June, part 2

The rest of June disappeared into a fog of work, but we did find time for a few other things:

1. We investigated the world of Rallicross at Ylämylly. This turned out to be fabulously trailer trash, and incredibly entertaining. It had the excitement of cars streaking round a 1km track what felt like inches from your nose (with characteristic Finn disregard for health and safety, the spectators were sat on small banks, with a stretchy piece of tape stopping them from getting too close to the track), combined with several grilli stalls, a pit lane/section you could wander round and see the cars being worked on, and a large proportion of trollied Finns, kicking back with 97 cans of beer. It was extremely dusty, dirty, and excellent fun! There was much high speed barging of rally cars (and lots of bits falling off, including rather worryingly a wheel at one point, which careered down the track, bounced through and over a crowd of spectators, and landed on some poor person's car in the car park. Here's a driver's eye view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTzqY-wolEU (though sadly not of the wheel-escape incident!).

And here's me and M watching, post-makkara (hence all the ketchup). We like the ear defenders...

Despite the drunken Finns, there were lots of kids and dads having a nice day out, and everyone was very friendly. We'll definitely go again next year!

2. We celebrated Midsummer in style, with our friends Anu and Heikki, including a sauna, grilli and kokko (bonfire). Here's us (and about 5,400 mosquitos) at 10.30pm. We went to bed about 1am, and it still wasn't dark...just white twilight.

3. We went on some more cycle expeditions, mostly through the woods in Noljakka. Here we are on our way to our new favourite place (Avaranta beach).

The trail through Noljakka is excellent - all the more so because we tried it on skis in the snow. It looks very different now! (M's bottom-sliding hill is now covered in tall green grass, and the vast plains of white on either side are now revealed as fields...).

A Finnish mother's day

It started with breakfast in bed (yoghurt, banana and toasted bagels), and was followed by an expedition to Outokumpo to the nature park:

We had a picnic in the sunshine (soup and karjalan piirakka). It was a bit chilly, which is why we still have our winter hats on.

And then we trekked around one of the lakes - which took us across boggy bits, over bridges, up and along steep ridges, and in and out of the trees. We saw butterflies and frogspawn, and heard lots of birds. Here we are at the bottom of a particularly steep bit:

And at the top:

We walked for about two and a half hours, so it was a good job we had the Karelian pies first. There was also a small amount of bribery halfway round with chocolate Easter rabbits which we'll gloss over.

After that, we headed home in the sunshine for a barbecue in our garden. A perfect day...

Sky and birds

We had an expedition to Noljakka today, to the Lintutorni. It was a beautiful spring day, with the clouds scudding across the sky and a ridiculous number of birds shouting in the trees. It's rather strange hearing them all again, as the woods have been so silent all winter.

We walked out along the ski trail, which looked very different as a path (and was much longer than I remembered, we must be much faster on skis!). Once you get to the edge of the nature reserve, there's a boardwalk, which takes you through the boggy parts to the edge of the lake.

The view from the edge of the lake was beautiful - all you could see was this huge expanse of water and sky. From the tower, you could see that the lake was still frozen in places, but ducks were swimming in small pools at the edge.





A weekend in Finland

Friday: Rustle makes some new friends:

Saturday: We stack wood in the garage. Two square metres is quite a lot of tessellation...

Sunday: We go ice skating at Joensuu ice hall. I attempt to wobble round without falling over, in only the second time I've been ice skating since about the age of 10. M uses the cunning ruse of 'pushing a chair round'. It's surprisingly good fun. Even if my ankles have been complaining ever since.


Sunday also happens to be -8 degrees, sunny and stunningly beautiful:






We have a lovely afternoon with some friends. And the whole day is rounded off by a firework display for the opening of the Christmas season in Joensuu. It was too cold to take my camera out, so here's a picture of a small Michelin child instead:

Sunday views

View across the river at Utra



Forest girl



Zebra trees

Crafty days

Yes, I know I spend most of my time posting pictures of lakes...This is the view from Joensuu's marina, tucked away at the other end of town, past the horse racing track. It's still only five minutes away from work by car, so we went for a walk there after work on Thursday. M is reading Swallows and Amazons with Orb at the moment, so there were lots of technical details to be pointed out, like rowlocks, cleats and the like. Most of the boats had been taken out of the water, and thoroughly wrapped in tarpaulins against the winter. But a few were still merrily floating in the harbour, and there were a couple of hardy souls kite surfing on the lake, despite the chilly weather.

