A Finnish Forest Walk

We had a local tour booked for the morning; we were picked up promptly for a short drive to the forest, and then we set out. It was cold, but not too cold, the path was flat and the scenery was beautiful.  We found ourselves at a camp site, a fire was lit and we learnt a little bit about the Finnish love of outdoor pursuits. The local authorities keep the wood sheds at the campsites well stocked with logs, ready for burning, but everyone is encouraged to bring a log or two with them, and there is a stump and slicer gizmo provided for chipping and trimming of logs.

The tour leader then took us on to another campsite, where the fire was lit again, this time for cooking reindeer sausages for our lunch...  Blueberry juice for drink, and a local biscuit to finish up with. Then it was the drive back to the Santa Claus village to do all things Christmas. 

Travel Photos I've Been Looking at this Week

Our third full day of travel was spent at a place called Rovaniemi in Lapland at the Artic Circle. Our accommodation was a cabin at the Santa Claus Holiday Village. There were only about 6 cabins occupied; apparently it's full up when the ice and snow comes over winter. Our cabin was quite tight for room, and had a small sauna which we didn't use, of course... I don't know how all the snow/winter gear fits into the these cabins. 

Because it was the off season, there was only the one main restaurant open - we enjoyed our meals and breakfast buffets. The mixed berry fruit compotes at breakfast were both tart and sweet at the same time. Blueberries, lingonberries, strawberries...

From the restaurant there was access to a christmas shop, open till 9.00pm and full of wonderful things.  We browsed both evenings after our meal. Then we would call into the minimart on the way back to the cabin.

Well, I've got plenty of photos showing what we got up to morning and afternoon, so I'll post again tomorrow evening, and again on Friday.  

This and That for this Sunday

The platform under the clothesline is finished; well done Jim, and is brilliant to walk on, and more importantly, reaching the line for hanging up the washing. 

After church we picked up our sandwiches from the Milk Bar, and after a quick change of clothes and finishing off the tidying up, we were off for a drive to Lake Bolac. Why, you may well ask? - just cos...  However, we took the wrong clothes - not enough layers, scarf and beanie - there was a cold wind blowing off the lake. That's what happens when you rush around to leave the house, and not thinking through the outing properly. We drove up to the main street corner and had our picnic lunch at the civic green, which has been developed beautifully. Afterwards, we travelled home via Dunkeld and Penshurst. 

Outside Project

As mentioned 2 or 3 months ago, we installed a new clothesline, using the hole and plastic holder from the previous clothesline. At its lowest setting I could barely reach the line. 

When we got the previous line to the previous line we laid a big piece of rubber matting to bring my height up a bit. We did the same with the previous line - I keep shrinking and the matting keeps sinking into the ground. Once again, with this new line, we went looking for rubber matting, but there was none to be had, that had a decent height to it.  It was time to get serious, and build a platform for easier clothes hanging, and which would last me out...

This and That for This Sunday

First off, my mood has picked up, so that's good.

I think I've got the clothes and linen all set up for the next 12 months. I've had the sewing machine out doing some hemming, and I've been doing some hand mending, as well. Mainly with my cardigans - fraying seams and cuffs - they should be okay until winter, when new items become available online. I can now think about a couple of outside projects and christmas (coming up quickly).

I've got the first photo journal set up, and the first day's travel entered.  It's always a bit of a business getting the first one set up; deciding on fonts and sizes, layout etc. After this I'll just be able to copy the first into the second, and so on, and just change the headings and photos. 

Here are a couple of photos from the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. It was a lovely place to wander, and the rain pretty much held off while we were walking. We'd had our plastic ponchos on earlier. 

Post Travel Doldrums

It's three weeks since we got back from our travels, and I've just been feeling blah for 24/48 hours. I'm well over the jet lag, and I'm sleeping well in my cosy flannelette sheets, but suddenly feeling sooky with low energy levels. This too will pass...

Nevertheless, I got today's jobs done and spent the rest of the time veging out in front of the laptop and/or ipad....

A full morning of wandering around the streets on a Thursday morning tomorrow, including some christmas window shopping - I'll take my time and will feel somewhat revived.

Layering On and Off

I'ts been a week for layering on and off, for sure... Tempuratures have mainly been in the mid to high twenties - layer off - overnight tempuratures have been cold, so on with the winter pj's and blankets. Then a couple of nights, the house was stuffy and warm, so the air con was on and the blankets were thrown away.

It's been a quiet week. We're changing over computers at the church office, but that's been postponed until all the people and their phones can be aligned. 

 

Photo Business

I've spent the last couple of weeks, on and off, getting the overseas trip photos uploaded to the laptop. Each day, while we were away, I put that day's photos into a folder, hoping it would be easier when we got home. It was a bit... Some folders copied over straightaway, others couldn't be read, and I had to do each photo individually. Sometimes it was one folder, other times I was able to get 2 or 3 done in one session. All completed now, thank heavens.

As I'm quickly selecting photos to upload, I caught glimpses of places we'd been to, which I'd completely blocked out - from the first couple of weeks, at least. Looking back I think I was exhausted before the trip even started, and then we both got coughs and colds the second week. The escorted tour section was pretty intense, with early starts and long days. I was just hanging in there. But by the third week, I was travelling a bit better, and by the last few days, after the tour had finished, I think I would have been right to keep going for another week of so!

I've had to do a bit of organising of old photo journals from previous trips, just to streamline everything for easy saving and accessing. I'm just about ready to start on "Europe 2026, The Bigger Life"...

This and That for this Sunday

We've just got back from an outing to the Cobden Miniature Railway. After church we picked up some sandwiches from the milk bar, finished off the jobs at home and headed off. Had our picninc lunch in the tea rooms, and then a couple of rides out and about and back again. After that we drove across country to Timboon for an icecream, and now home. 

I've got another couple of projects done this week. You may remember that I'd bought a heap of towels etc with a gift voucher back a couple of months ago. Easy enough to finally get them set up in the bathroom and drawers for regular use. The mental energy went into what to to do with the old towelling. The old bath towels became the bathroom hand towels, and the old bathroom hand towels became the floor rags for floor kneeling and cleaning, but what to do with the old floor rags.  I have rags from back in the day still in good use.  There's a limit to how much old stuff to have in storage, just in case, or for future use....  Op shop, rubbish bin, or church kitchen? 

We both needed new shorts for this upcoming summer. I don't know what's happened to Jim's shorts in the last couple of years, but not fit for purpose anymore (holes in pockets?) and mine were rags. They should have been replaced this time last year, but it didn't happen. So, yesterday morning it was off to Gazman for him, and Black Pepper for me, and we made some purchases. My denim classic long pants will replace my current ones, which will be cut down to make shorts; everything is getting used and reused in different formats!

 

Disappeared...

I was just going to make a few small corrections to a document - the lay reading service order, which I'm leading this Sunday - and it's disappeared completely.  Nowhere to be found, not even in the recycle bin. Too late now to retype, and reformat. A job for tomorrow, and do another search to see if it's ended up in another folder.

Stress all round yesterday, as I ventered forth to Harris Scarfe to buy myself a bra.. I've been wearing the recovery bra from my surgery 6 months ago - reasonably comfortable, but the lycra is starting to stretch and sag. It's years since I've fitted myself for a bra in a fitting room, as I just kept buying the same bra as I always had, just in a bigger size, as required. Anyway, I came home with one, to try out - we'll see how we go. Mmmmm.