Picking Potatoes

Mimmi, Mimmi's Great Grandpa, Lily and me.

Our friend Sari invited us to join her family in their anual potato lifting. Four generations of her family were there, from her niece, Mimmi, and her nephew, Matias, up to her grandparents. 

We had a great time together and left with enough potatoes to keep Lily, Ernest, Gábor and Jen going all through the winter.

That was really hard work; fun but exhausting. I think I need a relaxing holiday now.

Blueberries

These little berries are normally called blueberries in Finland but they are different berries from what you would get in  a supermarket in the UK or USA when you buy blueberries. In English speaking countries these little berrie are normally called bilberries or even huckleberries. Whatever you want to call them they taste delicious.

There are so many tasty ways to eat them. Lily likes to pick then in the forest and eat them as she walks home from school or to eat some on her porridge fo breakfast. But my favourite way to eat them is as blueberry pie.




Here is the recipe that Lily and I used to make Finnish Style Blueberry Pie:

Ingredients:

Base:
200g butter
100ml caster sugar
3-4 eggs
1tsp vanilla sugar
2tsp baking powder
600ml flour (Lily's mum likes to use 400ml plain and 200ml whole wheat)

Topping:
500ml (or more) blueberries 
50ml caster sugar

Instuctions:

Heat oven to 200 degrees C.
Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs.
Mix together flour and baking powder. 
Combine all the base ingredients and spread into a greased pie dish.
Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven. 
Mix the bluberries and sugar. Cover the base with blueberry mixture.
Return pie to oven for further 15 minutes.


Can be eaten hot or cold but is alway best served with vanilla cream

There are also lots and lots of lingon berries in the forest but Lily, Ernest and I all like the blueberries best.




Next time I will tell you about the fun we had picking something a little bit bigger than berries.

Mökki, Muumi & Mustikka

Mökki, Muumi and Mustikka are three words that you have to know in Finland. Lily made sure I knew what they are.

My first lesson was Mökki.
Mökki means hmmm...cottage I guess is the best word. Many families in Finland have a mökki where they like to spend holidays and weekends. Lily's friends Arto, Magda and Filip invited me, Lily and Lily's family to spend a weekend at Arto's family mökki near Kuusamo. 86% of Finland is covered in forest so we spent a lot of the drive there admiring the beautiful autumn colours.

There are also 187,888 lakes in Finland so many mökkis are next to lakes. It is very relaxing to sit an listen to the water and I have been told it is fun to jump in the lake after being in the sauna but I didn't try.

While we were out looking for mushrooms we came across a herd of reindeer.

Lesson two: Muumi.

...or the Moomins as they are known in English. Muumi are from a series of books by Tove Janssen . Muumi are strange white creatures who live in a fantasy world. You can get Muumi everything here; Muumi bags, Muumi pencils, Muumi mugs, Muumi toys, Muumi everything. The stories have also been made into and anime cartoon series.

The third 'M' lesson is Mustikka. I already said 86% of the Finland is covered in forest and most of that forest floor is covered in Mustukka or they are also known as blueberries. Blueberries are so fantastic though that the need a post for themselves.

Coming Soon: Blueberries

This is Oulu

Here is a funny little tour of Oulu looking it's worst.

Up in the Hills

This is Linus, Jaana and Anatol. They are friends of 3D Lily from Oulu but I got to visit them when they were on holiday at their grandparents' home in Austria. They were staying in Passail which a small village in the east of Austria close by to the the city Graz.

I went with the children and their parents to see their friend and her family who live in a very idyllic old farmhouse in the mountains outside the village of Passail. 



 

From there we went even further up the mountain, until we arrived at the lake Teichalmsee, a nice place to rent a pedal boat in summer or to ice skate in winter. Actually, 3D Lily herself was there just a few months earlier! But then it was winter and Lily, Linus, Janna, Ernest and their parents were skidding and sliding over the ice-covered lake.  


