These ladies are all from our church in Columbus, here enjoying a respite at Lakeside, and admiring my husband's paintings at the Patio Restaurant.
Our friend Wes is enjoying a novel in the Pavilion by the lakefront. Notice the puddle to his right from the morning storm.
I'll probably return it today--not having made it through chapter one, because I don't agree with her main thesis, which is clearly stated at the beginning (I give her credit here--she's up front). Ann has some peculiar views about Christians. She thinks, or writes for sales, that they are all political conservatives. She sees liberals as worshipping in another faith--a state religion ruled from the temples of NOW, unions, Darwinists, and abortion clinics. I know hyperbole sells books (as it did for Michael Moore), but this is pure hogwash.
Every tourist who visits must take this photo!
I could hardly believe the beautiful workmanship and skill. Martti's father made them for his mother as he waited in the trenches and needed to keep busy. The dark is the inside of the birch bark and the light is the outside. They are over 60 years old now. The children of the veterans of this war have not forgotten, but the younger generation has never known a larger Finland, and the teens and twenty-somethings don't remember the USSR. Many Finns from Russia have been repatriated, but their children speak Russian. And we think we have border problems?
After dinner Riitta carries the plates and flatware to the lake in baskets, feeds the fish (who love her) the scraps, and washes the dishes in hot water from the sauna and lets them dry in the sun. This may be the first and last time I washed dishes with my feet in water.
Years ago I took the kids to the community pool every day, but haven't even owned a swim suit in years. I found this full-coverage, retro-version at K-mart. Here Riitta (not dressed for swimming) is encouraging me to just take the plunge, which eventually I did--for about 5 minutes. The lake is quite shallow and warm.
On Friday we visited a living farm museum. "Located in the village of Lyytikkälä at Suomenniemi, near Highway 13, the Lyytikkälä Museum Farm comprises one of South Karelia’s best preserved complete farming estates. A former 18th century “augment” or a farm which paid its land tax to a rustholli estate (a larger farm under obligation to equip a cavalryman), Lyytikkälä Farm was purchased as an independent hereditary estate in 1859. It remained with the same family for well over 250 years." Check site here.
On Saturday morning we ate warm Karelian pies for breakfast, a wheat pastry with rice filling, and then we visited artist Pirjo Lindberg, watercolorist. She and her husband have a small farm/country house. He raises bees and she paints and invites other artists to show with her.
Kirjasto library was closed that day.
Lutheran church in Suomenniemi. This has been a Lutheran parish since 1689.
War memorial at the Lutheran church--the reason the Finns (children of the veterans) don't like the Russians.
Be sure to ask for Kevin for your historical walking tour of High Street. The Springfield Preservation Alliance sponsors walking tours of neighborhoods filled with the wealth of 19th century Ohioans who built large homes along High Street, designed in Neoclassical Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Richardsonian Romanesque style. Our Frank Lloyd Wright touring group, on its 16th or 17th summer tour (depends on whom you ask), walked past these lovely homes in various states of repair and renovation to get to the Wescott House. Our tour guide, Kevin Rose, of the Turner Foundation, was outstanding. A booming voice to fight with the traffic, a love of Springfield, and a farm background, makes him ideal for this job of shepherding an architectural tour, or any tour.
The Wescott House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is, of course, well worth the trip, but don't miss the rest of Springfield! Make a day of it.
This is the style, but it was black and white. I didn't choose this one.
One was sleeveless, and one had a small loose sleeve, so that's the one I went with. It is black silk gorgette with little color dots, and I can wear a light weight jacket in any of the colors, I think. It is a body skimmer with an eased v-neck, so I think it will be comfortable, and has two lengths with small ruffles.
We docked at a huge decaying concrete "ice palace" built during the Soviet era. This ?? is on top--sort of looks like a Russian bear, but up close seems to be an ethnic-asian person inside a fish or animal skin.
Although not as crowded as other European cities, driving is a bit dicey because before freedom 15 years ago, no one had automobiles--so it's sort of new to them.
We skipped lunch in the pricey market place (for tourists) and Tomi led us to a lovely local restaurant with great food and reasonable prices, called H.H. Rüütel.
Lower left of this photo shows some unrestored and crumbling buildings--what the whole town used to look like.
This was an extremely sick animal, but was still alive two weeks later when we left. I won't even describe the surgery or post the photos!
Church of the Rock
The severe winters cause the marble sections to buckle giving it a basket weave appearance, rather than smooth. If you buy a souvenir piece of marble, be sure to check it through in your luggage, not your carry-on. It sets off alarms. Ours is at the Helsinki Airport.
Next it was off to the Helsinki Train station to see where we would pick up our tickets for Russia, but also to look at the architecture. It was designed by another famous Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen, whose home we visited the following Friday. He later moved to Michigan.
Visiting the library on Suomenlinna, an island fortress built in the 17th century by the Swedes (who used to control Finland). Now on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was lost to Russia in 1808.
Tuomiokirkko (The Lutheran Cathedral), Helsinki, exterior
Cathedral, Helsinki, interior. There was no "night" while we were there, but this photographer caught a good night shot.
Inside the Helsinki University Library, or National Library of Finland. Read about digitizing the "national memory" here.
Then we walked along Esplanadi Boulevard through Kauppatori, Market Square (looking at the interesting merchants' offerings and climbed the hill to Uspenski Cathedral (Finnish Orthodox).
Here they are walking through the small forest with us near their house, down to a public beach. They live on the island outside Helskinki proper where they grew up. One of the streets in their area has four homes designed by Martti.
The main house in which they live was originally a two level on a steep hill and Martti redesigned it, incorporating the large boulder on which it sat into the new living room wall. The house now has four levels. Finland has long summer days (didn't really get dark while we were there), but very short days in winter, so the house has a lot of glass to take advantage of the sun when it is available.
This photo is from the master bedroom level, looking over the living room into the kitchen where Riitta and I are at the table. You can see that much of the living room is glass, as is the kitchen ceiling. The period furniture of Martti's parents was reupholstered for use in the new living room. The white walls and wood cabinetry and floors set off a riot of color in flowers and plants.begins with the obligatory "mythic images," of American immigration, all inaccurate according to Melnick, but they only get a brief paragraph. He quickly moves on to genocide, mass enslavement, annexation, violence, and pernicious cultural works that destroy everyone they touch. He is a master at "interrogating the historical literature." That's where you take every historical monograph written before 1960 (but ignore original sources), tie them to a chair in the faculty lounge and torture them until they spill their guts about how awful the United States is, was, and forever will be. It's like the torture and interrogation (called deconstructionism) the feminists perpetrate on novels of the 19th century, only more violent. You make the literature say things it would never even whisper if it weren't bound and beaten by faculty seeking tenure at any cost.
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