Hilla

We have a dog. Actually we've had a dog since March. Her name is Hilla. One weekend we just decided that it would be good time to get a dog while Juha was studying at home and he would have time for the new dog. Well we found Hilla through internet. The previous owner couldn't keep her anymore and she was looking for a good home for her. I'm glad she trusted Hilla to us.

Hilla is very kind, obedient and well-behaving dog. She is also easy and she adjusted very well to her new home with us. I've never been a dog person. Actually I couldn't stand most of the dogs. While Juha was home alone a lot with the distressing graduation work to do I decided that he deserves the long wanted dog. I don't regret my decision. I've learned to like Hilla. Yet she's still more the dog of the rest of the family, especially Juha's.
I enjoy the joy Hilla has brought to our family. I also like the fact that she gets me out much more often than I used to go. I'm not a morning person but somehow those morning walks with other dog people are precious to me. I wouldn't want to do it every morning and fortunately my turn is maybe once a week. I also like the fact that Hilla likes me even tough I don't spend so much time with her. But she greets me with glee everytime I come home.
The best thing with Hilla is that she takes us out and into new places. Very often we take Hilla out together with Juha, my husband. Sometimes girls or at least one of them comes with us. One of our favourite places is Haltiala. That's where we were today. It's an area right beside the Vantaa river. We walk along the river bank and enjoy the country idyll. Every now and then we go down to the river, sit for a while and then go on again. The view is amazing and Hilla gets to run free.

This is the path on a river bank:

down by the river:
the view:
The oat field:
Once again thank you Hilla for taking us their!

Camping in Lohilahti

Now when the move away from South Karelia is closing it's time to do the last visits to our favourite places. Today we made a little longer trip to Lohilahti, Sulkava. It's about 90 minutes ride from Lappeenranta. We lived 14 months in Lohilahti during the years 1998-1999. It's a beautiful little village in the middle of nowhere. We had our favourite place to go for swimming and camping there called Kiikkuniemi. It didn't disappoint us. On the contrary we had so wonderful day that I'll remember it long time.


Kiikkuniemi is inside in backwoods. As a matter of fact it was little hard for us to find it at first after such a long time. Little forest road and rest of the trip you must go walking. There is a fire place and wood available over there and a marvellous sand beach. The bottom of the lake is sandy as far as you can reach the surface standing and even longer. So very good place for swimming - and we enjoy swimming! Well fool around in the water to be exact...

Water pictures taken by our daughter Jonna, she is always the first one to com out of the water while she gets cold very quickly, poor thing! She also caugth this butterfly to her camera:

Of course we made food with fire! This time we decided to have a little healthier menu than normally on bonfire (makkara/sausage). I also love to fix my gaze on fire...

Our menu: Good Finnish rye bread and spinach and carrot pan cakes. Food made on fire tastes always so good!









Viivi got excited of the blueberries in Kiikkuniemi. She wandered in the near woods for picking up them and we all got to eat them. Fresh berries are sooooooooo good!
























On our way back from Kiikkuniemi we stopped for a minute or two to the downtown of Lohilahti. That's were we lived. Right by the lake Saimaa and the view was wonderful. Check yourself:

In Lohilahti there are a grocery store, bank, a little health center, gas station where you have a post office and a restaurant, school, day care, outside tennis court, flour mill, summer dancing hall, summer teather so enough services to live. I enjoyed living in there but working in the local school was a hell for me. Not because of the children but because of the other teachers.

We also visited one family we got to know while living in Lohilahti. Their daughters are good friends to ours and we enjoy the company of the parents. They had something our kids have wanted to have for a long time: A giant trampoline!

We had a perfect day today! Pity you don't see the grin on my husband's face properly in this picture. It would give smile on your face too. Now I have evidence that he is crazy and I can keep on wearing my t-shirt saying: MY NEXT HUSBAND WILL BE NORMAL!

