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.
There is not much to photograph in the hospital. But the one thing guaranteed to always exist in South Africa is a sizeable parking lot. And in most places there is greenery located between car lots. And there is always something blooming.
Things don’t always go as planned. I, for one, wasn’t planning to spend the first three days of my vacation in hospital. Luckily, it’s all treatable, and I hope to get out of here soon. I’m fairly convinced I would have more beautiful things to photograph almost anywhere else.
I love Cape Dutch houses. Together with the yellow and red African sunset, they are almost too picture perfect.
And if it feels too cliché, it helps to remember that the view follows another well-known South African phenomenon: the parking lot is just out of the shot
Finland to South Africa is a long journey. You spend 14–15 hours in the air, but once you add travel to and from the airport, check-in, passport control, layovers and everything else, the total travel time creeps closer to 24 hours. A full day.
Even though I’ve done the trip many times, I always overestimate how productive I will be in these long flights. In reality, I get nothing done. I might manage to watch a movie from start to finish, but that’s where my efficiency ends. And that was true even before I had kids. Now, at best, I serve as a pillow.
The girls travel well. They’ve had their fair share of long trips – partly because we genuinely love travelling, but also because they are half Finnish and half South African. Whichever half you live close to, the other one is a long way away.
Travelling is great – even if flying itself is mostly just a lot of waiting in uncomfortable seats
Books are big in our family. Stuart and I read a lot. Luckily we both love Kindles, or the biggest room in our house would have to be dedicated to books.
We’ve also been reading aloud to the girls every day since they were just a few months old. We still read a bedtime story together every night, even though Alanna and Kiara are starting to read on their own.
At the moment, Kiara enjoys stories in chapter books, while Alanna loves comics. Both also enjoy good non-fiction. That part they get from their daddy.
We have a big glassed-in terrace in our back garden. When the temperature stays below zero for several days in a row, the glass gets covered in ice crystals. It looks like it belongs in the ice palace from Narnia (or Frozen, for the girls’ generation). Trying to take pictures of it is impossible, though. A photo never compares.
Pikkunen is my teddy. I got it from my grandma when I turned 14. But as it’s the most huggable teddy in the world, the girls have claimed it as their own – even though they certainly don’t lack soft toys themselves
Big emotions are standard in a household with two seven-year-olds. At least the reasons for those emotions are (mostly)valid these days. I still remember the days when our girls could have a one-hour meltdown because their imaginary soup had carrots in it. And they did not want carrots.
And in case it’s not immediately obvious: the image is a heavily dramatized close-up of a kitchen grater.
No one in our household is big on drinking water. We all drink at mealtimes, but between meals we just… don’t. I keep making vows to improve and often carry a water bottle around for a week or two. But nothing sticks. The girls are a little better, but not by much.
At night, however, they wake up to drink – and to alert me the moment their bedside bottle runs dry.
Blue Moment 