We continue our sightseeing tour in Järvenpää. This is Halosenniemi, the studio and home of Pekka Halonen from 1902. He was one of the artists of the Golden era of Finnish art. Melanie introduced another local artist of that time in her travel report here, Venny Soldan-Brofelt. We visited her 150th birthday exhibition at the art museum of Järvenpää.
Because Melanie is such a fan of Villa Cooper, I wanted her to see the "sister villa", Sibelius' Ainola.
The roof of this home museum has been repaired during the winter and the place will open for the public again in May. The timber walls have been boarded over at an early stage, but you can see details like at Villa Cooper.
This is an earlier picture of Villa Cooper, the big dining room windows facing town.
Melanie brought me a suitcase full of girly treats for a birthday tea. I had asked her about scones and clotted cream, so she brought those too, along with strawberry marmalade. We ate the scones ages ago, but I tried the delicious ingredients on biscuits and on toast too. The marmalade goes first:
Yumm! Here you see the wrapping from the container ....
.. and read some history:
In exchange, we gave Melanie a chance to try a Finnish specialty, which could also be worth a Protected Designation of Origin, mämmi:
Mämmi is a traditional Easter or Lent food, made of rye, malt and water slowly baked in the oven. It has a porridge-like consistency and is served with sugar and cream. Melanie is either really well behaved or she just happened to like it, because after the test spoonful she had a normal serving like the one in my picture.
Now that the busy season with birthdays, Easter and Melanie's visit is over I have had time to join this year's Craft Olympics, now hosted by Sylvia. If you need deadlines (at the end of this year!), have UFO's (new category) and feel like having company when doing your projects, you can click the button on my sidebar and find the new rules for this year's Craft Athletes. Sylvia hosts both in German and in English. Be a good sport and join in! My other new project is a BOM at Kaaren's blog, The Painted Quilt. Happy Scrappy Spring only started yesterday so there is still time to join in and make a scrappy quilt with some stitcheries and some wool applique. I'm planning to make this quilt entirely from stash, preferably with recycled fabrics. The instructions for the whole first row are waiting! A button on my sidebar will take you to Kaaren's blog.
Trying new foods is an adventure. I think Kaaren will have lots of participants is her beautiful BOM. I can't wait to follow along.
ReplyDeleteBoth buildings are so pretty set in the snowy forest! I had my first clotted cream while visiting Bath in England many years ago - it truly is wonderful. Your Finnish specialty looks just as good, too!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Mammi was delicious. I like the idea of it originally being cooked in birch bark. It was so kind of you to share Finland with me. Ainola was beautiful too with the same window details as Villa Cooper.
ReplyDeleteWell done for signing up to the Crafy Olympics 2013! It is going to be a lot of fun.
Believe it or not, this year the mammi I had seemed sweeter than in years past so I ate it without the sugar and also, without the cream. It's nice that you and Melanie got to try each other's foods.
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