Reading warmly

I'm Reading again. This time I found newly translated (to Finnish) L'Amour humain by Andrei Makine. He writes so beautifully. Of all his books I like Le Testament français the most. That was the first of Makine's books I read, and after that I had to get my hands on all of them. I use the original french names, because the translated ones vary quite a bit. And as a nice little detail, the original titles are also included in the book covers in Finnish editions.

If you wonder why my hand is posing in the pictures wrapped in a tube... I just wanted to show my new wrist warmers. I knitted basic garter stitch and used some leftover multi-colored yarn. Fast to make and warm to wear.

Snow, sweet

This was the view from my window today. A winter wonderland! Snow brings so much light into these darkening November evenings. It's the same darkness every year but still it somehow surprises me time after time. But snow...I love it and really wish for it to stay. Probably it'll melt away pretty soon I'm afraid.


Some cute cuties under process here. I'm not sure yet what these will turn into. I might add aforisms or other sweet words next to the fairies.

Party

I bought this Zettiology stamp and now I just can't stop playing with it. The little party hats on the characters' heads reminded me of elves hats, and so I made some Christmas themed cards as well. Hmm, not very traditional kind of seasons greetings, more like a carneval going on.
But it goes along with my evening plans: I'm gonna have a little pre-Christmas party with my friends. Yey!

Award

I got this lovely award from Sandy. It's very heartwarming, thank you!
Right now I find it way too difficult to choose blogs I love, because there are hundreds of them, so I'm gonna be a bit dull and not pass this on.

Poetry

I've mentioned before my love for Anna Akhmatova's poetry. I'm still not good enough with russian, so that I could fluently read the poetess' authentic language. Marja-Leena Mikkola has translated Akhmatova's works to finnish in 1992, not all of them though, but an inclusive collection. To my surprise, I found that she has now made a new edition of the poems, some of which she has even changed a bit. This new book also includes works that haven't been previously translated.


Here's one of my favourites in english and in finnish (the newest translated version)

Willow

And I grew up in patterned tranquillity,
In the cool nursery of the young century.
And the voice of man was not dear to me,
But the voice of the wind I could understand.
But best of all the silver willow.
And obligingly, it lived
With me all my life; it's weeping branches
Fanned my insomnia with dreams.
And strange!--I outlived it.
There the stump stands; with strange voices
Other willows are conversing
Under our, under those skies.
And I am silent... As if a brother had died.

Paju

Kasvoin koruommelkuvioiden hiljaisuudessa
nuoren vuosisadan viileässä lastenhuoneessa.
Eikä ihmisen ääni ollut minulle rakas,
mutta tuulen ääntä saatoin ymmärtää.
Rakkaita olivat ohdake ja nokkonen,
vaan rakkain kaikista paju hopeinen.
Ja paju kiitollisena eli kanssani
koko elämänsä, unettomuuteeni
leyhytti unia itkevillä oksillaan.
Kummallista! -elin sitä kauemmin.
Tuossa törröttää nyt kanto, ja vierailla äänillään
toiset pajut juttelevat niitä näitä keskenään
yhteisen taivaamme alla. Olen ääneti...
Tuntuu kuin olisi kuollut oma veljeni.

Project management (or the lack of it)

I have several crafty projects going on and you can certainly see that when you step in to my home. All tables are full of stuff, piles here and there, lists of things to do lying around. But even if it looks like a total mess, I know where everything is. Let's call it a creative chaos. It sounds better.