 


A few kilometers from the lake there is a zoo where you can see native wildlife, like sheep, deer, foxes, pigs etc. in an extensive forest area. A highlight for me and the kids there is the animal feeding - especially the little goats and rabbits cannot seem to ever get enough. I even dared to caress the goats a little bit.

 

I also went with pony riding with Jaana and her grandmother one day. Jaana was very proud to show me how to put on the helmet and mount the pony. I was very impressed and decided I wanted to have a go too.
 

Unfortunately, it was soon time to leave Austria, but not to worry, Linus, Janna and Anatol took me on the plane with them back to Oulu whe I get to spend some time with Real Lily!

Love from Austria

The Crinan Canal

This is where Gran and Gordo (Lily's grandparents) live. At the front of their house  is Loch Gilp and at the back of their garden is the Crinan Canal. The Crinan Canal goes right across the Mull of Kintyre from Ardrishaig (where Gran and Gordo live) to Crinan. 

 
The Canal was built over 200 years ago to save the Clyde Puffers, which carried supplies around the west coast and the islands, from taking the long trip around the Kintyre peninsular. The VIC 32 in the picture is one of the last Clyde Puffers and is moored in the Crinan basin. Crinan is a very pretty village and I enjoyed the little trip there. Gran showed me the sea lock where the boats can go from the canal to the open sea.

This animation shows how locks help the boat to rise up and go down to different levels of water.

    

 


Even though the Puffers aren't used anymore there is still a lot of traffic on the canal. Nowadays it  is mostly yachts with people taking holidays sailing around the islands. I like to wave to all the boats as they pass by Gran and Gordo's garden gate.

Paul McCartney wrote a song about the Mull of Kintyre, maybe some of the older people you know (like your grandparents) might know this song. 

 We forgot to take any pictures of me with both Gran and Gordo, so here is an old one of them with Lily.

Caledonia's been calling me, now I'm going home.

Bon Voyage

Flat Lily is literally made to travel  and had been with us long enough, so last Monday we helped her address her first envelope, took her to the post office and sent her on her way to Albuquerque where Goosie was waiting for her.

Good Bye Flat Lily, Enjoy your adventures.

Love,

                  Lily, Jen, Gábor and Ernö

Coming soon: Flat Lily in Albuquerque

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Szeged Sights

There are lots of interesting and pretty building around Szeged. This is Reök Palota (palace). It is Lily's favourite building here. It is in an Art Nouveau style with beautiful purple flowers on it and lots of details. It's at the end of Lily's street so she walks past it almost every day but never gets bored of looking at it. It is the regional art centre and a café so it is fun to visit too.There are exhibitions and childrens workshops.

There are more pictures of architecture around Szeged here.

This is Dom Tér Catherdral. Lily wanted to visit it since she had never really been to a church before. It was cold and dark inside but every space on the walls,ceiling and arches were covered in pictures and designs. It was quite spectacular. The pictures showed scened from the bible which sparked lots of questions about what Christians believe. Me, Lily ans Lily's mum talked a lot about heaven but Lily concluded "I don't think there really is a heaven but thats OK. I love love and nature (especially lizards) and art and there is lots of these in life. I don't need anything more." 

Since we went to the cathedral we thought it would be interesting to visit the synagogue too.


We were all surprised at how similar the cathedral and the synagogue were; both are decorative and beautiful, both have huge domes, big organ and wooden seats. Lily wondered why there were two building that were so similar in such a small town but her mum explained that Christians and Jews believe different things and each group wants their own place to come together and learn. 






The Jewish community in Szeged, like the rest of Europe, has a very sad history. You can read more about it on the synagogue website.

A song and a rhyme.

Poets have a very special place in Hungarian culture. Many are remembered in history not only for reflecting on events but for using their words to inspire revolutions. There are lots of institutions, streets and public spaces named after poets.

Today is poetry day in Hungary. It is the birthday of József Attila, one of the most respected Hungarian poets. He was born on 11th April 1905.  In honour of the occasion Lily wanted to share one of her favourite rhymes with you. It is very simple so maybe you could even learn to sing it in Hungarian.

