We slept late yesterday - the dogs latest. They really are in no hurry in the mornings, though I feel I can truly start the day only after the morning walk. Maybe I should start going to the evening walks earlier? I just feel the couple of hours since the afternoon walk is not enough. I've tried to make about six hours turns. Around nine in the morning, three in the afternoon and at nine in the evening. Night time is the longest, with its twelve hours pause. I can't live without toilet for so long, can't understand how the dogs are doing it, but they are.

Two long walks yesterday too. First in the morning we went round the village near us. It took about an hour. Then in the afternoon we walked to the other way, to the center of Nousiainen. Went round trip, so the walk took a bit over one and a half hours. It was really great weather to do so - and even Kyösti seemed to be excited about it. Didn't get too tired on the way. I didn't ment to be out for so long, and I didn't take the camera with me, though on the way I saw a lot of things I would've wanted to take a photo from. Maybe next time. And I enjoyed the walk as well. Lots of others moving in the afternoon, too. I was happy our dogs didn't go into barking, though some of the other dogs seemed to be a little afraid of our foursome and got themselves into really unnoying noice. I'm so proud of our bunch that knows how to behave.

For a little while I continued my next scarf and 'cos my husband had taken the armchair I usually sit, I took a place from the sofa. Mimi was there in no-time. Little warm and soft curl.

And it didn't take long when there were more paw-owners around. =oD

Slowly starting the normal routines after the flu. Seems like it's more difficult to find something to write, when there's so much time since the last posting. But actually, nothing much happened either, so that may be one reason, too.

While I was ill, there came more snow. Nature came blurry and foggy-like for a while. Though there's been snow since before Christmas, I still am not bored with it. I hope the snow will last until the real Spring starts. Spring without too much wet snow and mud. It's been windy, too. So a lot of snow has moved from the fields to our yard. But I'm not complaining.

Here's a photo where Mimi seems to be in one kind of question mark. Funny looking thing! I was knitting before her and then made some tea and while I drank it, I read the newspaper sitting on the sofa. Mimi was clearly wondering if she would stay where she is or come behind me. She didn't know for how long I was supposed to stay put.

And while I was sleeping on the armchair at times, Mimi couldn't get behind me. Everyone found a good place for themselves, though. I don't remember where Kyösti was at that time, but not far, I should think.

This is the chair nearest to the fireplace - warmest soft place in the house. And Mimi knew it, too!

Kadi also found different positions on the sofa for herself. Showing her teeth and how clean they are. =o)

I also noticed while I was watering my plants here, that one of my leaf cactus (no idea what this actually may be called in English) is starting to flower again. Kept about a month's pause. Great! Been so light I suppose.

This photo was taken by our daughter while I was finishing the legwarmers for her. Mimi behind me. Somehow seems lot bigger than she actually is.

And here is the finished ones. Lot's used and liked, and that makes me happy.

I also have tried to eat more fruits now that I've been only half healthy. I lost my taste totally while having a flu, and eating wasn't anything near enjoyable, but man got to eat, still. I just noticed that the kids also started eating fruits more, when I was doing so. Need to buy much more of these than normally. But that's only a good thing - though the fruits are really expensive at this time of year.

Cats knows how to relax, too! =o)

My husband had a business trip to Switzerland for three days last week, too. Has been travelling a lot these days. Luckily at home for the weekends, though.

Here's relaxing type of Kadi for you, too! She knows how to enjoy life! =oD

Yesterday we visited my youngest brother at his birthday.

His dog, Nella, is really lively and I was having lots of trouble trying to catch her on a photo. At last she was laying on the carpet - for about two seconds - so that I got a shot. She was REALLY anxious to see us.

The wife of my brother's had made us some tasty and beautiful looking blueberry pastry. Yummy!

When we got home I just changed my clothes and went for a long walk with the dogs. Great weather, about 5 degrees minus and no wind, and I feel fine again, so nothing to stop us doing so. =oD Life feels good again!

Got some flu bug from the skiing occation last Sunday and though the days have been quite good the nights have been terrible. Can't breathe, suitable position is half-sitting and then it's difficult to get some sleep in a fear of falling down from the pile of pillows...

And while I was feeling very tired on the Monday morning I decided to try and get Kissi's beautiful eyes to be seen better.

Kissi between my knees and a comb in my hands. Forehead fur tightly bundled and then pinned it up with a strap.

I also combed her side and back fur, so she looks quite funny at this point. Cottons have so little head under all that fur...

Eyes are suitably visible. Hoped those would stay that way for awhile, too.

And when I let Kissi go, the first thing she did was shaking herself heavily for having more normal puffy look. Cute! And the crest hold up.

