Strawberry dreams

I am one lucky girl. I have a birthday fast approaching and to spoil me utterly rotten, I got some crochet-related gifts, namely books. 

I am in loooooooove!!! And inspired!!!

 Other books that have been inspiring me lately are the Tilda books written by Tone Finnanger.These are from the library and I loved them so much, I renewed them so they are in my custody until the end of June AND I have reserved 2 more of her books, I hope the people who have them return them soon! ;) 

(By the by, these books can be found on Amazon.com in English, too. Yes, I've looked into it...Christmas perhaps? Teeheehee)

I love the romantic style and cute ideas and the patterns are pretty easy to follow, especially with my mom there to help me. So yes, I have taken the plunge and am trying to learn how to SEW! I can't believe it myself. This strawberry pillow seemed magical and once my mom assured me it was simple enough to start with, we began making them.

 Here is my version, complete with sleeping princess, my parent's dog who is staying with us for a few weeks. 

My mom is thrilled we are going to start using up her vast collection of fabric. We are in the planning stages of a quilt, too!!

I have also been spoiled in the form of roses and pork chop dinners.

The pork chops are marinated in oil, lime juice (from 2-3 limes), garlic cloves to taste, 1-2 sliced onions, salt and pepper. If you like some spice, add pepper flakes. Put it in the fridge for at least 30 min, obviously the longer the better. Then just dump it in a buttered dish. I like roasted potatoes so I cut them up small so the cook more quickly. They still take forever though. The potatoes can also be marinated! I bake it at 200C/375F until the chops and 'tatoes are done. Serve with lime to squeeze over the pork. Mmm tasty!

I've also been experimenting with a rhubarb pie recipe from a magazine. I made both regular and gluten-free versions. SUPER DELICIOUS!

Gluten-free:

The crust is a simple butter-flour-small amount of sugar and at the very end cold water type. Apple sauce and rhubarb are the filling and the crumble is butter-sugar-flour and coconut. I'd post the recipe, but since it's not my own, I'll skip this time. Sorry!

Thanks for reading,  happy Monday!

Budding blooms

Hello again and happy Saturday! 

I was able to sleep in until a blissful 9 a.m. and enjoy a large cup of coffee without having to be anywhere within the hour. Bliss bliss. 

I just ended clinical training (last for the school year) and after two short days at school, I start work on Wednesday. How this will affect my crocheting/blogging/enjoying life, I don't know. But at least I don't have to turn in stupid papers or projects and will get days off and best of all, money! The plan was to have money saved for the coming school year, but I have so much I need and want, I don't know how that is going to be possible. Sigh, I wish I were rich! Money may not buy happiness but I think it buys a heck of a lot of peace of mind.

On to happy things... We are on the brink of actual SUMMER SUMMER here, although the weather this week has been dismal at best. Rainy, windy and cold -- typical Finnish weather. At least the flowers are liking it and it is so green outside!!!

Thursday was a rather nice day, cold and windy but lacking the rain part. In the afternoon, my mom and I met up and walked around the arboretum and I snapped some pictures of how lovely it is. We were hoping to catch the apple trees in bloom (almost equivalent with the cherry trees in Japan) and the lilacs. However, most were just budding or beginning to bloom so we'll have to see if we can make it there in the coming week for the actual bloom.

Here are "just a few" pictures from our walk. Daffodils and tulips are still going strong. I was kind of surprised at how vibrant looking they still were. I guess the area is a bit colder (on a lake) so spring develops more slowly...?

If you aren't hyperventilating with the beauty of that, check out the different kinds of primulas I found scattered around!

There is also a gorgeous duck pond...

As well as an old mansion, complete with old brick buildings on the property (could I please live in one?! I can settle for something other than the mansion!) and a large rose garden, magnificent in late summer.

I have heard this is the largest pear tree in Finland. It's gorgeous even if it's not true. 

 

 Rose garden, love love love. Super green grass after a long winter, LOVE LOVE LOVE!

One of the first blooming trees here is called "tuomi" or prunus padus. The traditional white variety is in abundance, but the more rare pink variety can be found in parks and in this arboretum. 

Other gorgeous flowers displaying their annual beauty:

Clematis 

Technicolor azaleas

  

Fritillaria Meleagris (kirjopikarililja, snake's head). Surprising that it belongs to the lily family and not the tulip family. Until I just googled, that tulips also belong to the family Liliaceae.

 A variety of tiny fragile bleeding hearts....

Irises so proud... I loved the story my mom told of how when she and her siblings were little they had permission to pick flowers to bring to their grandparents. Her brother and sister picked pansies for their grandma and my mom picked irises for their grandpa. 

A special darker variety of grape hyacinths or muscari, growing beneath lilacs.

And the lilacs growing above the muscari.

Being as there are lots of trees in the arboretum and lots of people passing through feeding ducks etc, it's only natural there be an abundance of squirrels. Here is one that was so tame it came right up to my mom and I and was insulted we had nothing to give. It looks mangy but I think it's just going through an unflattering process of shedding its winter coat. I hope so anyway! 

Off to cleaning and hopefully crocheting some of my blanket. I haven't even touched it this week. Sad, I know. Today is another rainy day though so I can't really think of anything nicer than sitting indoors, drinking tea and crocheting something warm. :)

Thanks for reading and enjoy your Saturday!