A Freezing Day

Today the temperature went down to around -32'C in the morning. It's gone a little bit up now (around -29'C). For some reason I've been wanting to walk more than riding my bike lately and I was really psyched today to walk to a friend's place that was around 3.5 km away from my place. It sure was cold, but I had bundled myself up pretty well and I wore the longest winter jacket that I had, so it wasn't so bad (just my cheeks felt frozen and my nose kept on running). Then after that I walked downtown to send some Christmas postcards and walked back home. So in total I walked for about 6 km today. WOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! :-D

Had fun chit-chatting with my friend and catching up on our lives. :-D Another friend couldn't come because her car refused to start. The friend whom I visited also had trouble starting up her car this morning. It was just too cold, I suppose. 

On Saturday I walked to MIL's place and it was around -20'C. I brought my camera with me just in case. Here are some of the pics I took on the way to MIL's place. The bicycle in the first pic is at the edge of a frozen river.

Frozen Kitinen river:

The photo below is the pedestrian walkway leading towards the bridge. The frozen river is on the right side of the picture.

When I was walking across the bridge, I looked up and noticed these birds he he he he...

On Saturday the temperature went down to -23'C when I walked back home. Today the sky was more pink than in the photos above, but I didn't bring my camera with me. Besides, when it's so cold outside, it's so hard to press the button to take pictures because your fingers are freezing - either that or you wear such thick gloves that make it hard to press the button to take a pic ha ha ha...

Two Birds and A Butterfly

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day. It went up to around 26'C with a cool breeze. We did some yard work and I cleared up some space in the outer shed so that we'd have more space to put some stuff inside. Then I spotted two birds and a butterfly, so I ran inside to get my camera and managed to take these shots:

Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the bird ha ha ha ha...when I find out, I'll let you know. 

Updated: OK, so these birds are called "White Wagtail" or "Västäräkki" in Finnish. They do wag their tails up and down in a funny way LOL!

I wanted to take more pics of this gorgeous butterfly, but it flew away before I could take another shot. The second shot I took was a failure 'coz I was a millisecond too late in pressing the button LOL!!! But at least this photo is rather clear in showing the colours of the wings, no?

If you wonder why the birds looked as though they were up on the roof, but then you could see grass right beside them, that was 'coz the roof was on our grass HA HA HA HA HA...We're almost done with our roof renovation. The only things needed to be done can only be done later on 'coz the guy who does those things is on a holiday. Well, at least we have a new roof already and we hope it'll withstand the thick layers of snow for a LOOOONNNGGG time. 

Now the only thing we need to wait (other than the guy to finish up the renovation) is the bill HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...Bye bye savings!!! At least the money's put too good use 'coz having a good roof is important.

6th Wedding Anniversary Cabin Trip

Yep, just got back from the cabin again. R2 took two days off 'coz I've been getting work during the weekend so it's kinda hard to go there then. Didn't take too many pics, but I did take some ha ha...but first of all, here are a few pics of the cakes I bought. Yep, the first one I bought a few days before our anniversary already LOL!!! Couldn't stop myself 'coz it looked SO delicious (and it was!!!).

The second one I bought for all of us (it was a frozen one), so I brought it along to MIL's place. Luckily BIL and SIL also came over that day, so we shared the cake with them, too. Otherwise we'd have been eating too much cake HA HA HA HA HA HA...

We arrived in Kelujärvi at around 5.30 pm yesterday and it was SO dark already. Mind you that the area had no electricity (the path towards the cabin near the lake, I mean). Usually we had a flashlight with us, but this time each of us had a head light (the one with the rubber band that we could put on our forehead) hi hi hi...I bought it a few hours before we left at a nearby store. It was only €3 (it included the batteries already!). Pretty cheap!!! And it was nicer to walk in the dark without having to carry a flashlight in your hand ha ha ha...

Because it was so dark already, I didn't take any pics. The lake was already completely frozen, though I didn't dare walk on it yet 'coz the river water downtown Sodankylä is still running like normal (only parts of the surface is covered with thin ice). But that helped us a lot in getting some water for the sauna, 'coz R2 didn't have to dig too long to get the water hi hi hi...It was a glorious starry night, though. The sky was very clear and the stars were twinkling happily up there.