The school year is over

It's time to say good bye for the Alakylä school in Lappeenranta. While it was Jonna's last year in grade school they all got roses. Viivi got the teddy bear from her teacher just to say good bye. Next year we'll be in Mikkola school all together once again. Mikkola school is a comprehensive school with grades 1 to 9 so even Jonna stays with us in the same school but she'll just be in upper grades and in subject teacher system. That will be a big change for her but she is very happy to get back to the old school with old friends. Normally the grades 7-9 are in different school buildings. My classroom will be next to Viivi's classroom. I don't know yet if it's a good or a bad thing :).

Anyway I'm very proud of our beautiful daughters. They came home with good reports and many good moments and experiences with their friends and teachers at school! They adapted to the new school well and became part of it in short time. In my opinion the best part of being one year in Alakylä school for our girls was excellent hand craft teaching. The skirt Jonna is wearing she made herself for example.

Happy summertime to all of you!

Viivi is ten

You realize how time flies when you look at your children and notice that they are getting bigger and bigger. Our baby is now ten! What a joy Viivi has been for us these ten years. She has an unique personality!
This is Viivi with her favourite teddy bear which she got from Santa. Viivi loves soft toys. She also makes certain that mommy and daddy have a sleeping toy every night. She picks tem up very carefully.

Viivi likes jokes and telling them. She likes to be funny in many ways as you can see.
But there is also a more serious and thinking part in Viivi. She can be very angry at the angent ruler of China for killing so many innocent people and she wonders many things in this life.
As you already know Viivi plays the violin but she also likes to play the piano at home. Mommy is trying to teach her but I'm a lazy teacher at home. This year Viivi has had maybe ten lessons all together. Bad me!
We read a lot in our family. So Viivi enjoys reading too. She likes fairy tales and I still read her bed time stories every ones in a while. I like those moments but unfortunately I'm many times too tired in the evening for reading or just busy.
This is what Viivi bought with her birthday money. Aren't the modern legos wonderful. I wish I would have had thosein my childhood. Both our girls like them a lot and they have lots and lots of these girly legos. I think they are good toys teaching creativity and they also last long. the only problem is that vacuuming is a nightmare because you always end up vacuuming at least one of the tiny diamonds or something like that which are very important and you end up opening the vacuum cleaner and you know what comesof that... Well, that's what mothers do for their children!

family Tykkyläinen on ice

We laso found a lot of carbage on the lake. That made me sad but it also looked like art.

Look how smooth the ice is! It was very alluring but we stayed close to the shore. From further you wouldn't realize it's ice because it looked like calm surface of the water. I love winter!

Mauno's 70th birthday

Mauno is my aunt's husband and very dear to us. He had he's 70th birthday at the end of August in central Finland in a small village called Riiho. It was a lovely birthday! It was amazing that both of Mauno's parents were there too. The other thing that impressed me was that the birthday was held in Mauno's former school where even his father went to school. There are still people who not only know from which part of Finland they are but they also now the actual little village where their roots are. It's hard for someone like me who don't have any roots to understand. Here's the school:

It's not in school use anymore lik the most of the small schools in Finland because people move to the citites more and more. Pity! It really was beautiful place and specially the children enjoyed the place and the birthday party.

I enjoyed meeting the family the most. My father's side of the family don't meet very often and that's why it was such a special treet for me. All the cosins were there except of my brother and the one who lives in New Zealand. Many of the children of us cousins met each other for the first time there. O'boy they had fun! We tried to take a picture of them but as you can imagine... it wasn't easy to keep them still for the moment!

Well, at least they are all there (except of the two in New Zealand - pity again!). We also took a cousin picture:

Poor Mikko! The only man present! Well, maybe he enjoyed being surrounded by beautiful ladies...

Whenever my father's side gathers for party Esko, my father's brother, entertains us with songs. He's an actor and he knows how the make a good show!

In the evening the singing went on on the campfire. That's what I loved! Singing and the fire together!

All in all we had good time in Riiho! Wish we would have more of these family gatherings...