When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
At the moment, the sun rises in Helsinki at 6am. In just a week, it will be 20 minutes earlier. The change is so fast, you can really feel it – and Finns are almost unrecognizable from the dark, crumpy winter dwellers of just a few weeks ago.
Getting to the office early feels decidedly more humane when you are accompanied with blue sky and the first rays of sunshine.
A few kilometres from our house is a small pond that is a birdwatcher’s paradise. Several rare birds nest there and in the surrounding area, and there is a very active community alerting people to rare sightings. I am not part of it. I mostly know about it from my walks, when I occasionally stumble into clusters of people arriving by car or bicycle, or nearly running, binoculars in hand, asking breathlessly if they have “missed it yet.”
As it was a beautiful day, I cycled to the pond to join tens of others trying to catch a photo of a bird. I just wanted a pretty picture, so I would have been quite happy with a duck. Instead, I found this Eurasian coot building a nest. Although common in Europe, the Finnish population is critically endangered.
So, am I a birdwatcher now?
Last year Santa brought the girls a trampoline. I was a bit worried it wouldn’t be used much, but I didn’t need to worry. Last summer, there was barely a day that girls didn’t go jumping, at least for a bit. Most days, there would be several friends bouncing with them.
We set the trampoline up again today (you have to take it into storage for winter). Thirty minutes later, you could already hear the laughter of four little girls.
Raking is pretty far down the list of my favourite things to do. But there is some satisfaction in having a tidy yard. At least it has been dry, which makes raking easy. Keeping girls at task was harder.
Long time ago, I preferred red wine. However, white wine has always been a summer drink. After I moved to South Africa and then Singapore, I lived in a long summer (comparatively) for several years. As a result, I only really drink white. Intellectually, I know reds are better and more complex wines. White just tastes better.
Stuart doesn’t care about temperature. He drinks red.
Helsinki city centre has a number of cool jugend style houses, several really nice statues, and some that are just a bit weird.
Warm milk has been a part of our bedtime routine since… well… since the girls were just born. We transitioned from mother’s milk to cow’s milk and from bottles to sippy cups to normal cups – but the routine stayed. It is a taste of calming down (most nights).
The sea is finally free of ice, although not many boats have braved the cold waters yet.
With sun reflecting from the beautiful calm waters, I occassionally wonder if we shoild get a boat of our own.
Luckily these moments of insanity do not last long.
Despite my grumpiness about the spring and rain… summer is coming.
In my family, escape rooms are a thing. We regularly go with my siblings, their partners, and sometimes include our parents. The girls have tagged along for a few times as well – and keep begging to come again.
So this Easter, I built them their own escape-room-style egg hunt. They had to solve puzzles, break codes, search for clues, and even reveal invisible writing. Along the route they had to uncover boxes and find matching keys or number codes.
A few of the challenges were quite hard, but the girls managed to locate all of their eggs. Apparently, it was more fun that our “typical” hunt, so I have a feeling we may have started a new tradition.
A great addition the already existing tradition of spending the Easter in our summer cottage with my parents
