Of sheep, shoes and silver
It's sometimes good to leave one's own small circles, to get away for a while. I think I'd usually want the getaway to be a trip out of the country, but it doesn't do me any harm to do a little bit of travelling within the country, too.
On Monday I drove to Peräseinäjoki, to a little (and I mean minuscule, I don't think I ever even noticed it while driving by) "village" called Louko. It's so small my TomTom didn't exactly recognise the address, but it got me almost here. My only mistake was to not notice the small road that leads to Heli & Jani's place - so from Turku to Peräseinäjoki with an error margin of some 400 metres, I don't think that's too bad. And I got to talk to a local granny who was all too happy to help. "Oooh, you're visiting that family? Yes, yes, you must take that road and go over the bridge and turn right. Don't you go driving past those old storehouses, oh no, then you've gone too far." And this was repeated several times, and really, I was about 400 metres past the correct location...
Heli and Jani's place is an old farmhouse that Jani has been adding to during the past 10 years. The house only used to have a kitchen and a small "livingroom", but now it's got a modern sauna and bathroom facilities, two large bedrooms upstairs and plans for a nice balcony. Above the garage there's a big loft, where both Jani and Heli have their own "hobbyrooms". For Jani it's a woodworking room and for Heli a silversmith's corner where she creates her jewellery. The other half of the loft is a spacious livingroom / bedroom, and this is where I'm roomed.
Heli's got a few sheep (suomenlammas, the traditional kind of Finnish sheep) in the paddocks surrounding the house, greeting us with friendly baa's whenever we walk by them. They're surprisingly curious creatures.
Days here evolve mostly around Heli's little son's schedules, as is natural. Heli's husband's vacation is already over, so Heli and I spend the day with wee Arttu, timing things between his feedings and naps. Unfortunately the weather hasn't exactly been what was forecast. It's actually a bit chilly and rainy today, for example. Not the +30 degrees it was supposed to be. Which is a welcome relief, I'm sure. If only it didn't prevent us from going to the beach. Oh well.
Instead, we've done some shopping in Seinäjoki (cheap shoes!) and during Arttu's nap yesterday, we spent the time in Heli's silversmithy (she designs and makes celtic and viking inspired jewellery - check her website at www.helimaanila.net) - she's quite talented! She's going to let me try to make something today, too. That might turn out to be a fiasco... Better not design anything big, so that there's not a whole lot of waste silver...
Anyway, these past few days have been quite relaxing and also a trip down the memory lane. I used to spend a week or few every summer in Isojoki (not too far from here), at the summer house of my dad's relatives. My second cousin would have horses there, which meant it was a dream week for a teenager horse enthusiast like myself. We'd go riding and swimming and do all the things girls who love horses will do. And we would sleep in a tiny closet (yes, it was only big enough for a double bed), under a portrait of Relatives From Distant Past, who in my mind were a little scary. But now that I'm here with Heli and her family, I seem to have a strong sense of even the smells being the same around here. The old house smells the same as the house in Möykky, Isojoki, the feel of the night is exactly the same as during our midnight rides around the lake one year... It's a whole Pohjanmaa experience. I'm so glad I took the time to come.
I think it's time for the little boy to wake up from his afternoon nap, so I'd better get back to the house to keep mommy company and help her look after the lively boy. I've never seen a toddler (he's not two years old yet) who is as good at climbing as Heli's son is. He's very strong and agile and constantly climbing somewhere. He'd soon be sitting on the kitchen table, if he wasn't prevented from doing it. Yesterday he did manage to get a few fingers in the berry pie his mom had just baked and set down in the middle of the dining table. Some fast reflexes are needed to keep him from harm's way. In seconds he'll be up, if we don't keep watch. He's also a fan of metal music - we did a lot of dancing yesterday, to Nightwish. Rock, rock!
Tomorrow I head home. During the weekend I'm hoping to have some golf time and then, little by little, it's probably time to start making things ready for work to start. Blah, blah. But now, I'll go say baa to the sheep.
EDIT: Forgot to be exact. I bought two pairs of shoes already (one pair was a 105e pair that now cost 10e!), that's why "shoes".
Sheep I need not explain, they're out there.
"Silver" because with some sound advice from Heli, I managed to craft myself a silver pendant. I made a tiny heart. I thought it turned out rather nice. I'll post pics when I get home to a proper internet connection.
As of now I could add "storm" in the list, as it's been thundering for the past two hours already. An absolutely awesome storm, with pouring rain and constant lightning and thundering for the better part of an hour. It's now finally calming down and I can try to get some sleep. It wasn't going to happen in that noise. Kaboom!
