Hi,
Slow morning on the island. Our move from our blue house to the yellow one was finally completed last week, completed meaning our stuff is inside the new house. Only the canoe and our second car still remain in the old premises as the spring has been slow and they are still stuck in hard slowly-melting snow. And also the new owner promised to bring the stuff that had been left in the dishwasher. LOL.
Influenza hit us when the stress about emptying our belongings and moving them was over. It was a slow move and took several weeks. The only vehicle used was my tiny red Citroen C1, a surprisingly roomy thing, though. The bigger stuff we simply put on a tarp and pulled along the icy street one by one. Easy, as this is probably the only town in the world where kickledges are more common than cars if the winter is good, as it clearly was this year. Also, the distance between the houses is probably less than a hundred metres.
Still feeling quite weak after five days of slow life and a lot of echinacea tea. The piles and boxes of stuff somebody wants to keep and nobody knows where to locate will have to wait. Yesterday I had an active moment and attacked the corner where some leftover paint bottles, brushes etc lie supposedly hidden, and decided to make an effort to get rid of some of the paint. Got two small pieces of furniture almost painted, rather badly I regret to say. Painting felt unusually nice as I couldn't smell the paint at all! I didn't realise I had totally lost my sense of smell until I had to use turpentine. It that stuff doesn't smell, then you just have no sense of smell! Well, smell or no smell, the paint still had an unwanted effect on my infected lungs and I ended up sleeping for three hours in the middle of the day.
The reason why I so desperately wanted to be rid of the paint rests is the discovery that our new house, even it it's considerably larger than the old one, has no space for stuff that must not freeze, like a CELLAR. So I will have to use the paint or keep it in one of the rooms, where the storage space is limited to what it was in the beginning of the 20th century. We just can't spare any of the precious closets or cupboards for paint bottles, however much of our wardrobe we discard.
But whereas these are just minor issues, the big picture looks promising. Our house can easily room me and all my adult children whenever they choose to come home, which seems to be constantly. One of the rooms was left to the use of my parents who sold me the house. They spent the total of twelve years here and did some nice renovations. They fixed the roof, renovated the bathroom, added a small sauna, took some of the attic space in use as a guest room and a large rec room with Mum's looms, Dad's tools etc.
Our town is the smallest in Finland. It is an old fishing town located on a small island on the west coast of Finland. For three decades town life was largely dominated by a pulp mill, which closed down a few years ago. After that it would seem a lot more young families are getting interested in our lifestyle. Our blue house was just bought by a family with a toddler. Great!
When I first came to Kaskinen in the early 1990's, there where a lot of abandoned houses. There were hundreds of flats in the area that was originally built for the workers of the mill. The workers, however, had bought or built houses of their own. Today, the once empty flats are inhabited again, as some twenty years ago the town took an active role and renovated them and sold cheap. That meant a lot more inhabitants and a nicer entrance to the town. No more ghost houses. Yet, we still do have some of those as well. They mainly belong to people who live elsewhere, like in Sweden, and refuse to sell or refurbish them. Shame really, as today there is a lot of interest in rescuing old houses. I wish something could be done about this. I'm house crazy, if you didn't get it by now!!
I named my blog Foggy Island, not because it's always foggy here, but because we do have some of the most amazing fogs. Especially in early autumn and early spring the temperature of the sea results in various types of fogs. I'll add photos later. Now back to bed, I need to get well soon.
Yours,
Ms K.
P.S, Don't mind the spelling mistakes, I'm slightly dyslectic, so I always try to re-read everything and correct, but sometimes my letters may appear in wrong order. I'm sure you will understand anyway...
Slow morning on the island. Our move from our blue house to the yellow one was finally completed last week, completed meaning our stuff is inside the new house. Only the canoe and our second car still remain in the old premises as the spring has been slow and they are still stuck in hard slowly-melting snow. And also the new owner promised to bring the stuff that had been left in the dishwasher. LOL.
Influenza hit us when the stress about emptying our belongings and moving them was over. It was a slow move and took several weeks. The only vehicle used was my tiny red Citroen C1, a surprisingly roomy thing, though. The bigger stuff we simply put on a tarp and pulled along the icy street one by one. Easy, as this is probably the only town in the world where kickledges are more common than cars if the winter is good, as it clearly was this year. Also, the distance between the houses is probably less than a hundred metres.
Still feeling quite weak after five days of slow life and a lot of echinacea tea. The piles and boxes of stuff somebody wants to keep and nobody knows where to locate will have to wait. Yesterday I had an active moment and attacked the corner where some leftover paint bottles, brushes etc lie supposedly hidden, and decided to make an effort to get rid of some of the paint. Got two small pieces of furniture almost painted, rather badly I regret to say. Painting felt unusually nice as I couldn't smell the paint at all! I didn't realise I had totally lost my sense of smell until I had to use turpentine. It that stuff doesn't smell, then you just have no sense of smell! Well, smell or no smell, the paint still had an unwanted effect on my infected lungs and I ended up sleeping for three hours in the middle of the day.
The reason why I so desperately wanted to be rid of the paint rests is the discovery that our new house, even it it's considerably larger than the old one, has no space for stuff that must not freeze, like a CELLAR. So I will have to use the paint or keep it in one of the rooms, where the storage space is limited to what it was in the beginning of the 20th century. We just can't spare any of the precious closets or cupboards for paint bottles, however much of our wardrobe we discard.
But whereas these are just minor issues, the big picture looks promising. Our house can easily room me and all my adult children whenever they choose to come home, which seems to be constantly. One of the rooms was left to the use of my parents who sold me the house. They spent the total of twelve years here and did some nice renovations. They fixed the roof, renovated the bathroom, added a small sauna, took some of the attic space in use as a guest room and a large rec room with Mum's looms, Dad's tools etc.
Our town is the smallest in Finland. It is an old fishing town located on a small island on the west coast of Finland. For three decades town life was largely dominated by a pulp mill, which closed down a few years ago. After that it would seem a lot more young families are getting interested in our lifestyle. Our blue house was just bought by a family with a toddler. Great!
When I first came to Kaskinen in the early 1990's, there where a lot of abandoned houses. There were hundreds of flats in the area that was originally built for the workers of the mill. The workers, however, had bought or built houses of their own. Today, the once empty flats are inhabited again, as some twenty years ago the town took an active role and renovated them and sold cheap. That meant a lot more inhabitants and a nicer entrance to the town. No more ghost houses. Yet, we still do have some of those as well. They mainly belong to people who live elsewhere, like in Sweden, and refuse to sell or refurbish them. Shame really, as today there is a lot of interest in rescuing old houses. I wish something could be done about this. I'm house crazy, if you didn't get it by now!!
I named my blog Foggy Island, not because it's always foggy here, but because we do have some of the most amazing fogs. Especially in early autumn and early spring the temperature of the sea results in various types of fogs. I'll add photos later. Now back to bed, I need to get well soon.
Yours,
Ms K.
P.S, Don't mind the spelling mistakes, I'm slightly dyslectic, so I always try to re-read everything and correct, but sometimes my letters may appear in wrong order. I'm sure you will understand anyway...
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