FROM FROZEN SPARKLE TO SEAGULLS

Today I heard the first seagulls - winter will be over soon! Here are, however, some pictures from last week when it still was very much winter.

And here I am aswell! Slowly returning as the light slowly increases here on these latitudes. Like a Moomin troll I have hibernated from the blogosphere during the darkest months. (I always liked the Moomin winter book the best -well that one, and the one with the flood and the drifting heater - how he, against his nature, wakes up one winter and finds the world totally different with different creatures existing around him).

But as much as I sometimes can love winter, I do long for summer, for everything to wake up from around me. This year it feels specifically significant, as I feel a lot of things have been resting under snow so to say, for now to finally move on and be able to enjoy the sunlight. 

This year winter came late, so late that the snowfall now in mid-march does not bother me. The end of February was super cold, colder than usual for the time of year, but so beautiful I had to stop every now and then and just gaze with my mouth open. And then close it rather quickly again, as you may now it does hurt a little to breathe when it is below -15C. But really, it was like the winters from my childhood and even more - everything coated in a white glittery layer, sparkling in the sunshine, sunshine with a hue that gives everything this cold golden-turquoise shade. The air actually sparkled, as ice crystals slowly fall down from the clear sky.  (There was more sparkle all around than the backstage floor of a burlesque show and for those who know, that is A LOT) So inspiring. Photos can not do it justice, and actually can’t do at all, because both my phone and camera shut down due to the cold. Winter is so quiet, everything is padded in snow, like sound isolation, and you can listen to the silence. The other however week I heard something that I have never heard before - the tingling sound of the ice crystals falling on the hard, frozen ground. Pure Narnia; better than Narnia, because this is real! (I, amazingly enough, managed to get a little bit of it on my phone, which you can almost hear on instagram, before it shut down.)

Look! Everything sparkles.

The past year I’ve read up on my old interests of space, physics and cosmos in general (maybe because my interests moves in waves and comes and goes, perhaps it has something to do with ageing to choose this topic again, not sure) and I think about all the things that grow and exist on this planet and how versatile it is and what it would look like if someone from another existence would enter and if they would be amazed at what they saw. I also think about the face that some people, many, will never come up to these latitudes, or feel cold like ours, and never get to see how this looks and feels. Just like there are many other places and phenomena that I will not experience elsewhere.

We usually get this kind of cold once a year, or every second. The tabloids do mention it all WINTER IS COMING-style each and every time when temperatures are about to drop,  but this year “the cold from Siberia” got a little extra coverage. Since Siberia actually is our north-east neighbour, it is not that strange, and since it does indeed get below -20 every now and then it felt rather exaggerated to make a big fuzz about it. This year there were even warnings not to go outside, as some cold days were windy (which lower the temperatures even more.) at which point I clearly knew I have gotten old(er), as I find myself thinking that “back in my days when I worked out side in the harbour nobody came with any warnings to us No”! Or perhaps they even did, we just did not have the internet, glued to the palm of our hands all the time, to check from back then.

Lets insert this picture of a branch covered in beautiful frosty flakes of ice here, so that there's not too much text all at once.

So last year was busy, the last years have been busy, as have been noticeable trough my blog hibernation. But I have been here for over ten years; 2018 marks is eleventh year blogging - that is such a long time! Blogging is so different nowadays - of course, everything develops and changes with time. I never thought I’ die blogging still. Or, I never thought that I wouldn’t either, I just did not think about it that much, no plan. That’s the whole thing with everything, you never know what will happen and how things will turn out. I did not think, ten years ago when I started with burlesque, that performing would be my main profession within a few years, and that I’d be running a burlesque school. I couldn’t even have imagined that. Eight years ago a burlesque school was the dream, but it sounded so crazy; we thought it could never work over here. But - here we are. Not exactly getting rich but getting by, somewhat. But more on that topic another time.

I did think that ten years from then I would have children but not only one child.  Not all things can be chosen. I never thought I’d live out in the countryside either. Or marry a farmer. But, again, here we are.  (I did remember thinking maybe it was time for someone more academic as I was getting tired of all those rock n’roll and Big Artist guys, and without doing that much more about it still I ended up with my farming geophysicist. That’s how things sometimes go, premonition.)

Deers on a morning walk, a rather daily sight when you live out here.

No I never thought I’d live on a farm but here we are in midst of fields and forest. Still less than an hour from town, so in some ways I guess it’s the best of both worlds. We still have a labyrinth of boxes at home, and a renovation that is happening at such a slow snail pace it’s frustrating. Both Eddi and me work and travel a lot and when we are home relaxing is so much more tempting than emptying out past generation's stuffed-away-stuff from the attic or tearing away and old roof. The living situation has thus been very un-inspirational since we moved away from Tapiola, and unpractical. Which, apart from having approx. 12 hours too little per the daily 24, is also one of the reason for my little time-out. But some things have actually happened here at home, bit by bit, and it feels like we are actually starting to get somewhere, that it will soon be nice to hang out here again. Along with the light starting to flow in from the windows in the morning, I feel a lot of other things as well are moving forward. Something feels different and new.

