OK, I couldn't even keep up with a Project 52 last year. :( Still, I haven't been swallowed by the ground or anything. Life's just been busy.

Last year was absolutely crazy at work. Finally, if I got some free moment, I found it hard to come up with anything to do... Before that, I would simply have gone and checked the latest lolcats, or hung around on some message boards.

A nicer thing that kept me busy were Bollywood dance classes, and rehearsing a number for a couple of school shows. I managed, and had a really great time. Experiencing the backstage chaos is just priceless!

I'll have to try and check this site every now and then again.

This is an artificial waterfall at a park from our last trip. Looks nice in any case.

While I was home between trips, I finally got at the garden. This patch looks a bit tidier now. Alas, the flowers are already past their best time of blossoming.

Not that there still weren't a lot to do...

OK, I know I'm awfully behind with my updates. Blame it on being on vacation, and the fact that it indeed does come in pints. :P

A couple of days ago, I visited a handicrafts museum; a block of houses some 200 years old that had been kept like they were, featuring craftsmen's workshops and homes from the past centuries. One was a tobacco shop where tobacco products were also manufactured - and, the raw material was grown in the yard.

I wonder if it was Old Toby or Longbottom Leaf?

There aren't too many attractions in the town where our family spent the last weekend. One of them is this fast food restaurant, though, and not only because one can still get decent burgers there. It was founded by a real Elvis fan, and even the outside of the building tells to whom the place is dedicated. ;) Inside, there's all kinds of Elvis related stuff, and the walls of the toilets are papered with pictures of the King. They even used to have a jukebox with only Elvis records, but that one has probably been worn out because it wasn't there any longer.

Now, if they just added the famous bacon-banana-peanut butter sandwiches on their menu...

On Friday, I made a quick visit to Tampere, a city about 200 km north of Helsinki. Getting a hotel room was the only way to provide a place to stay overnight there for the older daughter who attended a Morrissey concert there; she had tried to get a room from a hostel, but they were all full. And, I didn't want to take the risk that she'd miss the last train homeward in the evening, and would have to find a place to stay until the first train in the morning would leave.

Well, the trip provided a peaceful evening for me; I went to have a leisurely dinner, walked a bit in the city, and went back to our room to shower and pass the time reading.

It was a bit of a nostalgia trip as well. First, the hotel where we stayed was the same where my husband and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. Since then, it had been renovated, but kept very much to the old style. Second, right across the street from the hotel, there was a park where I played as a child when I was visiting my grandmother who lived on the other side of the park. Then, the playground wasn't as big and fine as it is now, but I never had problems passing my time there!

Here's part of the playground as it is today; Grandma lived in the yellowish stone house on the right.

This weekend, we celebrated Midsummer. Originally, it was a Summer Solstice festival, and this year, it really took place close to the solstice (which was today).

Bonfires are an ancient Midsummer tradition, and we went to see one with a couple of our friends.

I didn't come up with anything else, so here's a geranium from our back yard. I don't know if it's originally wild or planted; those flowers do grow wild here.

I was about to post this one yesterday, but got so caught up with other things that I forgot. Oh well.

There's buds in the lilacs. They didn't quite get to bloom in time for the glorious May 25. :P