You Know It's Love....

....when it feels like this.

No more words necessary on this one!

New Family Members Arrive

I have always thought that a house with animals in it is a happy place to be. Back when we lived in England we several times adopted dogs from rescue homes and regularly had a house full of cats. The children loved them all.

When we left the UK, we had only one cat with us, but I assumed we would adopt some more pets at some point and get back to "normal". However, it turned out that my new husband had no time for animals and would not agree to any at all.  So, apart from Caroline, (our lovely cat), we spent the next four years in a house devoid of animals. To the rest of us, it just felt wrong.

Now though, we are free again to bring some furry friends back into the house. Following the arrival of our skinny pigs last year we have now also been joined by two beautiful little kittens from a farm in Pitkäjärvi.

The children were so excited to meet them yesterday that they didn't want to go to bed. They insisted that they needed to "look after" the cats, and were up this morning extra early to do the same thing.

Luckily the kittens don't seem to be shy at all and seem to be very happy to be surrounded by little people offering them string to chase.

We are still thinking of names for the new arrivals. Minttu's suggestion is "kissa" - (cat in Finnish) which I suppose is functional if nothing else!

Now we are just waiting for our dog to arrive from Romania and then the family will start to feel right again.

In the meantime we will get on with enjoying our new kittens, who are now taking a well-earned rest before what will no doubt be another session of intense playing, chasing and being "looked after." Exhausting work, being a kitten.

This Kitchen

This kitchen, in the picture, is the place I have some of my happiest childhood memories. And they are because of the two other people in the photo, my aunt Salme and my cousin Sari.

Being brought up in the UK, other than my parents, I had no family around me as I grew up - so our yearly summer holidays in Lumijoki were the only time I got to spend with people I was related to. You can probably imagine that Lumijoki (a farming community of 2000 near Oulu), could not be more different from the centre of London where I lived the rest of the time.

But even though I was only in Lumijoki for the summer holidays, my strongest memories of growing up are not of being in London, but running around in the forest with my cousins. They used to laugh at my long white school socks, and I used to wonder why everyone wasn't wearing them. We didn't always understand everything the other was saying, but we got along nevertheless.

Sari and I used to compete in our own version of the Olympics, (including the long jump into the sandpit and various throwing events, usually involving pine cones). However, even though I was a sporty child, she still used to beat me in every single event.

As an only child, I always used to wish I could live in Salme's house with my five cousins. There was always something going on and people in every room. I would walk into the house early each morning and ask for Salme to cook pancakes, which she invariably did. They have never tasted as good anywhere else. This kitchen is also the place I tasted mushrooms for the first time, after Sari and I had picked them in the forest. We ate fresh honey which Salme had collected from her own bees in the garden. Things like that didn't happen in London, at least not in the block of flats where I lived. 

In most senses life is all about change. Nothing is permanent. Even things that we think are certain often turn out not to be after all. Experiences turn into memories, relationships end, even when we might not want them to - and people move on.

But in this case, thirty years on, I am lucky enough to still be able to visit one of my most treasured places in the world. That hasn't changed much at all. This kitchen of happy memories is still there, and for now at least, when I make my monthly trips to see my Mum in Lumijoki,  I can still visit it.

Talking to my Dad, before he died, reminded me that all we really have at the end is the memories we have collected during a lifetime. I guess the best we can do is to make as many good ones as we can. And this kitchen in Lumijoki will always be remembered as the setting for many of mine.

Warm....Finally.

As I write these words, it is the first time I have felt warm all day. Probably because I am sitting in my bed tucked under a thick duvet. When I walked outside to warm the car up this morning, it was minus twenty degrees. I didn't laugh.

The fact that the car has a problem with it's heating system at the moment is even less amusing. And when I got home, for some reason I could not seem to get the fire going for ages....so my whole day seems to have been about trying to get warm and failing pretty miserably.

Still, as I have said many times in the past, there are upsides to everything. As I drove with Lucie to Pitkäjärvi this morning to see some kittens, we saw this view of the sun over the snowy fields.

I don't know how many years I will be in Finland, but I hope that however long it is, I always remember to appreciate the scenery which is right on our doorstep here in Somero.

