So here's my long Berlin post with old and new favorites:




The best coffee in town is in The Barn. I found the place a couple years ago through a blog I read and it has remained my favorite since. This time I tried their fruit and nut bread (big chunks of dates and figs!) and fell head over heels in love with it. I will definitely try making this!




On Auguststrasse we passed this most inviting restaurant. (Must go!)


Coffee in No Fire No Glory was very good and their banana bread even better. Yet I think my second favorite coffee was in DoubleEye near my uncle's place. (One day my uncle, being adventurous, ordered "Super Spezial" from their list of coffees and got a mouth-watering espresso with condensed milk. Yum.)


We had coffee on the patio of Michelberger Hotel and what a pity it is I never need a place to stay in Berlin! It was the most amazing hotel I've seen (with old suitcases and cuckoo clocks in the lobby to begin with), oh wow.




Petri is the master of karelian pies (and of all cooking) and we all love to eat them so we try to make them every time I'm there.


(Me and Mariia accidentally bought exactly the same glasses a while ago.)




The breakfast menu of Factory Girl looked scrumptious; we had coffee and Magnolia Bakery inspired banana pudding (in this style).


I found blackberries.


Breakfast in Ungeheuer was alright. (I think we should've tried their homemade müsli.) The place was charming!


Mondo Ruoka&Matka magazine told us the best kebab in town is Mustafa's gemüse kebap on Mehringdamm 32. They were right.


On Sunday morning it rained so much that for the first time I missed the Mauerpark fleemarket. However Tanja and Martina got us to join them for the smaller fleemarkets in Friedrichshain and I ended up finding the jeans jacket I'd been wanting AND bumping into Sandra whose blog I've been reading for some years already and whom I've actually been hoping to bump into when in Berlin! It was lovely and absurd meeting her and her boyfriend (absurd because I know so much about her yet she had no idea who I was). It was Sandra in whose blog I found The Barn back then!






Danke schön Berlin. You were everything I wished for. (And thank you Juha, Pete and Mariia for all the delicacies and the drama.)

This weekend I spend most of my time in the kitchen cooking various meals (and just enjoying time at home) because for the coming weeks I'll be spending more time at the theater than at home; the rehearsals for Fiddler on the Roof start on Monday and will keep me perfectly busy till the end of August. I hope to find the time to post a little something here but please bear with me if I won't! Have a beautiful and inspiring August everyone!

I want this kitchen! (the photo is by Menno Aden and here are more fascinating room portraits by him)


We came back from Berlin last night. (I took a million pictures and I'll share some with you later this week.) We had a terrific time and I had more good coffee than I remember having in a long time but I'm also very happy to be home. I wonder how my brain shall catch up at work tomorrow.

Norah Jones. Her music, her voice wakes something up in me like not many things can. Bliss, longing, serenity. I felt so alive and so very good.


In the morning we're flying to Berlin!

I got so many good meals on Rantakatu, mom and dad took good care of me and I met many dear friends I hadn't met in ages again. For once I had plenty of time to spend. Many idle days.

Mom offered me a ride down south; we decided we'd stop at every single fleamarket on the way. We missed one. We had breakfast with mom's aunt and lunch with Saara and Mikael on their cozy little summer cottage. What a special day. Thanks mom!

I've found myself loving and appreciating my family and roots in a new way lately (one of the good things that come with the age) and during these weeks here it has just deepened. We have spent good days in the country and here are some photos of our hoods and what we've achieved so far:



I love the short walk between Ahola and Suojala (a small one room house where my dad was born and lived his first year. Mom and dad bought Suojala last summer. It's taken a lot of hard work and renovating as well but it's nearly finished!)



I love how the wind plays in the trees outside Suojala.



Here's the bedroom after I tore the plastic carpet and the hardboard layers away. Underneath awaited a very unpleasant surprise: a perfectly annoying layer of cement that grandpa had applied in order to even the plank floor (we assume it's the original floor from the 1800's).



It'll take lots of time and patience to scrape and wipe the floor clean of cement. But I can already see the floor shiny white, it'll be stunning!



Henna and Markus joined us one day and we had a blast. We worked on the bedroom pulling out hundreds of nails that had kept the hardboards on the floor, Henna ripped of the wallpapers and Markus pulled down the walk-in closet from the corner (I believe the beautiful heater next to it is happy about it). Thank you for your tremendous help!



I'm dreaming of a wallpaper with roses or something for the bedroom walls. The heater, I believe, will be painted white. (The lampshade was crocheted by mom back in the day. Wouldn't it be perfect for the loo?)



Mikko and dad started pulling down the paneled closets and walls from the foyer.



