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!
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 have never known that Shrovetide is called Shrovetide. I mean, I have
always known it is called “Laskiainen” in Finnish but I have never really
thought about its name in English... Oh well.
On this year Shrovetide came just after Valentine’s Day and traditionally it’s
preceding Easter... I started to look up when this holiday actually was and
found out that the special days of Shrovetide were on Sunday and today, on Tuesday.
I personally don’t mind this because every holiday gives me another good reason
to eat more, since every café and store is filled with these Shrovetide buns,
which are just like regular buns, yes, but they are filled with whipped cream
and jam or almond paste.
Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how many food additives these ready-made buns
actually had and I was shocked to
notice that one of them had 18 food additives – there was something in
everything (in the bun, in the jam, in the cream)! I wasn’t going to buy them
in the first place because I knew they contained eggs and milk as well as some food additives, but eighteen is way, way, way too much for anyone!
So I baked vegan buns at home and ate them with vegan whipped cream and
raspberry jam. Yum!
I didn’t have any coarse sugar or decorating sugar so the bun might just
look like a bread roll filled with jam and whipped cream. Ha! But they were
actually really, really good. And I have been eating them for three days now...
But I don’t mind indulging myself on holidays.
And oh! On Sunday there were the most glorious sunset I’ve seen in this
spring so far. The days have become sooo much brighter and been very beautiful
overall so I hope (and believe) that there would be more pretty sunsets (and sunrises) to come...
Today it happened! The flakes of the first snow came down!
You have no idea how much I wait for the first snow every year after
trying to bear through the rest of Autumn which is not a glory of bright colors
of red, orange and yellow anymore but only dead leaves rotting under my high
heels...
Today, I left from a clothing store downtown and when I stepped outside
I noticed that the wind was blowing tiny, delicate snowflakes. I love the
contrast when the white snowflakes attach to my black jacket and faux fur
collar.
I can be extremely happy for the little things in life! For example when
I got out of the bus and I saw my high heels melting my footsteps onto the thin
layer of snow as I walked.
The first snow always brings the memories of my favorite place back to
me. I was on a certain photographing project when I was younger where we were given
an assignment to photograph our favorite places. I had this one place near the
place where I used to live and I absolutely loved it! I was the last one with
missing a picture so I was hurried to take it already. I had waited for the
Autumn to color the leaves with bright colors and went to see were the last
green leaf turned to red almost every day, just waiting for the right moment to
take the picture... But instead the leaves just fell off from the trees before
they could show their colorful side. So, as I have always loved winter and
especially the first snow, I was waiting anxiously for it to come down because
I didn’t want to take the picture with half rotten leaves on the ground. The
deadline of the project came to its final point so I had to go to take the
picture... But then something magical happened! The first snow came down just
on that very day I went with my camera to take the picture. I have always loved
my favorite place especially on Winter, so to me the picture came out perfect
and I can not thank Mother Earth enough for that...
On the day before Midsummer Day, people seemed
to go absolutely crazy over what they would buy – so everyone basically emptied
the whole grocery stores... Most people seemed to pack their cars as full as
possible and even beyond that so they could flee to their summer cottages from
the hustle and bustle of the city. We decided to stay at home, because after
everyone had gone to their summer cottages, the city was quite peaceful...
The morning started in a very
colorful way for the sky seemed like it was on fire! In the morning and noon
the sun peeked behind the clowds but went hidden there during the day. I was
kind of waiting for sunnier day, but that didn’t really got me down at all!
The Midsummer Day went by nice and easy. We enjoyed the day at home with the
cats. Nothing fancy.
Later we made hamburgers and spicy
potato wedges. Eating them stretched quite late, though. But we weren’t
actually even that tired for the whole night so it didn’t matter.
On Midsummer Days, you just have to stay up as late as possible to see the
nightless night. We were supposed to go and see were there any
Midsummer bonfires (“kokko” in Finnish) but the clock was already so late that
there must have not been any bonfires anymore...
I hope you all had a great Midsummer Day!
It’s May Day!
The first of May morning rose early and created
a beautiful view to the lake when the sun started to rise red from behind the
blue clouds.
We slept late, cats included...
I like celebrating May Day, filling the house
with paper confetti streamers. Cats are always more than interested of it.
Traditionally, there is a May Day market at
downtown but we decided to avoid the crowd and stay at home drinking sparkling
wine...
Like in every festivities (Christmas, Easter,
etc.) we use time making food. I made oven baked tofu with sautéed bell
peppers, spicy potato wedges and gratin.
We also made vegan doughnuts which we rolled in
sugar.
We cleared the bottom of our glass table just
for the cats, placing a soft cat mattress on it and it has been a hit since
then.
I have enjoyed my May Day! I hope you did too!
There has been quite a while between these posts... This
“Style Inspiration” post is about Burlesque.
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by
caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment
of their subjects. Burlesque overlaps in meaning with caricature, parody and
travesty, and, in its theatrical sense, with extravaganza, as presented during
the Victorian era. "Burlesque" has been used in English in literary
and theatrical sense since the late 17th century. The word
"Burlesque" derives from the Italian "burlesco", which, in
turn, is derived from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery. A later
use of the term, particularly in the United States, refers to performances in a
variety show format, which were popular from the 1860s to the 1940s. The
performances took place often in cabarets and clubs, as well as theatres, and
featured female striptease and bawdy comedy.
Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as "travesty" or
"extravaganza", was popular in London theatres between the 1830s and
the 1890s. It took the form of musical theatre parody in which a well-known
opera, play or ballet was adapted into a broad comic play, usually a musical
play, often risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and
styles of the original work, and quoting or pastiching text or music from the
original work.
Some Hollywood films attempted to recreate the spirit of Burlesque performances
from the 1930s to the 1960s, or included burlesque-style scenes within dramatic
films. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.
Here are pictures of the Burlesque fashion:
There are times when I fantasize about being a
glorious Burlesque dancer with fans and with tightly laced corset. But that’s
just one of my silly thoughts I have in my head, hah. The next “Style
Inspiration” posts will be about “Gothic Fashion” which will be in two separate
parts.
