Saturday at the opera

Last Saturday I got to spend the afternoon and the evening at the national opera of Finland. First we toured there. It's always very interesting to get a chanche to peep into places like a big opera house. there's just so much going on in there. I had never realized that there are over 20 men working with the set pieces. It looked like a group of ants walking all over. I guess everyone knew what to do and when to do it. I was also fasinated by all the beautiful costumes in the dressing rooms.

Then we had lecture of the nights opera Bellini's Norma, about national opera's coming season and we got to meet one of the opera singers of the night. It was the first time I saw the Norma and I loved the music! Well everytime I go to opera I seem to fall in love with the opera of the night. Anyway I really enjoyed it and even had a little pit of tears at the end.

My newest hobby at the opera is to read the text in English. I have to admit that far too often I had to check the meaning of the phrase in Finnish. Well, the opera text is mostly poetry and i should probably start reading English poems to get into that world of English language. Any suggestions where to start?

I was early at the national opera and i had some time to wonder around. It was a very beautiful and warm fall day so I loved walking around the park. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I think the Töölönlahti is one of the most beautiful places at the downtown of Helsinki.



Maple is my favourite tree mostly because of the colours it gets on fall. I used to have a big maple just outside of my window at my childhood home. On falltime we would throw the leaves around jump into piles of the leaves etc. That maple doesn't exist any more but fortunately I was able to enjoy this one right beside the opera house.

Make your own poem

I found this on hindsfeet's blog. She found it somewhere else. Finish each sentence to create your own bit of poetry.

I am
I wonder
I hear
I see
I want
I am

I pretend
I feel
I touch
I worry
I cry
I am

I understand
I say
I dream
I try
I hope
I am

Here's mine:

I am happy
I wonder if anyone else feels this same happiness
I hear the children play outside
I see beautiful autumn sun shine
I want happiness to everyone
I am happy

I pretend I don't care when people hurt me
I feel sad when I meet selfish people
I touch my hair in wonder
I worry about my children
I cry because I've been hurt by others too many times
I am lonely

I understand mothers' pain
I say I love you as often as I can
I dream of the better world to all
I try my best to make it happen
I hope I can make a difference
I am an idealist

Now make your own and let others enjoy it!

Sunday church

I'm not much of a church goer. I think I haven't found a church here in Vantaa which I would feel my own. I attend a little prayer group once week and go to the church occasionally. I like Espoo international fellowship a lot but it's very far away from my home so I go there maybe 4 to 5 times a year.

Today I decided to go to a Lutheran church only two kilometers away from my home. I grew up in a pentacostal church and somehow I learned that it's the only right church for a christian. I don't think so any more. I told you earlier how God has touched me in orthodox church and God has done it in Lutheran church too many times. Today I felt God's presence very strongly in the Lutheran church of Korso.

First thing that touched me a lot was a perfomance by a violinist. He played parts of the Bach's violin concerto in H minor all through the ceremon. I am a music lover and specially the violin music and Bach's music is something very special because he composed for God's glory. I actually have the same sentence in an opening message in my cellular phone than which Bach used in his notes: Soli Deo Gloria. That should remind me that glory belongs to God in everything in my life.

I was also very happy to realize that we were going to have communion. It's something very special to me. I ended up having an "adult baptism" at the age of 14 because I wanted to have communion. Once again I was touched and couldn't help crying. It's such an beautiful moment for me to share Christ body with others and I'm always overwhelmed by the fact that He gave His body and blood for me.

Today I started thinking that maybe I found my home church. We'll see. At least I'm going to go to that church again someday. Maybe it's next sunday.

Peat sauna

Yesterday I was in peat sauna with six of my friends. It was my fourth time and I love it! In peat sauna you first warm up in sauna then you put peat all over you as you can see in the picture and then go to sauna again. You let the peat work in you for about 20-30 minutes and then it's time to wash it off. After that you go to sauna once again now with some honey all over you. Then the play is over.

Peat sauna leaves your skin very smooth and soft and you feel very relaxed. I slept like a baby the next night and my skin still feels just wonderful. I can recommend peat sauna to everyone. The only problem is that the lady who gives the peat sauna is moving away from Finland and she didn't know anyone who would continue her work. Hopefully someone will start doing it. I love the effect on my skin, the quality time with other ladies and the possibility to make a mess and someone else will clean it. Aren't we grazy we Finns? Sauna is definetaly very essential part of our culture.