For those of you here in Finland, apparently tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful sunny day, pretty much everywhere. Not hot, unfortunately, but sunny at least.  I've got the long drive up north to see my Mum again tomorrow, so I will take my camera with me and hope to catch some good scenery on the way. Apparently there is salsa this weekend in Oulu...so you never know I might even get the chance to feel warm for a change. Happy weekend everyone.

The Colour of the Sky

Motivation. It's a funny thing. Sometimes we wake up and seem to have bags of it. Other times we have none. And sometimes it appears in the wrong order, at the wrong time and for the wrong things. Normally I hate hoovering. But when a piece of university work is due in the next day, suddenly my motivation to hoover the entire house has no limits.



The sky over Somero this evening

One of my new year's promises to myself was to finish various projects that I have started in the past, and this week has been all about finding the motivation to get started on them again.

I have found that one trick, when you really need to find motivation, is to say publicly that you are going to do something within a certain time. If you are like me, you will then want to avoid the embarassment of having to admit you were wrong.

This week I had a piece of work that I had wanted to finish for some time. It had sat there...and I had also sat there... and nothing had progressed. So on Sunday I announced to various friends that I intended to have it done within 24 hours. That was enough. It was still hard to get started, (tidying the house once again became immensely attractive)but the knowledge that I would be asked questions at the end of the next day was enough. I wanted to be able to tell my friends that I had stuck to my word - and it worked. I finally got it done.

Along the way I was also lucky enough to get several messages of encouragement, and for a moment I felt as though I was running the last leg of an Olympic relay race. I couldn't be the one to let the team down. Of course this wasn't the case at all- the truth is that no-one except me would have minded if it hadn't been done. But the little psychological trick was a very useful one, because it made me finish something I had been putting off for a long time.

It means that I can cross off the first thing on my to-do list for this year, and that feels good. Of course, there are still a multitude of other things on it, but I will get them done.

On another note, it is exactly two years today since the first post on this blog. Life has had many twists and turns in these last two years and in many respects things aren't the way I would have predicted back then. But life has a funny habit of throwing up surprises...and after all the sadness and heartache, I have a funny feeling that maybe the next two years have some nicer surprises in store. Hopefully my intuition on this one is right.

For now though, having spent the day with the three little ones, I have aching shoulders and am having an early night. I have posted a couple of pictures of the scenery in Somero at the moment. It's crisp and white and very pretty. Every evening, for about half an hour, the sky turns a beautiful mix of pink and blue and peach just as the sun is about to set. So if nothing else seems to be going right for you at the moment, don't forget to look upwards occasionally - you might just find some inspiration in the colour of the sky.

The Week's Highlights

So, it's almost the end of another week. For once I have a whole day ahead with nothing planned in it, so I'm thinking about different ways in which I could use it. At the moment I am just enjoying the fact that the house is still so quiet.

There are plenty of things I should do, of course, but whether they will get done today is a different story altogether. It's been such a busy week, that sometimes it's good to spend a day doing nothing.

For some reason I have been drawn to Turku several times this week. Apart from a course I studied there once, I have never spent much time in Turku.  I don't know it nearly as well as I do Helsinki where I've both lived and worked. Still, I feel pulled in the direction of Turku at the moment. As I am a big believer in the power of our instincts and gut feelings, it will be interesting to see if the town has a central role to play in a future project, job or friendship. I will keep you posted!

When you look back on your own week, I hope it has been a good one? Mine was certainly busy. I managed to sort out a few loose ends, catch up with several friends and start a couple of new projects. We also started the Somero English Club again on Thursday evening and it wa great to meet up with our old members and welcome some new ones.

The highlights of my week were seeing a film with Lucie and Cameron (in Turku again) yesterday, and having a Facebook conversation on Friday which made me laugh more than I have in a long time (Thanks Teemu! :))

Thanks to my friend Satu, I have also now found a shop in Finland which sells Maltesers (although no Minstrels, sadly). I decided at the beginning of this year to eat less chocolate, so I only bought some for the children this time. My next "chocolate day" will be on Valentines Day in four weeks' time. If anyone should happen to be looking for me on that particular day - the odds are that I will be in Turku, buying quite a lot of Maltesers.  Wishing you all a fulfilling Sunday.