Sunday's skiing got some muscles sore; ache in hands, ache in thighs and lower back, too. I think I somehow used my back muscles when I was using my hands moving uphill. Uphill path was so slippery. But all in all, the ache is feeling "healthy", not anything broken - and the ache was coming when I was doing nothing. When I moved it became easier. Only a bit of work sitting and then I've been on the move quite a lot.

At Tuesday it started to be so clear and sunny weather. Starting with mornings -4 degrees and ending up at -18 degrees in the evening. It was about -15 when I went for a walk for a sick friend. Actually with her dog, Sisu.

The moon seemed quite big in the sky by eye, but when taken a photo is shrank a lot. But there it was!

Really beautiful day and no wind at all. Nice weather for a long walk.

And here's Sisu itself. First walk for us together so I didn't take any chances with other people or dogs. Sisu doesn't like other bitches, or so I'm told. First I took a few shots...

... and then we started walking. She went really nicely and we had a great walk.

At the same time I took some photos here and there, until the camera froze.

The sun was starting to set and got only the top of the trees lighted. Nice!

Sisu the snow snout! Can't see Sisu's eyes either, but she seemed to see everything quite well, though. Not so used to the camera as our own dogs, but didn't mind a lot either.

On the way home again the sky was painted orange. Not a colourless time, though snowy winter it is.

When I got home the moon was moved forward and the sky started to get darker. I really enjoyed the walk. I can't say how much I enjoy these cold weathers over the hotness of the summer. Right kind of clothes and you're ok.

Yesterday the weather quickly changed.

I noticed the postman left our mail and I went to get it - with a camera. It was about -15 degrees still, but no wind and it felt warmer somehow. Here are the lanterns under the snow in the front terrace.

Sunbeams on the snow. Like little silver nuggets spread arround everywhere. How to get that in a photo is a mystery still to me.

Lets have a barbeque! Though the grill is not particularly warm at the moment...

Visitor on the yard. Don't know who's been stepping here.

Bright, sunny day, clear sky and great weather to be outdoors.

Little snowhats on the plants, too. Beautiful.

And after these photos were taken it took about three hours and the storm came. Snow and blowing wind. Rrrrreally cold.

I got the kids from the center of the Nousiainen, 'cos it really wasn't the weather to walk three kms in that terrible wind. Though snow was soft  it came to the face so fast it hurt. And after a little while I went to get my husband from the Airport, too. Driving was a constant struggle against the wind and the roads were icy, so not very fast either. Luckily all the other drivers on the road knew to be carefull, too.

Thought if we go to Uusikaupunki (about 80 kms from us). I mean me, our son and Kadi. Our son would've wanted to go and play some guitar with his friends for a while and 'cos the weather was nice I could've had a long (two hours) walk in a beautiful little city at the meantime. Walking with Kadi, enjoying, taking photos... But the friend of our son would've needed more time to adjust the idea. We often are doing things in spur of the moment. If we like it, and there is time, we can do it.

Then instead I made one scarf for my goddaughter, for her magnificent dress that is going to be her "Olders' dance" dress in the college. Found a suitable jewelry for it, too. Lighter one what my goddaughter already has attached to her dress. She really looks like a royalty with that dress on! <3 Olders dance is for the second grade students, 'cos after the candidates for the matriculation examination are gone, they are the older students in the school. The same thing is ahead of us next year, when our daughter is in the same position.

I also got finished my long leg warmers. These go from ankle to little over the knee. Good to have over the legs on the trousers when it's cold, but also giving warmth with a skirt. Have to make a few in different colours and paterns yet.

Mostly I've then just being whole of my Saturday. As well was the pets, too. Laying around in various positions in different places. =oD

And here are the cats waiting for me to go to bed with them. We share this side of the bed always when my husband is at home. He is so noicy and restless and moves rapidly. The cats feels safer to keep their place near me.

There also were a long power cut in the Saturday evening. It lasted about two hours. We noticed to be at total black when the lights went out. I didn't have any candles burning either, so we had to feel our way for a little while, before I found new candles and we got some light. Put some wood in the fireplace to give us some light and warmth, too. I stopped my knitting and took a book with a reading torch - the one that works with batteries. Was funny to notice how everyone always clicked the twitch in the toilet to get some light in there, though we all knew about the power cut. We had a little candle in there, too, so it wasn't bitch black. And later when the power came on again, we didn't open the tv any more.

I took one little lantern out of our porch to my night table upstairs. Got some light there, too. These are safe, even if the cats moves right beside it. Heavy enough to keep its place and not to fall down.

Sunday morning I went for a walk in the forest near us with the dogs. There were places where the snow has been melted a bit on top and I got some larger bits taken from it. I threw the snowballs here and there and Kadi tried to catch them. Kissi and Kyösti didn't understand the game at all and Mimi took the balls only if they came to her in the path - she didn't want to go away from the path; too cold and wet. So in the end I had a great snowfight with Kadi. Though she ate all the snowballs she could get a hold of. I was a bit afraid if she ate too much and will get a sore throat for all that cold snow, but seems like that was unnecessary fear, luckily. And though her stomach surely was quite full of snow she still ate all the food she got later on. And after that all exitement it was great to have a long nap.

