After work me and Jessika had white wine (from the prettiest glasses) in Musta Kissa, out in the sun! As if that wasn't enough they had put the table and chairs out on our backyard, so we got to eat Friday night pizza out in the garden! We're thrilled to have opened the season. When I was kid I always ordered Capricciosa with ham and mushrooms when we went out for pizza; I make pizza often but tonight I made this legendary favorite for the first time. Definitely on the menu!

Such a beautiful day! Let's love, forgive and encourage those around us for "gentle words are a tree of life". (Proverbs 15:4) Here's my Sunday breakfast: pecan raisin rolls from Anton&Anton with ham, mozzarella and omelette. Scrumptious rolls, I think I have to try making some soon!

I passed by these ladies on a walk in Douenza, Mali 9 years ago. I keep missing Africa. I miss the earthy life, the sunrises, the brown little babies, the extraordinary joy people possess however little they own, however hot and dry it gets or however challenging every day life might be, I miss their singing and I miss how much they dance. I wonder when I shall be back.

TOP 5

1) brunch
2) Jonny Lang & Fisk Jubilee Singers: I believe
3) watching people dance and seeing their passion
4) riding your bicycle after a long winter
5) connecting with someone the first time you talk

On Friday nights one needs to make pizza or something else very good; tonight it was Indian. It's been a good day (I sang Natural woman all day while doing laundry at work), I love the smell and feeling of spring in the air, I love the hope and all the new life, flowers springing up though the snow has only just melted. The weekend ahead looks good: I'll have breakfast served both mornings. Bliss!

Goodbye Oulu, see you in June! Hello home, it's good to be back!

Easter holiday has been all about good food (I made my best moussaka so far and had my favorite chinese; the hamburgers are on the agenda tomorrow night), good music (my friend Leena sang the most amazing version of Whitney Houston's All the man that I need and I fell in love with Phillip Phillips on American Idol) and good old friends (if we hadn't planned to meet we bumped into each other at the grocery store). This picture is from Henna's livingroom. I love her home.

I fell in love with this poem (Rauha by Eino Leino) Nora read at their party this afternoon, it captured so much what I feel these days.


Mitä on nää tuoksut mun ympärilläin?
Mitä on tämä hiljaisuus?
Mitä tietävi rauha mun sydämessäin,
tää suuri ja outo ja uus?

Minä kuulen, kuink' kukkaset kasvavat
ja metsässä puhuvat puut.
Minä luulen, nyt kypsyvät unelmat
ja toivot ja tou'ot muut.

Kaikk' on niin hiljaa mun ympärilläin,
kaikk' on niin hellää ja hyvää.
Kukat suuret mun aukeevat sydämessäin
ja tuoksuvat rauhaa syvää.


(And the party was lovely: a beautiful home, plenty of delicious cakes and very nice new acquaintances!)

Palm Sunday 1985. Spending this Sunday afternoon in the kitchen drinking coffee, listening to Erroll Garner's Misty and cooking. I've got a pavlova in the oven for my friends' spring party later in the afternoon. Good, good.

I served a bunch of my friends Easter Brunch (I'll be up north at my parents for actual Easter); it's been too long since I hosted people properly. I had such a good time in the kitchen beforehand (I hadn't made apple walnut bread in ages) and the morning was lovely with too many cups of coffee (as always for brunch) and I got the prettiest tulips ever. I love these girls!

Favorites on the soundtrack:

Etta James: A Sunday kind of love
Amos Lee: Sweet pea
Katie Melua: What a wonderful world
Michael Kiwanuka: Bones
Stevie Wonder: As
Edward Sharpe&The Magnetic Zeros: Home
Aretha Franklin: I'm sitting on top of the world
Rosie Thomas: Say hello
The Little Willies: Love me
Ingrid Michaelson: Over the rainbow

Bacon pasta and J.Karjalainen for Monday. Life is challenging, inspiring and good.

Good morning darlings. Our backyard is clearing of snow; there are patches of green grass! I can't wait for the day they put the table and the chairs out in the garden, oh. (Come dine with me then!) I've been listening to lots of Aretha Franklin. And yesterday I cried (wept) when Taru Ratilainen sang in The voice of Finland. I just love her voice, there's so much soul. Singing like that wakes something up in me, a deep longing, a deep joy.

But I'm off to work, have a good day!

This is Ahola, the house my dad lived his childhood in. It's been empty since grandma and grandpa moved into the city in 1980. And it looks like it. It needs a floor to ceiling renovation inside and outside; the only thing fixed so far is the roof (this picture was taken before that). I dream about this house alot these days. How beautiful it will be. Our summer house. A place where we (me, my sisters and brothers) will spend lovely summers together with our families, where life will be slow and good, where we'll eat breakfast outside in the sun, where we'll farm, where I'll spend most of my time in the kitchen. This coming summer we’ll start the renovations, it'll be lots of hard work but I can't wait to get my hands into it!

On Sunday me and Kata had brunch at Pacifico (Helsinginkatu 15). Hadn't been anywhere for brunch in ages! Pacifico's Sunday morning gets points for the cozy, relaxed atmosphere, a live DJ, good coffee, a toaster and fresh pineapples.

(Where are your brunch favorites in Helsinki?)

Hello. And welcome! This shall be a place for me sharing things that inspire and thrill me, my dreams, my heart, how I see the world, how I love.

(Clean laundry gives me great pleasure, among many things.)

I'm very happy you found your way here and I hope you'll be back often. And say hello!