Three quarters

Hello there! I’ve been silent for quite some time, much longer than I expected. Moving away from the big country house was a true ordeal but we made it and have recovered. I always knew it is very easy for me to forget any kinds of hardships and the stressful removal was no exception. What I didn’t anticipate was how quickly we would feel totally at home in the new surroundings.

The country house was an ideal place to live as long as we drove to the office daily. Each night you felt like you were returning to the peace and quiet of your holiday home. But when we no longer had a job we started to grow increasingly reluctant to spend the three quarters of an hour to get to downtown Helsinki where all the action was. Now, it will take us three quarters of a minute to get from our apartment to the street level and we are in downtown Turku. That’s what I call progress!

And how about the town itself? Turku is the oldest town in Finland founded almost 800 years ago. It is the cradle of our civilisation and the site of many important historical events. Turku Cathedral, tho oldest church in our country believed to be inaugurated in 1300, is the seat of the Archbishop. Turku is a lovely and lively university town by the sea divided by the river Aura, a town big enough to satisfy your cultural appetite in plenty but small enough for you to explore most of the places on foot. We are loving it!

We moved here two months ago and we’ve already attended a concert in the Turku Castle – also dating from the 13th century – and another one in a brewery restaurant that used to be a school building, found a film club showing quality movies, gone to the theatre, visited several exhibitions, not to mention the many free concerts and other events we’ve either known about beforehand or happened to pass by. There are lots of interesting things going on here all the time.

The river flows just two blocks away from where we live. In the summer season, it is like a magnet drawing people to the many terrace and boat restaurants by the riverside or simply to have a seat or to enjoy a picnic on the riverbank. We couldn’t keep ourselves away from there even if we tried although many of our daily promenades take us to the walkways and paths a bit further away from the paved riverfront.

We’ve watched cherry trees blooming, tulips budding and nature slowly turning green. Proper summer with higher temperatures hasn’t reached us yet but we are getting there. We’ll be witnessing each moment from our new base only three quarters of a minute away from many of the things we’ve found ourselves longing for at this stage in life. There is all the time in the world to fine-tune the apartment later.

On cushions and sights

My mother once told me she couldn’t get why I was so fascinated with cushions. I was living in a much smaller place then with a fraction of the cushions I now have and I couldn’t get what on earth she was talking about.

Then again she was a lady with such perceptive insight there was little that escaped her attention. With her amazing foresight I guess she saw it coming. Yet she would be shocked to witness the present state of affairs in my home.

Nevertheless, she is to blame, at least partly. Thanks to her I am completely smitten with handcrafted items. It’s becoming exceedingly hard for me to walk away from a needlework cushion with a floral or ornamental pattern if I notice one at a flea market or thrift shop, I’m afraid.

Two weeks to go and we’ll be handing over the keys of this house to the new owners. We are busier than ever. In hindsight, you should never get a place with excessive storage and never stay put for too long. Keeping those two simple rules in mind will save you a lot of headache in the end.

Bye for now and until next time from Turku. I am planning to revive my Handmade treasures series as soon as we are settled down in the new apartment. Meanwhile, have a happy International Women’s Day and enjoy the spring season! Ours is very much ahead, not only in our minds but out-of-doors, too.

PS. Two of the elaborate cross stitch cushions are by my ex-mother-in-law.

Transactions

You must have read my silence: we haven’t been sitting idle, rather the contrary as we signed a couple of deals recently. First we sold this house in the countryside 45km from downtown Helsinki and the next day we bought an apartment a good 100km further westward in downtown Turku. In fact, both the transactions took place in early January but I wanted to keep it quiet until everything was settled.

You see, the rules of the 1920s building where the apartment is located still hold a rare old-world clause stating that any existing owner could have bought out our shares at the same price within a set period. We didn’t face any problems – such a clause is practically never utilised these days – but I’ve been far too busy to post anything since everything was finalised.

The past few weeks have flown. We are finally taking serious measures to clear this place out while having some redecorating and renovation made at the new place. The plan is to move within four weeks from now.

Luckily, this has been another mild winter. For a while in early February we did have something that resembled a proper cold season with snow sticking on every surface, even the vertical ones. Before too long, however, the snowmen keeping watch on the yard melted away and it started to feel like spring. 

What a spring it will be! Nothing like a sunset – although I am pushing 60 – but the dawn of a new kind of life for us and I’m excited.