And after we had our lunch I started to get ready for the skiing happening at my parents. My father made skiing paths in the near field of their house and while we waited everyone to come, we drank some coffee. It was great to see everybody at one time. All my siblings with some or all of their families and our parents, of course. For a while there was a lot of people in the little house.

And here it is - that house we started from. Photo taken from the opposite side of the field. Never before being on that place before, so it seems a bit different for me, too.

This photo is taken by my brother. Proof that I was skiing, too. Though my skis went just as fast backwards as they went forward, so when there was any little uphill going, I had to use my arms to go ahead. That's why I only went a couple of rounds. Should start slowly and add more speed and rounds when it's easier to go. Different muscles moving here than what's normally in use...

Here's some going some coming from the route. I was just behind my brother to start another round. Other way around this time.

Father has made a long route and a shorter route. So there were some options. One of my sister's daughter skiing here fast in the middle of the field.

When skiing together it was nice to have a chat at the same time, too.

Here we are waiting for the last one... Well, actually no. This one went one extra round alone and then one or two rounds after this still. At this point I stopped and went inside. Needed to be ready for the afternoon walk with the dogs, yet. Didn't want to be too sweaty or tired.

There was sauna ready and warm, waiting for the people to go in and then some sausage soup to top of it all. Was really, really great having some time together!

At home I didn't even take my outdoor clothers off, 'cos I went for a walk with the dogs right away. The weather was great for being out, I must say. About ten degrees minus celcius and only a little breeze. Couldn't been better.

While I was downloading the photos from the camera to the laptop, the dogs came laying around near me, too. Kyösti was on my feet, so I didn't get him into the same photo. It was nice to be out, but still it was nicer to be at home! =o) Love this house, my family and the pets so much!

I feel like I've lost one day this week. I woke up yesterday morning feeling like it's Wednesday and it already was Thursday. I kept thinking the earlier day until one of my friend's gave me a reality check after one phone call. I wished her happy Wednesday and she started laughing really hard. I was wondering what she could have heard me saing, 'cos it should've not been anything funny. Well, at last she was able to say what she suspected some time while we were talking. I was totally in the wrong day. And still, after that, I felt it should've been Wednesday... And I really didn't sleep one day all over.

A little headache also been there on the backside of the mind all the time, since Tuesday afternoon. So small I don't want to take any pills for it, but it disturbs concentration still. Only when I was out for a walk with the dogs, it seemed to go away for awhile. Been walking quite long walks, about two hours at a time. And then the dogs are quite restfull and really relaxed when we came home again. Laying around in various positions.

Cats have been having some playtime together then. Here first Susu didn't realise Mustis was in the box, but then she noticed her...

... and got moving her paws quite rapidly. Mustis stayed in the box for awhile still. She likes to rip the box apart little by little.

Yesterday morning we got only one kind of signal from our tv.

I usually keep the tv open for noice, so that the dogs won't listen to all the cramble and pops of the house itself. I noticed one time that there's no voices coming any more and this green screen was on in every channel. In the evening it was ok again. Don't know if the problem is in tv, digibox, antenna, lines or channel, but lucky it didn't stay.

At one point I was doing the laundry and went here and there to put the clean clothes forward. I noticed Kyösti was sitting in front of the porch door like a statue. Sitting, sitting ...

... and sitting. I took him out for a short walk, 'cos I thought to make sure he wasn't wanting out. No he wasn't. Had to be sure. This place is the best place to see and hear the whole house at one point. I think, that was the real reason he stayed here.

There was a great looking crescent moon in the evening over our house and I just had to fetch our camera. But I could take one good shot out of it. First photo was taken when our yard light was on and it showed a bit more of our house, but the moon is only a little round spot on the sky.

Second photo was taken when the yard light was off. Still the moon is looking round and not crescent at all. Should have better camera - or a better photographer - to have a photo I was having in my minds eye...

Today it's still cold, about minus 16 degrees celsius, and the sky is starting to get a bit cloudier again. Let's see if it's getting a bit warmer, too. This photo was taken this morning about at eight am. Feels strange to have this light morning. Only a few weeks back it was totally dark at this hour. Spring is coming!

