Holiday adventures

Our holiday is slowly coming to its end. This is our last evening in Kotka and tomorrow we are heading towards Helsinki, where we spend few days before we fly back The Netherlands. The ceiling of the Kotka Orthodox Church
We had a small adventure yesterday. We went to a summer cottage on one of the islands off the coast of Kotka. Gorgeous sunny day, good food and I got to spend some time with one of my best friends. My boyfriend experienced a proper wood burning sauna and he even skinny dipped to the sea couple of times, enjoying himself to the fullest. He just can not get enough of sauna, he absolutely loves it, with a capital L.

Later on my friend's father came to pick us up with his boat. We were more or less half way back to Kotka when the boat's waterpump broke down and we were stuck, floating somewhere between Kuutsalo island and Kotka. So there was only one thing to do... to call the coast guard and ask for their help. We told them we were alright, so there was no hurry. The sea was pretty calm and we even had some food & drink on board.

Eventually the "cavalry" arrived and drew us back to the Kotka harbour. It was a slow journey (our boat was bigger than theirs), but at least we got to admire a beautiful sunset and my boyfriend found the whole coast guard experience quite exciting. According to him there is never a dull moment when we are in Finland :-) The Kotka Coast Guard
Few pictures from the Sapokka Water Garden in Kotka. It is such a lovely place to have a walk or just sit on a bench, admire the views and chill. Every time I come to Kotka, I have to go there as soon as possible.

Updating the Blog

Our holiday is going well. It is SO good to be "home". Loads of fresh air, good food, seeing family and friends and just relaxing and sleeping well. Only downside is I have had a bad toothache (for the first time in my life, that is Murphy's Law alright...), but after a visit to a dentist, it is slowly getting better. We have also had few lazy rainy days, an ideal moment to update my blog.

My mother's blog is also up and running now. She is getting very excited about her new hobby :-) Her blog is called Talo Metsän Reunassa, please go and have a peek. The blog is in Finnish, but you can also comment in English or Swedish.

This sunset picture was taken nearby my mother's house.

Summer holiday

So, this is my last post before our holiday. If I have time, on a rainy day, I might post something during the holiday, but no guarantees.

A wee update. The swan family's eight chicks are growing and doing well. One of the chicks is whiter than the others, so it sticks out from the crowd. They started with eight fuzzballs and eight still remains, great :-) Finally I will leave you with couple of pics from our patio. I am wishing you all a lovely sunny and hopefully relaxing July! I will be back at the beginning of August. Now I need to do some more packing, IF I manage to squeeze anything else into my tiny suitcase. I usually end up packing too many clothes & shoes, "just in case" ;-) Which reminds me, I definitely need to buy a bigger suitcase...

Let there be light

We like to mix old and new, especially modern lamps with older traditional furniture. We found this understated no frills Italian ceiling lamp after a long search. It looks like it was made for our living room and it gives beautiful, almost ambient, light. Perfect.

Now we still need to find a new dining room ceiling lamp, which is proving to be quite difficult...

By the way, does anyone know the name of this flower? I have no clue but it looks and smells gorgeous.