A procession of dozens of buses started from the sports arena in Inverness. It was very early in the morning, still almost dark. The buses were packed with marathon runners. I sat in the bus with my nephew - both a bit nervous. Would we be able to finish it? The reason for choosing the Loch Ness Marathon was very simple: if we couldn't finish the marathon, we would at least see a legenedary place and maybe even Nessie!

The bus dropped us at the starting point in the middle of nowhere. Bagpipers and kilts, high fives and go! It had been raining and blowing the previous day in Inverness, but the Sunday morning was (thank Goodness) much better; it was chilly, but the sky was blue and the early October sun lighted the mountains around us. Whatever the result, at least I felt a part of something unusual.

I felt pretty good during the first 20 K or so - the route followed the banks of Loch Ness and I kept staring at the lake hoping to see something unusual...  My nephew was struggling with his knee - it had kept him away from running for a couple of months. He said he would finish the run no matter what. I admired his strong will but said he should not risk his health - as if an 18-year-old young man would listen to his aunt!

Somewhere along the route it started to rain - a bit only. A very long uphill at around 25 k made me think that I was crazy to do this - voluntarily. It was at this point that I noticed a young woman running at the same pace with me - she was breathing heavily, but kept going on a few steps behind me.

I stared at the lake - no Nessie.

 

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When the "Master of the Household" is away on business or on holidays away from me, I usually put my energy on house decoration. The changes are sometimes very small and insignificant but sometimes very dramatic.

Once I painted the wall of the small entrance bright blue, hung some nice pictures on the wall and put a new carpet on the entrance floor without him seeing the change. He said he was tired on his return and just passed through the entrance. A lame excuse, I think.

In January he flew to Thailand for two weeks for diving - that should give me enough time for some major changes in the house. So, where do we spend 6 to 8 hours every single day? In the bedroom - he would at least need a better excuse this time.

I started by tearing the old pale creamy colour wallpaper - it was definitely easier said than done. It took me two very long evenings to do the job, but you seldom get a chance to tear anything so it was a sort of a therapeutic experience.

So far so good. As I needed help with hanging the new wallpaper on the wall I decided to ask my sister to help me. As she is very good with details she would make sure that nothing would get missed. And I was right. The pattern of the new wallpaper was a bit challenging and a few details needed to be looked into when cutting it and hanging it on the wall. And on top of it we had fun catching up, eating and drinking some wine.

OK - I now had my new wallpaper. It was time for the next move. The bedside tables needed a new colour to match the wallpaper. Light grey.

Now I only had to have new curtains and pillowcases...

And even the dead tired diver could spot the difference!

 

This darkness makes me think of last summer and especially one week in the beginning of August. I spent five days in Lapland with my sister and my sister-in-law. It was a holiday away from the nearest and the dearest - the perfect holiday, that is!

We flew to the northernmost airport in Finland - Ivalo and spent one night at Saariselkä. A one-hour flight and we felt like being abroad. That's the magic of Lapland. The following day we made a roughly 30 k hike in the mountain area, enjoyed the beautiful landscape and took photos of reindeers that always make sure that they show their bum to you when you're taking a photo - a funny animal.  

I had been hiking in Lapland with my sister a few years earlier and the first thing we taught to our sister-in-law was the right kind of picnic for a mountain hike - a sandwich and a bottle of champagne and cloudberry liquor! You just pick a few cloudberries and a perfect cocktail is ready!

The following day we decided to drive to the Arctic Ocean - for a swim! It was hot in Lapland (25 degrees) - a swim in ice-cold water seemed like a very good idea. We drove to the northenmost village in Finland and stayed they for the night - in an amazingly friendly hotel close to the Norvegian border. The staff even heated the sauna for us and we had a chance to swim in the river! Fantastic. We enjoyed the neverending daylight and the midnight sun.

The next morning we crossed the border to Norway and approached the Varanger fjord - breathtaking. You could see the Arctic ocean - the misty horizon of the Barents Sea. It was almost dead calm, not a breeze. We got out of the car, it wasn't hot anymore, the temperature had dropped down to 16 degrees. But it didn't prevent the locals from being in their shorts and t-shirts! Rough conditions, tough people.

We drove the road to where the world ends - at least so it seemed. But didn't find a beach for a swim. I was driving and my sister was complaining that I deliberately missed all the beaches she spotted on the way - quite honestly the sea didn't look inviting to me and I didn't see any other people in swimming suits.

When driving back we chose another road, the one that goes close to the Russian border, so we drove close by the point where three time zones meet: the Central European (Norway), the Central Eastern European (Finland) and the Eastern European (Russia) - taking a few steps in that region basically means loosing or gaining two hours - quite unique!

       

Every morning when I walk from our front door to the shelter where my car is parked I'm faced with the fact that people go crazy in the darkness of December. I can live with a moderate amount of non-coloured Christmas lights (I have one string of led lights tangled on a lattice in our terrace) but the plenty of red, green and blue lights on every tree, bush and window you can imagine is a bit too much. My neighbours think differently. They are determined to beat the darkness with their Christmas lights - some of them doing pretty good job. This overwhelming lightshow almost causes me a headache before I reach my car.

Yesterday our office had a total power cut in the morning - it lasted about 30 minutes. And it is very dark in December. No electricity, no email, no coffee, no going in or out of the office, no working lifts and on top of it, no candles allowed. One colleague had a torch, that's all the light we had. And I almost missed my neighbours' multicolour Christmas lightshow...

The power cut that affected thousands of people working in the offices of that area was caused by one single squirrel that had managed to find its way into a power substation. The poor creature died in the incident. They say the blackout was actually a terrorist attack - the master mind behind it was Orava (the Finnish word for "squirrel") Bin Laden...

Obviously an accident - the real target must have been my neighbourhood. Maybe I didn't pay the terrorist enough?

My way or the highway...

 

"Strawberries cherries and an angel’s kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things..."

Yes, but how about pruning?

This is my first year as a wine producer - my wine didn't  produce a single grape this summer. So the vintage of 2010 can be only better.

The only "´wine producers" I personally know are a Finn (my sister who knows basically everything about plants) and a Norvegian (my friend who knows everything about anything he puts his heart in). Finland and Norway aren't exactly among the countries you would regard as wine producers - but according to the EU the south of Finland is a wine producing region - yes, you should see the southwest banks of River Vantaa.... Not exactly the Loire Valley.

The word "pruning" had no meaning in my life until my Norvegian friend explained what's it all about - his grapevine in Oslo should be a touristic site. My sister visited us last weekend so I took a crash course in pruning. I have no idea if my wine is red or white, but I'm really looking forward to the vintage of 2010 - everyone interested please feel free to come to Vantaa in October, let's crash all the grapes together with our feet in a bucket! I look forward to that!