Spring is coming, summer will soon arrive, the seagulls are shouting already. Lets see where we go from here!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Hi there! I am still around, believe it or not!
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Let's see if we'll see more of each other in 2018, perhaps?

Photo: Asko Rantanen / Asko Jonathan photography

THAT ONE ANNUAL POST ABOUT SPRING

I guess we are at that point of the year again when small whispers and hints about a possible arriving spring start showing up in blogs on the northern hemisphere.  That, and the time when I start mentioning that I probably should wash my windows... But it's a big thing here, always, when the long winter ends and the light starts coming back (and it easily sounds all Game of Thrones when you talk about that..). We're at the yo-yo season where snow melts and returns again and those lighter shoes in the closet start getting restless but will have to wait. But at least we do have more light; longer days.

Like many others, I often get an urge to decorate and fix things up at home with the arrival of spring. Not really happening this year, as everything looks like shit still; we live in a labyrinth of ikea-bags and boxes after the move away from the city flat last November. The only decent looking and thus bearable (plus photographable) room is the kitchen, which of course means it is doomed to look like shit as well, because that's where everyone hangs out and leaves their stuff.

But it's the thought that counts (sort of, sometimes) and I tried my best and brought home a new pretty orchid, cherry tree branches and lots and lots of fruit for those more fresh springy vibes.

It worked.

THIS WINTER'S SKIRT

So far this year I feel I have mainly been living in a turban,  a thin knit and in this forest green knitted skirt with a strechty waist. Easy to pull up over the dance leggings and tops, to add an extra layer underneath to when it got really cold, and good as it is with just tights when it's been closer to zero - winter has been a real yoyo this year.

The top is from Lindy Bop and the skirt was a Christmas clearance piece from Lindex.

I am often asked about where to get turbans; the black soft ones I have are from Kuokkasen peruukkiliike in Helsinki, but Etsy, for example, has a lot of turbans! Apart from the constant black beret, turbans are a must-have; you simply can not have too many of them.

Also this is pretty much the only place in our house where one can take any pictures. Everything else is still full of boxes, in renovation-mode or covered in some fringly sparkly burlesque-project mess. Uh.

MIDWINTER

When everything is not really that white, but a lot of different hues.

And cold. Oh so cold.

The usual countryside photo view in it's winter mode.


And my cherry trees in theirs.
(There's also a cake behind the summery cherry tree link and here's the recipe to that btw: Dream Cream Candy Cake with Cherries.)



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...

WINTER WONDERLAND

After a weeks of rain and mush we got outselves a crisp white and sparkling winter! Here's an old postcard-inspired photo Asko Rantanen took and made of me in honour of that.

Well, two years ago actually. Today it's -20C, no one would go out and pose in the woods like that now, that'd be insane. Painfully insane. This was taken on a nice and snowy -1C day that was perfect for shooting, especially since we'd planned a snow queen shoot for weeks but it had kept on raining and we had decided on the date for the shoot and to just go with what the weather offered and ta-dah! In the morning everything was white and beautiful.

And now it's also breathtakingly beautiful. Quite literally, go beyond minus fifteen and it actually hurts to breath. (But to be honest I am enjoying it when it last three days or less. You got to have yourself a little winter every once in a while.)

WINTERIZING SUMMER STRIPES

Well, it's that time of the year again when you either have packed some of your clothes away (if you are the organised type that actually does that instead of having to lean against your closet door to close it. Not saying I'm either one  though, ehrm), or have started indulging in some hardcore layering, in my vocabulary known as winterizing.


I wear quite a lot of my dresses during the colder season as well paired with thicker tights and something underneath plus a layer or two on top. It depends a bit on the dress weather it works or not; the thinnest materials seldom look good that way, but this cotton is a bit heavier.

This is a cotton summery dress that I got from thai vintage store Sugar & Cream Vintage, that you might remember me writing about some time ago.

It's in mint condition with hidden buttons in the front and, like in the red vintage dress I have from the same store, this one also has a hidden zipper in front in able to step into instead of having to pull it over the head.  Handy!

But I just might (or: will, eventually) have to add a pair of patch pockets, which, as you know, makes everything better - I have a cotton fabric with similar soft coloured stripes, just a few more hues in the blend. It will sit pretty well there.

And no, I didn't cut my almost-there outgrown bangs back; this is a wig! I use some pieces on stage and in shoots for all those days that I did not have the time to roll my hair the evening before, but some of them can make themselves useful during the bad hairdays of everyday life as well.

For those who want to know; apart from the Sugar & Cream Vintage dress the belt vintage too, the bag from the early 00's, boots new and the wig from Annabelle's wigs.

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?

LET THERE BE LIGHTS. AND COLOURS!

My friend and artist Aiju Salminen turned her whole building into a light installation yesterday! The big house is in the corner of two of the busiest streets in Helsinki  (I used to live just opposite, when I was still living downtown btw) so it got a lot of attention. The habitants were all in on the thing and put up coloured silk papers in their window to brigthen up the November darkness. The idea is not original, but has not been done in Helsinki before.

Picture from Värivalotalo on Facebook.