Via Riga

I bought a flight from Vasa down to Stockholm, Sweden, and had to make a quick stop in Riga in Latvia. Stupid me! I could have stayed a couple of days in Riga when I ones was there! I only stayed for a couple of hours. *sigh*

 In Riga I probably could have made some nice shopping! Stupid me!

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The Elk

Made by the artist of the island; Lars-Goran Soderholm.

I´m very scared of the elks but this is the only one I have seen.

It´s the statue elk a la Bergo.
( the island from where we go by boat to my mams island).

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Photos From the Island

 

No Bird

 

This year nobody is living in the bird nest that I repaired last summer.

Is it too old..?
I would like to make a brand new one if I just got time for it.

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Sunny And Chilly

The backside of the island.

It´s sunny on the island but only +13 degrees and the wind is 8 meters/second.

 I went for a stroll around the island with my brother Tore and their dog Vicky but

they had to stop in the middle of the seagrass field when there was a few inches of water and he only had the sport shoes on.

Vicke dressed in it´s life jacket.

Poisonous mashrooms.

When you step on the white ones a cloud of smoke comes out.

Elk ´pearls´.

A few times my parents have seen elks on the island.

I´m so scared if I have to visit the loo late in the night....

I think there might be an elk or a bear in the yard and because of this I start longing more and more to the civilisation. It´s nice to be here but the lack of a shower and a normal toilet is too much every time you stay for more than 2 nights...I´m too spoiled with the confortable life that I normally live and I think it would be the same for the most of you if you would stay here.

Chicken wings, halloumi cheese wrapped in bacon slices, pork and apple slices.

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Crayfish Season

The crayfish season hasn´t started yet ( it starts 21st of July , 12 o´clock in the noon) but yesterday Carola brought 2 boxes of crayfishes to the island and we had a little crayfish party. They were lovely!

The weather is a little bit cold now (only + 13 degrees last night) so after the meal we deceided to move inside the house and we put some logs on fire in the fireplace.

The crayfishes.

 Carola in the rocking chair.

The pelt on the wall behind her is from a seal.
There are seals living in the sea where we are and
Carola and Calle saw one the other night when they were out fishing.
My dad used to eat the meat from the seals. I didn´t. I´ve never tasted it.
It smells terribly when you cook it and many people prepare it outside the house.
To me it´s just a mystery how they can have it.

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Barbequeing

Every day we find something to barbeque and we make a grillparty for the two of us....But there´s one problem...I make too much food (my mam eats like a little mouse) and we get a lot of left overs....I think it´s because I ones before did live with a person who was eating a lot and then I made food for 4 people for the two of us....or....Do you think it´s because I like to eat big plates myself?

I have anyhow forbidden myself now of buying more Finnish chocolate.
The first week I had about 1kg (2 Lbs) of Tupla, Fazerina, Patkis and Fazer chocolate + salmiak.
That´s life when you live on Tenerife and get home to Finland.
I just hope I will get into my stage outfits when I get back home and
 start singing again.
If I don´t I have to face plan B and that´s: -Get back into the diet! *sigh!*

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Calle Show

One night out on the island my sister Carola started heating up the sauna and put fire in the heater.

After a while when she returned to put more logs on the fire the sauna was filled with smoke.

We thought a bird might had built it´s nest inside the chimney...

Then Calle, my sisters husband, went up on the roof of the sauna house with an oar to try to get the nest inside the chimney removed. It worked....

But then he suddenly turned into a rock star...

Please, click on the small arrow if you like to watch the show.

Painting

Today in the afternoon we (I & my mam) returned to the island.

Like you can see I started paining the terrace.

In the shop I didn´t feel sure about the color but now I think we couldn´t have picked a better one. 

It´s a nice combination together with the yellow walls.

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Ur Bykiston at Arstu

 These photos are from a house called Arstu that was
 built in my home village 1923.

Today the house belongs to the native district society who arrange a
summer theatre here every year that is called ´Ur Bykiston´ which means
´From the chest of the village´.
The story reflects the life in the village in the end of the 19th century.
My dad was before one of the actors in this theater. He was the farmhand of the house.

Saturday night I went with my mam to Arstu to watch the theathre of the year. It was nice. The actors were good and it was like being moved 100 years back in time. We even got to taste real ´tappadreck' which at the time was the daily drink for dinner. The theather have so far been arranged for 30 years (summers) and the audience have passed 70.000 visitors.

 

A beautiful spinning wheel.

The bed is behind the curtains.

 My mam says she also slept in a pram like this but the sun shade is missing on this one.

Some old fishing nets.

The men at the house are preparing moonshine spirit.

 The audience.

Please, click on the small arrow if you like to watch the video clip.

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One Crow Less

We think it must be a hawk that have been eating a crow or a magpie on
 the lawn at my mams house.

 Only feathers. The body is gone. Poor crow!

The hawks in Finland look like this.

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The Bird Life

 The seagulls are fighting for the left overs from our fish meal.

This seagull has got 3 baby birds this summer. Can you see the baby that´s on the stone? It has got the same color as the stone and in my little computer I barely can´t see it.

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Fish, Fish and Fish !!!

We have lately  been eating a lot of fishes but oh so lovely!!! I like it!

 Calle made smoked ´braxen´ fish out in the yard in dad´s smoke oven.

 

 Grilled ´sik´ (white fish).

These are the fishes I have had so far in Finland:

 Abborre - Perch.

 Braxen.

 Sik - White fish.

This is a ´mört´ - Roach (the one that´s filled with bones).

Be aware I haven´t had this one, but we got one in the net.


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A Fish Cannibal

Oh, look at this abborre fish! Something were sticking out from it´s mouth and when Carola took it out it was a baltic herring. It must have been very hungry?

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Fishing

 The island.

Now my sister Carola and her husband Calle have visited me and 
my Mam on the island.

We have had guests on the island every day so far and before them my son

 Mattias, Pia and my grandson David visited us.

We decided to do some fishing with Carola and Calle, just for fun. 

We went out on the sea in the night and layed a net (sikkrok) and

 in the morning we had caught a lot of fishes. 

Calle is laying the net.

 You must put out a flag to warn the boat drivers about the net.

It was Mam, Carola and I  (three women) who went out on the sea in

 the morning to drag the nets. Mam and Carola are like real fishermen even when it´s only a hobbie and I was fishing a lot too, about 25 years ago, when I lived with my first man with who I´ve got my two sons.
With him I was fishing Baltic herrings in a proffessional way with big net bags that could carry up to 1500 kg (3300 lb) fishes at one time. But we were also fishing with normal nets.
Here in Finland the women are tough and to be honest with you we can do the most of everything.

This is an Abborre (perch).

This fish is called mört (roach).

 It has got too many bones inside and because of that nobody like to eat it.

The water in the sea is at the moment warm (18-19 degrees) and because of that about 10 fishes in the net had died and  they were thrown back into the sea like you can see in this videoclip...
Please, click on the small arrow if you like to watch when Carola is draging the net.

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