My town -part 1

-The Hietaniemi cemetery-

There's something about cemeteries I enjoy.

The calm.

The beauty.

This is an inviting view once you come in the main gate.
Urging you to come explore...


This vast cemetery is downtown, by the sea. I love how the old trees shut out the bustle of the city and make you forget it for a while.

Mind you, I didn't come just for a walk with my camera... my grandparents' grave is in this corner by the sea.

I brought flowers along to plant :)

I'll have to go back in the fall and plant some beautiful white striped hostas together with daisies (my grandma's fave flower). Perennials. Finally.

Besides, I think my grandma would be giggling over the thought of her "pushing daisies" :D

I also stopped by my great-aunt.
She is why Niina's second name is Aliisa.

After that I just walked where my feet took me.

I found this aged bench by one grave.

I love the thought.. sit down and remember.

I enjoy the way lichen growns on the old stones.

I'm not a huge fan of the newer style of grave markers, but this was beautiful.

It has a little windowed nook to put a candle in.

Lilacs in full bloom.. the scent in the air was so sweet.

I wonder if this was meant to be a planter?

These days I think it serves as a bird bath.

More benches!

The cemetery is leveled, you get great overviews.

See the gardening tools at the end of the lane?

I would have loved this summer job. Taking care of the graves, planting flowers, watering, mowing the grass... in that peaceful environment.

I find that I rarely read the epitaphs, but this one jumped out.

"Here rests a pearl among women.."

One of the areas is called The Artists' Hill.

You'll find both older and newer graves of famous (at least in Finnish terms) people.

An author.

An actress.

(doesn't that look like a stage of sorts?)

A designer.

An actor.

Those rusted reeds are beautiful...

Also many angels.

Old..

..and new.

This military officer's grave also holds "Little Edi".. his tiny daughter.

This made me smile.

Hilma is a very old fashioned Finnish name.. that together with Antoinette?

And a priest's wife to boot :)

I was glad to see they water the main walkways to keep the dust down...

..cause this is what my sandals and toes looked like after an hour!

One more stop...

The military cemetery.

My great uncle.

It's a vast area.

Notice the low wall at the base of the trees in the background?

It has names of the Helsinkian soldiers missing in action.

On my out, this caught my eye... I wonder if he was an athlete or just a big fan? :)

I plan to visit again this summer, but this time with a map and looking for specific gravesites.

You're welcome to join me :)

Personally or virtually.

This was the first part of my personal mission this summer.

Head out into Helsinki looking through my viewfinder.

I already know what I'll be looking for next...

Get your teacups ready...

It's time for some fun soon.

I missed Vanessa's Annual Mad Tea Party last year as we were in France, but this year I have someone eagerly waiting....

I wonder if Alice will show up?

Goings on in May

..also known as a photoful catch-up post :)

***
This one is from three weeks ago.
My favorite part of May.
So many different shades of fresh greenness.

This is on my walk home from the store.

***
Early May was spent with Operation Lawn.
It was badly taken over by moss.
Out came the moss killing chemical, and after a couple days I raked it off.. and raked, and raked and raked some more.

Then Mika spread out a thin layer of a mixture of soil, fertilizer and grass seed.

Then we watered and waited.
Oh was it ever worth the work!
Look at that lusciousness!

***

We had this little lady over for a couple of nights.

She helped me in the garden while I pulled out daffodils, or as Julia put it "yellow flowers".

We played peek-a-boo with a see-through chair :)

Some of my favorite spring flowers: forget-me-nots

and primroses.

***
All of the above photos were taken with my point and shoot because my Canon was in the shop for repairs.

A fried main board and shutter... in a two year old camera!

Two thumbs up for Canon for excellent customer service as they provided new parts after one phonecall.

I got home on that rainy day and went out in the garden to test my baby.

There really is nothing as pretty as a wet garden.

Did you know that raindrops hide the most intriguing reflections?

You just have to get close enough.

***

On her second visit Julia discovered Niina's dollhouse.

She made me giggle by knocking on the front door before opening it :D

After that all the residents went up the stairs and down the stairs.

Many many times.

***

One of the sweetest things in May was the baby shower I hosted for a dear friend from work.

I saw an idea on Pinterest (the best way to spend hour after hour online!) of raindrops on a hanging umbrella for a baby shower...

Couldn't hang up an umbrella, but I remembered these lanterns.

Some scraps of blue cardstock and a sewing machine later...

Came out cute!

We had a lovely brunch with french toast on a stick, scones, cheeses and decadent brownies...

And sweet little spring posies picked from my garden and displayed in teacups.

So there you have it.

May in a nutshell.

Tomorrow I'll have to show off some layouts... and pick up on Project Procrastination...heh...

Summer....

