FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - IN THE AFTERNOON SUNSHINE

Four things right-right now.

The books above my head.

A cat in the after noon sunshine.

Reading the Egytptian Book of the Dead (but now I got distracted with a documentary on Marie Antoinette's coiffures.)

I want Mikael Hadreas pants.

As a side note; this was the first time I made a post in one sitting without moving anything else than my arms to take photos and grab the laptop. So now we know that!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: IRANIAN COOKIES AND ALL THE STARS

Things are not too busy over here. I know, but meanwhile in real life I am very busy picking cocktail bites from a silvery platter of burnout. I apparently can't seem to both plan posts and actually post them, just either way, but here's a little bit of almost right here right now -

Eddi came home after a long stay in Iran and now I am having these iranian cookies wiht my evening tea -  a taste of honey, pistachio and cardamom with rose and orange water, kind of like something very sweet and buttery would be drenched in perfume. But they are strangely good.

I am about to assemble yet another Råskog cart for our home. Best little cart ever. But in order for that to go smoothly I had to switch my tea to something a bit stronger.

Karen Dalton is the soundtrack for that.

And outside the November sky is infinite.

(I have been thinking of buying a telescope for some time now. That, and a theremin. And then I'd sit at home with my wine and stare out into the void and play some eerie music. Am all set!)

Ps. My son told me it's only 37 days until Christmas. Toodelido!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY

In a time when I kind of dream I would catch the flu so I could lay in bed and just watch Netflix  with a clean consciousness (that wouldn't be able to happen even if it did happen) a weekend off is a truly amazing thing.  Being in a rather constant mode of constantly needing to perform and produce things, even anticipated events in the free time start feeling like something that you have to accomplish rather than get to experience and thus becomes harder to look forward to. They turn into another task to manage yourself trough. This weekend however was totally off-duty-time and on Friday I got into a real relaxation-mode as I attended the first night of the Superwood-festival (more on that later). And then I got to spend the rest of the weekend at home! Eddi is off on a three-week work trip to Yazd, the stepsons away for the autumn holidays so it's just been me and Dag (and some to do's and work which I have exceptionally well been able to neglect) enjoying the late autumn sunshine.

 The first frosty nights have arrived and left traces that won't melt away until the afternoon.

 Picking rowanberries, the last ones available, to dry for a tea infusion.

Enjoying  a chocolate-lingonberry cake that we baked with Dag!

And working on a new dance partner of mine for our up-coming Halloween show. Ergonomically on the kitchen floor; I've used up all other workspaces and surfaces available in the house.

And come evening, I might allow myself some non-guyilty Netflix time as well!

FOUR THINGS A WHILE AGO: UNDER THE TREE

Doing my barre workout in the garden. Organising things with the help of a glass of bubbly. Reading in the hammock chair under the tree.  And the wind is warm.

FOUR SMALL NICE THINGS RIGHT NOW

Four nice things right now.

Small kumquats on a branch.

Who wouldn't get happy over cute small orange thingies like these?

Green branches and leaves in a vase; a mini jungle,  left over from when I had a mini-spa for my plants at home some time ago.  (I wonder if these are of the kind that they'll grow a root of their own and I can plant them? Hmmm...)

Green grapes in a pretty bowl.

And green grapes in their most superior form, helping me tidy up the kitchen.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: 4 x BROWN

Gingerbread brown blouse that I came across for less than 5€ the other day at the Fida thrift shop.

Breakfast. Or, part of it.
Also: unintentionally inspired by my post a few days back, matching my snacks.

1970's vintage cowboy boots that I bought via Etsy some time ago. When you live in the countryside you need boots.

And then the best thing about Easter.
Mignon eggs. Full, solid nougat.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: BLUE, GREENS, SHINY PINK, INVASIVE

Today I've been wearing blue.
From top to toe, rather literally; I have a new sky blue faux-scarf turban that I've been hiding my somewhat un-styled hair under lately.

And so today as well, serving also a practical reason to help my hair stay put and away while I finally got around changing the soil for all the plants in the house (all those plants that survived winter, that is). Re-potting and cutting and all however resulted in more plants than before.

The smartest thing is of course to dig in to the potting soil without any gloves when you've just had new fancy Fabergé egg-looking nails done.

My fourth thing now  today's sountdrack. I don't tend to listen that much to domestic music, even less to music of Swedish speaking Finnish origin (you know, like me) for some reason but today this has been playing.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: LATE MONDAY EVENING

It looks like this when you open the door:

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.

I've been outdoors today, sadly, and driving home late at night was not very nice.

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?

