october going on february, that's what this is. the sunshine pushed it to march, but the ground is still completely white, there was too much snow to melt it all away. and more fell in the afternoon. i took some wilted curly kale out for hares. i had nothing for the birds.

been burning lots of tea lights this fall... mostly in the essential oil lantern, but some nights also for added warmth. i'm trying not to turn up the heating until absolutely necessary, hoping to develop some tolerance for cooler indoors, too. not that this house ever gets crazy hot, but it's nice and cozy compared to irish houses. it's the dampness that gets me, there, though... but i miss it every day nonetheless.

i'm sitting in the kitchen for a change. usually i can be found either on my bed or the sofa in the living room. but it's warm here now, because i baked a cranberry-sourcream pie. ate about a third of it already, it's so damn good. i heartily recommend adding ground almonds to any pie crust, it turns out so much more flavoursome. i used part rye flour and part rice flour, too. so tasty.

the colour of the filling would have been amazing had i puréed the berries and mixed them in, but i love the contrast between the tart globules and the mild, sweet, creamy stuff while eating. it's just two eggs, 200 grams sourcream and (vanilla) sugar to taste, blended well.

i really wish i could hand out slices through the screen...

not bad for first snow, not bad at all. but if this is one of those instant winters that actually stays, i have to say i wasn't exactly ready. lots of unfinished yard work, and this white stuff really gives an extra edge of challenge into finding those cranberries now...

but i love how everything is different, especially inside my head. lighter, calmer, quieter...

went 10-pin bowling today, something i haven't done in years. i used to be okay-good back in high school, but in the meantime could never find a fitting ball on the rare occasion of bowling, so i thought i had gone sucky. today i won. no strikes but a couple of good spares, which lifted my spirits. it's all in the ball. if i could have one custom-made, who knows, i might be a fine bowler. i also love bowling gear, vintage shoes especially, and ball bags.

i had forgotten to recharge my camera battery and didn't realize i had another with me, so there are no photos of the rainbow of colours on the lane. some of the balls are so beautiful, iridescent and pearly. there was also a bright double rainbow in the sky after a quick shower, impressive against a mass of grey cloud. i managed a shot at my gelato, though, lemon and raspberry, which makes up for the losses in the colour department today.

there will be some soreness tomorrow, i fear. bowling employs surprising muscles. but it also opened up something between my shoulder blades that has been jammed for ages. i can breathe better now.

halla visited. in shady areas, the frost stayed throughout the day. it was my cue to head out to the cranberry bogs. mushrooms were thawy and moss crisp, it really is getting colder here. first snow can not be far in the future... i will be needing more woolly sock layers in my rubber boots the next time, the water was ankle-deep and very chilly. still, there is nothing better and nothing that smells nicer. cranberry picking is the most sensual foraging of all. the berries are hidden in the vines and sphagnum moss, they need to be carefully sought and pried out, their hue is the most tender of all reds... i am always at my most content when cranberry-picking, most at ease with myself and in touch with something greater, something very feminine.

dusk fell fast and i didn't have time to find very many berries, but the light was wonderful, even the sunset had a reddish hue, not because of my berry-picking, i know, but to foretell the rain. my camera battery died on me just as i was about to document it all. maybe next time...

i did, however, capture into a photograph that favourite sound of mine, the double plip-plop in the rainwater barrel. that was lucky.

a different kind of weekend. nostalgia for (sonic) youth mainly.
spiders are for ever, though.

there is a white-tailed deer in this picture, but it's blending in very well. i saw a few on my walk this evening. dusk is a lovely time to go out, i should do it more often. it comes earlier each day, too.

a doe with a calf, easier to spot...

blueberry leaves have gone pale and almost seem to glow in the dark... the darkened woods are quiet and comforting. as is a sip of homemade apple-cranberry juice laced with gin. and bowls of noodle soup.

there's been lots of days like this and this...

our house looked like this when i came home today. dad had pared the wall down to the old log frame. if i was doing the renovating, the old boards would go back up after insulation and repainted in authentic red earth paint. dad has other, more convenient and economical ideas and ways of doing things. i get to use the old, red boards to make bat-houses, though.