Home-made Cake in Turku Kauppahalli

Today I was in Turku and took the opportunity to visit the Kauppahalli. Finnish Kauppahallit  (the literal translation is shop hall) are indoor markets with permanent stalls in them. Most of them have been around for a long time and are worth a visit.

I had never been to the one in Turku before and it was fascinating to have a look around.

There are stalls selling vegetables, meat and dairy products as well as several bakeries and other stalls selling tea, grains and nuts. 

I didn't really need to buy anything, but as I like meeting new people, I decided to stop somewhere where the people looked friendly.

Marja Rantanen at the Eedami stall in the Turku Kaupahalli

This decision took me to a bakery stall called "Eedami". Both the owner, Arja Hiltunen, and her assistant Marja greeted me with smiles as soon as I arrived. Arja then explained that it was the only stall in the whole building which had exclusively home-made bread and cakes produced by in the local area.

Nothing is bought wholesale or from abroad. Arja was also proud to let me have a slice of their "herkkukranssi" (see picture below) which is apparently so famous that is has been featured several times in the national press.

I asked why this was. Apparently, several decades ago, this same fruit bun was made by a well-known and popular bakery in Turku who made it with an exclusive recipe.

Once this bakery closed down, the sons of the owner continued making it to their secret family recipe and now it's available at the Eedami stall. I have to admit, it was delicious, as well as being a part of Turku history.

Turku is definitely worth a visit if you visit Finland any time, and if you get there, I recommend visiting the Kauppahalli and treating yourself to a cake from Eedami. You will find not only delivious, local cakes, but also service with a smile, which in my opinion is just as important as the cakes themselves :)

Sunrise

Last night at home we lost electricity in part of the house, which meant that some of our rooms were without heating. That's not good when you've got small children and it's almost minus 20 outside. 

I'm not the biggest fan of the winter at any time, but when we have to rescue the little ones from cold bedrooms, I'm almost ready to book a one way ticket to somewhere hot.

Still, there is always a plus side to every situation, and I found the plus side of this one this morning.

I found it as I was driving down the road towards Salo. There wasn't a cloud in the sky anywhere, and the sun was so bright that it made the snow sparkle so much that it looked as though the fields were full of diamonds.  Thankfully we had somebody round to fix the problem at home, so we can all sleep in our own beds tonight. But if someone sends me a one-way ticket to somewhere warm...I'm not making any promises....   

It's Bloody Freezing

The vast majority of the Finnish population, who have been waiting impatiently for the snow to arrive, have finally got their wish.

After what is known over here as a "Black Christmas" (no snow in December), the landscape turned white over the weekend. And here we are again. In winter.

There has been a general mood of excitement in the country ever since. You hear the same conversation everywhere you go. In cafés, shops, in the street...everywhere. "Thank goodness the snow is here!" they all say. "At last it's light again. I couldn't stand all that rain. And it looks so nice...!"

I truly wish I could share in this celebratory mood. But in our family we are already on the countdown to summer. Now we have to start shovelling snow again....and driving is slippery (the UK would have shut down by now)...and not only that, but it's BLOODY COLD.

The view from my front door

As I took Lucie to the dentist this morning it was MINUS EIGHTEEN DEGREES. I mean who lives in a place like that? Well, yes, exactly. We do. In fact it has been so cold that not even the children were playing out today. They have a minus fifteen limit (and no, I'm not joking...).

So Finland is happy once again. Me? I am sitting in my bedroom as I write this, surrounded by candles and covered in a big white fleecy blanket.  And as I sit here, I'm dreaming about the summer. T-shirts, sandles, walking in the sand and no thermal underwear in sight. I'll be doing my celebrating once there is not a single snowflake left anywhere. Only around another four months to go ..... 

Fusku in Koijärvi

Anyone who knows me will tell you that dancing is one of the things that I love most in life. Whenever I need cheering up, I know that I am guaranteed to feel better if I go out dancing for a few hours.

I have danced pretty much all my adult life. It started off with dancing in the clubs where I worked as a DJ, and then progressed to salsa, which I still love now. A year ago I was challenged by members of the Somero English Club to try going to the Finnish "lavatanssit." I had resisted going for the first four years I was in Finland, on the basis that I would be the only person there who didn't know the steps.

