Gym, jogging and Mölkky

Despite the cold (12-14 degrees C) and rainy weather the high season in this house started in the beginning of July. JD and I escaped to Italy for one week after Midsummer, but when we came to Kemiö almost straight from the airport we found 12 pairs of Crocs welcoming us in the porch. Annie’s family with four small kids and Rose had already arrived, and Inka and Yaffa came a bit later.

Many things are going on with the kids: Hanna, 12, was collecting flowers for drying and pressing, as they have a flora task from school to collect 30 plants, just like in the old times, except we had to collect 120 plants and know the Latin name of each and every one of those. Emma, 9, has sports competitions in the neighboring towns every week and she is practising running, long jump and shot put, and Ollie, 5, is learning letters and numbers. Vappu, 1.5, is learning to speak, she already can run fast.

It was too cold for boating and swimming in the sea. Instead we had a gym on the patio with Inka as a trainer, several people went jogging daily, and there was Mölkky games, football (soccer) on TV and sauna of course.

All the plants are growing fast and we don’t need to water them, which is exceptional on this island. The perennials are blossoming and the flower bench has doubled its size in a couple of weeks. 

 

Even the grapevines have flowers, but the summer is too cold and short to have grapes. The zucchini and chili plant have plenty of flowers which are turning fast into zucchinis and chilis. Soon we can cook them. Zucchini is not everyone’s favorite, but we have two options for dinner here: Take it or leave it.  

Tomorrow, Rob will try to catch fish - and I promised to cook bouillabaisse if he is successfull.