Apples of Gold

A Dying Art

Disney’s Belle is one of the best fictional bookworms around. When the Beast gives Belle her very own key to his magnificent library, cream-coloured double doors open to showcase paintings, a writing desk, a spectacular fireplace, spiral staircases, floor rugs, and some reading chairs on the colourful ceramic floor. But most importantly, the walls are…

Escape

The tougher life gets, the more I tend to daydream of escaping. The dictionary tells me the definition of escape is: “to get free from something”. We press the key on our computer keyboards which allows us to leave our current screen. We interrupt a process by pressing the “esc” key. I wish it was…

Rustic Wisdom

During our last visit to Finland, I had the honour of staying at my late mother-in-law’s childhood home, in a small village, in the Finnish countryside. These days this ancestral homestead belongs to one of the cousins, Hannu. When I stepped inside the old country house, it felt like the earth had paused to take…

Road Closed

On a rainy summer’s day, my mum used to send us children to the attic. As an adult I now understand why. Ours was a small cottage, and we must have added considerably to the indoor noise levels. We climbed the steep narrow staircase, one of us followed by the other, all the way up….

Harvest Time

I grew up in Helsinki Finland. We were a typical Finnish family, having a winter and a summer home. When the end of May arrived, our family of six moved to our summer cottage where we lived until autumn time and school went back again, after the long summer holidays. My childhood summers were devoured…

Keep Calm

Have you ever had a fear that you find hard to put into words? Do you sometimes think that the moment you give it power by acknowledging it, it might come true? So, you hide it, in the recesses of your mind and try your best not to give it validity. I have such a…

Kintsugi

Kintsugi is a 15th-Century Japanese practise of repairing broken pottery and transforming it into a new work of art with gold. The name of the technique comes from the words “kin” (golden) and “tsugi” (joinery), which translates to “golden repair”, “mended with gold” or “to join with gold”. There is a powerful message behind Kintsugi….

This Moment

I got up before sunrise and hurried out the door. I could hear the birds; they sounded way chirpier than I felt. My mum is having surgery, so I am keeping dad company today. I made us some morning porridge, a cup of chai for me and a cup of coffee for dad. We sat…

A Few Words

If I were to pick one characteristic of Finnish people, I would pick this: “Finns place great value on words”. The keys to Finnish character are peacefulness, calmness, and placidity. They value tranquillity, serenity, and silence. It is reflected in the way Finns choose their words carefully, how literally they take what is said and…

Life Defining Moments

There are certain events that get burned into our memory, so totally, that no matter how much time passes, it feels like it only happened yesterday. It was a Friday evening and mid-winter. Although I had only just finished eating dinner, it was already dark outside. I was alone at home. My husband had taken…