Heat Wave

We've been having very hot weather during the day for at least a week. It reached 30'C under the sun and sometimes it felt even hotter when there was less wind, though some days thankfully the wind was rather cool. Plus it helps that the temperature goes down during the night/morning. So on a very hot day I went out biking the other time. I went to the river area and was amazed at how striking the difference was between summer and winter. The bushes were so lush and tall and I did take some photos. 

Here goes...Lappish summer at its best! The weather report site says that this has been the hottest period ever in 50 years all over Finland with the mean temperature of 20,7'C. Amazing! And many people thought it would be a crappy summer after last year's super glorious and long summer and the fact that the beginning of summer here was cold. I'm glad to report that today has been raining and it's been cool, though. It's nice for a change. Plus people here aren't really geared up for super hot weather non-stop because they're more prepared for cold winters ha ha...

Enjoy the photos! Oh, and the house in one of the pics isn't ours. It's just one of those that attracted my eyes. Have a blessed weekend, people!

P.S.: As contrast, here are other photos of the river area (taken from different sides) at different times of the year:

Spring
Autumn
Winter

3BT: Random Days

1. A customer gave me two bunches of tulips (pink and purple). They're still blooming nicely in my kitchen. :-D BLESS him!!!

2. Watching this funny video:


3. Enjoying the abundance of spring sunlight. Despite the fact that it can still drop down to -20'C this month (which is not normal), the sun has been smiling at us a lot these days. Ahhhhhh...

4. New challenges at work will appear in a few months' time, so it's gonna be exciting (though in the beginning it might be stressful) LOL!!! But I'm psyched to learn new stuff! :-D

5. Anticipating the two birthday celebrations this month (MIL's and R2's). CAKE CAKE CAKE!!!! :-D *drool*

6. A bigger fridge at work. :-D

Spring In The Air: Thoughtful Mood

Been feeling tired due to a cold. Arttu had flu last week and now he's having an ear infection, so he's still recuperating at home (they gave him antibiotics). Today the sun is shining so brightly. I read online that this winter (it's not spring yet here) we've had the least sunshine in many years. I remember that last year (Jan + Feb) we did have more sunshine compared to now and I've been in a thoughtful mood these days. Here are some things that have been on my mind lately:

1. Every time March comes along and the day gets longer, whenever the sun shines through the windows, I'm reminded of how the light exposes each speck of dirt. No matter how hard we try to hide the dirty parts, the light will always expose them. I suppose that's why there's "spring cleaning". When the light gets in, it's so easy to see the dirt and dust that has gathered during the dark part of winter and it reminds me to do a spring cleaning of the soul. :-D


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2. Recently I've been thinking about the quote "You can't lose what you never had". In the past I sang the lyrics of a song with that quote in the middle of it without thinking too much, but now I realize that it's not true. You CAN experience loss even though you haven't had the thing that you wish for so much. Lost, broken dreams for example.

When you've been preparing lovingly for a dream, getting ready and doing everything in your power to reach the dream (spending time, money, effort), daydreaming about the day when you reach the dream and then one day you realize that the dream is shattered and your life will never be the same again, that the broken dream changes your life completely...that's when you realize that YOU CAN lose what you never had.

3. Sometimes in life we lose our way or we lose ourselves or both at the same time...that's OK as long as we keep striving to find ourselves and our way again. Just as they say: it doesn't matter no matter how many times you fall. What matters most is that you get up again each time you've fallen down.

OK, I'll end these thoughts with a light video of a cat named Boo he he he he...I just LOVE his big paws! :-D And he reminds me of my old cat 'coz he was also a ginger cat. 

3BT: Random Days

1. Kissing hubby by sucking both his upper and lower lips (and in the process getting tickled by his grown moustache) LOL!!!

2. To sit on the carpet in front of hubby's couch while he was sitting there, then looking up and being able to see his nostrils very clearly from that angle. What a view! :-D

3. Booking a spring trip to Rome. WOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!!! Can't wait!!!

4. Hearing a small boy (perhaps around 5 years old) babble about money to his mother, which made me and a couple of elderly smile because he just wouldn't shut up.



5. A customer saying, "I'll arrange everything so that the barcodes of each item I bought was facing you so that you don't have to turn them. I don't want you to suffer from de Quervain syndrome." AWWWWWWWW...it was the VERY first time someone had EVER done that!!! So heart-warming! :-D

6. The smell of Indonesian potato croquettes being baked in the oven and then after they were done, the taste was just SO heavenly.

7. Me: (jokingly) STOP drinking coffee!
Hubby: (without missing a beat) STOP eating chili sauce!
Me: UGH! That was a sucker punch!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHHH...

