Finland 2019

 Mom and I took a short trip to Finland to visit Ronnie & Kaia-left the 26th, and got back last night. I only had a narrow window between getting puppies sold and when our goats start kidding, hence it being so short.

Some of these pictures are iPad pictures so will be grainy and nasty. 

The big ole airplane we took from Seattle to London.

It was a 9 hour night flight, and I didn't get a wink of sleep. This here screen had some games and such, as well as a map, which was pretty cool. 

I attempted to get a sunrise picture somewhere over the Greenland area, but there wasn't really a sunrise-it was just suddenly light, instead of showing the nice pink shade and such that you normally see with a sunrise.

Mom got a lot of knitting done, both on our multiple flights, and at Ronnie & Kaia's house. 

Ireland.

 "Now Heaven bless Thy Grace this day

Say all in sweet Sherwood

For thou didst give the prize away

To merry Robin Hood."

England. Looking down there, I was imagining James Herriot, but really have no clue what area this is.

London

London-Heathrow was an extremely confusing airport. We got off the airplane and went into like where the baggage goes, then a super long walk with lots of escalators to find a reader board because our boarding passes don't have terminals or gates on them. Found out what terminal we needed to go to, ride a subway, then go back upstairs, around, and back downstairs, and get on a shuttle for a 10 minute ride outside, around the airport, and underground. We got off underground/baggage area again, went back upstairs, through security, and then back downstairs. We were then in terminal 3, but still had no clue what gate we were to go to, as they don't say until an hour before the flight is scheduled to leave. Our gate was supposed to be shown at 15:10, but around that time, they changed it to "please wait." So we waited, and waited, starting to get worried because the Timeplanner on the right shows that we still might have a 20 minute walk ahead of us, once we did find out our gate! Eventually, they did assign us a gate and we must walk fast, because it didn't take the 20 minutes that the sign said it would. 

First airplane I've been on with cameras underneath! They turned them off shortly after takeoff though. 

I got to witness a Northern Lights show! It was very awe inspiring and slightly eerie to watch those beautiful lights dance across the sky.

Kaia had her knitting friends over and we were treated to quite a spread for snack. 

(I had turned the auto focus off to get the picture of the Northern Lights and forgot to turn it back on.) 

I don't know why Mitzi doesn't just hop out, but whateves. Mitzi is an extremely pretty and very nice little dog. 

Ronnie's sheep, Lambert and Purl.

The other ewe, Tillie, a really pretty sheep.

The shed that Ronnie placed his hay in to dry last year.

Ronnie got his grandma's old furniture-isn't it so neat looking, and in such pristine condition? 

Ronnie made that desk in the middle, as well as a few other furniture pieces in the house. He is a fabulous wood worker!

Mom and Kaia having coffee and semlar(?). It's a tradition in Finland to eat these sweet rolls, filled with either almond paste or strawberry jam, topped with whipped cream, on Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, as it's called in Finland.

They looked delish, though I didn't even have a sniff. 

After a bit of research, and finding nothing that prohibited such actions, I brought a dozen hatching eggs in my carryon for Kaia. She has wanted Lavender Orpingtons for years, and now I have them and can supply the eggs! At 5 days incubation, in Ronnie's homemade incubator, there is already development in 10 out of 12 eggs!

I liked this bright and cheerful house.

Mitzi

This side shot shows you Mitzi's cool coloring and markings better. 

 

One of many old hay sheds scattered throughout the countryside.

President Trump blamed CA's fires on our failure to take care of our forests, and pointed to Finland who, in his words, rakes their forests. Ridicule reigned after he said that, and to be sure, I didn't see anyone raking forests out here. However, America most certainly does NOT take care of its forests, and Finland most certainly DOES. For example, look at this section of woods-I have never seen anything of the like anywhere(albeit I haven't been in a ton of forests) in America. Instead, we have fern, blackberries, poison ivy, dead and downed trees, and all manner of brush so that it's a severe struggle to even walk in most places.

A cute little, old church out in the the woods.

I really liked this house too, but couldn't get a good picture of it without traipsing down their driveway.

Kent, I'm told you need to see this every time anyone goes to Finland. I sure wouldn't want to break tradition, so here you go. 

  A typical Finnish bus stop. Sleds, bikes, and even what might have been Mopeds-nobody steals them, evidently. And snowmobiles parked on the edge of the frozen lake-nobody loads them up and drives off with them either. Very strange for us suspicious Americans to consider doing!

If the kids live close enough, they ride their bikes or ski all the way to school. 

 

Skating rinks are just part of the playground. Sounds like the schools' discipline and even what time classes begin and end are very casual in Finland, and they have recess 15 minutes out of every hour, yet Finland education ranks the top in the world.

Kaia just started working for a large meat factory in Finland, Snellman's. One of her perks is that she gets to buy very cheap meat for her household. We went and got probably 20 pounds of meat, for 15 euros, which is about $17. Crazy! And it's prime meat too, maybe just cut a little weird or whatever.

The company also has a raw dog food business on the side. 

At the grocery stores they have parking for moms and kids up near the front-I thought that was pretty cool. 

Finland has an ingenious way of getting people to return their shopping carts to the front of the store. The carts are all chained together, and you have to insert a euro to get the chain to release. When you are done shopping, insert the chain back into the slot and viola! your euro pops back out. There are zero cart gatherers, and zero carts left out in the parking lot. 

Pickles in bulk, anyone?

This is an interesting way to keep the potato bins full.  

Ronnie's dad used to run a mink farm, and the business was turned over to Ronnie's brother not too long ago. Kaia and I went to see the mink. They are vicious, nasty creatures so we couldn't touch them, but they are pretty!

This big buck was extremely nasty and wouldn't even endure us walking past without glaring angrily, hissing, and threatening us. 

On the way back home we rode on a double decker plane. It was the supes fancy people upstairs though, and we didn't even see up there.

On the way back, instead of a night flight, we chased the sun and stayed at about 4:30 the entire way.

This is over Iceland.

Greenland