REMEMBERING THE FIRST RAIN SHOWER OF SPRING

For many days I have been thinking of rain. Then last night someone reminded me of it again. It is difficult to remember how it sounds. How it sounds over a roof when sleeping or on window sills. Or on a lake or a sea against water. Or through leaves of trees. I think it is the gentlest sound if I just remember right.

Very much I feel the spring even though it is so much snow in here and more floating all the time. This morning in the allotment garden I had the snow up to my tights on my walk. I laughed a bit there for that moment. Still, the feeling of spring is stronger than the snow outside. Being very restless. Waking up very early what I like a lot. Please send me a bit of tape or a string that I can tie myself in one place. Or I stay still, but I think it is the blood inside me wanting to go to every place in the world the same time.

Rosemary potatoes and carrots in the oven. Better to make some tahini sauce and salad to go with them.

Have a silent and slow weekend filled with warmth!

Love,

Anna Emilia

WAKING UP FOR THE LIGHT

Spring has arrived even it comes today as big floating snowflakes. Spring makes me restless. Restlessness makes me to want to travel. Healing that with a bit of lighthouses of the world. Lighthouses from Germany, Iceland and UK. (1. by Sabine, 2. by Anke, 6. by Samuele.)

Do you feel the spring? How do you treat it?

Have a happy Monday filled with orange and turquoise, maybe a bit of raspberry pie too!

LAUANTAINA, Á LAUGARDAGINN, ON SATURDAY

Hello Saturday,

How are you?

It is sunny, but very windy here. I put all the blankets and pillows to the balcony to get a fresh scent, now the wind does not allow me to take them back. I cannot open the door as the wind pushes it back. Feels like strong wind storms of Iceland.

Saturday is laugardagur in Icelandic and it means a laundry day. The washing machine is humming. Iceland I will think a bit more as this girl walking towards the Vattarnes lighthouse comes for a visit to the town today.

Layers to hide from the coldness. The cherry branches are growing lime green leaves. Storms are signs of spring. Green tea with sage.

Have a warm weekend!

MORNING GREETINGS WITH A HINT OF LAVENDER

Straight from bed for a long morning walk in sunrise. Wind´s nests, magpies and crows, rabbit feet patterns on snow, narrow well pounded paths. Clouds of breathing in -17°C. Singing from nearby school, two men swearing on the roofs of allotment garden huts, shoveling snow away.

At home a long breakfast with strawberry-melon-goji-ginger smoothie with seeds and bread. On the table painting series to be continued.

Thank you thousands and twenty-seven times for all your dear and kind wishes for my birthday. It was such a lovely day and evening. Long dinner (I baked also these, but vegan version, very very delicious!) with friends and a surprise of boys playing guitar and singing heart-warming melodies. A few poems and many smiles. A wonderful year began.

Please add a hint of lavender in your green tea today!

Love,

Anna Emilia

NUMBERS

Every photo of me as a child has marks of cats in them. In my face. Our first cat was called Miisu, but I kept calling him Voihan Harmi, "Such A Pity".

27, still very young and still very happy. Waving to you all kind and warm greetings!

P.s. A song for a happy day (thank you Arna).

A PILE OF CUPS TO BE WASHED

Can you see all the teas I drank this weekend? Nepal Ilam Mao Feng, China Royal Jasmine Curls, Vater Morgana, Green Tea With Ginkgo, Gen Maicha, Jasmin Xian Yu... All green, all so good and always one more cup is very pleasant and taking me to very green and warm places. A few vegan pancakes were eaten with those forks and knives too.

A week starts for me on Sunday afternoon, today with a vegan semla (sweet Sandra knows what is good even for breakfast). There are three crows watching me through the window from a birch tree. The wind swings them gently. Have a good new week!

FORECASTING PINK BRANCHES

Spring comes when branches start to turn red in their bark, says my grandmother. Maybe this is a bit of cheating, but I walked with these branches home yesterday in -14°C in a new layer of snow.

Thank you kindly for telling me about the places you miss! They gave me a lot of new images in my mind. They are now places to dream about.

How will your weekend be? Have a cherry scented one!

A LITTLE BIT OF MISSING

It is rainy and +5 °C today in the treasure island Iceland. Quite different it was in the summer of 2005, when I was there the second time. It was very green and an 80-years old gentleman called Halldór was teaching me the names of the mountains around Reykjavík. We sat by a coffee table and looked the landscape opening behind the window. So many mountains fit in one view.

Is there a place that you miss sometimes?

Edit:

P.s. The smell of Reykjavík is of course the wind and the sea, but also vanillin. Very strong vanillin as there is a cookie factory in the middle of the town. Vanillin to my coffee today!

WHILE OTHER LAYERS OF PAINT DRY

February is a birthday month. While other layers of watercolors were drying I painted 30 + 31 roses for my friends. (Though now I counted that the 31st rose is missing.)

Today a layer of Payne´s Grey Bluish is drying. For the afternoon it will be a lot of different browns and oranges. That goes well with an afternoon tea or a coffee.

Sunday has a certain end-of-the-week weather today. The horizon is lost between the light grey sky and earth. Dust patterns of snow are flying in the air and the wind is silent. A bit of mist appears. A bit of brown as tree trunks peek from the snow.

How is your Sunday?

I hope you enjoy it.

MALAYSIAN TONES

Days will be warm with this gift from my parents. I was painting with Alizarin crimson when I received it. Indian yellow was the color of the sun when it peeked through clouds for a few moments. I borrowed its color too.

Birds are singing a lot these days. Also the light has changed, it is more white and it reaches further corners of the rooms. I have almost forgotten that there are corners in these rooms, the winter has passed next to the windows.

Have a happy, soft and raspberry jam —scented weekend!

MOMENTS OF 15 MINUTES

15 minutes of official coffee break at 15.00. Painting a layer of watercolors to dry meanwhile. Lay down, close eyes, think of the gentle snowing outside, breath deep.

Open eyes, watch the gentle snowing outside and know the next color to be painted (turquoise). (Don´t mind, just forget, the huge pile of clothes to be put somewhere on the chair.) A coffee with soya milk, cinnamon and cardamom can be enjoyed while painting again. Turn the volume of Ludovico Einaudi a bit higher while snow lands even quicker behind the window. A perfect break of 15 minutes.

How was your coffee break today?

Happy February!