AN ISLAND, A LIGHTHOUSE, ROOTS

Night train towards the North. A bus and a ferry to the landscapes of mist and rain. A small trip to see where my grandfather's mother was born. The thick clouds disappearing from the island, the sun tickling, wind calming down. Beautiful music festival just by the lighthouse. Sunset by the beach listening to the waves.

Middle of the island a village with kind people, good food, tiny piglet and a goat that became a mother for an orphan calf. Light violet harebell meadows everywhere. Sunshine on shoulders, a birch branch to keep the insects away.

Traditional houses painted with Falu red, flea markets and the scent of bent-in-the-wind Scots pines in sunshine.

Afternoon walk in the warm sea.

With a friend. With sun tan.

Evening walk.

Sunset and the songs of seagulls and terns. The horizon disappearing.

Sleeping next to the lighthouse and dreaming of the times when my grandfather's mother lived here. Maybe now I understand why I dream of islands and the blinking towers.

Summer trips with never setting sun.

Greetings from the island!

And warm and sunny July to you!

SOUTH SPRING POSTCARDS II

Happy May!

Sunday with small raindrops after a Saturday with silent movies accompanied by real musicians. Black and white scenes of Sunrise, score played live by Giovanni Spinelli with one electronic guitar. The moments to get inspired. To see and hear how beautiful it can be.

More postcards from the Southern spring trip. Village passers-by, fruits of plum trees grew by looking at them. Smiling face, lighthouse hunting. The familiar patterned stripes of grandmother´s hands drying in the Southern sunset. In a fruit garden.

Mellow Sunday melodies!

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!

LAUANTAINA, ON SATURDAY, Á LAUGARDAGINN II

Pouring this morning. Like curtains hanging all over outside. Curtains of cold invisible pearls.

Sewing, organizing files, bookkeeping, sketching. Landscape is visible on some glances, disappeared on the next ones. On Saturday I was sitting on a bench in the arboretum for a long time, talking with a new friend (carrying a typewriter). Soundtrack for our conversations was a circus on the other side of the lake Pyhäjärvi, trumpets and drums echoing sometimes from very close, sometimes from another worlds. Yellow leaves covering more and more the paths to walk.

Found old work hiding, called "Lauantaina". It was a project about emotion of Saturday in autumn 2006 in LHÍ. A cardboard box filled with soft crocheted woolen socks, a brochure about small exercises to increase the feeling of relaxation and postcards with stamps and envelopes to make friends happy. You can see my presentation about the progress here.

Monday, I wish that it is treating you well.

Hearts,

Anna Emilia

RUSTLING EMERALD GREEN

Last summer I was visiting my brother for one week. While he was working, I was building his birthday gift, an evergreen tree, on his wall. Some days it was hot and I had my tea breaks on his balcony. Some days were very cold and I wore his huge woolen socks while painting.

Even it is hot today, I am wearing woolen socks, the best socks ever, knitted by my grandmother. She called me yesterday and told me that she had seen good looking strawberries by the square market. "Me too", I said. She had passed them, as she thought that the best ones come from my parent´s fields. "Me too", I said. Then she had seen some peas. "Me too!" She could not pass them. "Me neither," I said.

It is wonderful to read all your comments, thank you for saying hello and playing the game of give away! It is still open for one day, so is the shop.

Evening greetings,

see you tomorrow!

(The first two pictures taken by my brother.)

SHE MADE THEM BIG ENOUGH

I had forgotten how it is to fall asleep gazing stars. The last nights I watched them through my window under blankets. I remember last thoughts before falling asleep thinking about how flat the sky looks when it is very dark.

It turned cold, today -24°C. That made me to search for the socks my grandmother knitted me years ago. She had today her 60th anniversary though grandfather passed away some years ago. Her wedding day started in the back of a truck which happened to be on the way to the village where my grandfather was waiting. Her wedding dress was "of a natural white cloth what you just possibly found during that time, two parts" and sewn by a neighbor. From church they drove with an American car to the dancing place where they got more than 200 guests (which I counted from their guest book). She finally found the soya ice cream in her freezer, which she had bought for me already last time but lost under the huge amounts of berries. Ate it with a pleasure to celebrate her day with cloudberries and raspberry jam.

(That is how high Mr. Sun rises these days. Not even over the treetops. After that, it is just all the way down. Good night Mr. Sun, say greetings to the other side of the Earth!)

SMELL OF HOME

Almost I can smell how home is. There is firewood and smoke, cardamom and coffee, dusty electricity of the sewing machine. Old paint at the terrace with wind through open door. Woven carpets and something good baking in the ashes of the oven. Trees crackling in the wind, pine trees and moss covered rocks.

It is more than seven months when I visited home. Next week I will be there. Still a few days to enjoy the autumn in Frankfurt.