SNOW

A winter that lasted for a weekend. The week starts with puddles, but also with lingonberry tea, bicycling, candles, the first hyacinth scent, letter writing.

Hello sweet November, please bring more snow!

 ♥

DAYS OF SUMMER

Misty mornings at the summerhouse. White curtains so thick, sounds from the other side. Cold hands of the mist around everything, tree branches with drops like rain. Slowly the first sun rays arrive to glimmer on the lake waves. The curtains open, the show begins.

Every day more green, here and there. Yellow and blue flowers. Sleeping inside forests, their melodies. 

Night time swimming. Swans dancing and singing.

Darling friends, ice-cream, ladybirds ♥

Small spontaneous expeditions, many talks.

Almost blooming lily-of-the-valleys, the scent is already here. Fragile, the most refined.

Summer.

Have sweet expeditions!

(1st, 4th and 5th photos by photographer and cinematographer J.V.)

BROTHER AND HIS LITTLE SISTER

There is a secret message between a wall dividing our rooms at our parent´s. It is written on a piece of a cross-ruled paper with a pencil and it was a try of our safe plan if another one of us would become bored with friends visiting. I have forgotten what that message says, but it was supposed to be a secret help shout to the other one to come and rescue the situation. "It is just a sound of a mouse", when pushing a note to the other side of the wall. Next time I will pull it from that secret hole and read it again.

Weekend was a pretty one, mist layering everything most of the times. Relatives, food and sauna in the darkness. In candle light, wrapped in towels with lady relatives, we sat outside of the sauna. In a sudden all the chatter was gone. A lonely swan was crying while flying over the black lake. Something had to have happened to the bird as the voice was so sad. The saddest sound I heard in a long time. Maybe the bird´s loved one was gone.

The timber summer house was snoring, I slept with earplugs on.

Happy new week, sounds and scents of a moss green forest!

(Second picture taken by my brother.)

ONE RASPBERRY CAKE, PLEASE

Hello dear October,

Lovely to have you here.

Sounds of woolen socks on the wooden floor. Mist covering everything. Would it be like this to live in a glass of soya milk? Mornings with candles, evenings with candles. Paint strokes on a light blue background. Light pink, turquoise and brown.

Finishing some paintings, bicycling to the post office to send orders, going to search for a vanilla colored white wool, heading to a summerhouse nearby with my family, knitting that wool (hopefully) to a hat to keep ears warm.

How are you?

October wishes, weekend wishes, warm thoughts,

Anna Emilia

P.s. Mama, keep your eyes closed till Monday as this is your birthday card!

AFTER EVERYTHING, A LACE SUNSHINE

Hello beautiful Monday,

Nice to have you here. A morning with some frosty grass. Orange sunshine waking up, coloring a line of a cloud bright pink and then melting the frost layer on the grass.

Weekend, filled with smiles. Nothing could have been better than someone waiting me to arrive at the train station and taking me around the town, through a beautiful graveyard to a sea café with a bonfire. To movies, to eat and to a concert. To meet two more friends. Someone who first time fetched me away from Iceland and another who makes very beautiful music. And then the one after everything walks me to the bus station very late in the night. Thank you for the evening sweet D., J., and O.!

Sunday, the whole day outdoors. Bicycling, an outdoor flea market, friends and café, friends and lunch, friends and bicycling up a hill, friends and tea. On the way home I made the journey a bit longer and read a bit on the beach of the arboretum, the sun was still warming. When the evening came, I drew. This morning it was lit with lace.

Dear Justine has collected some of my watercolor paper scrap constructions into her world of paper and folds. Thank you so much for your kind words Justine!

Whiskers of the tickling sun to you,

Anna Emilia

BLOOMING SOUNDS

Dear radio hosts,

Thank you for the stories and music that you play for me, thank you for all the wishes of good mornings and good nights.

I listen to radio a lot, mainly a classical music channel, with radio plays and talks. Every week there is also a nature sound. Birds singing, hedgehogs snuffling. Today the radio play was Icelandic, brought me to the sea and black sand shores.

My grandmother has birthday today. She also listens to radio a lot. I called her to congratulate her. She was just washing her dishes. I heard her radio on the background as we talked, her daily friends talking and not waiting for any answers. I remember how the sound is when she pushes the button of her radio on the kitchen floor. A sound of comfort.

On the phone she asked me if I have been lifting my legs lately. With that she means dancing. I answered yes, last night (or this morning) till the sun was up again. Seagulls flew above on the way home in sunrise. Beautiful weekend with outdoor black and white movies, museums, a concert, a park flea market and hot summer moments with the green turning darker and deeper in tone.

The sun just crept behind a cloud, I guess from there he goes to sleep.

Good night! Have a gentle new week!

P.s. Dear Jen listed my old book to her shop. There are still some available, even though it is a winter book. Please just send me an email if you are interested of a hint of winter moods.

FIREWOOD AND FOREST SOUNDS

The weekend was still with cool air, a bit of rain, a bit of sun. The weekend was a cat, a summerhouse, a book, sauna. The weekend was walking bare feet, swimming in a lake, walking through forests. Landscapes turned gradually more green on my way back on Monday.

Today is very warm, today is very sunny. Today is a bicycle trip to eat an ice cream. Today is color green and today is happy.

Hopefully your day is too!

PASTEL POSTCARDS

Greetings from sunny Tallinn!

A rainbow´s two ends were guarding the sea trip. The wind was gentle, hems of dresses flew a bit up and down while walking in the pastel town. Sweet Ulla showed me treasures of teashops, a photography museum, a flea market and their always so beautiful home with two cats. It is such a beautiful country, the language is like singing, very melodic.

Today, early morning with painting, early lunch after a weekend food consisting mainly of roasted almonds. Bicycling for noon tea to the town in a small harbor. Happy sunny day, happy sunny week!

UNPLANNED FOREST POND

Good morning dear you,

Last night I was painting till very late. When I woke up this morning again, a forest surrounded pond with a big rock in the middle had appeared on my table. I just needed to shovel some snow away to show also the tree trunks.

It surely looks like spring here now, the sun appeared too. Small birds sing a happy melody. A perfect timing, I am packing my small bag to have a walk in the sun, step in to a train for a weekend trip through even more snowy forests to my parents in the East. I think there might be many landscapes like this unplanned forest pond on the way. Eager to see what the weather paints on my way.

Have a lovely weekend dear all of you!

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!

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!

FOR GREY FRIDAY

Brown, red and turquoise on soft cotton paper. Date-almond-coconut-raw chocolate-balls aside. Fallen berry branches on the way to a grocery store. Wishing you a pleasant weekend!