We went to bed early 'coz R2 was too tired already and I woke up at 6 am due to my screaming bladder. Had to get up and go to the outdoor toilet. R2 woke up as well to burn more firewood 'coz the cabin started getting cool already, then we went back to sleep HA HA HA...At around 9 am the sunlight woke me up. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO bright outside and just lovely (around -8'C). Thankful that we got a chance to enjoy the sun, 'coz at around 12.30 pm it went cloudy again and the sun was already hiding behind the clouds.

OK, here are some pics...enjoy!!!

This is the frozen lake. Don't the funny-looking small piles of snow on the surface of the lake remind you of a meringue pie topping? (click on the pic to see a bigger version)

Plenty of birds were eating and chirping happily outside the cabin. Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

Ice crystals. Marvellous under the sun!
 

More ice crystal pic. This one below is from the car window:

Another one. This one is formed on the car door:

Here's the original photo:

Playing with my shadow HA HA HA...

Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

A one-winged angel? :-D

Web of...deceit? LOL!!!

OK, that's all for now. Take care, people!!!!

Picture Time!!!

Haven't been taking too many nature pics these days, but Friday night we went to Kelujärvi 'coz earlier that day MIL called and said that she was going to go and spend a night there, so she asked if we were going to visit her there on Saturday instead of her apartment. R2 came home a little earlier so I told him it'd be nicer if we could just go there that day instead of Saturday - it being such a nice, sunny day after all.

So we did. And we brought our little baby grill to grill some food outside. Then we played cards until late and we slept in the cabin whereas MIL slept in the house. The next day was really cloudy and rainy, so it was GREAT that we went there on Friday instead (Friday was 25'C and during the afternoon it was almost cloudless). OK OK, let me just share some pics now...

See how cloudless the sky was?


Yep, I was sunbathing on the bench ha ha...


And we ate berries with cream - bought the blueberries in the supermarket, whereas the strawberries and raspberries were from MIL's own garden. Yum yum...


Whose shadow was this? R2's and mine!!! I was sitting on the bench and he stood behind me HA HA HA HA HA...


Fake ripple effect of the lake in front of the cabin. Photo was taken at around 1.30 am he he...


Saturday afternoon we played cards again and went to sauna there, then I saw several curlews (kuovi is the Finnish term), so I ran and grabbed my camera and took many pics from inside the house. There were blurry pics 'coz they moved so fast ha ha ha ha...but these three turned out pretty good IMO.






This last pic is an experimental one. Guess what that object is? Anyone knows? HE HE...

Singing Birds

On Sat I took a boring video clip just 'coz I wanted to share singing birds with you. So turn up the volume and enjoy the singing birds. I was in front of my MIL's apartment at that time and I just got out of sauna. It was such a treat to enjoy fresh air outside after being in a very hot sauna ha ha ha ha ha ha...



If you can't open it or if you want to view a bigger sized clip, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwkW0ki5zh4

We've been busy raking the leaves in the yard last weekend. I thought that 'coz I had done the raking last autumn, we wouldn't have needed to do it anymore, but boy was I wrong!!! We collected 20 sacks of dead leaves (10 of them are smaller sacks), but still quite an amount of dead leaves, eh?

Yesterday was especially a warm day at 17'C under the sun, so we spent hours outside. I only began planting some flower seeds yesterday hi hi...we'll see how they are like this year then. Today's been cloudy, so it was really GREAT that we spent so much time outside while it was sunny and warm. :-D

Here's a pic of the Mother's Day bouquet that I bought for my MIL. I was thinking that buying this type of flowers would last longer than buying cut flowers.


Hope you've had a lovely weekend, people!!! I can't wait for this upcoming weekend 'coz we're planning some barbecue party with MIL, BIL, and SIL. We shall see...:-D

New Header + 3BT

Yeah, been tinkering with new header designs and I came up with this one. The background was created by Alevtina Design, the butterflies were taken from Debra Anderson Designs and the flower image on the upper right corner of my header was designed by Carola Okeke/FWTS. So THANK YOU to all of them!!!

The flower pictures themselves are all my photos, of course he he he...now that summer's here, I thought it'd be nice to change the header once in a while. Hope you like my new summery header!

