BALANCE BY THE SEA / SUMMER AT THE STUDIO

I'm back from our usual three days of archipelago midsummer celebrations! It wasn't all wine-sipping and constant eating for me 24/7, I took some time to do some pilates and balance practices as well. The setting kind of calls for that; I've always liked to work out by to the sound of the sea.

In summer my pilates classes over at our studio are Monday evenings, and what better way to continue summer after the celebrations by celebrating your own strength, hmmm..? Tomorrow at 18:30! With the Elvis themed dance workout before that. (Which we also did with my mom and sisters too at the beach today. It's fun!)

I also have a morning pilates class every second Thursday, and every second Thursday Ruska has her Seasonal Yoga Body Clock Yang class. We have a summer discount for the whole season where our anytime card is only 90€, and you can buy our 10-times card for the summer season for just 100€ (normally 140€), until July 15. We're open all trough the summer except for week 29 in July!

And -woop woop!- next week we're having a burlesque beginners-intensive camp! Two days of fun and learning including stage-make up practices as well as a free entry to the Vegas-themed summer edition of our RubiesKlubit in the evening - a complete starter kit that is! The camp is in Finnish but if you speak English eller svenska we will mix! Do join in on the fun!

Plus, one last thing of self promotion (which I often forget to do, ehrm) ; do remember that we organise bachelorette/hen party burlesque classes (burleskipolttarit) too!  At our studio, or alternatively we show up to where you are celebrating (with some limitations, of course). It's is rather popular these days, having burlesque classes for the bachelorette parties, and were actually the first in the country organising them, together with Bettie, Kiki and Olivia. So we know how to keep you entertained!

But yeah, pilates, tomorrow evening -or, today by now I guess, as we are just about to tick-tock over to Monday's side here.
"Be in control of your body, not at the mercy of it." (Joseph Pilates). YES to that. So see you!

REMEMBERING THE SUMMER LIGHT ON THE DARKEST DAYS

A few weeks (three to be exact) ago the paper would state that the sun would set at 15:29 in Helsinki, and rise the following day at 8:45, while the next sunrise in Utsjoki (in Northern Finland) would be on January 16, 2016. That's kaamos for you. Now, with just a couple of days left until winter solstice, we are at Up at 9:22 and Down at 15:12. So one could say it's pretty dark over here yes.

I'm getting a little nostalgic about midsummer, six months away, when the sun rises before 4 in the morning and sets around eleven at night (and above the polare circle it does not set at all) - it never really gets dark.

As there are no snowy slopes and frosty branches to post for the moment, I'll go for some light summer night memories from last midsummer (...that are very relevant now six months later...) instead.

We were out in the archipelago as usual. 

With the big harbour next to us.

Picking flowers and tasting chives.

And having lunch.

My cats turn into archipelago panthers.

Midsummer dinner set. Next week it's time for huge tables and settings and family dinners again, with a Christmas tree instead of birch branches.

The eleven pm sunshine. I love this moment, the long sunset and it's colours.

 

 The sun has set.

Out on a nightly walk by the shore. Here's a silvery trunk that the sea had washed up, shining in the pale blue night. The wood was so soft.

Around 1 or 2 am and a ship comes in.

The pale midsummer night.

On midsummer's day Dag turned three. He got a lion bag for his birthday, which he now uses when he goes to playschool.

And he was very sad that he could not go fishing with the older boys and guys on the wet, slippery rocks.

Dissapointement maximus. He may have been one year older, but still too small for so many things.

But then got a cake and things were fine again. A rubarb cake. Rhubarbrs are in season in June. I wonder if we'll get any next year as the sheep pretty much munched them all away last summer...

And then some sudden sea fog. Kind of what it looks like all the time now, in December -

The fucked up thing is that the weather was almost the same last June as it is now at the end of the year, which was wrong then and is wrong now. Around plus ten and rain, when it should have been ten degrees warmer then and ten degrees colder now (Celcius, obvuiosly)...

This year summer came rather and late, and last year winter arrived just a few days before Christmas- perhaps we'll get lucky this year again, and get a little snow after all just in time?

ISLAND GARDEN PARTY

Last weekend we went out to the summer house in the archipelago. I don't make it out there that often anymore, just a few days per summer, but it is still the ultimate summer place for the, as it is there that we spent the whole season when we were children.

 This time we were here to celebrate my nephews first birthday.

  Garden party.

I made a vegan chocolate cake with banana and cocoabutter (and a lot more). Will get back to that one later!

 This is my dad's old stroller from the mid 1950's.

And here's the birthday boy riding it.

It's funny; I somehow remember Dag being so much "older" when he turned one but I guess that is a parent-thing. Or forgetting-the-baby-phase-thing. Or, things-go-so-fast-thing. Something it anyways is.

 My other nephew just turned eight months.

 Opening presents.

And of course, the older kids are very eager to help with that one...

Fast forward to ending the day with a archipelago sunset.

The sun suddenly sets so much earlier. August, snap, the evenings are dark!

FLORAL GINGHAM AND JASMINES

Greetings from the archipelago!
Here I am sitting under the jasmines wearing Vivien of Holloway.

And mathcing my nails with my dress.
The very essentials of life.

This is the Kitty Day Dress.  You know I have a soft spot for shirtwaist dresses and, especially if the have some of that pocket magic. This came with a matching scarf as well. I have shortened the dress a bit; the original hemline was longer.

MIDSUMMER SAUNA

The sauna is among the most Finnish things there are. The word sauna itself is a Finnish word. You have the midsummer sauna, Christmas sauna, bridal sauna, the Saturday evenig sauna and the regular everyday sauna as well... Most Finnish summer cottages and cabins will have a separate sauna, and many old apartment buildings has a mutual one, while new apartments tend to have their own small saunas next to the bathroom. I've never been that much of a sauna goer at home really, the sauna at my parents' house was mainly used for drying clothes in . We have a weekly sauna hour in our building that we sometimes manage to make it to. I mostly just go to the sauna when at the gym.

But being in a wooden sauna on an island or by the lake, being able to jump right into the water straight from the heat, is a different thing. This midsummer when out in the archipelago we heated the sauna, which I haven't actually bathed in for a few years, in spite of sleeping in the sauna chamber every time we are over at the island.

The sauna window view.

When we were small gathering pine cones was one of our "duties". It works as a spark together with the wood when you heat the sauna (or any other fire; we mainly collected these for heating the house.)

I like a more mild sauna that is max 80C hot, preferably just a bit over 70. But  it is often heated above that, up to 100 degrees celsius.

(There used to be sauna championships where the contestants tried to out-sit each other in the heat, with very high temperatures. Some years ago one finalist died, while the other got really sick and was in a coma for a long time. That's insane.)

The sauna is something pretty much every one here has grown up with.  Babies under 6 monhts are not recommended to bathe in the sauna though. Kids usually sit on the floor, as the heat is lower there. Women actually used to give birth in the sauna back in the days (it was the cleanest space).

My first plunge for the year! The water was only +12C. That's cold, but it has been colder than usual so far this year.(The sea usually gets around 18-19 in summer, but it can be over 20C as well. It depends not only on the weather but on location as well. Some days during good summers the sea has hit temperatures around 27-28C. Lakes tend to be warmer. In Southern Carelia at my grandmothers cabin the water is often  around +25C.)

Where the harbour opposite of us is, there used to be an island, just in front of the mainland. They blew it away.

Midsummer flowers in newly washed hair.