FOLLOWING THE LIGHT

Nice to meet you new year. I hope it is pleasant and full of happiness for all of you.

It snows almost every day, today it was very sunny. Winter light is so delicate and pure, fragile. I move with it to the room where it appears for the few hours. Then when it is dark and electricity lights are on, the time stops. It feels almost like forbidden time, moments when eyes should be closed and do nothing at all. Still it is very comfortable, to be lost in darkness, to know the way home with lampposts and climb the stairs after pushing a round button which lights up a lamp in every floor. Following the patterns of the light. Being guided.

HOME, FINALLY

For two and a half months I was away from my own home because of some renovation work. Yesterday I came back. Good to be at home, even though I think I made a home to every place I stayed even for a while. By sea and surrounded by mountains or middle of lakes, forests and fields.

There was waiting the best Name day gift from sweet Anne. Thank you so much Anne, it is very beautiful! I was so surprised.

The whole day it has been snowing. Many heaps to climb over on the streets. But in the new kitchen is tea boiling all the time. Thank you my special tea hunting agent for sending me some spicy herbal ones over the sea.

How are you? How is the weather there?

HAVE PEACEFUL DAYS

Sewing, knitting, sitting cross-legged and drinking tea. Thank you for everyone of you who has written me (especially the one who wrote me a real letter from Dundee :) !

Be well and enjoy and remember the animals if it is cold outside!

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!)

WIND FROM SIBERIA

It brought snow last night. Going on the ice with "potkukelkka", it is very quick sledge of a kind. The sound of ice is like whales singing when it breaks and becomes stronger reaching longer to the shores. Going over the cracks takes a bit of courage when the ice moves slowly. But the cracks are very tiny. Got red cheeks. Please dear wind, tell greetings to the beautiful landscapes of Siberia next time you pass by there!

(Pictures from a video I took. There one can hear the ice breaking from distance if listening very carefully.)

NAME DAY

On my name day my grandmother got her engagement ring 61 years ago while an accordionist played and others danced on the dance floor. I got yellow roses, a mattress vine and a twig wreath to hang on the door. The yellow roses reminded me of these sketches I drew during summer drinking tea while elm leaves were falling to the table. Today a handful of snowflakes were floating in the grey sky while I was walking in the forest and looking what was left of the small branch lodges we used to built when we were small. Just a few branches. Good night, sleep tight!

MR. SUN AND WHAT HE CAN REACH

Sun came out with frost covering everything. Quite lovely. There are four lynxes living nearby. I was walking in the forest, but seems that today they are all sleeping, also squirrels didn´t come for nut-breakfast today and also the fox is hiding. Only the sun is outside. But he can reach every tree top, frost glittering roofs, sand on the road, last summer´s hayfields and even walls inside. Everything he makes shiny. Hello Mr. Sun, nice to see you!