When it's very cold everything is sort of slower, in a very strange mode. I think Tove Jansson captured the cold loneliness of winter so well in the Moomin book Trollvinter. I often think about that story and it's images on cold snowy days. How Moomin woke up and everythin was just white cold and oh so silent.
A snowy mist rose on the fields as the temperature sank and sank.
But, rumour has it that during this night the temperature will go up by some 20c and we'll be at zero again...
I recall myself stating, after last Christmas, that went by too fast, that I'd start the following Holidays in early November already; haning up Christmas lights and stars here and there, enjoying glögg (the warm spiced wine -or sometimes just juice- that resembles 'glühwein') and getting to enjoy Christmas for as long as possible. I probably say it every year but I do enjoy the holidays.
Well, this year we put our lights up in the evening of the 23rd and didn't even get a tree (it can't fit for the moment, as our Tapiola-flat is boxed up in our living room)...
Well, next year my home will be nice, organised and fancy again and I'll have all the time in the world to sit at home and be cosy with my cup of hot and spicy and my seasonal light for weeks ahead. Or, so we can say.
But, even though the rain was pouring outside (ironically, I did joke about it being all green on Christmas as we had half a meter of snow two days after Halloween...) we managed to get into an express Christmas mood once the light were up and we did some ginger bread baking with the boys!
I also made a batch of apple-ginger marmalade for Christmas gifting.
Half of the dough never makes it as far as to the oven of course.
I supervise with a cup of glögg, before the younger generation think they've baked enough.
(That's about after one tray.)
And you haven't really baked gingerbreads if you haven't burned one set of them. (The rest did turn out fine and half of them are in my belly already).
And then I (almost) turned off social media for a couple of days and my work email for reals and enjoyed being at home (first time on months Eddi and I are at home during days off at the same time!) with the family. Christmas <3 3="" br="">
Which a) is just so wrong as it's only the 7th of November (yes, that is my sad frozen Halloween pumpkin under all that snow -ffs this snow fell ONE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. So wrong.) and b) would be cozy would we be three weeks from now and would one not have to go anywhere.
For the moment indoors is not that nice either. It's all full of boxes; we have pretty much emptied the city flat by now. Or, I have, suitably we had to move out the month when I'm alone in the blizzard while Eddi is in a sandstorm in a dessert in Iran for four weeks, doing stuff geologists do (in this case; teaching research methods). These boxes will empty one by one as we get some renovation done upstairs while others will be repacked to wait for future times and possible new flats. So now we a) don't have to have Christmas at our place this year or b) should have Christmas at our place this year as there will certainly be chairs and plates for everybody. Ha. Ha.
No but really, it will turn out nice here once we get it sorted out and renovated up. Just need a lot of money and spare time first, peanuts!
Talking about peanuts, made a big batch of quinoa snack bars/cookies/mush to munch on for the rest of the week - I haven't made any of my usual vegan yummy-but-yucky-looking-stuff for a while so really had to restrain myself from eating too much at once of these. Which isn't that hard, as the raw bars I make are rather heavy; these however a bit lighter thanks to the quinoa. I've been eating so much chocolate and quick snacks lately as I'm on the move a lot and constantly, but now I'm hoping to get away from that a bit again and instead get my sweet tooth soothed and energy need fulfilled with better options (which I was better at before when I had a bit more time on my hands).
These bits took a blend of cashews, sun flower seeds, buckwheat (for a little crunch), dates, cocoa, coconut flakes, oats, coconut oil, a spoonful of organic peanut butter, cardamom and vanilla, liquorice flavoured sea salt and cooked quinoa; a mix on the recipe for the quinoa cookies and the raw bites that I usually make. Which reminds me; I should go and add some hemp seed on top!
Before calling it a night I still intend to finnish fixing a costume of mine that needs a few more sequins; heading over to Prague to perform and teach this weekend! Getting that costume work done is not so easy when the cat decided the dress was his spot tonight. But they blend together quite nicely, don't they?
