WARM AND SUNNY

 We had a couple of warm days and stayed a bit longer out on the farm. Like a sneak peek of summer!

 The leaves are budding.

Dag was out even before he got his pants on!

 I did my yearly replanting and -potting of plants and cuttings.

 The neighbour's cows are out now. Dag is very excited!

 And a little frightened too.

 The cats follow our trails.

 Piggy-back ride away from the frightening cows.

 Then we say hello to the lambs too, who are still waiting for more grass to grow before moving outdoors.

 In the barn.

 Dag offering some straws to the babies.

Itchy teeth!

And then onto new adventures!

(...which would be the cousins' trampoline!)

EASTER-Y THINGS

 Easter and time off! We're spending ours mainly out at the farm (although I will be doing a quick stop back in town on Saturday evening for a show.)

 Right now it's warm enough for no tights and small shoes! Well, for a while at least, on the sunny porch. A few more layers are required still if actually going somewhere...

One of Dag's older brothers bought home Easter decorations he made in school. I put them all on a tray along with his Easter grass and some flowers he picked me himself, as I don't like to spread small stuff out here and there in the house.

Otherwise I don't have any Easter decorations, but I like to buy home lots of colourful flowers for the holidays instead.

(Btw. Most Finnish houses will have an Aalto vase I think. I find it hard to fit anything and look good, but tulips. Tulips will always fall nicely in it.)

And my old test-tubes got some for them as well, and some tiny ones from the garden. Give it a week or two and there will be lots more to tube!

Mämmi in a Moomin bowl, could it get any more Finnish than this?

Mämmi (memma) is an old traditional Finnish dish eaten around Easter that with very little chance will ever be found somewhere else in the world. It is made of rhye and malt and sweetened. I prefer to get the organic version that is sweetened by itself (by letting it sit, sort of), but this year the supermarket was out of it (damn you, likeminded people!) so I got the regular one with molasses. Mämmi used to be such a big disappointment for me when I was little as you kind of expect it to taste like chocolate fudge or so, judging by the look of it. Well the taste is nothing like it; it is rather strong and perhaps a bit bitter too. But I like it! Traditionally it is eaten with milk or cream and sugar, but some spice it up with vanilla sauce or whipped cream, and I heard that a few drops of whiskey on top would be great.

I make my own version and eat my memma with fresh fruits, often apples and bananas, this time with pear and pineapple. And here's a little tip for my fellow Finns, especially those of you who don't consider yourselves to like it; do that, with fruit, and have it with some lemon quark (sitruunarahka)! Woohoo! I mean really WO-HOO!


I bought some big paper eggs to stash candy and eggs in for the kids. My grandparents had old paper eggs like this when I was a kid, and I was happy to stumble upon these.


I had to choose those with the most horrific motifs though. Seriously, does not this bunny freak  you out a little?

(Old easter bunnies -in some ways old anything costume related- do tend to be damn creepy, I mean, have you been around the internet lately?)

APRIL

Springtime!

 (I know this one totally makes it seem like I would have done some yard work. But I so did not. Have no idea how that rake got there. In fact, I haven't done anything of use since autumn and everything looks there after... Well, at some point I'll have to if I ever want to have people over.)

Lulu in her hunting-dog pose.

PREP O'HOI!

It always feels like a small victory when it's warm enough again to take out the spring jacket and tuck away the winter boots! And that time is here now. Yes.

The suit and bag are vintage and the sailor top is from Tara Starlet a few years back.

On another note, every now and then I get this issue with outfit posts and posing and posting about it. Sometime wonder if I should just start doing them all like this...

...or then maybe not.

SPRING APPROACHING, MAYBE; PERHAPS; I HOPE?

I know it's only february but this has been a strange winter so far, and my fingers are crossing that it might even be over soon. The air smells like spring - and not only that, it is starting to look like spring too!


Last year we were still knee-deep in snow in mid April! I like sunny winter days with lots of snow, but as most of my time is not in fact spent hanging out in the countryside in a beautiful winter landscape coming in to chill (or rather, warm up ;) with hot chocolate, I am always eagerly waiting for spring. It can be rather exhausting with a lot of snow when in the city.


Some very sad melting snowmen.
We did a couple of Moomin-characters of snow outside our building it the city, ad Dag keeps on pointing at the spot going "Mooooomin!". He just can't understand why they are no longer there. I also did quite the crappy cat for him and was surprised that he'd gotten it, as he was also searching the small traces of snow for the cat "Naaaau" (as in "meow").


Forgot to take this one in when the snow came, kind of like my bike in the city, but I saved self the trouble now as there'll be use for both soon again. Hehe.


We had a couple of days of sun now and the streets dried up. Which made the feel of spring eve stronger  - I'm really hoping we won't get hit by winter again, even though I know that it usually always comes back one last time. I already managed to get myself into dry streets and spring shoe mode!


And here's a little hello from a pool of what once was snow.

BEFORE THE APPLE TREES WEEP

 Few things are prettier than blossoming trees in late spring; the amazing seemingly never-ending amount of sheer white, pink, yellow, lilac fluff reaching up to the skies. And they only ever bloom for such a short time before continuing their year-long cycle of change.

I can't help it, but ever since I was a teenager I've been getting this short desperate feeling of dark haunting angst at this time of year, that it will all be over soon and autumn is just around the corner.

But in a couple of days it passes and I start enjoying summer again!

(Which is always over in no time and then it's back to dark nights, wet shoes cold wind and winter jackets and Aaaaaaa damn it!...)

SUNDAY / (MY FIRST) MOTHER'S DAY