And the weekend is soon starting! Let's enjoy that, too! =oD

Little bit of this, little bit of that. Householding, baking, working, playing with the dogs and cats, outdooring, entertaining guests and a bit of knitting, too. Not bad! =o)

Well, one thing on Monday was unnoying, though. Our son started his first day at his working period in Laitila. He can now sleep about two hours more than what he can when he's going to his school. This work is in the half way and needs only one bus to get there. Still his alarm went on in the morning, really early. And it rang, rang, rang, before he killed it and after a while it rang again - and again - and again. He slept beside the alarmclock and still didn't mind to change the alarm to the correct time. I ment to talk about this on Monday evening, but we had something else in mind then and on Tuesday morning it was the SAME thing all over again. Then I just had to get up and start the day by complaining. If he gets used to the idea of putting his alarm off many times in the morning these next ten weeks, he'll be sure to make the same thing when the school starts again... But it worked: this morning his alarm went on once and he got up. I'm happy!

On Monday morning I had to go upstairs to wake Kissi up. She was sooooo tired. All the others were moving around already, though still yawning a bit - like Kadi here. She yawns with a little whine and Kissi is making sure she has not had anything to eat while she was sleeping... It was quite dark when I took the photo and that's why I used the flash. I didn't notice then, that the cats were there, too. Feels funny to notice that kind of things later on the photo. Lucky shot!

After our morning walk I spent some time to take care of Kissi's fur. Now that I've been using some sweaters to cover the fur while we're out, they makes some tangles, too. Had some in the arm pits, neck and back legs. Quite a bunch of fur came out and still Kissi seemed bigger after it. It felt great to be without any tangles!

While I was vacuuming and otherwise cleaning the house a bit, this was how Kadi "helped" me. She was clearly saying: take it easy, relax! =o)

I tried to find proper new table cloth to the livingroom table, but all I could find was having some problems: stearin stains from the candles, broken edgeline, wrong colour, wrong size and one even had a big hole in it in the middle - don't know what had happened there. Then I took out one of my scarfs and put it on. Something different from the Christmas time and still something to cover all the unread magazines and newspapers that are under the table...

Then I got a message from one of my friends that she's coming to visit me in the afternoon for some coffee. Great! =oD As I wasn't expecting this, we didn't have anything to eat with the coffee, so I made some Danish pastries. Out of strawberry- and orangemarmelade. We had a great time together and I would've hoped there would've been more time for us. She had to go home and in a while I got another message that we're going to have my brother visiting us in the evening, too. He had some business with our son - guitar things. They both are really heavily interrested in this as a hobby. But a lot of time we spent in our kitchen: talking, dringking coffee, eating...

Later in the evening - just before we were about to go to bed - Kyösti had a posing session. He took different face, different positions and I took photos. Most of them without flash, though, and they were too unclear. This last one I took with a flash and that's great!

Little of fresh snow came on Tuesday and I was determined to find our skiing shoes somewhere. Well, I don't even have any, but I was sure either the one of our daughter's or son's will do fine, 'cos they have always had long feet. The snow has been on the ground for so long it is time to start skiing again. At first I didn't have a clue from where to begin the search.

Here's a lot of boxes full of stuff that are just waiting for an energy boost to get them into some flea market. Two large boxes in front of them are from China. Moving boxes, and I really don't have any idea what they keep inside. But no skiing shoes here.

Then in the walking closet there's still our winter coats on the floor since the pole holder went broken at the end of last summer. My husband said it's reallly easy and fast to fix - that's the reason we haven't had it done yet, I suppose...

We have to buy a new holder that is made of metal, not plastic. Clothes are actually quite heavy and I want all the clothes back in the same place they have been earlier, so it's not going to be any lighter later on either. Had to jump over the clothes to get in the back of the room, where we have our shoe racks. I found one pair of skiing shoes that are not suitable to our new skis.

Had to move out to the garage that was emptied in the autumn, but it really is NOT empty any more. I took things out of the way so I could see the walls and YES, at last I found what I was looking for. And to top that, I also found something else I've been missing.

My winter boots are starting to be at the end of their days and still I've been using them a lot - and everywhere. Now I found my nicer boots that I can use for visiting and shopping etc. Don't need to be scared when the boots are ripped appart totally on the way.

And here's skis and skiing shoes. Shoes are about three sizes too big for me, but at least I can put several socks there to keep me warm.

A lot of spider webs and such on the skis, 'cos they've been unused for so many years. Had some difficulties to figure out how the shoes is buckled on the skis, but I made it at last.

Then I made a little ski track circle in our yard. It wasn't too easy with the thin skis that are not supposed to the cross country skiing. My shoes were wider than the skis and soon I had a bunch of soft and COLD snow on my ankles. Had to go in and change dry clothes. Well, I've opened the skiing season anyways. =oD

While I was drinking some warm coffee in the living room afterwards, Kadi was really wondering what I was doing. She's not used to seeing me on skis as I'm not either. =oD

I went upstairs to look for some ankle covers that I know I have a couple of pairs (I've made them myself, so I know) somewhere. Somehow I have a memory of putting them into laundry and then I haven't seen them any more. Washing machine has eaten them up? While I was in my walk-in closet Mustis had found herself a great position: "Lights off, please!".