The time this week went really fast, almost too fast. We wasn't on the go all the time though, so there were some time for just being also. I think we have so much to talk to, we'll never run out of subjects.

Rhon would've liked to see a moose or a deer, but I suppose the fields are now under the farmers work, so there's not much to eat for them and all those tractors also would interrupt them anyways. So they stayed in the forests out of our eyes. Instead we saw a crane. One stood beside the road on the fields when we were driving to Säkylä last Thursday evening. I'm used to seeing cranes in larger numbers, so it was quite unusual to see only one. Was it lost? Don't know. And on Sunday, when I was driving to the airport there was a "funny looking peacock" beside the road. It was male pheasant. That's about Finnish wildlife for a week. ;)

Was said to be cold and rainy day, so we agreed on inside visit for this day. It was time for the Castle of Turku. We were there soon after the opening hours.

It was quite windy, too, and felt good not to go anywhere to be out walking. Though in the end it didn't rain much, but clouds were quite low and heavy. Not warm at all.

Many different miniature models of different building eras of the castle. Really nicely done.

Almost all the bigger rooms had some kind of an open fireplace. I think they doesn't work these days any more, but 'cos the castle didn't have glass on it's windows at earlier stages, there has to have been some way to keep people warm inside (in addition to the beer they were having to keep themselves warm). =P

A room for the Nuns were the first bigger rooms we saw.

And soon after there were the Hall of the King.

Funniest detail of the whole trip, I think, was the tiny dark room on the wall of the Hall of the King; King's toilet. =D Had to use the flash to get a photo, there was only a tiny hole in the walls to get a little bit of light inside.

A lot of really beautiful windows everywhere. Here was an iron hatch and a huge hook to keep it in place to cover the insides from the storms outside before the glass came.

Almost all the rooms were nicely named and signed, but not all of them in English. Most of the text were also only in Finnish and Swedish, no English text at all. That felt quite funny.

This room has possibly been some kind of a balcany or a bridge to the other side of the castle, before the beautiful windows came. Both sides similar looking. Really light and airy. Would've needed some plants to get even better feeling in it. =D

Church.

Dining hall.

Really beautiful different wooden cabinets here and there. Would've wanted to touch them and tried the surfice - looked so smooth, but it was forbidden.

Lots of deep and rough staircases, as well as the newer ones, too. We were climbing up and down all the time.

Exhibition room was full of interresting things. Table set was beautiful.

Clothings from different times. Here kids shoes and cloves.

Also different set of dishes from different times. This one was particularly beautiful to my eyes.

Also different types of jewelry and other accessories.

Big room with A LOT to see.

Very beautiful handicrafts next. Precise and really neat work: purses, cloths and bookmarks. And other decorations. Admirable.

Inside yard was empty.

Then we went to the history museum that has made up rooms from different eras - really interresting.

Beautiful.

Also a few kitchens.

After we made our shoppings on the souvenier shop we started home. My sister's family wasn't home, but we drove past their house, for Rhon to see what it looks like. I've been talking a lot about it, it's so well done and looking really cute now. Stopped in the center of Raisio for a little snack and we go in a Café just before it was closing.

Good was we made it in time, 'cos my hubby, that was home from his business trip, wanted to make some burgers and he started doing them from the scratch, buns and all. Everybody could build their own as we wanted. And they weren't small. :) Yummy!

After the dinner it would've been suitable to do the same as Mimi did after her food; lay down beside the stomach and sleep. =P

Monday holiday is found from here.
Holiday Tuesday things here.
Wednesday things here.
Thursday holiday here.
Friday things are here.

The weather was said to be quite unstable on Friday, but said the Saturday will be rainy, so we ended up going to the cottage to celebrate Mother's Day. And my mother has been really working hard all morning, 'cos we had the table full of yummies when we arrived. Rhon dared to taste and I think she also liked what she ate. ;) So, thank you Mom! <3

Different kinds of buildings in the shore; sauna and barbequing hut. Not all finished yet, but little by little everything is starting to get in their places. We don't have any water tides here, so we can quite safely build up quite near the water.

Little bit of water, like drops here and there, came down as we were there, but it didn't matter. My parents doesn't speak English at all, so I and our son and hubby of our daughter helped in all the translating things. Our daughter had an entrance exam that lasted the whole day and she couldn't be there with us. But in the end, all the lively body language worked quite fine on it's own, I noticed. =D

Got a really lovely photo out of our guest with my parents, but don't dare put it in here, 'cos I didn't ask the permission for it.

At home it was time to go for a walk with the dogs again. Here sitting in front of the pole saying this road to be an Old Postroad. One of the few places where there's still some original ground of it left. On the right of the photo there's the bridge and the road continues from there. The river goes to the right.