I was working from home today and took a long lunch break to go out on a little adventurous walk with Dag.
He had all his gear with him, and warned me not to step on the fallen leaves, as those would trap you and suck you right down to the hot lava core of earth. (Good to know!)
It got a bit colder here in between and nature shifted colours so quickly - but now wonder; it's almost October by now!
Autumn textures.
Autumn leaves.
Autumn trees.
We sat down on a rock for a little picnic. The cats joined in; they often follow us around when out on walks!
Everything tastes better when outdoors.
The sandwhich was so big for Dag he had to close his eyes in order to eat it.
And then we continued our little afternoon adventure in search of magic trees, watching out for dangerous rock-bombs dropping from the sky, evil cows and all the other things the vivid imagination of a four year old can come up with.
And two mini-lambs that kind of look like goats as well.
Lulu, who always follows me around when we leave the yard, was also keen - albeit a little careful - to check out the ponies.
They are not really ours though, but from some farms away, spending summer on our meadows. It is good for the natural fields to be munched up by animals every once in a while. Our farm's last lambs left last autumn, so it's also fun for the kids to eye this out instead.
The goats are also rather skilled at eating up this invasive bush that was planted along the road some decades earlier. Munch on, little fella, munch on!
We planted Dag's cherry tree. He's very eager to take care of it and to go and check if it has grown. (And, as you can see, still wearing his "ninja uniform"...)
He'll have to wait a few years for cherries though.
Dag got a tree for his 4th birthday by Eddi's aunt, who left it next to the door to surprise him. It's his very own cherry tree, as he loved to pick cherries from her trees. He already has his own litte appletree that he got as a baby, but the lambs kindof munched on it a couple of years ago so it is still tinier than this one.
We haven't decided a spot to plant it in yet, and now I am already growing fond of the little tree looking pretty on our front porch...
Maybe I have to get an olive tree or so in a pot as replacement!
The other night when I couldn't sleep I did something I haven't done in almost a year I think: I browsed a couple of the blogs I used to read. I've missed reading blogs. And both of them were just the same as they've always been, with similar photos and happenings and themes. Which made me laugh a bit at the fact that it's just the same over here as well. So now I'll do yet another post about me having a day off and thus finally get to attend things in my garden. But you know what they say, few things are as important...
Here are the herbs "in action". As I suppose their action is growing. This year I didn't grown them myself though as I was too late, so I bought them ready and planted. Dag loves to water plants. He also loves to go on excursions and "secret discovery expeditions", which I once used to get him along on a walk and that he now wants to go out on all the time. But it can be turned into making plain things interesting: watering the plants turned into one task we had to do on our secret mission. Well, the kid actually loves to water plants. But it works well with other tasks.
Dag equipped me with weapons, in case we ran into any bad guys. (Also note my haute floppy pink home-wear shorts. Or un-note them. Not very picture worthy in any more vivid angles.)
The cats serve as panthers.
The first thing we saw on our investigating excursion was that the wild strawberries are ready! THey are THE absolute taste of summer.
Noticed it will be a good cherry-year! Wohoo! Last year we did not get any berries; I am not even sure the trees bloomed then.
And then we ended our mission by harvesting the rhubarb. Pie and jam coming up!
I had the opportunity to take part of a campaign by Bukowskis in collaboration with Indedays, to write a post about my experiences of bidding and buying from Bukowskis Market - you may recall that I have bought quite many items from the auction site during the years, and rather suitably I just bought home a big wardrobe from the early 1900's via Bukowskis Market!
Out on the farmhouse, where we stay most of the time nowadays, I hadn't had a proper wardrobe for my clothes; some I kept on a rack and the rest in a drawer, which basically meant they all hanged on a chairdrobe in the corner of the bedroom... So I needed a proper space to put them in, and as most furniture in the house is old I wanted to find and old one for this purpose as well.