Our summer place in North Karelia

On our funeral trip to North Karelia we stayed at our summer place. We visit it very seldom and hadn't done it as a family this summer at all. The place was bought originally for Juha's parents to grow vegetables as they both were retired and longed something to do and with their history of being farmers the answer was the piece of land. It was bought right from the neighbour of Juha's mother's childhood home. Actually the little shed there is built by Juha's father of the very logs of Juha's mother's birth home. The shed is on the left and the building on the right is the sauna.

I just loved to visit the country side and the weather was so beautiful. It was almost like a summer weekend so God really blessed us with the weather. I enjoyed the simple living, peace and quiet and escpecially the real darkness of the nigt without any lights near there. We heated the sauna in the evening and we would go out to cool ourselves. I loved the feeling of freedom being able to go out all naked in the darkness! I also didn't remember how bright the stars actually are. I could have watched them hours but I got cold...

Here is the sauna. Juha's father built it from the board of the old barn. There is just the heatroom and a dressing room in it like all the saunas at the old days here in Finland. One has to do all the washing in a heat room. Naturally the sauna is heated with wood and that's the only way to get a good heat in sauna. We go to sauna at least twice a week here at home but it's just not the same in saunas heated with electricity.


This is what the sauna looks from inside. On the left is the dressing room. The sofa can be used as a bed too. Juha's mother slept in it while we took over the shed. In the shed there is just one room with one bed and one wooden sofa (like in sauna) and one leather sofa so we all couldn't fit in it.

On a good weather we always eat out. Sometimes we cook outside on fire but we also have electricity coming so there is a possibility to cook inside too. We don't have running water but we have an electric pump on our well which helps a lot. Anyway washing the dishes takes much longer than with the machine but you get to do it outside!

Because we don't have the running water we don't have water closet either but Juha's father built a very nice dike to all of us! I haven't had to empty it never and hope that I don't have to do it either. i can imagine that isn't very nice thing to do.

Right next to our summer place there is a big fence for cows. Cows maybe the thing our girls love the best in Sukkulansalo. They go inside the fence and this time Jonna got her shirt tattered by one of them. She was simply standing too close to the cow who started to cratch itself. So no harm done. The only noice (or should I say sound) you can hear during the night is the sound of the cow bells. Oh, how my soul rested!

And here is Juha and his holy cow...

The only thing we don't have and what is the biggest reason we don't go our summer place very often is the lake nearby. But in North Karelia there are many beautiful lakes and while we were driving there I remembered how much I miss the lakeside scenery! My dream is to have a home right by the lake. There are examples of the North Karelian landscapes with lake in here. Can you understand my longing for it?

Juha's uncle's funeral

Last weekend we had Juha's uncle's funerals in Outokumpu. Outokumpu is in north Karelia. Juha's mother is originally from there and Juha has a little place of his own there too. Outokumpu has become a familiar town to us because Juha's parents use to live there for ten years or so. Now Juha's mother lives in Hanko and his father is dead.

The funeral was in a local orthodox church. I really enjoyed the ceremon. Orthodox church is very close to my heart even though I don't belong to it. In Ilomantsi there is a big orthodox church which located very close to my home. Every summer I attended a children's camp arranged by orthodox church. Also many of my friends were (and I guess still are) orthodox. At least on Easter we would go to the orthodox church to enjoy the night liturgy. Even though I love good bible studies at church somehow the liturgy of orthodox church also brings God's presence to me very strongly. So I was happy the funeral was in orthodox church because I've missed it a lot!

After the ceremon in church we gathered to eat together and i was asked to sing a song there. I'm always ready for that and I felt it was a priviledge to sing there. I chose a song by Oskar Merikanto who is one of my favourite Finnish compousers. The words in a song are Eino Leino's who is a very famous Finnish poet. When we got to Outokumpu after driving over 500 kilometers I realized that i forgot the notes to home. That's just so typical of me! If there is an easy way of doing things I somehow miss it. Fortunately I have music loving colleagues and one of them had the note. So I wrote the lyrics done on phone and of course I new the tune. There wasn't going to be accompaniment anyway. My husband said that he can't stop admiring my way of dealing with disasters which I create. Sometimes I just get very frustrated with myself. Maybe someday I will learn to keep my things in order - or more likely not...

I never got to know Juha's uncle very well so personally this wasn't a hard funeral. On the contrary I enjoyed meeting with Juha's side of the family because I don't know it very well. I've been lucky because I haven't had to give up any dear person away yet. Juha's father and my grandfather have been the closest to me who have already died but in their deaths you could see God's timing very well and I felt very comfortable with those.