On Monday I drove to Peräseinäjoki, to a little (and I mean minuscule, I don't think I ever even noticed it while driving by) "village" called Louko. It's so small my TomTom didn't exactly recognise the address, but it got me almost here. My only mistake was to not notice the small road that leads to Heli & Jani's place - so from Turku to Peräseinäjoki with an error margin of some 400 metres, I don't think that's too bad. And I got to talk to a local granny who was all too happy to help. "Oooh, you're visiting that family? Yes, yes, you must take that road and go over the bridge and turn right. Don't you go driving past those old storehouses, oh no, then you've gone too far." And this was repeated several times, and really, I was about 400 metres past the correct location...
Heli and Jani's place is an old farmhouse that Jani has been adding to during the past 10 years. The house only used to have a kitchen and a small "livingroom", but now it's got a modern sauna and bathroom facilities, two large bedrooms upstairs and plans for a nice balcony. Above the garage there's a big loft, where both Jani and Heli have their own "hobbyrooms". For Jani it's a woodworking room and for Heli a silversmith's corner where she creates her jewellery. The other half of the loft is a spacious livingroom / bedroom, and this is where I'm roomed.
Heli's got a few sheep (suomenlammas, the traditional kind of Finnish sheep) in the paddocks surrounding the house, greeting us with friendly baa's whenever we walk by them. They're surprisingly curious creatures.
Days here evolve mostly around Heli's little son's schedules, as is natural. Heli's husband's vacation is already over, so Heli and I spend the day with wee Arttu, timing things between his feedings and naps. Unfortunately the weather hasn't exactly been what was forecast. It's actually a bit chilly and rainy today, for example. Not the +30 degrees it was supposed to be. Which is a welcome relief, I'm sure. If only it didn't prevent us from going to the beach. Oh well.
Instead, we've done some shopping in Seinäjoki (cheap shoes!) and during Arttu's nap yesterday, we spent the time in Heli's silversmithy (she designs and makes celtic and viking inspired jewellery - check her website at www.helimaanila.net) - she's quite talented! She's going to let me try to make something today, too. That might turn out to be a fiasco... Better not design anything big, so that there's not a whole lot of waste silver...
Anyway, these past few days have been quite relaxing and also a trip down the memory lane. I used to spend a week or few every summer in Isojoki (not too far from here), at the summer house of my dad's relatives. My second cousin would have horses there, which meant it was a dream week for a teenager horse enthusiast like myself. We'd go riding and swimming and do all the things girls who love horses will do. And we would sleep in a tiny closet (yes, it was only big enough for a double bed), under a portrait of Relatives From Distant Past, who in my mind were a little scary. But now that I'm here with Heli and her family, I seem to have a strong sense of even the smells being the same around here. The old house smells the same as the house in Möykky, Isojoki, the feel of the night is exactly the same as during our midnight rides around the lake one year... It's a whole Pohjanmaa experience. I'm so glad I took the time to come.
I think it's time for the little boy to wake up from his afternoon nap, so I'd better get back to the house to keep mommy company and help her look after the lively boy. I've never seen a toddler (he's not two years old yet) who is as good at climbing as Heli's son is. He's very strong and agile and constantly climbing somewhere. He'd soon be sitting on the kitchen table, if he wasn't prevented from doing it. Yesterday he did manage to get a few fingers in the berry pie his mom had just baked and set down in the middle of the dining table. Some fast reflexes are needed to keep him from harm's way. In seconds he'll be up, if we don't keep watch. He's also a fan of metal music - we did a lot of dancing yesterday, to Nightwish. Rock, rock!
Tomorrow I head home. During the weekend I'm hoping to have some golf time and then, little by little, it's probably time to start making things ready for work to start. Blah, blah. But now, I'll go say baa to the sheep.
EDIT: Forgot to be exact. I bought two pairs of shoes already (one pair was a 105e pair that now cost 10e!), that's why "shoes".
Sheep I need not explain, they're out there.
"Silver" because with some sound advice from Heli, I managed to craft myself a silver pendant. I made a tiny heart. I thought it turned out rather nice. I'll post pics when I get home to a proper internet connection.
As of now I could add "storm" in the list, as it's been thundering for the past two hours already. An absolutely awesome storm, with pouring rain and constant lightning and thundering for the better part of an hour. It's now finally calming down and I can try to get some sleep. It wasn't going to happen in that noise. Kaboom!