Summer
is finally here!
Summer
has been on and off, granting us mostly grey, rainy days and the last day of
June was very stormy, the water was pouring down and the whole sky was blazing
as the flashes of lightning preceded the deafening thunder. But! Then the first
day of July was the most beautiful day and that really kicked off the summer
this year! Better late than never...
Today
was a beautiful and warm, sunny day. We went for a walk around and I took lots
of pictures, because it is so nice to watch them when the summer is over. I try
to immortalize summer through a lens of a camera.
We
had our own kick off to summer when later today we went to the shore and sat on
a wooden patio, drinking chilled sparkling wine and enjoyed the sunny evening
with no hurry and nowhere to go... We were just relaxing and talking and just
listening the waves – the sound of sloshing waves is intoxicating.
We sat there as the sun was slowly setting and we were back home not until half
past nine. It’s truly amazing how time actually flies in good company!
The Finnish summer is very short comparing to the other seasons. So, I have
promised myself to enjoy the summer as much as I can and take everything out of
it!
PS. As you may have noticed, the photos in my most recent blog posts have been
not what they use to be, because my camera broke and I had to use this tiny
digital camera of mine instead. But! Now I've got my camera from the repair
shop where it was for weeks, which means I can start to take actually decent
photos again! I couldn't be happier!
Happy
Midsummer's Day everyone!
Midsummer
Day must be one of my favorite holidays. Not only because it’s the longest and
lightest day of the year, but every holiday gives you a permission to eat and
drink well!
My
mom gathered together the most beautiful bouquet and brought it home. The smell
of the fresh flowers were intoxicating!
The
cats were also interested in about the bouquet... Way too interested! Haha.
Later
we put on the grill and barbecued our own delicacies – only vegan delicacies for me,
of course.
The
dinner was very filling and good. And what can I say? I love food and I love to
barbecue!
The
Midsummer Day’s morning was beautiful and misty! Almost like a painting... On
Midsummer Day I give myself some more leash and let myself to stay up later
than usual. There’s nothing better than a night full of light when sun never
sets and you can get to see the rise of the new day.
We
had made the summer’s first sangria in the fridge to cool down and to absorb
all the flavors from all of the fresh fruits well ahead of time! To me, sangria
is a sign of summer!
Because
it was a holiday and stores were closed and there was nowhere to go, we slept
late – our cats are fascinating creatures for many reasons; one of them is that
they tend to sleep when we do. They don’t fill almost any part of the cats’
manual for they are unique. And besides, tiredness doesn’t look at a place or
time...
The Midsummer’s Eve and Day couldn’t gone any better! Only the weather could
have been sunnier, but to be honest, even the rainy, cloudy days didn’t bother
that much in the end. There’s still time for the sun to come out!
Happy
May Day everyone!
Like
last year, we decided to avoid the crowd of the May Day market at downtown and
stayed at home more than willingly.
I
have always loved to eat and my love towards making food burst out in a bright
flame since I quit eating meat. I love that every kind of festivities are great
opportunities to use the whole day making food and gives me a chance to try new
recipes!
I always
try to hold on the traditional aspect about what I will make and eat, which
means that I won’t eat something completely different than what is usually related
to each festivity, but instead I try to create something new around the traditional
foods.
Although
making most of the foods from scratch, using a lot of time to do so, we still
had time to make vegan doughnuts which we rolled in sugar.
I have been eating the whole day, but isn’t that what these days are for? I
hope you had a great and plentiful May Day in every way!
p.s. The quality of the photos are not like they used to be because my camera
decided to break up its co-operation with me after all these years. I should’ve
seen this coming...
Yesterday, I was at Tampere Hall listening to the Gala concert of "International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition".
The International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition was held for the
sixth time in April 2015 in Tampere, Finland. It is the only choir competition
in the Nordic countries which is solely for male voices.
I started to get ready early and took a bus to downtown and went to my
dad’s to watch the rest of a Finnish hockey game, while drinking a glass of sparkling
wine. After that we took a taxi to the Tampere Hall and arrived there in good time.
We found good seats and the concert started right on time. Before the main
performances there was a boy choir “Pirkanpojat” singing.
At the beginning there were 35 men’s choirs around Finland – that’s 1200
singers. There were nine men’s choirs left in the Gala concert. Really all
except one male choir were performing a cappella – it was a nice change,
because without music you really hear the singing!
After all the performances, there was a prize ceremony and after that,
all of the male singers rose up and sang two songs, and the last song was “Finlandia”
hymn which, to me, crowned the whole Gala concert perfectly!
After the concert I looked behind my back and saw the Tampere Hall in
the light of a setting sun. The concert was really excellent! I love a bit of
culture in my life every now and then...
I don’t know why, but Easter is one of the ”holidays” I wait the most! I
guess all the good childhood memories about egg hunting and eating candy until I
felt sick, comes into my head.
We planted some grass for our cats way before Easter – Tiny couldn’t
care less but Lara was crazy about it, even before it started to grow... Oh,
the joy when she finally got to it! This is just one way of showing how diverse
and different cats can be!
Like during all holidays and days alike, I like to bake and make food.
I baked vegan peach-quark buns – something I’ve had in mind for a long
time, but I had never baked before. And they turned out perfect! I couldn’t
have been happier!
For dinner I made my traditional Easter seitan roast with spicy
oven-roasted vegetables. The picture isn’t the best, but at least there’s a
picture...
I hope you have had a great Easter and you’ve eaten yourselves as full as I
have, ha!
