Productivity

I spent most of the weekend gardening. I mean, gardening in real garden, not poking into my flowerpots which make me a windowsill farmer.
The good part of the whole thing was that an idea occurred to us: We can use the rubbish for barbecuing. Which we did so we cleared one of the messier corners from a heap of various sticks and bits saved for lighting the fireplace. Yeah, and burning pine needles is nice, too, it smells nice. Maybe the smoke is full of carcinogenous crap but it makes the sausages smell nice, too. Mom produced all sorts of meat bits from various storage places so I'm full even now.
The dog helped, too. She's an expert on lying around and making people knock over. She can help with cleaning after barbecuing, just leave the juicy bits somewhere where she can reach them to bury them somewhere under the newest shrub (which she'll carefully dig out and depose on the doorstep). But she basically spent the weekend in the corner looking dead.
The cat on the other hand, discovered how to open the balcony doors with her paw. Not that I wouldn't gladly let her out but the abovementioned dog hunted several cats to death. Tähti just came to the balcony and meowed because she was afraid to run down the stairs, otherwise we would notice her only when she'd joined us in working (and eating, true).
I played with the macro lens again... so, what do you guess is this:




No, I'm not giving hints, that would be no fun.

Smaller then expected.

The world is, so to say.

I've already vented my predilection for Mikael Niemi (which may be considered a bit extravagant in these latitudes since only his first book was translated into my native dialect). But, go read yourself, I'm too lazy to write a review. In Mannen som dog som en lax he describes how people thought that in the [as I reckon] mainly Finnish-speaking environment, their children wouldn't catch Finnish if their parents spoke only Swedish to them. Well, Niemi puts that better.
The other day I was hanging on the CouchSurfing chat. Talking to people and such. I met a guy from Luleå. Well, I didn't know at first that he was from somewhere there. He just said something that evoked the dry Finnish sense of humor, you know, a thing that seems so self-evident and so stupid that you wonder whether the person means it or what the hell. It's irony so ironical that it's barely recognizable and it took me quite long to be able to recognize it. Anyhow, I asked the guy whether he was Finnish and he said No, but my father is. And the guy didn't know a word in Finnish because 'his parents didn't teach him'. Totally Niemi. As if the guy stepped out of the books. Or maybe fiction is not as fictious as it's generally thought.

I seem to have lost powers of expression. Le sigh.

Moving.

There's a saying that goes Burning down thrice is better than moving once. I started with some decluttering... and I have so many things of which I have no idea where they come from.

I have created three piles of clothes: one to give out, one which is a size smaller than me and third one is two sizes smaller than me - and it's stuff that I plan to keep. I don't know whether it's historical optimism, sheer stupidity or sentiment, though. Yarns will be an Issue, there are too many of them. I started making a pile of stuff that can be redyed to something more interesting and I'll do it some other day so that it can be posted on etsy soon. Lots of work to do.

Maybe I should start thinking about my school work, too.

Winter

I went hiking. The results are thus:
(1) my knee is still pissed
(2) my calves hurt like hell until today. Because my knees are shit, I cannot use them while walking downhill and I need to tiptoe. I discovered several new, unexpected muscles in my calves.
(3) the macro lens works
Primula, further unspecified, I'm lazy


Viola canina, I guess that not perfectly focused.

(4) winter still is.
I was in the same area with the Finns a year ago and there were a few bits of snow, they mostly are in this time of the year (but for the very hot spring some five years ago when the plants were two months ahead). This year, I wanted to go with friends but since I didn't hear from them, I went alone... and needed to find my way in the snow. It was odd. First, I was overtly optimist so I was wearing a tank top and sandals, no warm stuff with me. Second, it's the freaking May! We're not Lapland, there should be flowers, no darn snow. It was charming, in a way. I like the area and I could view it from another (frozen) perspective. And snow smells nice. I found out that hiking can be nice for heating up - yes, you can climb a hill in the snow, in sandals but you have to move.

The plants are from a valley around 600m lower. They would be long gone in my home area. I picked some herbs, too. I'll be back in a month or so with more plants to poke around.

Cakes

My grandma is one of the world's worse cooks but her cakes are yummy.
I know that carbs and sweets make me sick. So, I'm spending my day with expedited trips to the bathroom and I'm sick but it was at least worth it.
For a counter-attack on the bacteria torturing my entrails, I'm making a nice pot of chicken soup.
I'm noticeably losing some weight. It needs some more before I throw away all my old ugly worn-out clothes and start wearing my even older pretty stuff but I'm on a good track. Well, I need to see the orthopedist to fix my other knee, I was hiking a bit and since I cannot walk downhill normally (can't bend my knees so I walk on the toes), my calves are giving me hell three days after and so is the knee.

What the...?

Today, apart from being the default bad hair and lots of work day, brought me the expected macro lens. I was quite surprised by the PPL guy who was waiting for me at the doorstep with a huge box.
Mystery solved. Delivered were: One macro lens; one invoice; three huge clumps of brown wrapping paper; fourty litres of air.

May 1

Been out, hunted for plants.




Aurinia saxatilis. It grows and flourishes on the basalt rocks in the area. The whole hill was yellow of its blossoms. Admittedly, some not so pretty Euphorbia species inhabited the hill. And Rosa pendulina (guess) and some grasses I've never seen before and pretty tiny ferns and apple orchards.







Veronica prostrata, or at least I think so.













Verbascum phoeniceum

















Apple orchards (Malus)

Not a bad day it was.