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OK, here's my 3BT list:

1. This morning when I woke up I wanted to jump in joy 'coz I saw one little bud coming out in a pot. I almost thought that I had killed all the seeds 'coz the temperature had been so cold. Last night I was just thinking that perhaps they wouldn't germinate at all, so maybe I should use the pot to plant other seeds. Of course until now there's only one tiny bud coming out, but that's better than nothing, right? HE HE HE...Here's the pic of the bud (this is the seed of a climbing plant):


2. Seeing more buds coming out of the pot filled with seeds of chives. YEEEAAAHHHH!!!

3. Having "FUN" in sauna again after we played Wii on Wednesday. Oh yeahhh!!! *wink wink*

4. Having cleaned all the windows on the first floor (remember there are double windows everywhere, but I'm not in a hurry anyway).

5. Holding hands with hubby and listening to his heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump...the precious sign of life...

6. Music. Listening to music is really relaxing.

7. Chatting with different friends around the world. ;-D

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8. Watering the plants while listening to birds singing outside. Mmmm...what a life!!!

In the Process of Moving

We've been spending our evenings moving boxes to the new apartment. Now both our current apartment and the new apartment look so messy ha ha ha ha...Things are scattering around here and there and I haven't really cleaned up this current apartment since we will have to do it later on anyway before we give the keys back.

I'm thinking of buying a used bike, as well, since I want to be able to move around more, to farther places without having to depend on Arttu. But we'll see about it. Have to find one within my budget first he he he...

Meanwhile, I've been lucky to be able to see LOTS of birds near the library whenever I have to go to the PO to get the national newspaper. I stopped by to hear them sing and eat. One funny thing happened today as I saw plenty of waxwings eating berries. As I walked closer, all but one of them stayed on the branches. It kinda looked at me quizzically as I stopped around half a metre away. I gazed at its fat body and beautiful, colourful feathers and then DOINK...something came out of its rear HA HA HA HA HA HA...

After dropping its poop, it flew away, as if it wanted to mock me and say, "Why are you staring at me, pervert?" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

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My training will be over at the end of this month and then while trying to find something else to do, I'll probably join one local school's Finnish classes (only twice a week) as I'm starting to forget the grammar and I want to interact with other fellow students who're struggling together in learning this language.

Sorry if I can't blog-hop too much, but once everything is settled, I'll catch up with you people, OK? Meanwhile...may God's peace be in your hearts and minds and may He strengthen you to be able to solve any problems you face.

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Waiting for Tomorrow

This week's training went very well. I enjoyed myself immensely! ;-D There're plenty of things to do every day, but it doesn't make me stressed out or frustrated. Isn't that the best type of a job? HA HA HA HA HA...

I can't wait to try skiing tomorrow. Not downhill skiing, though. Saw a big slider at Lidl (the shape of a butt where you can sit on and R2 says that you can slide downhill on it). Unfortunately I can only try it in spring since right now even though there's plenty of snow already, it's too soft to slide on. R2 says he'll buy it for me as a bday gift ha ha ha...So once we bought it, I'll show you the picture, OK?

Today after work I helped a friend who was moving to Jyväskylä in Southern Finland. He had SO many things to bring and he was going there by bus, so he needed someone to wait on his things as he got back and forth to his apartment to get the rest of the stuff. So I did that and surprise, surprise...he gave me a pot of X-mas flowers!!! ;-D I didn't expect that since I knew he was short on money, especially when moving to a new apartment, you had to pay guarantee money. But it was such a nice gesture! ;-D

We went our separate ways and then I decided to go out again to find some X-mas gifts for R2's family members. I only bought two gifts this time. R2 can find the rest hi hi hi hi...

Almost forgot...while waiting for my friend I saw a lovely sky dance. There were at first around 50 birds flying about TOGETHER in harmony! They were dancing here and there and then they "plopped themselves unto" the branches of one bald tree. It was SO gorgeous. Then a few minutes later I saw about 20-30 more birds doing the same dance and they also went to the same tree. Ohhhhh...how I wished I had brought my camera with me. It was a bit farther away, so I couldn't see what kind of birds they were, but it was just breathtaking...I LOVE this place!!!!

OK, let me blog-hop now and leave this post short. My second white Christmas, here I comeeeeeeeeeeeeee...but first, my b-day cake, here I comeeeeeeeeee WA HA HA HA HA...

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Day 1 of Training

INTERESTING!!! That's what I can say about being a helper at the library he he he...

