-week work trip to Yazd, the stepsons away for the autumn holidays so it's just been me and Dag (and some to do's and work which I have exceptionally well been able to neglect) enjoying the late autumn sunshine.

 The first frosty nights have arrived and left traces that won't melt away until the afternoon.

 Picking rowanberries, the last ones available, to dry for a tea infusion.

Enjoying  a chocolate-lingonberry cake that we baked with Dag!

And working on a new dance partner of mine for our up-coming Halloween show. Ergonomically on the kitchen floor; I've used up all other workspaces and surfaces available in the house.

And come evening, I might allow myself some non-guyilty Netflix time as well!

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FOUR THINGS A WHILE AGO: UNDER THE TREE

Doing my barre workout in the garden. Organising things with the help of a glass of bubbly. Reading in the hammock chair under the tree.  And the wind is warm.

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FOUR SMALL NICE THINGS RIGHT NOW

Four nice things right now.

Small kumquats on a branch.

Who wouldn't get happy over cute small orange thingies like these?

Green branches and leaves in a vase; a mini jungle,  left over from when I had a mini-spa for my plants at home some time ago.  (I wonder if these are of the kind that they'll grow a root of their own and I can plant them? Hmmm...)

Green grapes in a pretty bowl.

And green grapes in their most superior form, helping me tidy up the kitchen.

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: 4 x BROWN

Gingerbread brown blouse that I came across for less than 5€ the other day at the Fida thrift shop.

Breakfast. Or, part of it.
Also: unintentionally inspired by my post a few days back, matching my snacks.

1970's vintage cowboy boots that I bought via Etsy some time ago. When you live in the countryside you need boots.

And then the best thing about Easter.
Mignon eggs. Full, solid nougat.

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: BLUE, GREENS, SHINY PINK, INVASIVE

Today I've been wearing blue.
From top to toe, rather literally; I have a new sky blue faux-scarf turban that I've been hiding my somewhat un-styled hair under lately.

And so today as well, serving also a practical reason to help my hair stay put and away while I finally got around changing the soil for all the plants in the house (all those plants that survived winter, that is). Re-potting and cutting and all however resulted in more plants than before.

The smartest thing is of course to dig in to the potting soil without any gloves when you've just had new fancy Fabergé egg-looking nails done.

My fourth thing now  today's sountdrack. I don't tend to listen that much to domestic music, even less to music of Swedish speaking Finnish origin (you know, like me) for some reason but today this has been playing.

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: LATE MONDAY EVENING

It looks like this when you open the door:

Which a) is just so wrong as it's only the 7th of November (yes, that is my sad frozen Halloween pumpkin under all that snow  -ffs this snow fell ONE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. So wrong.) and b) would be cozy would we be three weeks from now and would one not have to go anywhere.

I've been outdoors today, sadly, and driving home late at night was not very nice.

For the moment indoors is not that nice either. It's all full of boxes; we have pretty much emptied the city flat by now. Or, I have, suitably we had to move out the month when I'm alone in the blizzard while Eddi is in a sandstorm in a dessert in Iran for four weeks, doing stuff geologists do (in this case; teaching research methods). These boxes will empty one by one as we get some renovation done upstairs while others will be repacked to wait for future times and possible new flats. So now we a) don't have to have Christmas at our place this year or b) should have Christmas at our place this year as there will certainly be chairs and plates for everybody. Ha. Ha.

No but really, it will turn out nice here once we get it sorted out and renovated up. Just need a lot of money and spare time first, peanuts!

Talking about peanuts, made a big batch of quinoa snack bars/cookies/mush to munch on for the rest of the week - I  haven't made any of my usual vegan yummy-but-yucky-looking-stuff for a while so really had to restrain myself from eating too much at once of these. Which isn't that hard, as the raw bars I make are rather heavy; these however a bit lighter thanks to the quinoa. I've been eating so much chocolate and quick snacks lately as I'm on the move a lot and constantly, but now I'm hoping to get away from that a bit again and instead get my sweet tooth soothed and energy need fulfilled with better options (which I was better at before when I had a bit more time on my hands).

These bits took a blend of cashews, sun flower seeds, buckwheat (for a little crunch), dates, cocoa, coconut flakes, oats, coconut oil, a spoonful of organic peanut butter, cardamom and vanilla, liquorice flavoured sea salt and cooked quinoa; a mix on the recipe for the quinoa cookies and the raw bites that I usually make. Which reminds me; I should go and add some hemp seed on top!

Before calling it a night I still intend to finnish fixing a costume of mine that needs a few more sequins; heading over to Prague to perform and teach this weekend! Getting that costume work done is not so easy when the cat decided the dress was his spot tonight. But they blend together quite nicely, don't they?

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY EVENING

I have a jack-o-lantern and some lights burning on the front porch. Once the pumpkin is gone I will add a bunch of lanterns and lights in different sizes  more still -we changed to wintertime today and it's almost November now so the darkness really is here (that sounds very gothic doesn't it) and the more the merrier applies here; our world up here needs more lights now!

Meanwhile, it's nice and cosy on the inside. Made myself a marinated chick-pea salad for dinner. With some Sunday-evening red.

There's so much mess and stuff here, because of moving houses, that one has to really focus on how to crop the photos in order for not to reveal any of how it actually looks over here for the moment.

And Uh! I broke that fine orchid of mine when I brought it out here. It was even making new small flower buds and all! Apparently you can't have an orchid branch grow roots to plant again the way you can do with many other plants' branches and leaves, so I'll just have to cross my fingers my orchid will continue to be happy and look good and grow new blooming branches after this little misfortune still...

The window-plant from my city-home now hangs in the kitchen corner.
And once again, carefully choosing the angle of picture and subject to leave any of that crazy-putting-two-homes-into-one mess out...

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