SPRING MAIL, AUTUMN BALCONY

Happy mail days continue. Letters, paintings, prints, emails. So sweet from all of you. Thank you so much. Also some greetings from the last spring while I was painting a boy, a boat and seagulls on an adventure.

Kaukana omalta maalta, (Far Away from Own Land), a book by Sisko Latvus with my painting on the cover. So well written, I read the script four times. A sad story with a little bit of magic about old times. About Paavo who was exiled with his family from Ingria at the age of 13. But on the way he meets someone called Mare... Published by WSOY.

Afternoon break, knitting while thinking. On my painting table, on the balcony table. Scratching cardboard for a printmaking class. A breakfast wrapped in wool on the balcony table, inside mist. Autumn light is taking over. Music has more piano melodies, like raindrops. Or crispy yellow and red leaves flying in wind. Branches from a forest of lingonberries. Sea-buckthorns from a square market, blueberry (soya) yoghurt and seeds. Rye bread with pesto of cashews, basilica, garlic, olive oil. Two pots of green tea. Candle light. Always dreaming of breakfasts.

Have a calm new week, wrapped in wool!

Hearts.

ICE FULL OF LEAVES

After the noon news, I lay my brushes and pens, papers and scissors away, hop into my boots and go outside to check if the postman was busy for me today. Yesterday he was, with a book Vieläkö kukkivat omenapuut? (Are the apple trees still blooming?) which cover I illustrated last spring. It is a book about the history of North Ingria by Helena Miettinen. It is filled with images of old houses and people, their memories about leaving home and finding a new one where ever they were allowed to stay. Written in Finnish. Where old homes used to be, there are now dense forests, but there might still be old apple trees, blooming during springs and dropping apples on the ground during autumns.

A small plate for my cat that I did maybe 15 years ago, or even longer. For Kisse Karvinen. A cat that slept in an onion basket and middle of the lilacs bushes, the warmest and best scented places.

A small ice rink just next to my home. If there was a machine to move a huge brush, I would try to paint that ice full of leaves. And those winter trees wearing white, I would melt small dots of dark wood with fingers.

♡

P.s. Thank you so much for your orders, they surprised me! Thank you so much! Also for your comments and emails, once again!