A BLISSFUL SATISFACTOIN OF THE MIND

A video posted by TurrrboCherry /Ulrika Bachér (@turrrbocherry) on Dec 26, 2015 at 2:19pm PST

Not really that amazing that I wold have to dedicate a blog post about it would it not be for the fact that it is pretty much the main thing I've done the past two days now. So there is (almost) nothing else to post here but CUBES. Cube mania.

Dag scrambles them up when he tries ("it was not so easy" he says) and I practice putting them back together. Very addictive.

And my very first one required wine, some swearing and  a whole lot of internet. Now they get done with a little less. (The explanations from Rubik's were the best, in case any of you decide it's time to once and for all get that damn cube figured out.)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Christmas! Christmas christmas christmas.

I really do love the season, even though we are having a very moist and green one this year.
Last year I was so busy everything was rather last-minute and then went by pretty fast. So I decided I'd start my Christmas preparations early this year to get to enjoy it longer.

Which obviously didn't happen, apart from some lights and starts hung up earlier in December.
I had pretty  much everything left for this week.

^That's me the last three days. EVERYBODY HAS TO GET IN THE CHRISTMAS MOOD NOW!

(picture from Fotolia)

So yesterday I had a turrrrbo-christmas preparation day and fixed soem gifts, sent out my cards and some gifts (YES I KNOW THEY WILL NOT MAKE IT but it's kind of nice receiving them during the so called middle days between Christmas and New Years' as well isn't it, when you can take it easy and eat chocolates and receive greeting that are still wishing you a good time, right?), decorated the tree and baked gingerbreads.

I am rather fine with being in a hurry and doing a lot a once thought, as I'm used to that, but I just miss getting to take it easy and enjoy the feeling.  Well doesn't everybody. But I will do it now and afterwards instead - my Christmas always goes on until at least Epiphany (old traditions here "throw" Christmas out after twenty days so there's still time). And we did have a nice although stuffed day yesterday -

Dag baked gingerbreads for the first time properly.

Classic hearts.

And gingerbread men that Dag and I decorated. (For some reason gingerbread med freak me out. Sometimes when I can't sleep I picture them coming up the stairs with knives in their hands. Merry Christmas!)


We did gingerbread trucks too, upon which Dag is happily munching here.

Last year I did a Moomin-inspired Christmas tree,  one like they do in the books. This year the kids got to decorate it so I just let it go for more is more.


I'm not much of a decorater otherwise; apart from lights I just prefer to add flowers of the season here and there.

Like amaryllis!

I love them as they are so big and bold, but they always grow too heavy and fall down and look drunk. So I placed them in the biggest jar I had, where they should be able to keep their alignment right.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everybody out there celebrating something!

THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER

Or a. A Christmass-y sweater. Cardigan. That could be worn with ease off-season too.

Eddi calls this my hipster-sweater.

The cardigan is from Lindy Bop.
The skirt is vintage and the heart-shoes are by Frollein von Sofa.

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?