Finland 100 Celebrations

As anyone who knows anything about Finland knows, this is the 100 year anniversary of independent Finland. This jubilee has been celebrated throughout 2017, with celebrations culminating on December 6th, the Finnish independence day. The Finnish community in New York has also arranged many different events, most of them which took place in September. The Bleecker Street Fair and an evening party on Sept. 9th kicked off the string of celebrations.

The Finnish block on Bleecker Street. Here we are at the Finlandia Foundation booth where they were handing out FREE BUCKETS. 

Most of my pictures of the day were like this... we were all having too much fun to focus. 

Lots of friends at the Street Fair. Felt like the whole Finnish community came out to celebrate. 

The traveling sauna was a big hit! (Although it was not in use - if it was, this guy would've sit in there forever...a sauna fan that he is.) 

I'm a sauna fan too. Would love to have this sauna in my back yard. 

Meanwhile, the little girls painted t-shirts at the Finnish School. Apparently spelling is a little challenging in Finnish. 

The weather was gorge. 

A quick outfit change and freshen up at home and then out again, to a party held next door to the Empire State building. 

Lots of friends there too. 

And of course the biggest fan of Finland - my hubby! 

Books I have read recently: The Story of a Beautiful Girl

Clarification: Take the term "recently" in the title to mean a timeframe meaning the past few months. I've been so lazy blogging that I haven't documented any of the books I've read, which have been numerous. Anyway, I will try to remedy the situation by picking a few of the best books to share.

The first is the Story of the Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon. This book came out in 2012, and my cousin mentioned it to me a while back. I finally read it this past summer and it's a lovely book written about a topic that hasn't got a lot of coverage in the world of literature. It's the story of a girl with developmental disability, and her love story with a deaf man. It's also the story of the institutions that housed people with developmental disabilities, and the horrible things that happened in those places. I felt the book captured the voice and feeling of its subjects well although it's not the most sophisticated writing. It's full of humanity, and understanding. I highly recommend this book.

Illallinen Taivaan Alla / Dinner Under the Sky

Now that the weather finally got chilled in NY, it's nice to look at the pictures from last summer. I love the sunset picnics in Sea Cliff in August. This year we made it there only a couple of times because of travel, weather, and being busy. The first time we went I had registered our dinner for the Finland 100 celebration "illallinen taivaan alla" or dinner under the sky, and served very Finnish picnic fare, i.e. herring, new potatoes, etc. The dinner under the sky concept has become huge in Finland, where people bring tables on the street and sit down with friends, neighbors, sometimes complete strangers. Ours was a very low key Finland 100 celebration due to lack of time to plan properly. However, it was a lovely night and another good summer memory.

Stockholm

Here's another throwback to last summer and our two days in Stockholm, Sweden. I loooove that city, not the least because I think that people in Stockholm are so beautiful and stylish. It's just so nice to sit there in a cafe and people watch. This time we did some touristy stuff too because I wanted to show Stockholm sights to the kids. One day we did a tour of the royal palace and the next day Skansen (an outdoor museum).

Not a bad view on arrival

The old town streets are so picturesque 

And so many lovely cafes

The gilded gold of the royal palace

the royal museum treasures

Next time I want to take a little dinner cruise around Stockholm

Different day, different ship.  

Goodbye beautiful people of Stockholm

But always nice to go my beloved Finland

Ship Ahoy

Here's a throw back Thursday post from last summer. 

Since we don't often get the chance to go on a ship it felt very exotic to cruise from Turku to Stockholm on the Viking Line this summer. We took lots of pictures, and even more selfies on the ship deck. Like real tourists, ha! While everyone else made a beeline to the buffet and the bars as soon as the ship left, we had the deck pretty much to ourselves. It was a beautiful evening and sunset, and the archipelago offers gorgeous breathtaking beauty that nourishes the soul.  

A happy memory.