Happiness

...are the weekends at home.

Our favourite waste of time this autumn...

when the sun was setting...

...but you would like to wander around the silent garden.

And of course when the extra hands to help at home...

it was time to take up Pellas Flickan.

 What has been the high-light of your autumn?

Afternoon light

The light seems to be so mild now when days are getting shorter. 

Every time of the day has its own light now and I especially enjoy the afternoons, a quiet moment of my own with a cup of coffee.

I have begun to find my favourite spots at this house. Though this bench in the kitchen has the same affect on everyone, please, sit down, observe or why not take a nap..

This has become a cosy corner to take my cup upstairs and the day's paper, or gather around the table with the girls to play and do homework. The old wooden sofa is made for day-dreaming and the view over the fields of Pellas in marvellous. This is the best place to see elks and deer, sometimes a fox.

And if I am really lucky I get some company to share my cup with.

Ship - ahoy!

We got curious with Isak when we heard ships and their foghorns from the sea and decided to make trip to the boat harbour of our village. It was a foggy morning and the temperature had gone down five degrees during the night. By bike along the narrow village road it took us only few minutes to cycle there and we were anxious to see some big ships passing through the fairway south.

There was a thick fog to meet us and an empty harbour waiting for the winter. We remembered the lovely summer days running along the wharf and jumping to the warm water, the air was full of laughter and dragonflies. Now it was silent and peaceful.

By the Pellas wharf and our old boat-house we had our small picnic and could see how the eager fishermen from our village were trying their fishing-net.

In the clear water by the shore we noticed some fish jellies slowly floating by - they are harmless but during last summer numerous in our waters. Time stood still when watching their slowly movements.

They cannot survive here because of the winter and ice but will float from south of the Baltic Sea during next summer again.

No passing ship that we could see but these rowing boats in their winter sleep at the beach.

We are ready, mr Frost!

Tonight it will be frost and almost full moon, so it is time to start with hay and cosy nights at the sheep barn. The sheep and Agnes can during days freely graze at the field and try to find the last green.

I have sheared Alli and Salli - still Suklaa left - and got lots of nice soft wool for fulling something for x-mas present. It is always a bit slow project because I have only my kitchen scissors...

Beside our tractor Valmet there is Tuisku, a Norvegian fjord horse

Laara the Dog was helping me to keep Agnes away from the hay barn where I keep my dried branches - she loves them and would eat my whole winter storage!

The sheep barn got a new layer of dried peat underneath and a thick madress of straws above of it. Agnes approved her new bedroom...

Silent November evening

We have been enjoying many warm, windless days now and decided to burn the branches the sheep had already eaten. It was a beautiful calm evening and the fog started to first appear near our home-forest and then to creep nearer across the fields. 

The sheep were curious but Agnes the Goat was careful and stayed beside Isak. 

It has been so warm that the sheep and Agnes have been able to find grass from the field but soon it is time to start with the dried hay after the first frosty nights. They have waken up early - so when I get up and start to light the oven at the kitchen I can see them wandering in the field, though Agnes has also eaten all my herbs and the green leaves of vegetables.

Although the sheep have high respect on Agnes there is one thing that mother sheep Alli is ready to defend and that is Isak. 

The sun was setting and the old granary had fallen asleep. We have no lamps outside yet except old oil-lamps and lanterns - we light them every evening not to get lost on our way home, to dry-toilet or to the old sauna. And then everyone has his own headlamp...

Enjoying the harvest

Were our sheep too generous with their gifts to our garden? We are getting carrots that really earn their name.

Hello,  honey!

So yesterday they were honoured to become our evening dinner, a minestrone soup... We have got very fond of the yellow carrots because they seem to keep well in the cellar all winter - originally the carrots were yellow, so in the Middle Ages nobody had yet seen an orange one... (Sorry, a historian on the loose!)

Our favourite kitchen machine is this vehicle that I found from a local flee market with one euro. It does not need any electricity, it is functional and the result is beautiful.

Carrots, potatoes, celeriac, parsnip, onions - our mostly used vegetables - and some Hungarian pasta, a suvenier from a trip, and voilà, a minestrone with some honey bread!

There is nothing better than a soup on a chilly evening with a mist landing on the fields - and a warm fire on the stove.

Autumn guests of the farm

We have a lovely date every Monday here at our island, a family club of our parish. Today we had a visit from the family club, about twenty guests, moms, grand-mothers, babies, children and for example Rasmus who had his 5th birthday and offered us delicious cookies. We had baked yesterday here at Pellas - a big honey bread and apple-coconat muffins - and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and coffee around our long kitchen table chatting and watching the children play.

Pellas Honey Bread


100 gr butter
1 dl honey
5 dl water
50 gr yeast
12-13 dl wheat flour
1 tbs salt


Mix with a warm water the melted butter, honey, salt and yeast, and add 5 dl of the flour. Let the dough rise under a cloth for a half hour. Add the rest of the flour and mix with a hand so that the dough is soft but gets loose from the bowl.  Let it rise another 30 minutes. 


Divide the dough in two and make a round of the first part on the baking tray (with a baking paper on the bottom). Form a sneal of the other part of the dough on top of the round one. Put some flour on the bread, cover and let it rise again 30 minutes.


Bake in the oven 50 minutes on 175 degrees, cover for the last minutes not to get too dark bread. Enjoy with fresh butter.

We had a wonderful morning sun but a brisk wind and needed our woollen hats!

Of course the sheep and Agnes the Goat got their share, too, of dried bread that some of the guests had even brought from home. They were as glad as the hostess of the farm to get a house full of life!

Thank you all for a nice time together!