First I was introduced to everybody who was there, then I had to wait for my trainer for about 10 minutes. She came and then showed me around the place. She told me about how they organized the shelves and the books on the shelves. Then she told me about the process of putting the books to the shelves: they had to find out what the books were, then they had to put plastic covers and bar code label and some other label. Then they had to register the books to the bar code machine before putting them on the shelves. Old books were put in their small warehouse. It was COOL to know all these things!

My first task was to return the returned books to the shelves. Then I had to organize Christmas books on a special shelf. Then I was told how to use the bar code machine as they took out some old books from the warehouse. Then I was told to stamp plenty of old cassettes with the label "taken out".

So it's been FAR busier than my other two training experiences. I just hope it keeps up he he he he...well, even if I don't have too much to do on other days, I can always read something as they have SO MANY books he he he he...

Anyway, let me share some more pics taken from last weekend!

First pic: this is something I WANT for myself!!! See that red sled where the little girl is sitting? I WANT ONE!!! I want to sit on it and slide down the snowy hill one day he he he...Actually, it's also VERY practical to drag your son/daughter on the sled while going out, unless your kid acts up and runs away HA HA HA HA HA...


Second pic: The Kitinen bridge (near downtown Sodankylä) and its frozen river.


Third pic: These birds are flying around the bridge-river area and then they landed on the frozen river for a little while. It was a BEAUTIFUL sight as they flew here and there together as a group...mmmm...





OK, I'll blog-hop tomorrow as I'm pretty tired now he he he...

Self-Pampering Gifts

Yesterday I went out to the library to seek the manager (to find out whether I could do any training there orn ot). Alas, she has a week off this week, so I can only meet her next Monday afternoon. So I have to wait until then. There is another store looking for a trainee, but I'm more interested in training at the library. If I can't do the training at the library, then I'll try asking that store next.

Anyway, when going home, I went to a clothes store to see if I could find Christmas gift ideas. Instead, I found self-pampering gifts HA HA HA HA HA HA...Why not pamper myself a little on our anniversary, right? ;-D

I wanted to buy R2 a pair of new gloves, but I'm not sure about the size, so better bring him later on to see what kind of gloves he wants and if the size fits or not. It sure is not fun wearing gloves that are too big or too small!!!

Wanna know my self-pampering gifts? Here they are: a pair of new gloves and two packs of mud mask!!!



As you can see from the pic, the gloves are size 7-11 (years old) HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...I wanted to buy another colour, but there's only one colour available. The adults' size is TOO big for meeeeee, so I decided to buy them nonetheless.

Then here are some pics of lovely birds (Mrs Arctic Rainbow told me that they're called WAXWINGS) taken from my balcony. Next time I go downtown I should bring my camera since it's better to take pics of the birds from a closer range so that I can take GREAT pics of them close-up using my zoom he he he...I LOVE the yellow and red feathers around their tails! ;-D

Light a Fire!

Yesterday we went to my in-laws and armed with my new digital camera, Panasonic Lumix FZ28, I was hoping to see a few birds there (I'm still learning to use the camera to find out which features work best for different types of conditions and sceneries), but so far I'm LOVING the camera's wide zoom and the quality of the video clips.

I was SO happy to see a few birds when we arrived there. However, I got a nice surprise when I also saw a CUTE squirrel there. I'm trying to upload the video clip now so that I can share it tomorrow.

Here are a few pics I took yesterday:




This is the window from which I took the pictures of the birds. I took this pic without zooming in on the birds.



Then R2's elder brother wanted to make a bonfire, so he had to cut this empty barrel first into half so that we could make a fire inside.



It was -7'C outside and here we are sitting down around the fire!




Brrrr...our butts were cold when we got back inside he he he he...Then we played cards for 3 hours. I won the third round with such a remarkable score HA HA HA HA HA HA...It felt GOOD to win just one round out of three rounds, babyyyyy!!!

R2's second brother and girlfriend asked us if we wanted to go to Rovaniemi this Saturday to watch a play in the theatre there and we may just go there with them. I'll definitely write an update about this once we know for sure about this plan. Other than that, tomorrow I have to call the library manager to ask about the training place. If she can't give me a spot as a trainee there, I'll go ask another store nearby my house. Wish me luck, people!!! And hope you've had a BLESSED weekend!!!