SCENT OF HARVEST

Postwoman has been ringing my doorbell with parcels this week. The first one came over the seas and oceans from Kerstin. Books and a soft treasure to keep company for my teapot. Thank you! Second one came from Sweden, a Finnish magazine Maalaisunelma (Nr 7 2010) featured my sprout paintings (1 & 2).

Balcony door stays closed, yellow leaves cannot be counted anymore. Birds are flying more, practicing for longer journeys. Singing of jackdaws is back, loving it as afternoon surprises. After summer´s bicycle trips, now walking is the nicest way to reach tea, markets, post office and this evening maybe a concert, the last outdoor movie and an exhibition. Clouds covering the sky, walking makes the world visible only piece by piece, more concentrated, more comforting.

Tomorrow a train trip to the strawberry fields. The season is over, but hopefully there are lingonberries in the forests around. Continuing to knit a huge pile of black wool, reading a book. But before that, an unfinished painting is waiting.

Forest scent weekend wishes to you, thank you for stopping by!

With paintbrush strokes,

Anna Emilia

(Photo in the third picture by Shari Altman.)

PATHS TO WONDER, TALK, AND SEE, OR TO BE SILENT

Good morning dear all of you,

This morning is very cold. Nose is frozen. Autumn is for walks with a hot cup of coffee or tea in hands. With my dear friend we have done that a lot the last years, in different countries with wonderful views on the way. Cats, birds, trees, ponds, parks, forests, hills, sleeping beaches snoring. Villages, gardens, farms, business streets. Dogs and markets. Always sketchbooks in our bags with some provisions. To walk I could forever.

These pictures are from Reykjavík in 2006. A bright orange coffee house was our living room, hot pots with old men boiling in them like soups in the swimming pools for the evenings or early mornings.

Maybe I am a bit too early with the autumn, it is still August. At least two layers of long sleeves can be finally tried on in the early mornings. The sky is also changing its palette to a bit colder tones.

Have a walk, a long one today!

Hearts,

Anna Emilia

A CROW SITTING ON THEIR SHOULDERS

Surprised by someone from childhood. An old neighbor of a neighbor of a neighbor of a neighbor said hello on Friday. I did not recognize him, but he recognized me. To think about it, I probably look exactly the same as 15-20 years ago. They were three boys and one girl, a crippled crow was their pet, we raced bikes on the sandy roads and ate tens of cinnamon buns as our parents were talking about things in our small village. Days were always sunny.

Reading by the lake of Pyhäjärvi, yesterday being surprised by another friend by accident. Unplanned tea in the arboretum, bicycling under clouds, eating in a house where leaves covered one of the high walls outdoors.

An allotment house for rainy seasons. An end of summer bracelet of clovers and other grass plants tied under a birch tree on another Sunday.

More clothes to be wrapped inside for todays tea under the windy birch tree, accompanied with knitting needles and sketch book.

Have a warm Sunday dear all of you!

YELLOW ON ITS WAY

Hello dear all of you,

It was one more weekend of summer, bicycling up and down, around lakes and to a touching outdoor movie under dark blue sky with starlight on a hill of pastel colored wooden houses. Dark nights feel like a soft cotton cover around, it makes everything comfortable and silent after the summer light. Everything goes to sleep again. This morning the wind was very cold. A few leaves of the birch tree nearby have turned to yellow. Bye bye color green, it has been wonderful to have you around!

Last spring while I was waiting the first rain to arrive, my brushes were painting portraits, bonfire, handwriting and driftwood. There were "dark" and "fire" to be followed, I thought of nightly lakes. It all became album art for Holmes.

How was your weekend? Have a comfortable new week of August!

BLACK AND WHITE UNDER A STARRY NIGHT

Last night in a backyard of a café, just when the stars started to blink on the darkening sky, an old movie projector was turned on. Rattling and stopping a few times, hands holding a heating drink. It was a very beautiful outdoor movie moment and the first time to wrap the most comfortable scent of woolen clothes around shoulders.

This morning a second breakfast in the allotment garden after bicycling with a new flower, cyclamen. Drawing and feeling the summer of the days, thinking of the autumn of the evenings.

From Orchards, Fields and, Gardens by Kerstin is available very soon, I am honored to have my painting and handwriting on its cover. Thank you Kerstin! There are many beautiful thoughts and talented people enclosed inside these covers.

Sweet Jenna made an interview with me, thank you so much!

Early mornings with many new thoughts, stretching and dreaming about a house in a tree, a boat or on wheels. Blueberries and red currants.

Afternoon tea break greetings!

(First image and design by Kerstin Svendsen.)

WELCOME EVENING

Cane sugar, margarin, soya flour, water. Dried lavender buds, spelt, baking powder, lemon skin, a hint of salt. Mixing, caressing, stretching, heating and eating. A walk, a book, a tea, knitting needles. Recipe for tonight as home is scented with these violet dreamers of a plant in the air.

Kind end of summer evening spells to dear you,

Anna Emilia

LIGHTNINGS OR THE LIGHT FROM A TOWER

Waves, hills, open skies. Driftwood, high tides, hay in the sea. Small stones swinging in the waves on the shore of white sand. Black summer nights. A bit of holiday memories of this Thursday when it starts to smell slightly like autumn. Evenings are more silent and I started to knit again one old pile of black thread.

It was very stormy yesterday. The night before the bedroom was lighten by lightnings. I stared to think that the house is by a lighthouse and the light comes from its tower.

"Isn´t it hard to pedal in this wind?" asked the lady with beautiful deep voice in her flower shop yesterday as I put the Lavender, Mums and Houseleek that I bought from her to my bicycle. It was downhill all the way home, a downhill with a lavender scent.

Happy weekend dear all of you with long walks, reading and baking!

P.S. Thank you dearly for mentioning my work on your blogs, for your written words and your purchases (I am packing them as soon as I have had a lunch on the balcony next to the lavender).

STRAWBERRY CLEARING, MANSIKKA-AHO

A week with my parents at their strawberry fields which are where my grandparents live. Open-air theater, forest paths, tickling grass under bare toes, hot sun, raspberry bushes, one very strong thunder night. Reading under gazebo´s shadow, watching people picking up strawberries for the coming winter and helping whatever there is needed. One small rabbit always lost in his paths on the yard, fresh basil to be dried for the winter´s dinners. When hungry, hiding in the strawberry fields for a while and eating a handful of the sweetest tastes.

This summer has been very warm, it made me to forget to drink tea. Today I am enjoying a cup of it again and gazing if long waited rain or a blow of wind finally arrives. The radio plays old summer songs and I have a blank white cotton paper in front of me, watercolors accompanying.

Happy August, happy new week, lovely to have you here!

P.s. Please have a look for Kerstin´s book with beautiful thoughts.