Here's the sauna before Markus tore the benches away.



There are three granaries that will be bedrooms (I love the old beds!). Me and mom used two nights to empty this one; boy it looks good now.



We created a habit of ending the day with pancakes.



I felt so sad driving home from Ahola for the last time this summer. I can't wait to get back to work! We've really just scratched the surface so far; there's a ton to do but I look forward to it and I really hope we all (sisters and brothers and families) will get to spend days and weeks together in Ahola next summer. I love the place.

Henna is getting married in six weeks so we had to surprise her and celebrate a little.

Pauliina has a beautiful new home and we celebrated her birthday.

Everyday jubilations

Look at me, fix your eyes on me,
and I'll make every morning Christmas morning.
You just wait to wake and find yourself
running down the stairs,
the air filled with the smell of something delicious
and the house full of warmth.

Set your hands on me
and I'll make every night surprise birthday parties.
I'll give you the jumps every time you come home,
make you the center of attention
until you'll feel awkward getting used to it,
until you're forced to love yourself
more than you did
when the door handle was still in your palm,
turning slowly.


Samu Ainesmaa


A friend of mine just published his debut book. I got it yesterday, and I am so in love with his poetry.

I'm at Henna's for some days and the internet connection seems too slow to upload any photos, I'm afraid. I am eager to show you our first days in Ahola! Henna and Markus went out of town and I've had a wonderfully lazy morning/afternoon on the sofa under blankets. I had yesterday's leftover pizza for lunch on the balcony in my nightgown. I watched this on TV and fell in love with Jamie Oliver.

If I spent July at home I'd throw so many Garden Parties!

I had a friend visiting for Midsummer whom I hadn't seen in 10 years. (We met in YMAM back in the day.) It was incredible to share 10 years in one night and one morning; we'd heard the most important details over the years but it all became a lot more real now when actually meeting her. I loved having Eva over and sharing so much. It almost feels like I got a new friend.

I arrived to mom and dad's in the morning but am already well settled in the backyard.

Tomorrow we're going to Kestilä; I'll see Ahola (here's the story) first time since last summer, can't wait! I've been having so many visions and plans in my head throughout the winter and I'm so happy to finally start working at it!

With all this time in my hands (as much as I would've liked to spend some more of my holiday at home in Helsinki cleaning cupboards, spending whole days in the kitchen and going to all the cafés I haven't gone to yet, I'm quite pleased with a little break from my everyday surroundings) I'll be posting stuff from last weeks. The summer's been beautiful!

Hope you're all doing well!

There's just something very good about mornings.

What a pleasant start for vacation I had at my friend's country house last week! I enjoyed the big old house and the silent stories it held. I listened to the sea wind and Sakari playing the guitar. I slept well and had yummy blueberry jam sandwiches for breakfast. I loved sharing with friends I hadn't spent time with in ages. I left home happy, rested and revived. Thank you!

I'm a little behind in posting. Here's the Garden Party I threw for the start of my vacation:

Annan tuntien ma luistaa,
päivien ja öiden tulla,
mitään toivomust' ei mulla,
mitään en ma tahdo muistaa
kukkivien puiden alla.
Päivä hehkuu taivahalla,
poutapilvet kulkeissansa
levittävät purjeitansa.

(from the poem Sydänkesällä by V.A.Koskenniemi)

I'm going to my friend's country house for some days. I am packing Erica Bauermeister's novel Elämän lempeät maut (The school of essential ingredients) with me; I got it from my sister as a summer present. She knows I love presents.

Rhubarb porridge in the garden the other night



and celebrating the start of my summer vacation with Jessika by trying out the new coffee shop Good Life Coffee on Kolmas linja 17 (ah, the best coffee I've had in a very long time! We're regular customers and our days craving for good coffee are saved!)

Bliss. Utter bliss of slowly realizing I'm on vacation till August. Long mornings, countryside, cottages, docks, family and friends, good times, here I come!

Never let it be said that to dream is a waste of one's time, for dreams are our realities in waiting. In dreams we plant the seeds of our future. (Unknown)

A restless day at work with Jessika and a cozy night with Henni and rhubarb pie and a long conversation on (among other things) how "love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1Cor.13:4-7)

And an amazing pink sunset. Thank you.

(Helsinki is charming in the summertime. Oh the smell of blooming trees and cows out in the fields!)

I've got a feeling that I have a very beautiful summer ahead of me.

A slow morning (for the first time all week I don't have to do anything or be anywhere) with Mondo Ruoka&Matka, my favorite magazine that for some silly reason only comes out once year. Go get your copy; it's packed with inspiration, beautiful pictures and good tips!