7. Watching this video:

3BT: Random Days

1. Hearing a female customer said, "Look! Your fave sweets are on sale!" to her hubby. And the hubby bought 12 packs of them. :-D What made me think it was beautiful was the fact that the wife was focused on what the hubby liked.

2. We've just booked a short trip to Vienna for our upcoming spring holiday (and after bargaining at work, I've finally gotten the permission to have the 6 days off).

3. Planning, browsing through the internet to find out what kind of fun things we can do there and daydreaming. WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

4. Seeing an icicle hanging from the roof - plus funny-shaped snow.


5. Watching the lazy snow falling slowly from inside our kitchen window...the world felt hush hush and so serene...

6. Have been craving for KFC chicken for a while now and finally today I had time and energy to make some. They came out VERY VERY delicious. Yum...

7. Finding out already what hubby needs (to be his March birthday gift) and ordering it already while there're still winter sales ('coz what needs is a winter sweater). Plus finding a good deal on the sweater! :-D

8. Stealing hubby's warmth under the blanket at nights by putting my cold feet on his warm thigh. Ah, to feel the warmth of his body at night is just pure bliss...

9. Indonesian ear cleaning tool is THE BEST!!!

Kelujärvi Grill Time! (Part 2)

OK, let's now continue sharing more pictures with you...

Here's another pic of the lake when I went out to take pics around the area...


Some birds were busily eating in the field while we were chit-chatting around the fire...it got cooler and cooler as time went by.


Mist started rolling in at around11 pm...



In the pic below, you can see the mist more clearly...I think the temperature was only about 7'C at that time.


The pic below was taken at around midnight...lovely sky, isn't it? It started getting foggy for a while and the temperature went down to 3'C.


We played cards and then the sky got fiery like this at around 3 am as the sun started to rise up again...


Here's the zoomed-in version of the above pic...right where the fiery part is most vivid.

Kelujärvi Grill Time! (Part 1)

On Friday I was SO excited 'coz we had this little family grill plan. Although the weather report looked so disheartening (rainy), but I was just SO happy ('coz I miss the place and I always see lovely views/cute animals/birds there)!!! It did rain a lot that day - not really raining cats and dogs, but still it was enough to make me wonder if we would be forced to cook the food indoors.

Anyhow, R2 managed to get back home earlier from work 'coz he had done plenty of overtime, so we went there right away. It was around 10'C at that time and it was raining still. Nobody else was there yet, so we stayed in the car 'coz the house was colder than outside and the car was warm HA HA HA HA HA...

After a while MIL came, so I helped her make the fire in the fireplace. Boy it was REALLY hard to do it. It took us a long time to get it going - and making sure that the smoke went out from the chimney - not into the house. The thing is, we couldn't close the fireplace door yet before making sure that the fire stayed burning so we had to use magazines to blow the smoke away to the chimney.

After we managed to make the fire, BIL and SIL came by. At that time the sun was shining so brightly and the temperature rose up to 13-14'C, so they started making fire in the outside grill, but then just when it was about to be ready in a little while, it started raining again. Luckily after a while it stopped raining and we could finally grill the food. After eating and chit-chatting around the fire until about 11 pm (or was it close to midnight?), the sauna was ready so we took turns to go there. After that we played cards until about 3 am he he he he...We saw very lovely scenes there, so without further ado, here are the pics of lovely Kelujärvi area...

1st pic: It was SO hard to take a pic of the hare. I tried sneaking close to it very very slowly, but it kept on running away from me he he...


2nd pic: When I walked to the lake nearby, I saw this...there was also another one and some other birds there, but they all flew away not long after I got there. Maybe they could sniff my presence ha ha ha ha...


While the sun was still shining...


As you can see from this pic, it got cloudier again by the time I got to the lake...


Rarely does the lake water stay calm like this, so I felt SO lucky to be able to enjoy its mirror-like quality this time. :-D


Especially seeing this below view with my own eyes...breathtaking...


And then to top it all off...here comes the rainbow! It's a small one, but still lovely to see. :-D


Another view of the rainbow...


Let the grilling begin (at around 11 pm)!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!! (I was STARVING already by then ha ha...) :-D


I still have more pics to show you, but I'm gonna put them in another post so that this post doesn't become too long. Anyway, here's a pic of me in front of the house. Sorry not really a great pic 'coz I put the camera on a low bench. Behind me is my MIL. :-D Busy picking up dead stalks/leaves.

To be continued...stay tuned!!!