Then last Easter there was a dancing camp in Somero over four days, where I had my first introduction to dances such as the waltz, foxtrot, tango, fusku, bugg and rumba.

This gave me the courage to start going to dances. Of course as soon as I started, I realised that you certainly don't need to be an expert to go dancing in Finland. The vast majority of men use pretty much the same steps no matter what the music is, and have never been to a single lesson, so my fear of not knowing what to do had been completely misplaced.

Today I joined my friend Juha Juhola in Koijärvi (near Forssa) who was giving a fusku lesson. Fusku is a Finnish invention which you can dance to anything with a foxtrot rhythm. Salsa will always be my first love when it comes to dancing, but it's been fun over the past year to get to know several new dances and join in with the Finnish Lavatanssi tradition.

If you've ever thought of dancing, but never had the courage to try, my advice to you is to go out and get started... you will find dance classes wherever you are in the world. Once you have been a few times you will realise just how much fun it can be. And of course that's the most important thing about dancing, it should be all about enjoying the music - and feeling free from everything that might be getting you down.

These days I dance almost every day. Sometimes at dance venues, but usually simply in my kitchen. My neighbours probably things I'm totally nuts, but dancing is when I feel happiest. So if you're feeling less than perfect this Saturday afternoon, turn up the music and get your dancing shoes on. I guarantee you will be glad you did. Wishing you all a happy weekend!

Cafe Rose

Traditional Finnish cinnamon buns (korvapuusti)

As a half-Finn who has lived a fairly nomadic existence up until now, people often ask me why I came to settle in Somero. Sometimes I start giving a list of reasons...there are plenty of good things about this town. But the real reason that I ended up here was simply that it "felt right".

A bit like meeting a man and then falling in love. True love doesn't come around very often, but when it does, you can't always explain where the chemistry comes from. It just is.

Cafe Rose

Having spent almost half my life in London, I knew that in the long term, big cities were simply not my thing. They are fun to visit for a couple of days...but I'm not sure that a big city could ever be somewhere I'd want to call home.

Somero couldn't be further from being a big city. It is a small town with a big heart - and the very first time I came here I knew that some day I would also come back.

I like the fact that you can walk into town alone and still see several familiar faces. I also like the fact that almost inevitably someone will stop and say hello. Of course it helps that there are more than ten places in town to pop in and get a coffee (even though I don't drink it).

This morning I decided to go for a drink in Cafe Rose and read my book for a few minutes. In the space of thirty minutes I chatted to three people, and knew once again that wherever I end up living in the world, my roots are now firmly planted in Somero. One way or another, I will always come back here....especially on the days when Cafe Rose is serving their homemade carrot cake. Even after having travelled the world, I can tell you that Cafe Rose does the best carrot cake I have ever tasted.  If you don't believe me come and try for yourself. A happy day from Somero to you, wherever you are....I hope it's one which brings you lots of carrot cake.

Somero English Club is Back

For anyone within travelling distance of Somero, we hope very much that you will find the time to pop in and meet us at the Somero English Club, which will re-start next week.

The club will now meet every other Thursday at 19.00 at Kiiruun Tila, which is the big white building in the park next to the library in the centre of town. Our first meeting will be on 16th January.

You don't have to speak fluent English to come to the club, everyone is welcome. If you don't feel like talking then you can just listen.

There has always been a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere and we would love to have some new people come to join us this year. In general, we sit and have coffees and cakes or biscuits and then chat about whatever we feel like chatting about.

So if you want to meet some new people, practise your English, or simply try something new, please come and join us next Thursday, or at any club meeting after that.

Looking forward to seeing old and new members again very soon :)

New Year's Wish

Today in Finland was the first day of "normality" after the holiday season. The shops and banks were open, the Christmas decorations came down, most people went back to work and the weather...well to be honest the weather this winter has simply been grey... and today was another grey day.

I have done my normal thing too over the past few days, which is to come up with a list of resolutions and ideas for the year ahead. I am a big believer that one of the keys to achieving your dreams and aspirations is to write them down - many experiments on the subject have also found this to be the case.

Most of us have ideas and dreams about the future, but seeing them written down is the first step towards making them real. Well, I've done that, but this weekend I had the opportunity to go a step further.