Today's been cold and rainy, so we went inside the Joensuu Areena to a massive craft fair. Handicrafts are big in Finland - everyone seems to be either crocheting a rug, knitting a pair of socks or creating something out of wickerwork. The Areena was filled with stalls selling wool, others selling hats, and many more with candles and silverwork (pendants made from cutlery are very popular). There was a fabulous set of exhibition cases with Barbie dolls from the 1960s onwards (and a lone Sindy), some beautiful dolls houses, and a random antiques corner selling the usual overpriced nonsense. Oh, and a fashion show, which was very...Scandinavian, with lots of felted hats. We had a lovely time - M made a spider with wire and beads with the nice ladies from Joensuu's arts and crafts centre, Taitokortteli, and Orb and I ate our own bodyweight in buns. I may also have had to be restrained from buying most of the wool and craft projects on offer from Taitokortelli - they have the most amazing stuff.

Next time Debenhams need catalogue models...

We've got this pointing lark down to a fine art...

Just another standard Sunday in Finland...

They have strange squirrels near Kontiolahti:


And even stranger Dr Who-style lichen:


We also saw a lesser-spotted Orb:

Finchdale Priory

Miraculously, it was warm on Friday too, so on the way to the airport we stopped at Finchdale Priory. It's hidden by a river in what feels like the middle of nowhere in County Durham (actually, it's only a couple of miles outside Durham). Bizarrely, the site is next to what looks like a deserted MoD camp (lots of bunkers and tangled barbed wire). Must look it up and see what exactly it was.


But back to Finchdale. It's an English Heritage site, but it's free to go in and stomp about over the ruins - as long as you don't mind paying the £3 parking charge (a bit steep). There's virtually no explanation of what's what - but it's certainly an atmospheric spot.

The first day of summer

It was incredibly hot and sunny up at Druridge Bay today - it looked like the middle of the Caribbean. Even the sand was warm on your toes, which I don't think I've ever experienced on a Northumberland beach before.

So we played the obligatory beach games, dug some *massive* holes and paddled in the freezing cold sea. That bit wasn't so Caribbean.

If only the north east would look like this every summer's day...

Corbridge Roman Fort

We had a lovely trip out to the Corbridge Roman fort this afternoon, which made me quite nostalgic for my trowelling days (I worked on a couple of Roman and Iron Age excavations as a summer job while I was at university). I really liked Corbridge - it feels rough around the edges like the archaeologists have just left. You can wander about all over the site, clamber over the walls, and explore the nooks and crannies. Here's Orb and M peering under the granary floor...

What I also liked was the way the tiny on-site museum had made itself child-friendly with the minimum of expenditure. We hunted for Grricola the lion's favourite items (which were nicely interpreted and explained), and did a couple of jigsaws. It's not rocket science, but the addition of 10 small cuddly lions suddenly made the rather dry display cases far more exciting.

Sadly, there were no bath houses (I have a soft spot for these, having spent what felt like months cleaning out the hypercaust in one), so we might have to try Chesters, the next major site along Hadrian's Wall, before our English Heritage cards run out.

Rievaulx

Even in the rain, Rievaulx Abbey is still a lovely place to visit. There's atmospheric ruins to scramble about over (our favourite game was 'spot the fireplace'), a small exhibition about the lives of the monks (M was fascinated by the information about all the animals they kept) and a pretty good tea shop. It's all very low key, which together with the drizzle, made for a very English day out.

Galena galore

We've had a fantastic day out today searching for rocks in the middle of the North Pennines, miles from anywhere. The Killhope Lead Mining Museum is a bit of a drive from Newcastle - about an hour and a half - but you pass miles upon miles of moorland (complete with very cute lambs and sheep) as the A689 road wriggles higher and higher up the valley towards Alston.

Once you've arrived, there's plenty to do. We liked the little exhibition about 'spar boxes' and minerals, and loved the reconstruction of the 'mine shop' where the miners lived during the week. There's a huge water wheel which drives working machinery - and best of all, there's the washer yard where kids can have a go at looking for galena (silvery lead ore) and minerals. There was much enthusiastic washing and hammering of stones going on!

