INSTA-IMATRA

Last weekend we drove eastwards for a show we had; this summer most of our shows have been and will be in Carelia for some reason. 'Easternfinland14' as we in innovatively named it; this was 2 out of 4. This time we were performing at an outdoor event. We stayed at this jugend-style hotel.

Waiting (in proper style for the 2010's) for our ride to the venue.

After-show bubbly and red nails.

(pic from @ruskarieban)

The event took place at an island in the middle of the big river. It's deep and the current is very strong so you can't swim even though the surface looks mirror calm. Beautiful and scary, especially since it was said the water was 20m deep under the jetty we stood on. 

Next-day-hotel-exterior-posing.

The hotel is just next to the steep, deep dry river bank. I remember standing on the opposite side as a kid looking at the water rushing down the waterfall when they let it out of the damm. I wish I had brought my camera but I also know I seldom have the time to take photos on gig-trips so the iphone had to do. 

On the way home we stopped at our cabin, which is just along the road, for a quick swim.

The water was warm and clear as always.

So time to jump in!

The woods were full of blueberries so we picked some around the cabin before leaving.

The berries then made it to a late night pie when I got home.

ILMALA

We took a trip  and drove east, to my grandparent's summer stay in Southern Carelia, Ilmala. Last time I was there was five years ago with my sister  when my grandfather was still alive. I've been meaning to go there every summer since but never didn't make it until now. It's one of those places thatwhat's along the road to there might change during the years, but once you get there, it looks the same as it always has, just like it did during our stays there as a kid.

The place is on a typical Finnish ridge with a steep hill down to the lake.

Plus 26C in the water! Approved.

Pretty much everything in the cabin(s, there's another smaller barack on the premises too) is built by my late grandfather by hand; the houses, beds, shelves, tables, hooks and so on. He was also the kind of guy to make lamp shades out of old thermoses and built a jetty from a road sign that said it was 1km to the motel for example. And all details are painted in the same green color, as he had a lot of it and thus put it everywhere. In their town apartment too...

Dinner preparations. Well one of these at least ;)

Freshly baked local sour rye bread. To be had with heaps of butter. Crazy good. Dag thought so too and got a little greedy.

Pine trees, pine trees, pine trees. A lot of Finland looks like this. Easy to get lost in , everywhere looks the same. 

The salpa line  from the war went trough here. (In Finland The War refers to the Finnish Winter War and the continuation war, wwII.)

I snatched the second pic from my sister's Instagram.

Blueberries and blueberry pie. Ah, summer!

(Lately blueberries however makes me think of the phrase "beautiful blueberries", which was the last thing Christopher McCandelss wrote in his journal before he starved to death in Alaska, having tried to live separated from the modern world. One of the things I've stumbled upon during my insomniac  nightly internet odysseys... Such a lonely, deliric thing to write. My head makes me picture the scene of the skeleton man praising his last berries. Thank you internet for that one, I will most likely ALWAYS think of that whenever thinking of blueberries again. )

Well, back to here and summer and sand and such. Here's my sister's & hubby's little chorkie Lilly in the evening sun. 

BY THE LAKE

I went through the drawers and wardrobes at the summercotage and found some cute things; a handsewn dress from the early sixties that my grandmother's sister used to wear, a rather psychedelic caftan...( a bit too psychedelic for me so it did not come back with me to town...) and a skirt that definitely is a keeper!

A DAY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

The citygirl spends some time in the countryside in Souther Carelia.

Live cows!

One day maybe we will be able to transfer pheromones and molecules somehow through picture and video for us to percept scents, feeling and temperature. Then these pics would bring you the scent of meadow flowers and hey, sweet wild strawberries that are everywhere along the road, but also the heavy smell of manure. (It smells quite a lot around those live cows. But I think they are rather nice anyway).







The dress is vintage, found at the summercottage.
It came home with me.