Whilst with Cameron in London we visited Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Piccadilly Circus. This is a museum full of weird and wonderful things (from a knitted Ferrari to a model of the world's tallest man).

In the middle of the museum was a wishing pond with a sign on the side inviting guests to "make a wish". Whilst I have nothing against logic and rational thought, I think most of us can do with some magic from time to time, and for me, that time is right now.

So, at the beginning of this brand new year, write down your dreams, compile lists of ideas - but if you happen to go past a magic place, make a wish. You never know when a bit of magic might come your way....   

A Few Postcards from London

The Houses of Parliament as seen from the London Eye

It's almost half past three here in Somero and almost dark already. It really is quite a gloomy day. If you were looking for inspiration from the Finnish sky today, then you would struggle to find it.

Hard to believe that this morning we were still in London...it couldn't be much more different to Somero, which is a small town in the middle of the Finnish countryside. Whether you have been to London or not, here are some shots from our weekend that may be familiar to you.






St Pauls Cathedral and the surrounding city

Piccadilly Circus



Cameron's highlight...a visit to the Doctor Who Shop



Me in Piccadilly circus with Eros, the God of Love in the Background!









Views from the London Eye






Heaven in London

Cameron and I have just got back from a weekend in London. England's capital is very familiar to me, as I was born and brought up there, but I can't say it ever felt like home, even when I lived there.

Still, it's so packed with history and culture that it will always remain one of those cities you should certainly see before you die. Cameron and I took the opportunity of Finland's holiday weekend to pack as much as we could into two days and we managed quite a lot.

On the way back from the airport this afternoon I was telling a friend about the weekend and she asked me what my personal highlight had been. I realised that it was nothing that we had seen, or anything touristy that we had done. It was the realisation that Cameron is just as happy as I am to spend hours mooching around bookshops.

Books in Finland are expensive, foreign ones even more so. Since I have lived here, English bookshops are one of the few things I have missed from the UK. So for me, the opportunity to spend an afternoon in an English bookshop which is packed to the rafters with millions of books...well, that's my idea of heaven.  I am not normally a big fan of shopping...but bookshops are a different story altogether.

That, combined with the fact that I have a twelve-year-old son who loves reading as much as I do were quite definitely the highlight of my weekend. In these days of Facebook and text messaging and email, there is still nothing than can beat settling down in front of the fire with a good book. Whatever my children end up doing in life, if they have a love of reading then at least something will have gone right. 

How the Day Turned Out

If sometimes you feel like hiding.....

I'm back for a short update on today's experiment. As I wrote in my post this morning, I woke up to be greeted by all the elements necessary for a truly miserable day. I was tired after a night of nightmares, I was feeling a bit low in any event, the weather outside was dark and gloomy, and well.. you get the picture.

So I decided to see whether I could save the day by making up my mind not to be miserable. And in actual fact, I didn't do too badly.

I set to work early and decided to keep myself busy all day. Before I got up to look after the little ones, I wrote a list of all the jobs I thought I could try and crack today. I knew that if I did some of them I would automatically feel better in the evening. I am pleased to say that of the fifteen on the list I managed to get thirteen of them done, and that in itself lifted my mood.

...you can still find a way to brighten up your day

I also decided that today was time for a clear out. Often when you clear things out of the house physically, it has a big impact on you mentally too. With that in mind I have now taken down and put away all the Christmas decorations, I have changed the curtains and given away a big pile of old clothes. I also put fresh white sheets in my bed so it would feel nice when I go to bed this evening.

In addition I started compiling my new year's lists...lists of resolutions, ideas, plans and goals. This is always one of my favourite things to do, and a great way to escape a low mood.

The first highlight of the day was a visit from my good friend Heidi, who also brought with a her a lovely friendship book with a page for each of my friends to complete. Then in the evening the whole family settled down to watch Autralian Masterchef. I have no idea why we like this programme, as none of us has a deep interest in cooking, but somehow it's become a habit at six every evening. Tonight even Niko and Minttu had a lesson in how to make a complicated chocolate pudding, so fingers crossed they'll remember it for the next week.