In the forest behind the road there was walking somebody with a dog and Mimi was the only one that spotted them. She kept a close eye on them for no surprises. =D

Quite relaxed day overall. I didn't need to drive either, 'cos our son took care of that, too. =)

Monday holiday is found from here.
Holiday Tuesday things here.
Wednesday things here.
Thursday holiday here.
Last day, Saturday, here.

Haven't finished the holiday updating yet, but just need to do an extra updating about resent happenings. Now it was confirmed that our daughter was accepted as this year's secondary school graduate and will proudly take her student cap. And, of course, we'll be having a good party over this achievement. =D Place is small and weathers might be unpredictable, but we'll manage. Somehow.

Started to lower our laundry piles after our guest continued her trip. We had some time without washing machine, 'cos it got broken, so there was heaps of bed clothings as well as clothes to wash... Took advantage of the nice weather and put everything in back terrace to dry.

And our "lovely" couple bed is a bit kinky for cleaning the floor under it, 'cos there's no place to go in there. And still it comes dirty. I whiped the floors and had to keep it open for it to dry before making the bed again.

Kissi didn't stress out though our room was totally mixed up. She didn't reach her own box, so she slept elsewhere. :)

Some flowers in the garden also already.

Most of them yellow or blueish.

Different shapes as well.

Love these first colour spots in the flower beds.

And more to come!

Little ones under the bushes.

And bigger ones, too.

Most of the next flowers are yellow.

Soon there's a competition of which flower shows the best and I'm afraid the dandelions are going to win... Even these big narcissuses.

Nice and cute.

Some even in my kitchen garden.

Some nicely smelling flowers in the back yard also.

Only place where we can grow tulips. From other places the deers are always having a feast eating them as soon as the buds are starting to grow.

Back yard flowerbed. What's a flower and what a weed? No idea.

For safety's sake Mustis kept her distance. She don't like the cleaning and she doesn't like going out either. Have to be careful. ;)

I think I definitely took most photos from this day's trip: Handicraf's Museum. A lot of school trips seemed to be going on as well, so we weren't there alone.

Narrow streets, some of them only for people, not wide enough for any carriages.

Fenced yards with many different kinds of houses.

All of them quite small, but some of them made for more than one family.

Modest and simple inside. Also the rooms that was rented for tenants for extra income. Found out that the floors were kept bare until the early 1900, 'cos the clothes were too valuable, even the ripped and worn ones. Only later on there was old clothes enough to make some rugs on the floor. So, must've been quite cold during the winter time.

Almost all of the doors went to the narrow porch, most of them quite dark, too. As a wind blocker, I suppose. Not warm anyways, 'cos there was possible to see outside in many places.

Some of the houses had cellars, too. But of course there have had to be some place to store the Autum harverst for the winter, some of them to the next Summer, too, for a new growth to start again. People grew as much as possible for themselves in their own yards back then. Even in cities.

One house had a funny looking roof: made out of rocks. Would've thought it is too heavy, but must be some reason on this, too. We weren't allowed to see the rooms in this house, so we don't know what was in there under the stones.

Lots of kind of new looking ladders beside the houses. Some of them really "inviting". But we kept our place on the ground, though. ;)

Printing house had one worker in and he was really a talker. =D He showed us how to make some postcards in a little hand printer and gave the result to our guest. Then he went to the other room and used the bigger machine...

... for making a picture out of one old cook book. Just thinking of our cook. =D

These different kinds of spreading beds there were in almost every house. Sofa-type was more normal looking...

... than these that were spreaded from the leg side. Funny looking, I agree. =D

Of course there had to be some storage, too.

Open fire stoves in almost all the houses. Only a few of them had the fire locker under the surfise.

Liked the windows with some plants in them.

Fire carriages.

And stables. There has to be some place to keep their animals, too.

Small Café.

I think, the sign is quite clear, too. :)

Some grass roofs.

Windows were cute both outside and from inside as well.

All fireplaces was used to make food if necessary.

Some houses has been grown with time. Different places for more people. And the attick has been used for kids bedrooms for summer, I think. As we used my grandmother's attick as we were kids. =)

Shoemaker working. Lots of questions with different languages, so she was quite challenged how to keep all the people happy, but managed quite well. =D

A bit of shopping and then some warm to drink in the nearby cute old house that had a Café in it. Some different looking rooms.

Coffee and tee, buns and pancakes. Yummy.

Home again, walking with the dogs, eating and just being. ;)

Did a pie in the oven before we went for a walk, so it was almost ready when we came home again. Had to think of something, 'cos our cook wasn't home.

And while we were eating our son called and asked me to pick him up from the army - a day early. So we drove to Säkylä and came home using "a shortcut" through the forest in a tiny road that zigzagged here and there. A venture for us, but of course for our guest, as well. But got home eventually.