i got my new passport and OMG! best passport ever! i was delighted with the snowflake-embossed cover alone, then looked inside and flipped, literally. the pages are a flipbook animation of a running moose! i can hardly contain myself, it is just so up my alley... on the reverse pages are pictures of other finnish animals. an otter, a frog and a hedgehog, to name a few. whoever designed these features, which of course are there just to make counterfeiting difficult, is my idol. i wanted to show my passport to every passer-by and utter "look! have you seen?" even my own face looks more amused than smug among all that awesomeness. i can't wait to travel now...

ireland is back on the horizon ever since i found out it's possible for me to get my benefits while staying abroad. now it's really only a matter of finding a roof over my head for a few months. i hope this means my tide is finally turning.

other nice things arrived in beautiful packages. silk socks from japan, a bowl with a forest on, moisturizing hair spray... i need my little things of beauty. the hair moisturizer, for example, i bought almost solely because i think the packaging is super cute. surely it will be useful in the cold, static winter months (unless i am in ireland, where lack of moisture is hardly going to be a problem) and i like that it can also be used on skin. it smells of apples, too. i can see why it's a winner.

'manly aran socks' from the book toe-up socks for every body, for a friend. he was pleased. i will get many a massage in return. gotta love skillshare.

this daddy-o was pretty pleased too, by the looks of it. i wonder whether it's planning on eating the whole pear, or using it as bait. my above-mentioned friend has a fantastic garden, i came home with loads of herbs and veggies, even ginkgo leaves for my scattered brain.

also worth mentioning are the lovely little grapes with just a hint of mold on top. i am so using them to ferment something! maybe go for a fruit scrap vinegar, i think i saw a recipe on pinterest...

more rain was forecast, but the day was bright as a bride. i went to town to fetch a packet from the post office, but forgot despite walking by and thinking "was there something i needed there?" made good finds at the fleamarket again, though, and we ate pizza and sea buckthorn ice cream and apples from the mill hill. back home i gorged on chocolate cake. and ginger ale. i am so full!

oh, and he gave me a cherry tree as well. got some digging to do tomorrow...

i will let the pictures tell the story and just say that i love october, all its wind and rain.
i really do.

my juicer came in handy with making nettle tincture, when the chopped up herb had sponged up all of the alcohol and sieving it would have been quite useless. a minute in the spin and the dark green liquid was extracted to the last precious drop. the yield was more than i was prepared for, actually. i filled a stock bottle and this little dropper one.

speaking of drops, falling water makes less beautiful music than i was musing about before, when dripping through a leaking roof. this house has a new tin roof, finished last summer, apart from the porch, which sprung a leak earlier in the autumn. now it has been raining relentlessly for at least three weeks, to the point of flood alerts for a few days, and the trouble is, that roof needs to be fairly dry for patching up. so i've been hearing a lot of drip-drip-drip and finding it annoying.

nettle is used for 'strengthening the blood' basically, perfect for an anemic little thing like myself. i do hope it helps, because i've been feeling so listless lately. i have already been eating nettles all summer long, but absorption seems to be an issue. the tincture should be more potent.

i finished all of my knitting commissions and have time to start something for myself for a change. the trouble is, i have lots of nice yarn i don't know what to do with, and lots of projects i want to begin but not the yarn for them. partly because some skeins have gone AWOL while i was in ireland. dad admits nothing.

my passport needs to be renewed this week, so i took a bunch of mugshots today to try and save a little money. i ended up having them professionally taken, not because i didn't like my own, but i wasn't sure if they would be up to the rigorous standards nowadays. my face is kind of weird and un-photogenic, i have loads of bad angles, but for some bizarre reason my passport photos are always a success. in the newest one i look really smug, though. but why not? this talent is equivalent to mensa membership, percentage-wise at least.

this portrait that i'm sharing is obviously not the passport photo, (although part of me wants to print a couple and try my luck at the police station tomorrow...) but having so many pictures of my face, i just had to play with it a little, and picmonkey has fantastic halloween effects. i did a bit of daguerrotype and vampired up the eyes. but most of all i just love the cloudy texture overlay. i feel like i've been man ray-ed.