Darling. Dearest.
Just like it was written on the pavement :)

After the traditional end of year school staff lunch (at a very nice restaurant, provided for us by the parents' association) a bunch of us continued to one of the nicest outside terrace bars in town.
Korjaamo.

I enjoy the way it is enclosed by the buildings and is like a nest inside the city.
Good music too.

They had free punch on offer... raspberries and lime galore..mmm..

To celebrate June I've decided to take this 30 day photography challenge.

Here's a self-portrait for you.
Well... technically I didn't take the photo myself, rather a colleague played around with my camera for a while. But it is me and it was taken on June 1st, so it'll do :D

Cheers!

Lego-style :)

The legos have been out for a couple weeks.
Even Saara got bitten by brick fever.

Voilá, the Eiffel Tower.

Niina added some tourists and locals.

I love it.

It is on display in our dining room now :)

PS. I have a back log of photos for posts to come in the next several days, so stay tuned.

Our battle

Fall of 2009, I shared a walk in the woods with you.
Before you read on, I'd like for you to take that stroll again, ok?

Earlier this year, we got a rather upsetting letter from the city. They were planning on changing the zoning for the woods, from recreational to building. Why?
So a indoor ice rink could be built. A two rink building in fact.

Our neighborhood is an average suburb. Lots of individual houses, a nice fairly quiet area. My family have occupied this lot for 60 years.
The people who live here, have now risen to face a battle. Fists in the air. Why should the last small bit of woods that acts as a sound diffuser between our homes and the highway be pulled down and a tall metal building be put up instead? We'll be facing hugely increased traffic, massive parking issues not to mention the noise. Should I mention I'd be facing that view from my kitchen window instead of a pretty forest?

Now at this point I should probably let you know that I'm not a "hockey hater", quite the opposite. One of my favorite sports. I was over the moon when Finland won the World Hockey Championship two weeks back :D

The people who ardently support this project, are now calling the 100+ opposing neighborhood residents irresponsibly folk, who only stare at our own bellybutton. We also hate kids and do not support youth sports... get a grip is what I say. Also please learn some manners.

Just because we cherish our corner of the world does not exclude the rest. From the start the place is simply wrong. There are other lots within 5 kilometers they could easily use, this one just happens to be cheapest to build on. The problem is that building a project this size on a residential area is quite ridiculous.
Might I add that none of the supporters live close by... I wonder what their view would be if something like this was planned across the street from their home?

So we have indeed dug ourselves deep into those trenches :)
And we are not going quietly.
Onto the ramparts!

Our first cause of action was to file an opposing complaint with the city and contact the museum people who were surprisingly unaware of possible ruin of historic relics.

On May Day weekend, we cleaned up the trenches.

This was after the first day, more was added on Sunday.

This little cobbled road, the cannon path (literally made so cannons could be transported to the trenches) is what we want to preserve. All these relics are from 1915.



We cleaned it up, with written permission from the museum authorities.

This past week supporters have written to newspapers, after our small demonstration (sorry it's all in Finnish...).
The editor of our local paper wrote an editorial that was just in bad taste...
But we have something to say too. Watch the newspaper (Helsingin Sanomat mielipideosasto) this week is all I'm saying.
The difference on our part is that we don't get personal or nasty.
We do know our manners.
Thank you very much.

I'll keep you all posted how the battle continues.

Circus act

May.

The last weeks of school.

Rehearsals.

General mayhem and craziness.

Taking care of at least three things at once.

Constantly writing notes.

It's a circus act.

Just 21 more work days left. (including today)

I'm hoping my head will survive ;)

Get inspired is three! And eight!

I'm pretty sure all our Inspis-followers have noticed that for our third birthday we have a new look :)
Looking pretty good I must say. Way to go Ellis!

And what's even better... there are now eight of us! We're welcoming Maikko to our group.
Yay!

I'm a few challenges behind in sharing here... better get to it :)

#151- a chain of decorations
-Morning peace-

This for me meant some fun time with some paper scraps and a arrow punch.
Then I hand stitched them on the page.. I tried machine stitching, but it just wasn't working for me.

#154- double everything
-dreams and work-

Pretty self-explanatory... two of everything :)

#155- puzzle
-WTF-

OK, so I stretched the idea on this one.. those circles and staples are supposed to be puzzlesque... And the WTF? Our thing at work.. monday and tuesday are over, just wednesday, thursday, friday remain ;)

#157- timeline

My timeline is about the address I live at. I've spent most of my life here :)
I used lots of stuff I found at the exchange-table at the last scrapbooking meet, the paper, frame and fibers came from there.

Very bulky. Yes.

But I don't really mind as my 2011 album won't have the usual amount of pages.
Why?

Because most of it will be in Project Life.

I'll have an update on that one for you soonish... ;)

a bit of spring magic

Have you ever witnessed bubbles turn into magic?


I have.

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