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY EVENING

I have a jack-o-lantern and some lights burning on the front porch. Once the pumpkin is gone I will add a bunch of lanterns and lights in different sizes  more still -we changed to wintertime today and it's almost November now so the darkness really is here (that sounds very gothic doesn't it) and the more the merrier applies here; our world up here needs more lights now!

Meanwhile, it's nice and cosy on the inside. Made myself a marinated chick-pea salad for dinner. With some Sunday-evening red.

There's so much mess and stuff here, because of moving houses, that one has to really focus on how to crop the photos in order for not to reveal any of how it actually looks over here for the moment.

And Uh! I broke that fine orchid of mine when I brought it out here. It was even making new small flower buds and all! Apparently you can't have an orchid branch grow roots to plant again the way you can do with many other plants' branches and leaves, so I'll just have to cross my fingers my orchid will continue to be happy and look good and grow new blooming branches after this little misfortune still...

The window-plant from my city-home now hangs in the kitchen corner.
And once again, carefully choosing the angle of picture and subject to leave any of that crazy-putting-two-homes-into-one mess out...

FOUR THINGS TODAY

Today-

-it was raining.
I do enjoy the summer rain, and how fresh everything looks and how sweet it smells after it, but only if it comes every once in a while. On a day when you have things you need to do the rain is welcome, as one does not get a bad consciousness from sitting inside when the sun is shining outside.  Since summers here are short we are all taught since childhood "not stay inside when it's sunny outside". So all the time during summer, when you're not on your holiday but working indoors that rings in your ears and you feel a bit guilty to the sun on the other side of the window. Sort of.

So it was also a bit too rainy in order to wear the prettiest shoes in the world, shoes that are MINE. But I took a little moment to admire them instead. These velvet bowed beauties are by Frollein von Sofa.

Some time ago I organised my sewing area and found a bag of forgotten fabrics that have been waiting to transform into (mainly) dresses. Got started, a little bit, on one of them! (Although, that was not really one of the things that I was supposed to be doing).

Then I made a set of quinoa cookies. Or, perhaps they should be called 'quinoa balls' when in this shape. Not really first on my to-do list either but oh-so worth it anyway; they really are very delicious! Getting back to those some day here soon.

I also fought with my computer(s) for a few hours (that was what I was suppose to be doing. In short, my old mac is dying and my new one does not recognise my external hard drive I had all stuff stored on and the old maccadelic is not really into migrating itself over or to upload anything to icloud, just the spinning rainbow wheel of death, and all this right here is definitely one of those things testing how long it will take before you lose your shit for good, you know, as in both the shit on the computer and the shit in your MIND). But then I left the computers to suffer alone and had a long late night production meeting. New work and projects coming up on the showbiz front. That's a lot more to do (once more) but it will also be fun!

FOUR THINGS A WHILE AGO : ALL THE FLOWERS OF MAY

I'm back home, after being here and there and away for about half of the month!

And it is warm and lovely and summery (which is something you will see me comment every time it occurs. Because I do live in Finland you know.)

I had a day of no-makeup and wear whatever is the nearest and comfiest (in this case my "Moomin dress") and hang out in the garden and even attended it a little - first time this year, and it looks thereafter.

We picked greens for dinner with Dag - Ground elder to sautée, dandelion leaves for salad and the flowers and buds (of which you can make "capers" too I've heard) to fry in butter and garlic.

 (Well pretty much everything tastes good with butter and garlic, right?)

I also drank some flowers. (Or well, hot water that they had soaked in...)

This is rosebud tea that Eddi brought home from Teheran. He was there a few weeks ago for work. (My father happened to be there the same time, working with same-same-but-different things, and he told me my blog would not open up there on the web.  As a little interesting side note.)

And the appletrees are blooming here now; and I am happy I managed not to miss it, as it still is only such a short time that it stays like this.

The appletree is full of the sound of a soft warm wind and the sound of hundreds of bees buzzing about. For the moment it makes me think that that is like the sound of life.

And on many levels it is, because bees are important you know.

FOUR THINGS RIGT NOW: SUNSHINE, WARM WINDS, HAPPY CATS AND MOTHERSDAY

It's finally warm and sunny  -yes I know I said that already but it really has such a big impact on everything around here!

Dag and I had our first outdor lunch on the back porch.

 And I opened my mother's day card and gift - the bracelet on my wrist- he'd made me in playschool today already as I will be away tomorrow on the actual day.

And look! My tomato plants planted from tomato slices a month ago are growing! They seemed to do so earlier but then disappeared back into the soil and I though they'd died but here they are making their way up towards the sunshine!