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.
Finns are always surprised when the weather is good at Midsummer. Although, I could be a spoilsport and note that every single one of the five Midsummers since we moved bach has been beautiful.
Then again, I still remember the years of +9°C and rain, so I mostly let people enjoy their weather debates.
Anyway, it is hard to capture the essence of Midsummer in single picture. I cheated and made a collage. Good food, good drinks, the midnight sun, summer…
I went to my first proper music festival in years – and it was pouring down for most of the day.
But once you get soaked, you do not really get wetter.
The gigs were fantastic, it stayed warm and the company – most importantly my sister, brother-in-law and parents – never let the rain get in the way of a good time.
Great day!
I did feel a little sorry for some of the bands on stage two, which was not exactly waterproof. Unbelievably, most of the equipment kept functioning even through the worst downpour.
Kiara got a cold last night and was running a high temperature, so we cancelled all our Vappu plans. It has been the warmest Vappu in 18 years, so lounging on the terrace wasn’t a bad alternative.
To make it a bit festive, our snacky lunch included all the traditional Vappu essentials: sima (kind of fermented lemon mead), strawberries, munkkis, potato salad and wiener sausages.
I even wore my matriculation hat, as tradition demands. Mine is a bit small, so I rarely wear it for long, even at Vappu. Otherwise it would not be in such pristine shape.
It is the one garment where stains are worn with pride.
The Day was finally here. Harry Potter birthday!
The house was packed – at first with wands, owls, floating candles, Gryffindor colors and golden snitches. And later the chaos was completed by 127 excited little wizards and witches (or that is what it felt like).
The Herbology lesson (plant your owl pot) was popular, as was the Potions lesson (mix different color juices) and Levitation class (on the trampoline). But nothing was as eargerly anticipated as the opening of the Honeydukes candy shop after the other food was finished.
Our little witches loved the day – but I am happy it is a whole year to the next kids birthday!
I adore the Finnish tradition of Easter blessings (virpominen). It is such a joyful thing to do. I firmy believe one should make an effort, which is why we take care with both decorating the willow branches, and dressing up as traditional witches. These witches then go from house to house, blessing the home and handing over a decorated branch in exchange for chocolate eggs or other candy.
In addition to the nearest neighbors, in Finland you can still ring any doorbell and ask for permission to bless the house. A lot of the people in “our route” we only see this for one time a year. But naturally, after doing this a few years, we favor the houses where people have been especially excited to see us.
We clearly left a bit late this year, as almost every house commented they were already worried we would not come at all.
Girls’ birthday always ends up being multi-day affair: the celebration during the actual day with immediate family, followed by family birthday with exetended family, and last (but not least) the party with friends.
The good thing about twins is that you do this once a year.
Alanna and Kiara turned 8 today. It’s a cliche – but I truly can’t believe it’s been eight years already!
The girls are at that wonderful age, when they can behave like big girls for a little while – discussing plans to meet up with friends and writing secrets in their diaries. And the next moment they are happy little kids again, playing with magic birds and a baby dolls.
May it last for a long time still!
There is something magical about Spring Day in South Africa. In Finland, Midsummer tends to have everything but summer weather. I even remember a year it was sleeting. The same happens elsewhere in Europe. Just ask the British what is the typical weather for the Spring bank holiday… But in South Africa Spring Day is typically glorious spring weather – warm, sunny and beautiful.
Having a business breakfast outside in the morning was a great decision. The only problem was to motivate oneself to get back to the office.
The South African side of our family is passionate about Highland Dancing. Stuart’s sister, Hayley, has her own dance studio in Cape Town – and the niece, Robyn, has won the SA Championship (under 15) several times – this year being no exeption. Therefore, the SA Championships in August is a major event, with the entire family descending on us.
The day is always a lot of fun, but due to travel, work and life in general, I was unable to join them for the event itself. However, it did get me going back to my photos from year before. And because these were better than any pictures I snapped on this date itself (by a long mile), I decided to make an exception and post pictures from exactly a year ago.
If everyone knows about it, it ain’t cheating.
Today’s photo is not the best of the day. (My last day in Rome…). In fact, it was (and still is) a bad photo in many ways – overexposed, badly framed and lots of ‘noise’ in the picture (The cars really bother me). I am still not sure why I kept editing it over and over again, and trying to make it work. Something in it just spoke to me.
It’s still not the greatest of photos. But the story it tells is a story so very typical to Rome.
Blue Moment 