Every time when I’ve wanted a specific piece of vintage furniture I've usually started with Bukowskis Market. I do check in on any other auction and second-hand goods sites as well, but in most cases Bukowskis will have what I’m looking for. It's rather fascinating actually - if they do not have such an item for sale the one day I usually check back in a week and there will most likely be something that suits what I've had in mind - but not that strange as the site does feature about 3,000 items of art and design. So there is a lot to browse and find. Bukowskis was the first of the large quality auction houses to launch their online bidding site Bukowskis Market (in 2010). Even though I've mainly scouted vintage furniture from there, which there is a lot of in different styles and eras, they also sell a lot of art, as well as jewellery and the occasional designer fashion item (like bags or shoes).
I've bought home items that I've specifically been looking for, like this three-arned lamp, one that I had been coveting for years and then found on my first try. Some years ago I set out to finda sofa, not sure what I was looking for, but found lots of options and ended up bidding on and winning this classic piece by Carl Malmsten.
(Sometimes I've worried if the items I bring home arent' really child friendly, but even though most people always seems to be in a horizontal position on this sofa it is still doing rather well.)
I've also stumbled on items I did not know I needed -that can be dangerous, but good for us that we have a big house to fill.... - for example, the 1930's lamp here in the corner.
Or the lounge chaise I also happened to buy. But it ended up being very useful (especially for the occasional random daytime nap)!
Buying from and bidding on Bukowskis Market is as easy, you give your max bid for an item and the site will automatically raise your bid if needed placing the smallest necessary bid at every time, up to your maximum bid amount. Because Bukowsis is a quality auction house, they will have evaluated each item before puttiing it up on sale, meaning you know with certainty what you are bidding on, which for me is a huge plus, obviously. Some designers and eras you can look up in their Bukipedia (kudos for the name); to find out more on the style of the piece or the art you are bidding on. There's also a wish list to save items on if you are not sure you want to bid on them right away. Bukowskis Market also features and estimated price to which the item is valued, which is a good guideline to check before/when bidding. The final price may end up way over the estimate if several persons start coveting and bidding on the item, but may as well sell for a lot less, if you happen to be lucky and scout an item others weren't that interested in. Bare in mind that there will be a commission on your winning bid which, depending on what country you are in, will raise the final price with about 20%. That, and the transportation of your item will make the final sum considerably larger than the winning bid so it is just worth keeping in mind all trough the process. Regardless of that I have managed to get a few items very affordably from the site.
I was the only bidder on this lamp for example- I am often on the look out for nice vintage lamps; you (almost) can not have too many armatures at home!-and got it for a very nice price. I am however rather competitive, and if somebody starts outbidding me I will raise my max bid several times if needed when I truly want something. For me it's not always just to be able to scout everything for a low price, if there is a piece of classic design furniture it is definitely worth paying for. Bukowskis Market has a mobile app which is easy to use that I recommend you download to your phone for easier bidding, bid raising and browsing.
Bukowskis will ship items between their houses in Finland and Sweden; shipping is between 60 and 80 euros and takes up to three weeks, after which you can pick the item up yourself. You can also arrange and order transportation to your home door yourself. Earlier the items I ordered to Helsinki had to be picked up from their downtown location but this year when picking up the wardrobe we got it from a warehouse in Vantaa, which was definitaly easier to reach with a van than a pedestrian street in the city centre. Bukowskis will give you eight days to pick the item up before they start collecting warehouse rent, so when you win an auction that is not in your location it is best to pay right away so you can order transport, for during which the eight days counting will freeze, and then start again when the item arrives.
So back to my wardrobe. After not winning the first wardrobe I bid on I found this Jugend style (Scandinavian art nouveau) piece on the site and the last moments of the auction did indeed get a little shaky as someone else had been eyeing the same wardrobe as well. But oh the relief when you win it!
The wardrobe could be transported in pieces (phew!) and then put back together at home again.
Like luxury ikea from a hundred years back.
Dag enjoyed his new hideout as long as he could, before the dresses took over.
And now my clothes have an actual place to lay in. Yey!
Disclaimer: even though this post is made as a campaign for Bukowskis all items featured have been bought and paid for by me and all thoughts here are my own.
