I have lived in the Helsinki region for over 23 years and there are so many places to see and visit. I always wonder what has taken me so long to get to some of these places! I mean, really? In the east of Helsinki in the Vanhakaupunki area is a massive nature area nestled in along the seaside: Lammassaari. The (not so) Little Miss and I headed there one Sunday morning in June. We made a deal to go and check new places that neither of us have visited before. We parked at Pikkukoski beach (free parking), where there is a beach and walking paths along Vantaanjoki that take you to Vanhakaupunki ..read more

Hey everyone! It has been a long good while since I have written. Let’s just say the past couple of years have been overwhelming in a lot of ways – I think you know what I mean. There have been a lot of changes in life, and fortunately mostly good ones. I have had the chance to travel a bit, not a lot, but enough to share some fun experiences with you. There have been some good bucket list experiences and I will be back to tell you about them soon. For now, here is a teaser from Finnish Lapland. In Lapland there are three fells named Ailigas. I climbed two of them in 2008 with the Mr. and I to ..read more

Last year I published a post about the consumption of fruits in Finland. So, I was really happy to see an info graphic in Yhteishyvä (5-2022) that discussed the consumption of root vegetables. Leila Mehto and Hanna Ruusulampi were the creators of this info graphic too! People buy about 47 million kilograms of potatoes and 18 million kilograms of other roots from the S-group. 95% of the root vegetables sold were grown in Finland. People purchase about 1,4 kg of root vegetables every time they shop. The sale of organically grown roots (luomu in Finnish) has grown a lot in the last 10 years and ..read more

I regularly get the Yhteishyvä magazine from the S-group and in the 1-2022 edition was an info graphic about Finns and fruit consumption. Here’s some fun facts for you – actually and some eye openers (if you think about the carbon footprint associated with our consumption habits). The info graphic was done by Leila Mehto and Hanna Ruusulampi. Last year people bought about 130 million kilograms of fruit from the S-group. 80% of the banana sold by the S-group come from Panama. Oranges, mandarins and watermelons mostly come from Spain. We get kiwis from New Zealand (16 900km away), avacados from ..read more

The on-going pandemic has really stretched a lot of people thin. At least on my own behalf I can say that life has changed a LOT since the last time I wrote here. That’s a discussion for next time. It has been an AGE since I have written here. How are you?! —– Summer is long-gone and we’re into the throes of the dark season – but, I want to give you something to look forward to for next summer (or you could even do this in the winter if the conditions cooperate). In the summer of 2020, the Mr. and I racked up our bikes, drove to Tuusula and did a bike ride around Tuusulanjärvi, which was highl ..read more

Happy New Year everyone! Now that we are a week and a bit into 2021 and winter has FINALLY made a return to southern Finland; here is something you can try at home: Ice lanterns. These are easy, but you have to make sure you keep an eye on the bucket. I have a friend who said she has broken many buckets doing this over the years… The weather should also be cold enough for the water to freeze, sorry to say, but -1C might not do it for you. In any case, fill a bucket with cold water and leave it outside for a few days. Check on it now and then and make sure it hasn’t frozen all the way through ..read more

It’s been a helluva year, let me tell ya. I have not felt like writing anything lately because life has just been a huge drain. I know other people feel the same way. Hopefully it will get better and we leave 2020 behind soon enough. In any case, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Stay safe, don’t drink and drive and arrive alive! Since we’re on the theme of Christmas, I learned a few things about Christmas trees in Finland that I didn’t know before. Finns put up 1.4 million trees every year and that doesn’t include fame ones! About one million are purchased and some 400 000 ..read more

Yesterday I took a walk on the Glimsjoki nature trail here in Espoo. If you follow the map, you start from the Träskända manor (in the Järvenperä area. The trail is a bit rough in parts and Glimsjoki isn’t much of a river (more like a creek), but it’s a nice trail and takes about an hour if you don’t stop to look at anything. There some very big trees in this area: pines and oaks. This is a good time of the year to walk because there are no mosquitos yet! The biggest surprise on this trail was coming out at the Jorvi & Espoo hospitals on the old Turku road – Glimsjoki is flowing quickly do ..read more