We didn't tour the mine today (I hate the dark and get claustraphobic underground, M's probably a bit small yet), but probably will at a later date - once you've bought a ticket for entry, it's valid for a whole year.

We did have a good wander round in the woodland, though, tracing the paths of the water down to the water wheel. There were no red squirrels to be seen, sadly, but there's always next time...

Extraordinary measures

We hopped up to Belsay Hall yesterday (not literally, obv), to catch the last dying days of their Extraordinary Measures exhibition. Belsay's a great place to go with kids in tow - it's got extensive grounds you can picnic in, there's a 14th century castle to scramble around, and the house interior is gloriously empty, and free of tutting curators.

Best of all, though, they have the most fantastic art exhibitions. Years ago we went to the Sitooteries exhibition of pavilions, and more recently Picture House, which had the spooky Hereafter mirror which showed you images of past objects and previous visitors layered with a time-delayed ghost of yourself moving around.

Extraordinary measures was equally appealing. We loved the Slinkachu 'day trip' photographs, and were fascinated by Ron Mueck's realistic sculptures - especially the 2m tall wild man. It all had an Alice in Wonderland feel - you never knew if you would feel enormous or tiny in comparison to what you saw.

So we took our own large and small photos in the quarry gardens:



That last one's quite terrifying...

Days out no 7,342: Whitby

We had a fantastic time in Whitby yesterday. I'd not been for years - mainly because it's quite a hike from Newcastle. There's lots to do though - we headed to the Pannett Art Gallery (part of Whitby Museum) to see an exhibition by Len Tabner. M loved the seascapes and the cases showing his sketchbooks, oil paints and pastels. We speculated whether he'd sketched everything out, and then gone home to his studio to paint - but it turns out most of these pretty enormous canvases were done by Len on site, whether on the deck of a ship or out on the beach. Not sure how he managed it...

Next to the gallery is Pannett Park, which has one of the best children's playgrounds I've seen in a long time. It's all done on a nautical theme - I loved the wooden sea monster hidden in the ground, and the pirate ship that rocked to and fro on springs. Swinging in the hammock made me feel seasick...so let's hope it's *very* calm when we sail from Harwich to Denmark later this summer.

We wandered along the harbour front and found a crab line for Cornwall (may need advice on what to actually do with the damn things if we catch them), and marvelled at the range of tat and Dracula material on display. The pier was great (and extremely windy), and the view out to sea/along the coast was stupendous. The weather did one of those things it often does up on the Northumberland coast in the evening - the wind dropped, the sun came out, and bathed the town in light.


We finished off our day with fish and chips (and mushy peas - M's Grandad will be very proud). A perfect day trip.

Eiffel Tower

The view from the top was definitely worth the wait for the elevators (and the inevitable tussle with grumpy Italian teenagers about the finer points of queue etiquette).



In other news, I appear to have bought an Eiffel Tower biscuit cutter from Dehillerin's. Oops.

Paris!

We've been sailing on the river (looking for houseboats with cars, gardens and patios on deck - oh, and the odd monument, natch) and cruising the Tuilleries for carousels. The strange woodland chap below was hiding out in the Tuilleries too, waiting for passing small children.

All the fun of the fair...

Ryton Rugby Club had a mini Hoppings last weekend, so M made good use of the Pony Express. It had to be a pink horse, of course...

Kite flying at Low Newton

It was surprisingly warm and sunny at Low Newton by the Sea. We dug sandcastles, flew kites, and marvelled at the air-sea rescue helicopter people who waved at us as they flew past.

Lanterns, Santa and clementines

We headed up to the Alnwick Garden yesterday - this time it wasn't a common or garden visit (geddit?), but a lantern-making day for their lantern parade to welcome in Father Christmas.

M had a fabulous time with her Dad and Grandpa making the lantern above - lots of pieces of willow, with an old-school candle in the centre (none of this tea-light nonsense), overlaid with tissue paper rubbed all over in a solution of pva. Messy, brilliant fun (I still love that sensation of peeling glue off your fingers that I enjoyed at primary school), and glorious when lit up.

We paraded with hundreds of others through the dark and dank gardens (the paths lit by flares), carrying our lanterns. The trail led us through the winding cherry orchard, into the walled garden where more lanterns floated on the pond, and then down through the trees to a lantern-lit grove where Santa stood handing out clementines.

The girl was enthralled.