Süss fel nap! Süss fel nap, fényes nap, kertek alatt kis ludaim megfagynak. (traditional)

Shine sun Shine sun, Bright sun! My little geese are freezing in the garden. (translation: Liliom Valter)

Pronunciation notes:
Hungarian "s" = English "sh"
ü = oo
é = ay
ny = n (like in news)
gy = d (like in duke)

Here is the music for "Süss fel nap!" if you would like to try to play it too.

Courtesy of mamalisa.com

József Attila studied at the University of Szeged, were Jen (Lily's mum) goes to university at the moment. There is a statue of him on one of the squares in the city centre.

Since it is his birthday today then there is not better poem of his to share with you than one titled "On My Birthday".

On My Birthday

To end my thirty-second year

I wrote myself a souvenir –

a prize

surprise:

a quick impromptu memoir

saluting in this coffee-bar

my birth

on earth.

Thirty two years...Without a doubt

what Hungary has doled me out

was not

a lot

I could have been a teacher, but

I wear my pencils to the butt

for just

a crust,

for I was sent down from Szeged

by the provost, that old egghead,

a so

and so

who picked on my “With a Pure Heart”.-

To save the Nation from my art

he barred

the bard

and drew his sword against my kind.

His words deserve to be enshrined

to shame

his name:

“Until I must give up the ghost

don’t dream of any teaching post”-

I quote,

unquote.

So what matter if I am banned

from Prof. A. Horger’s graduand

grammar

crammer?

I’ll  teach my people one and all,

much greater things than what you call

college

knowledge.

Attila József, 1937 (translated by Peter Zollman)

Sign reads "Szeged University, József Attila Study and Information Center"

A Day in the Life of Lily

This is Lily's school. She is in first grade.

Lily really likes school, she has lots of friend there and has lots of fun. Lily thinks her teacher, Eszter, is wonderful.

It is a Waldorf-Steiner school so it looks and does things a little bit differently from most schools around here. Most kids Lily meets here are surprised to hear they don't do reading in school yet.



The classroom is very pretty, the blackboard always has a beautiful picture on the front. Now there are the four Manós (forest efls) who help with numbers. New buds and flowers appear on the picture every day, just like the plants and trees outside. In the corner there is the season table. The children can bring in natural things they find to put on it.

Everyday Eszter makes all the children tea to drink with their snacks. All the children have their own cup with their name on it. We do watercolour painting every Tuesday. The paintings on the wall are of a Farsang ball where the Manós are playing together.


Eszter gave these rainbow strings on the very first day of school. We use them to play games, like cats's cradle, and make characters and scenes from the stories Eszter tells. In the picture Lily is making a butterfly. The children draw pictures of the things they learn in their drawing books.

Lily enjoys knitting at school. She is making a teddy bear and has made a case for her recorder.



After school we go to the market to do some shopping. It is very colourful and busy at the market.

We can buy almost everything we need from the maket and the vendors are very friendly.

We can get very nice and fresh meet at the butchers, as well as yummy szalámi and kolbász sausages. Gábor even likes to buy bones to make meat stocks from.

On the milk market we get fesh cheese, yogurt butter and milk. Turo (cottage cheese) is used a lot in Hungarian cooking. Jen like to buy raw milk to make yogurt Lily thinks the cheeses are not just tasty but they are beautiful too.


 







Lily's favourite part of the market is the flower market. The smells are wonderful and sometimes the vendors give her a little bunch of flowers for free. The market is full of lovely spring flowers like these daffodils and hyacinths.

Once we are finished at the market we have all the ingredients we need to make Goulyas Leves (Goulash Soup) for dinner.








But before that we go to Kárász Utca (the street that was on the postcard) to get some ice cream and to play on the square in front of the town hall. Lily loves to climb on the trees and the statues. While we were on the the square we saw folk dance troup on a parade.

Now it's time to make dinner.

Jó Étvágyat


Coming up: Szeged Sights