Leivontakertomus

I know, 16 is quite a lot more than a few, but you just can't tell a baking story with only two or three pictures. So I'll keep the text short. American Easter tradition served on Finnish design!

(And to all of you who don't read Finnish and don't want to play detectives with the help of online dictionaries: I'll start marking the translation to my titles with bold type in the text. So just keep following us and you will know some Finnish in no time!)

11,114 km and 12 hours...

I'm reporting this week from Hilo, Hawaii, smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Now that we're 12 hours apart, we really are on opposite ends of the earth!  Captain Cook managed to discover (if we really are still using that term) Hawaii after having his fifth child, then sailing from England to New Zealand.  And here I am impatiently waiting until Friday to post to my cousin in Finland.  Patience....

This is the view of the hotels in Hilo.  It is pretty rainy here, so this is not a very touristy part of the island. Coconut island is in the foreground.

Ohia trees, one of the few native plants here, sometimes grow this purple fur.  

Hawaii truly is paradise, and in my opinion, Hilo is the the best town in paradise.

Rannalla

Amy is posting from an island this week, so I thought I would also take you to the seashore - that of our small and much less exotic island. Spring is late this year, but when warm days finally arrive, this tiny beach near us is no doubt going to be one of our favorite places. What I didn't manage to capture today was the moment two swans flew over the water.

Lempikirja

I like all of these books, but one of them is going to be a special favorite this spring.

Juju is a book about upcycling old fabrics into children's clothing. I love everything about it - the layout, the illustrations, the patterns, everything! I first came across it at our little local library. I borrowed and re-borrowed it, again and again. I must have had it for six months.

When I simply couldn't borrow it any more, I decided I couldn't live without it, and went and got my own copy.

I have a daughter who is very opinionated about clothes and whose style tends to be quite different from mine. She won't have Äiti make her this lovely kimono, for example. But I have another daughter who will, for the time being, wear anything I make.

Just waiting to find the perfect combination of fabrics! Stay tuned! (And by the way, we all enjoy visiting that little library.)

Out and about in Portland!

Thank goodness for my urban friends who get me out of my soggy country house and into the city.  The ceiling in the bottom of the diptych was at the downtown restaurant pictured below.  A couple weeks later, I noticed a similar ceiling at a brew pub in the Hollywood neighborhood.  And had a delicious vanilla porter.

On snow and trees...

Trees we have, but snow is a rare sight here, at least in the valley.  This will be my only snow post for the year!  The first picture was taken right in our neighborhood, where the trees give in to the moss for the greater part of the year.  The last picture is from our last snow - I had to dig back to my early December pictures!  Our cousin Maple was visiting at the time, and of course we had our ONE snow/ice storm of the year.  Multnomah Falls is one of the more popular sights in Oregon, and to see it this icy is a rare treat.  Of course, the freeway was shut down in both directions just past the falls!!!

Kuusi

The original plan was to share a picture or two each Friday, but I'm going to ignore that plan today. (I warned you, Amy...) My excuse is that 'kuusi' is not only the Finnish word for spruce, the heroine of the first picture, but also means the number six. Consider it my tribute to the ridiculously snowy winter we have just had! The snow is now going, these velvet images are from the backyard in the beginning of March.