Monday holiday is found from here.
Holiday Tuesday things here.
Wednesday things here.
Friday things are here.
Last day, Saturday, here.

Early in Wednesday morning my hubby started his three days business trip in Vaasa and then we had to be more alert with our time spending outside home, but I think I already have an inside built alerting system in me, so it didn't bother us much.

It was windy, but sunny day and we started towards Naantali, 'cos it's not a nice walking outside if it rains. Now it was good. Left the car behind the busstation and walked to shore. Fist the new buildings then getting older as we walked. ;)

Walked through the cemetery, 'cos the stones on the graves were looking different than what our Aussie friend was used to. The church was under construction and will be opened at first of June, so we didn't have the opportunity to look inside. Walked to the other side of the shore then instead.

Flags were on the poles for Europe Day, that we only later on figured out. Looking nice.

Walked through the narrow roads and admired the nicely done old houses as well as cute different signs the shops, hotels and cafés had on their walls. Though not all of them were yet open. Only a few.

Went in almost all the shops that were opened and got something to buy, too.

Started to get a bit hungry and there was coming an inviting smell of food from somewhere. Still almost all the restaurants were closed for the winter.

Like it much when there's more than one flagpole, makes the view even nicer. And when the flowerbeds are done later in the summer, the view will be still better.

Found a place to go into and we selected some Karelian pies with eggbutter on top with our hot drinks. First time for our guest and she seemed to like it. =P We got them heated and I agreed it was good.

Forgot to take the name of the place but we were under the Church.

Afterwards a walk back to the car and still we stopped in almost all opened shops on the way. =D

Rhon bought me a really beautiful flower earrings and some soft yarn. And she also brought some Australian wineglass markers, chocolate, different animal shaped woods, an ox-comb for Kissi (something I've been looking for a long time already!) and a really beautiful neclace (on the photo) that has a wonderful stone that seems to change colour depending on which way you look at it. I'm so "talented" on getting the chains broken, that I'm not good at wearing neclaces, but this will surely be at use at special occations. Thank you so much, Rhon! <3 Wonder what else you could have had in your luggages any more, 'cos everything seemed to be for us. =D

And after our afternoon walk and food all the pets were taking it easy also. :) Here's Kadi and Kyösti in the divan before it came as a bed when our daughter came home with his hubby for the weekend. :)

Monday holiday is found from here.
Holiday Tuesday things here.
Thursday holiday here.
Friday things are here.
Last day, Saturday, here.

We didn't have made any tight schedule for the visit of our Aussie friend. Was supposed to go by the weather and our feelings mostly. Tuesday was a bit cloudier day, so we decided to go to the city of Turku where there's a lot of places to be in if the weather would've started turning wet. Though the weather turned out to be quite nice in the end.

Parked the car in the car park Louhi, that's a parking cave under the city. Walked through the Market Square to the River Aura. First open door was to the Pharmacy Museum that's a place I haven't myself visited before either. You are not allowed to use the flash on the camera there, so the photos were quite challenging to take, but we managed some.

The Herbroom had a lot of pots and jars full of different kinds of natural herbal things and the sealing was full of drying herb bundles.

Quite beautiful different kinds of glass cabinets and small locker drawers.

Living areas were also interesting. Different kinds of fireplaces in every room.

Really nice bureau and our guest got on the photo through the mirror, as well as the green fireplace, too.

Bedroom looked nice, too. With really cute crib.

And interestingly painted fireplace in the room, as well.

Quite a lot of different jars decorated with blue colour, as I somehow waited more with only white and black.

We also were supposed to buy some postcards on the way out, but we forgot. Had to come for them again later on. Got some laugh out of the staff when they recognized us. =D

Stopped at the Pharmacy Museum Cafeteria that was in the yard house. Made our order, payed and got them outside with a nice tray that suited the time period. Some rise and meat pie and Norwagian donats and cherry juice. The yard was warm in the sun, 'cos there wasn't much open space for any wind. Enjoyed ourselves there for quite some time.

Then continued beside the river, walked to the other side of it and went for the Sports Park. Quite empty there yet at this time of the year, but had a round visit. Thought of going to the Art Museum that was situated near, but they had exhibition change going on and only the Café was open so we didn't go there.

Walked around the Market Hall and Hansa and then we were again in the Market Square. Nice looking clothes and something would've been bought if there would've been the right size awailable, but wasn't.

Then one stand was selling different kinds of fudges and the seller asked us to taste what ever we liked. So, got some home with us. These were really big; we had them shared and everybody got to taste them all.

Again, it was time to go for a walk with the dogs, when we came home. Walked through the closest residential area we have here and it was so cold Susu didn't even try to come with us this time.

Monday holiday is found from here.
Wednesday things here.
Thursday holiday here.
Friday things are here.
Last day, Saturday, here.