Ruusumanteli

Last fall I gave my husband an almond tree for his birthday. This week we have been admiring it's first bloom. Another dose of pink for all of us!

Even better!

My neighbor has a garden that puts mine to shame.  Or almost anyone's, actually.  So I thought I would give you another garden tour to make the most of this most amazing season!

Siivet (making of)

Well I didn't mean to miss a whole week of blogging, but this is my favorite time of year and it will be over too soon! I also wanted to finish my latest project, including the behind-the-scenes pictures to share with you. I can't imagine more appropriate springtime wear than pink fluffy wings! I took the time to make them for my younger daughter's first performance (we have been attending a family gym class once a week and our sports club organizes a show at the end of each season). But even after performances, I know wings will be useful in this family for years to come, just in our everyday lives! While I held my completed creation in my hands, I immediately felt sorry it had taken so much time to make them, because if I had the time to make a second pair, they would be mine! Only mine would be with a silvery base and black tulle...

Garden tour

Finally, some sun and heat....wait, too much!  Last week we had two days of 85 degree (29.4C) weather, 20 degrees above average for May.  My mom has been in town, and completely sidetracked my plans for ignoring my garden this year.  We reinforced the borders, brought in new soil, used some cinder blocks to shore up the lowest wall, and for Mother's Day, my parents surprised me with enough marigolds to fill each of the cinder block holes.  And my child had to wear his 'work boots' (a.k.a. extra warm snow boots) to help us out!  Whew!
The heat wave brought to life every blossoming thing in this yard, so it is beautiful and fragrant now, and inspired me to do a little unplanned compulsive nursery shopping.  This year my garden will be much more scaled back, but I really am focusing on tomatoes, which completely failed last year due to the lack of heat.  I really hope this warm May is a sign of a good tomato summer.

Maan alla

No sun or vast seaside views in this post! On the very contrary, I'm taking you where the sun doesn't shine: below ground level. Amy, this is one place we are going when you visit! To explore a significant part of the remains of medieval Turku that were excavated in the 1990s and later opened to the public as the museum Aboa Vetus. One thing that is special about this museum is that excavations are still carried out there, so research is continuously revealing new information about life in the middle ages (in Finland, that would mean from the beginning of the 1200s to about mid 1500s). I used to give tours in this museum, and during our visit last week I learned that some things I used to tell guests have since been proven inaccurate!

During the visit of our cousin last week we had wonderful spring weather almost every day. Only one day was rainy - by coincidence it was the one we spent underground!