An Unpleasant Journey [Daily Photo #1090-1093]

In March I had to go to Moscow because bureaucracy is sooo awesome. So fun when they insist you must go there to sign something when in theory it could have been sent via mail. Email. Something 21-century-ish, I dunno. Anyway, here are some pics from my unpleasant and exhausting trip.

*grumble grumble*

#1090: Oodi Library in Helsinki where we spent time before my train. It's huge and quite different from most libraries. One day I'll go there to explore it properly. :D

Piglets, Matryoshkas and Snow [Daily Photo #1036-1040]

#1036, 31.01.19: I hear some sounds coming from this box…

Lumipallo! What are you doing?

Baba Yaga's Chicken-Legged Hut [Daily Photo #703]

Before I show you the hut of Baba Yaga, let's drool over these delicious photos from yesterday, shall we? =D Carrot-mango-ginger smoothie and chocolate coffee in Espresso House. NOM NOM.

Meltable chocolate!

Tofu and Dumplings [Daily Photo #594]

At Wu Gu Feng restaurant near Sello.

Russian Foods [Daily Photo #585]

Mmmmm Russian eggplant spread, mmm sunflower halva.

Hardcovers [Daily Photo #551]

You might have noticed that I like books a lot. =D And I like to keep them in good condition, so of course I prefer hardcovers as they are more durable. But. I was quite disappointed when I discovered that most of the time hardcovers from USA have very plain covers with pretty dust jackets on top. It feels like cheating. =D You pay a lot more but the durable cover of the book is plain, and the pretty dust jacket won't last long unless you're very careful. Meh!

*grumble grumble*

I guess I'm a spoiled child of USSR. Most of my Russian books are hardcovers, as they are more common than paperbacks and affordable there, and most of Russian hardcovers don't have dust jackets. Have a look!

Russian Wooden Spoons [Daily Photo #544]

Two more wooden spoons have joined our collection!

Wolfhound and Other Books [Daily Photo #538]

My mom brought some of my old books yesterday, so of course I must show them to you! First, The Wolfhound series by Maria Semyonova. It's a Slavic fantasy story about a guy called Volkodav (Wolfhound), a quiet and compassionate man from a matriarchal society who didn't exactly intend to become a hero and save people but fate said otherwise. The books are very beautifully written, with a poem in the beginning of each chapter. One of the best parts of the series is a pet bat named Neletuchiy Mysh – in Russian a bat is called letuchaya mysh – 'a flying mouse' =D And this pet bat was injured and couldn't fly, so he was named Neletuchiy Mysh, 'a mouse that doesn't fly'. He travels perched on Volkodav's shoulder. =D There is also a scene where Volkodav rescues a puppy, and that's the kind of fantasy hero that I like! : 3 I really hope they'll translate these books to English one day!

Fern Shores [Daily Photo #480]

One of the thousands of the Finnish lakes.

Russian and Finnish [Daily Photo #369]

Things from Russia:

a toy from childhood, a khokhloma spoon and a Slavic fantasy novel.

Things from Finland:
a Moomin book, a tonttu couple and a kuksa from Lapland.

Reindeer, Buckwheat and Snow [Daily Photo #244]

Part 1: Xmas

Today in Sello: Joulupukki's hut! ^o^

Daily Photo #87: Dyed Green

In Soviet Russia your antiseptic dyes you.

Once again I dyed some of my hair with Brilliant Green. Wikipedia says,

Daily Photo #74: Russian Speculative Fiction

GreyHat: “Hey, did you notice our owner doesn't read much in Russian nowadays? Even science fiction and fantasy like these wonderful books?”

Daily Photo #32: Friends

Friendship. A portrait in shoes.

My old book friends

Whenever I have guests from Moscow I ask them, if possible, to bring some of my old books. Last time I counted my books – which was a year or two before I moved to Finland – I had ~260 books. I bought a few more after that, just a couple... Right now I managed to move about 100 of my old books, so we're far from done yet. ^^;

Here is what my father brought this time:

Russian chocolate

When sweet hobbits* agreed to meet my mom in Moscow and bring a package from her to Finland, I asked her not to buy too many sweets**. “Just one chocolate block is enough.” But my mom's memory is very selective, it seems, because apparently she only remembered “buy chocolate”. :D Here is her idea of “one chocolate.”

World Animal Day

October 4 is World Animal Day! To celebrate it I'm sharing our photos from the Moscow zoo. They were taken in October 2008 when I still lived in Russia.

4 октября - Всемирный день защиты животных! По этому поводу делюсь фотографиями из Московского зоопарка, сделанными в октябре 2008, когда я ещё жила в России.

In search of a song

My husband hummed a familiar tune the other day. Something I heard in an old Soviet cartoon that he didn't watch. I said, “How do you know this Russian song?” But he swore it wasn't Russian and played me this:

But! That's what I heard in the cartoon “Nu, pogodi” (jump to 2:33) in childhood:

Books & Tea. It Never Ends

Really, I should never go to libraries alone. I was supposed to return The Summer Prince and get two books I ordered earlier (if you live in Espoo, Helsinki, Vantaa or Kauniainen, you can order books from any of their libraries and have them delivered to your local library for free). But somehow... my legs just took me upstairs... and my eyes saw more books... and then the books just jumped into my hands, you know? They were naughtily heavy!

My husband is learning Russian. He is reading Max Frei now, humoristic Russian fantasy-mystery. It's a bit challenging for a beginner, so I got him English translation for reference.

Max Frei wrote a lot, this isn't even everything. ^^

Always Horses

I just realized that I made quite many posts about horses. For your convenience here are links to them.

Tampere

Villa Elfvik, Espoo