Given the way the day started off, I am actually quite pleased with how it turned out. It wasn't the best day of my life, but it wasn't the worst either. I would give it a six out of ten. But given that this morning I felt like staying under the covers all day, I reckon that's not bad at all. Sleep well everyone. Wishing you a happy tomorrow.

Making Today a GOOD DAY

I have read several books recently which suggest that your level of happiness, or contentment with life, is only partly to do with your circumstances. Most of it, they claim, is a result of your own state of mind - something which you can learn to control yourself.

I find this a really interesting theory, especially as someone who has suffered from quite serious depression in the past. Depression is something people rarely talk about openly, even though it affects most people at some time or another. My view always used to be that no one would choose to be unhappy...if you're unhappy then you just are.Why would anyone knowingly choose a life of sadness?  But that view has come to change over recent years.

I now believe that there is a lot you can do to affect your own moods and how happy and content you feel with life.

Anyway, today I have decided to put this theory to the test. Ive chosen today because I am feeling rough! I slept very badly last night following a series of nightmares. I often suffer from nightmares when things have not been going so well. Over the last few weeks life has presented me with some hard challenges....so for me the recipe is there for this to be a BAD DAY. Tired, nightmares, painful memories.....you know what I am saying.

So, I thought, this is also a perfect day to put the theory to the test. If my level of happiness is down to me...then I don't have to accept having a bad day  - I can do something about it. I am not going to sit at home dwelling on the negative - but I am going to do my best to make this a really GOOD DAY.

I don't have a plan yet...just a positive attitude. My goal for today is simply to enjoy it. To do some positive things and to go to bed tonight feeling better than I do this morning. I wish the same for you...and I will let you know how I get on!

2014 Feels Like a Good Year

Anne and me at ABC in Somero today

On the first day of last year, the only place I visited was the Somero ABC (a petrol station with a coffee shop, for those of you outside Finland). In fact it's the only place open in town on 1 January. I was with my friend Anne Siekkinen, whom I had met the previous Christmas through the choir.

We didn't know each other very well last year, but on 1 January we were both feeling a little low - and after speaking on the phone for a few minutes we decided to go into town for a coffee.

We chatted about things that had recently happened to us and also about what we were hoping for 2013.  Having enjoyed the chat so much, we also decided that we should definitely meet up more often. Well that was one resolution that we certainly kept. Nowadays, Anne and I see each other several times a week, as since we bought our new house in the spring, we have become neighbours too. Somehow, the fact that our house turned out to be on the same road as hers does not feel like a coincidence.

I remember last year saying that it would be interesting to see all the things that 2013 had in store. As it turned out, there were some pretty big ups and some very big downs, but we made it through nonetheless.

Today, a year later, we went back to ABC and have now decided to make this new year's coffee a tradition. Once again we looked forward to the year ahead and this time made lists of all our hopes and dreams for 2014. We decided to put the lists somewhere safe and then look at them again in a year's time to see which of those dreams came true.

On this day last year, life had brought so many twists and turns that my focus was purely on survival. And of course looking after the little ones. This year, everything feels much more positive.  I genuinely have a good feeling about 2014.  I have no rational explanation for that, but I still feel that the year ahead is likely to contain some positive surprises and potentially some big changes too. At the very latest, I will let you know in a year's time whether or not my gut feeling was right.  Heres hoping that 2014 turns out to be a good year for all of us.

Wishing you a Magical 2014

It's just past one in the morning here in Finland and the first day of 2014. Before going to bed I just wanted to write a few lines to wish you all a happy new year.

Whatever troubles may have come your way over the last twelve months, at least now they can be described as something that happened last year.

None of us knows exactly what is ahead, but the one thing that no one can take away from us is the
hope for better things.

I hope that whatever this year brings you, it is better than the one that has just passed.  I hope it will be a year which produces happy memories, good health, adventures, laughter and love - and also that we remember to pass those good things to others as much as we can.

If you are without friends, know that a new friend is waiting for you round the corner. If you are without love, believe that it simply waiting to appear when the time is right. If you are without energy, then be kind to yourself and it will come to you again the next morning. Just never be without hope, because that is the one thing that will keep your dreams alive.

Take care, wherever in the world you might be. With love from Somero on the first day of what I hope will be a very good year for all of us.