the last picknick of the summer

Today I celebrated my birthday on a picknick in a small, nice park near my home in Helsinki. Actually my birthday was on the 7th of August, but this was the first possible day for the picknick I'd been planning - and what a day it was! Sunny and surprisingly warm (compared to the past week), you could forget the summer will soon be over.

In the morning made two kinds of salads (potato & couscous), courgette pancake, blueberry pie and chocolate & raspberry cake (which I swear tasted better than it looked like). Ten of my friends came in the afternoon (plus one baby, and the Boy, of course) and we spent the day eating, chatting, and playing mölkky. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did - it was lovely to have a birthday party for a change (in the last few years I've been too tired/busy/lazy to organize anything), and to see all my friends.


In the last photo miss L (in the front) is wearing this super cool hedgehog hairclip. I didn't seem to get a good shot of it, but it's lovely!













Tomorrow will be spent washing dishes, I guess. I do like cooking and baking for my friends, but I'd like it even more if I had a dishwasher!

more from rovaniemi

Some photos from miss P's delightful apartment. I really like her livingroom, especially the curtains and the brand new golden wall. (Sadly my camera seems to be getting worse and worse, of all the photos I took at P's these are the best... )
And as always, wherever I visit miss P, I instantly feel welcome and at home.

picking blueberries

It's blueberry season in Finland right now, and ever since I was in Rovaniemi (check those blueberry pics in the previous entry) I've been wanting to go and pick some. Today sister, brother-in-law, nephew and I took a car and drove some 30 km west for some berry-picking, barbecuing, and swimming.

I looked like a real city girl who doesn't know how to dress for the woods... my companions were much more sensibly attired.

rovaniemi

On Monday night I caught the night train and traveled over 800 km (13 hours! that nighttrain is s l o w ) north to Rovaniemi, almost to the Arctic Circle in fact. It's kind of embarrassing that I'd never been that far north before - embarrassing considering how much Finland there is even above the Arctic Circle.

The reason for my trip was visiting miss P, who moved back to her old home city two years ago. We've known each other for eleven years (eleven! we must be getting old), and I guess we've always talked about me visiting her parents in Rovaniemi... I'm kinda slow.

And what a trip it was! Rovaniemi was all about hot hot sunny weather, cycling across the city (I love how easy it is to cycle from here to there in small cities), swimming in the river and one lake - we spent one whole day on a river-side picknick, seven kids and fourteen adults altogether, meeting old and new friends, making fleamarket finds, feeling happy and free. I just wish I could have stayed longer, but the Boy's youngest sister gets married tomorrow, so I had to get back south today.




a café where everything's for sale













golden sand!




and lots of blueberries! yes, in the city (although a lot of Rovaniemi seems to be covered with trees)