HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MISSING YOU

Happy birthday Iceland!

Gleðileg hátíð, gleðileg 17. júni!

Just sending my best greetings to the land of winds and surprises. These pictures were taken during the summer nights in 2005, when the sun never set. Yesterday I remembered how I worked with the elderly and silver-haired people there. One of the ladies was very known palm reader, people traveled to meet her. Once when we were in the kitchen all alone with her, her cup of coffee and milk already cold, she told me: "Hey you, come here!" (Heyrðu! Komdu!). I sat next to her glancing her newspaper, we used to read the news together, she teaching me Icelandic or we talking about her childhood in Denmark or of her known painter father. It was one of those days, when the sky and the sea are the same color and the horizon is difficult to recognize.

Suddenly she took my hand in hers and watched it for a second and started to read my palms. Telling the truth and forecasting the future. I was amazed and happy and even this lady maybe never remembered it afterwards, I knew that we shared a secret. Next year I was there working again. The same happened. "Hey you, come here! But your palm lines have changed from the last time!" she said and told me a few new things, but the deepest ones still remained the same. I am not sure if to believe them or not, but at least it is one of the nicest memories I have to feel a smile on my face.

Thank you once again for your orders in my shop, Apple Blossom Meadow -print is almost sold out, I am in awe!

See you very soon again, have a good Thursday and see all the blue and red and white things around!

LITTLE DISAPPEARANCES OF TUESDAY

Everything is hiding today. The sun behind clouds. The new balcony flowers inside from the cold. Bird songs. The rosa thread I wanted to use for sewing this morning became brown instead. One of the rabbits hid inside a lilac bush this morning. Postman is hiding too, should bring some small news.

Maybe I could hide a bit too. Inside my jacket and a big scarf from the coldness while bicycling to the town to find some bigger painting paper. In a café from home. Inside magazine spreads from the café. Into new lands from the travel magazine spreads.

These images you may have seen earlier in my Flickr. They are from Reykjavík from the summer 2006. The girl living upstairs was hiding inside a tiger gardener. The wind hid in the grass and a small cat was hiding too but had left some small paw steps at least as the first walker on the new concrete.

Where do you like to hide today?

Lunch time, from that I do not want to hide. Bon apetit and Cheers with a tea cup!

Happy May, happy day!

GREETINGS AS A CLOUD

The little one seems to be a bit lost. He made his way to Germany this week. Maybe he is listening to the black birds or waiting for the rain there. Or checking the volcano eruption sending greetings to the whole North Europe as a cloud of ash. Fire and smoke has always been the scent of home for me. Love back to you Iceland, I still miss you!

Flora sent me a heart-warming letter. More work came from South Finland. And a package of vanillin scent from the treasure island Iceland.

A small bag is packed. I am on my way to Tallinn.

Love to your weekend!

(P.s. If my site is down during the weekend, please come back next week! Workers are busy transforming it to a new comfortable home.)

UNDERWOOD AND BIRD GOSSIPS

Spring calls for long walks with provisions in pockets. (Nuts, dried berries and fruits, an apple, strawberry juice. Three small pieces of dark chocolate.) To see who is the most brave to show a hint of green first. Trees or flowers from the ground. Spring also calls to stay home, to paint eagerly while black lover birds whisper their greetings through an open balcony door. Spring calls to realize late in the night that a new day comes and painting and the bird songs can also continue tomorrow. Spring calls as a sound of rain and new wings flying to the roof, I guess it is a big blind date centrum there for birds. Spring also calls just to stay in the moment and watch the light changing.

These pictures are from the year 2007. The spring I stayed in Finland and the summer in Iceland. There were many streets to walk. Many rainy days to read comics under strange light blue NATO-blankets. And a friend tickling my soles.

Happy Thursday! Happy walks!

WALKING IN SOUNDS

These are the places I dream about today. A waterfall joining a river and running down to the sea, babbling on its way. Wind very gentle. Secret huts and a small bridge. Caressed by round mountains around and a hint of snow to make everything fresh. Afternoon nap in Meadow buttercups.

Here sunset has arrived, snow melts quicker every moment, a rabbit eats seeds by an oak in the safety of the arrived darkness, sauna is warming up and tummy is filled with berries, fruits and tea. Have a good long weekend!

(The last picture taken by Heikki.)

A BRITTLE ERUPTION AND A HINT OF YELLOW

Hello dear Sunday,

There are letters to be sent and letters received. Smiles are formed with every envelope dropping from the mailbox and every email and every comment of yours, thank you! A proof of spring, yesterday was the day to use the spring jacket first time on a very delighting long rainy walk. Drip drop, said the rain.

There is a volcano erupting in Iceland. Heart beats fast for it. Sometimes the nature is slow, like the winter ending and the spring beginning here. Sometimes the nature is surprising and quick, after making up new plans serenely, almost being forgotten. Where the orange and yellow lava now flows (1 & 2) I was hiking back in 2005 and met a very dear friend the very first time. He sat on his knees in the grass and glaciers surrounded us. Hopefully it stays as a very brittle eruption.

There is a hint of yellow in the horizon behind the grey clouds. Cloudberry jam is very bright yellow on my pancakes for a late coffee break (but that is what Sundays are for, aren´t them?). Have you seen something yellow lately?

I am so happy to have you here visiting.

Have a comfortable beginning for the new week!

GREEN MEMORIES

Hello mountains,

hello green color!

It is all white in here still, but the streets have melt. At home I found some photos in green. The first image is taken on a rainy road from a car. A magician´s car. He was a very kind one. Only because he never had been in Ísafjörður, he and his friend decided to drive us there. Next morning they had to be gone when we woke up, but then they told that maybe they want to drive us even a bit further. We saw seals bathing in the sun. Late afternoon they continued their journey and we stayed over the night sleeping next to a big waterfall. Next morning we met two travelers who took us to a ferry and then further to a glacier. There we slept another night.

The last two pictures are from Dalvík, "Valley Bay". Up to the mountains I walked many times. There the sounds were so far and soft, long continuous echo of cars and the sea humming together. The wind very straight but not as strong as I thought. Birds singing to show me where to walk, not near to their nests. A small waterfall coming from the glacier hurrying down to the sea.

All the shades of green,

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!

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!