HELLO MOI: August 2013

Saturday, August 24, 2013

FALL GARDENING

Desert gardening is very different from...let's say gardening in Finland.

It is hot and dry and nothing seems to grow without serious help.

You need watering system, good soil, and lots of luck!

I did not get my garden done last spring, so I am hoping for a successful fall crop.

Last couple of weeks I have been preparing my garden beds with compost. I have inspected the watering lines, fixed the broken ones, and I topped everything with a special top soil.

This morning I started sowing seeds, and planted few plants as well. One can only hope that the temperatures will stay under control...not too hot...and when we get later to the year...not too cold.

I have visions of lush, plentiful crops of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and all kinds of herbs.

We will see if it becomes reality.

The pears will be ready in a month or so.

The pomegranates will be ready in a couple of months.

WE GOT FORKED!

This is what happens when you have cute teenagers living in your home.

The doorbell rang 11:15 pm and of course nobody was behind a door.

When we woke up next morning we had chips on the front porch in a neat pile and forks stuck all over the lawn.

It was actually kind of funny!

SCHOOL DESK CALLED PULPETTI

This past summer while visiting Finland I found an old school desk and a chair from a flee market.

And the price was a measly 5 Euros for a desk and 2 Euros for a chair.

I fell in love with it, and brought it back home...for Jason's dismay.

Fortunately my dad and Jason are very good with packing stuff, so we were able to box it up for airplane travel size approved box.

Once I got home, I sanded all the old carvings out, and painted the desk to match our home.

This will be our new homework station for Maija.

I love it!

WEAVING LOOMS AND CROCHET RAG RUG

Growing up in Finland my parents had their own company called Finn-Aimo, named after my father.

My father built weaving looms and an addition to my mother selling them, she also organized weaving classes for people.

This was the first weaving loom my father made in our small home. It was sort of a prototype.

My mother is sitting on a bench.

Once they decided to go ahead and start making them, we moved to an old school in a year 1977. Our family lived in teachers' quarters, and my dad set his workshop up for the school building.

This picture was taken to be displayed in one of the brochures, which was advertising the weaving looms, and weaving courses.

I remember that we had a room full of weaving looms and people from surrounding area would come and use them. We also had tourists from at least Holland and Germany coming and weaving rugs, table runners and wall hangings.

I was introduced to weaving in a very young age, learning how to prepare weaving strips, how to weave rugs and wall hangings, called Raanu.

This picture was taken from one of the fairs, where my mother went to display the weaving looms to possible buyers. My mom is sitting on a left, and my grandparents from Holland are in the middle.

It is my dream to own weaving looms made by my father one day. The only way to get them is to find them used and ship them from Finland to here, but who knows, maybe one day my dream will come true.

In the meantime, I decided to add some color to our very wood colored home by crocheting a rag rug. I made strips of fabric from old clothes, and then crochet them to a little rug. It does not look nearly as nice as the woven rag rugs...but it was a fun experiment.