Spring Pictures

Yep, haven't taken too many pics lately 'coz the weather's been bad (it's been snowing lightly for the past two days though it melted right away), but finally it's sunny today so I went out to take some pics. Here's a pic of my fave tree in the whole village:

The bad thing was that the sun was against the camera, so I had to move to the other side...


However, I think that the tree looked better from the other side, but oh well...


Look...soon the leaves will start to sprout!!! :-D


Here are some pics of the river near the tree from different angles:




As you can see, over here the grass isn't green yet 'coz it's been around 0'C for the past few days, but I guess sooner or later it'll start to get greener and greener. :-D

In the pic below, the sun was hiding behind some clouds. That was why the river isn't as blue as in the other pics above.


Just playing around with the above pic HA HA HA HA...


Trying out inverted black and white style:


Hope you enjoyed the picssss...:-D

Another Snowman!

Feeling SO sleepy now 'coz I had a bit of a hard time to sleep last night. Why? Four days of holiday (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon) made me sleep late and wake up late, so when it was time to sleep last night, my body wasn't used to the usual schedule anymore. Ugh...

However, that didn't stop me from making a snowman in our yard today HA HA HA...here's my latest creation. Wanted to make a MUCH bigger one, but didn't have enough energy. Besides, 'coz again I couldn't simply roll a small ball around to make a big ball, making this one took a lot of time 'coz I had to build it the hard way - one handful of snow at a time.

The difference is that this snowman has eyebrows HA HA HA HA HA...and also "arms" and hands.



Went by bike to work today, though it took a long time 'coz there was slush and ice and water everywhere. If I had ridden my bike fast, I'd have fallen so easily in many parts. Good thing was that I could see the GROUND/GRASS in some parts already. WOOOHOOO!!! Spring is definitely here! The temperature today is around 5'C, SO warm!

A Little of Everything

I don't have much time to write or blog-hop, but I want to write an update on everything, so let me just write a list.

1. Yesterday I went to get my new residence permit and turned out that starting last year, the first residence permit extension was given for 4-year period. My first residence permit was only valid for a year and now the new one is valid until 2012. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!! ;-D

2. I've been suffering from acne breakout again ever since I stopped taking my birth control pills, so today I went out to the pharmacy to buy something. The pharmacist suggested Basiron AC, benzoyl peroxide. I sure DO hope it'll help my skin! If not, then I'll have to do something else as they start popping out here and there even more and more. URRRGGHHH!!!!!!

3. The snow has been melting again today and in some parts they're already gone. I've been wearing my trekking spikes since yesterday and I can say that they REALLY work, except inside buildings. The only trouble is taking them off inside buildings and putting them on again before I venture out he he he...But it's all GOOD. ;-D I LOVE those things!!!

And guess what? Finally spring is COMIIINNNGGGGGGGG to Sodankylä he he he...

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4. Last night I laughed SO much so that my stomach muscles got SO sore. I almost couldn't stop laughing even though my jaws were hurting. Hubby just shook his head hi hi hi hi...Why did I laugh? I watched some VERY SILLY videos on youtube he he he he he he he...Boy, laughing that much made me feel SO YOUNG hi hi hi hi...

5. My nose is still a bit runny, but I've felt fit enough to do my Taebo sessions again, so that's VERY good, since I've been eating too much these days hi hi hi hi...Need to burn the extra calories!!! *wink*

Anyway, take good care, everybody! I can't wait for this weekenddddddddd!!! I'll blog-hop later when I have time, OK?

To my Brit friend MC, you're in my prayers. I wish you THE BEST in everything. I hope you can stay here in Sodankylä so that your boys can continue their studies here, but whatever happens, I'm crossing my fingers for youuuuuuuuuuuuuu...Life has many surprises. We'll see what life has in store for you after the course is done.

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Spring is Near!

Spring is near and it'll soon be time for my in-laws to plant a new batch of potatoes and strawberries. If you live in the USA and you like gardening, do you know that there's a one cent sale and some other fascinating offers from Spring Hill Nursery, Ohio? They have beautiful arrays of bulbs, shrubs, trees, roses, perennials and many more.

If you plan on going somewhere on a vacation, you should also consider checking out the many fascinating offers from Travelocity. For example, you can get up to $20 discount if you rent a car on a weekend and there's also a one-way flight to Europe starting from $200 from different cities in USA.

And if you need to buy a digital camera before you go on your vacation, don't forget to check out special deals from Best Buy, which includes 5-18% off selected digital cameras and free shipping and more discounts.

Well, as you probably know, this spring and summer I'll still be busy with my course, but I'm truly looking forward to picking strawberries in my in-laws' garden again and picking wild berries in the forest.