FOUR THINGS THIS SUNDAY

In between of being away working on Friday and Saturday, and before starting rather hectic May, this Sunday was a day off, letting the to-do list be for a little while.

From snow to flowers in a couple of weeks! Apart from coltsfoot the scillas are always the first to bloom.

The cows are also out now. A sure spring sign!

Dag's bike is out as well. Practice-time! We haven't really been biking a lot out here as everything is so far away and there is not really much to bike to over here. This summer however I intend to help him ride properly and fix up my old bike as well (someone stole the saddle the year before we moved away from Tapiola and I haven't ridden it since) so we can bike to the little lake.

Then we had a popcorn lunch (because that is awesome!) and made Bear Grylls eat various yucky things and piss on a scarf to wear on his head. (To keep cool from the heating sun. You learn new things every day! )

It was really fun to watch / do You vs. Wild with Dag though! But the things I have learned, or come to realise from watching various shows with Grylls are:
1) I would so die in no-time and
2) not sure I ever want to get more than a hundred meters away from any main road, ever.
(Ok, I do live more than 10km from a main road, but the Ingå wilderness I can survive.)

LONG READS, BUT TAKE THE TIME

In today's hectic life and it's social media climate, where you don't always have the time to sit down and read the paper properly but still have the time to scroll, and a lot of what the news feed feeds you is articles ("articles") that seem to just consist of screenshots of how people commented on something on twitter, I have come to appreciate a well written article even more than before, and the chance to get a moment to sit down and read something un-interrupted.

Also, I should learn to make shorter sentences.

Many people are having a holiday this weekend, and here is some recommended reading to accompany your Easter flowers, chocolate eggs and wine (well, that is what I am having at least).

These are two different stories but they share a common theme - the migration of peole, but foremost: putting a name on a number in the statistics, a backstory behind a short mention in an article, or a story to someone with no mention anywhere at all. 

So I give you one story for each day of Easter:

1. The Wetsuit man (dagbladet.no)

This came out a few years ago at the height of the so called refugee wave. I have returned to this text every now and then.  It is a captivating and important read.

2. The Case of Jane Doe Ponytail (The New Yorker)

There is a person and a story behind every "-Doe".

3. The New Slave Trade (Buzzfeed News)
"Inside The Country Where You Can Buy A Black Man For $400".


Pictures 1. by me 2. royalty free stock image

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

Or, that were today.

Long time no smoothie! I have a bit of chaga at home of so I made an antioxidant-rich smoothie out of chilled chaga-tea, mango, some cherries and physalis.

Admiring my super huge (1,81m) Mucha-poster that I ordered from the Mucha museum. I saw the original sized theatre posters there when performing in Prague earlier this year but couldn't get it then due to luggage restrictions. I ordered it on Wednesday in the afternoon and it arrived in less than 24 hours on Thursday morning! I will glue it to a board and then hang it in our living room.

And then on with a lurex dress and out to listen to music! Went to the Russian centre of culture for a mesmerizing concert of Altai' music with Alexey Chichakov. (He is playing in Heinävesi Sat 13. and Tampere Sun 14., go listen if you have the chance!)

And oh! Next week season 2 of Vintage-Valtakunta starts. Tuesday 16th at 20, Yle 1! Finland only I'm afraid.

GROWING THE JUNGLE POT BY POT AND LEAF BY LEAF

Now as the sun has returned to our hemisphere it's time to show the plants some love, re-pot and take care of them after the winter darkness. This year I -finally- got a couple of plant lamps to help my green inhabitants survive the dark months better. I somewhere read a comparison of the amount of light, and it is ridiculously low here in winter (from some 100 000 lux on a summer's day to just 500 during the darkest period), which is of course pretty obvious if you live here, but to see the actual numbers on paper is pretty describing as well.

So now it's time for bigger pots for some, new soil and other care taking.

I have always liked to decorate with plants, especially to make a room nicer when it is still waiting for a touch up or renovation, as is the case with our living room downstairs. We finally got the most important parts renovated, like upstairs ( or: most of it, still some left...), and then the two-year-box-labyrinth-hell that was our former city flat cleaned up just in time for Christmas meaning we actually have a downstairs again, so any paint jobs will now have to wait. In the meantime I keep on growing our little jungle!

 We have a row of big plants working as a screen separating one part of the room from the other.

The cats take their roles as this jungle's mini panthers, chasing shadow pray.

More plants to come still!

DANGLING

 I got myself a present -

Earrings from Mine Güngör! I have been eyeing her designs for some time but not being able to choose a pair, until I saw these fans in a collection sneak peek on instagram.

This tassel-version of the Flo-earrings did not end up in the actual collection but I got to buy this pair anyway and they are fabulous! And to imagine I used to go more than a decade without big and bold earrings, hah!

Earrings would be translated "ear-hangs" in Swedish (and a little more fancy as "ear jewellery" in Finnish, in case you felt you had to know) and when Dag was younger he got it confused; once he grabbed a pair of my earrings, hanged them by the hook from the top of his ears and said "Look mom, I also have hang-ears!!" ("Hängöron"...)

Speaking of "hanging ears", I do have an issue with big earrings still and that is if they are heavy- I had extension plugs in the 00's (sigh) that I never stretched that big (phew), and that grew pretty well together after I took them out. They still make themselves reminded though when I wear anything more dangly, as the hole tends to stretch out and droop more than just a little pierced needle hole would.

These  fan-earrings however are made of birch veneer so they are very lightweight and can be worn all day without headache or the feeling of having your lobes rip apart at any time! Here they are in action, plus a few of my other favourite earrings to wear for the moment:

     

I have some pairs that are mainly made of string (via Christina Handmade / Etsy, like the one in the down right corner) that also hang light as feathers in the ears. But 'will man vara fin får man lida pin' as the saying goes, as in if you want to be nice and fancy it will hurt and you will have to suffer - some of my favourite dangling ones are a bit on the heavier side; ethnic artesan jewelry that I bought earlier this year from Omanie (the two others in the pic). Worth drooping out a little for!

AND THEN WE HAD MARCH

Not sure how it happened, but apparently the first quarter of this year has gone by already?
That can only mean that It'll be Christmas again in no time!


But first, lets set our minds on spring and the eventual summer! Here's what the switch from winter to spring looked like, and everything else and  in between, a second a day in March 2019.

QUICK MONDAY DINNER - HALLOUMI & AJVAR

This is a quick 15-min dish that I usually make a big pot of and bring to work the following days. You can sneak a lot of your daily vegetables into this.

They key is seasoning it with ajvar relish, which is a roasted paprika paste that you can get in most larger stores. The ajvar makes a really yummy combo with the salty halloumi.

If you want to make a vegan version choose firm tofu instead, but then add some salt when you fry it.

You will need:

-chopped/sliced vegetables - I have kale cabbage, carrot and onions. 

-1 jar of tomato-vegetable pasta sauce. You can of course make your own tomato sauce but then this is no longer a quick dish to make.

-1 250g pack Halloumi cheese

-Ajvar relish

 + Cauliflower rice (steamed grated cauliflower) to serve with, for even more daily veggie bonus.  Tastes good with any actual full grain rice as well, or a 50/50 combo of any rice and cauli-rice. Possibilities folks!

Fry the vegetables and halloumi in a separate pan, join in one pan and mix together with the pasta sauce and season with ajvar. I like it with 3 large table spoons. Serve on top of the rice of your choice, or mix it all together to a yummy (but less photogenic) mash!