Day 6

Today is Finland's Independence Day.

December 6 - Independence Day

Today is the 100th Anniversary of Finland's independence.

Day 6

White and blue flowers for the 99th anniversary of our Independence Day. It seems the blue hyacinths were left out, but they looked and smelled great too.

Independence Day

Today is our Independence Day. Finland has been independent since 1917.

Grey days

Fieldfares in our apple tree, eating the last few apples before flying further South.

This is my 600th blog post. To celebrate it I decided to have a giveaway. The winner will be drawn from among the 60 last comments on  my blog, any post, at noon tomorrow, which is our Independence Day. The gift will be something typically Finnish like dry rye bread or Fazer chocolate, but it may be something else if the winner lives in a country where the post regulations don't allow sending these items.

Independence Day

Today is the Finnish Independence Day. Traditionally we light two candles on every window at six o'clock in the evening for two hours. I remember how exciting it was to be in charge of the candles at our school, our own classroom probably and maybe another. The electric lights were off, just the candles lit the dark December evening, and the school was quiet, with just the candle watches on each floor. They must have used electric candles for ages now, but no accidents ever happened while I was young.

Last night we finally had the first snow. It had been raining a little during the day, but in the afternoon the pavements were suddenly icy as the temperature dropped below freezing point. And then came the snow, amazingly big snowflakes. In an hour it was over, but the snow has remained on the ground. It is like someone turned the lights back on again. The ground is no longer black, sucking all the light from the headlights and street lamps, but white and reflecting the light back. Winter, you are welcome!

New Raggedy & Friends block

It took me longer than usual to finish the Raggedy & Friends BOM, but today Raggedy Ann posed again:

And here is my November block finished:

A detail of the stitchery:

The picture of Ann:

Thank you Kaaren for the pattern, I enjoyed it like every month!

Between my secret sewings I have also managed to finish the Building a Village table runner, a free pattern by Mrs. Moen:

The December light doesn't allow me to take very good pictures, but here you can see that I stitched doors to the houses and added a white binding to the long sides (and a starry one to the ends). Thank you, Nina Lise!

Today is our Independence Day and I need to wash my hair and put on a pretty dress so I can watch the annual dress parade on TV!

Independence Day

This is  December 6th, our Independence Day. My advent calendar picture with the new snow from yesterday is about as merry and joyful as we Finns are on this special day. We seem to take many things seriously.

        

I belong to the generation whose parents were born during the WWI, before Independence in 1917. Our fathers fought to keep this independence in the three wars 70 years ago. No wonder the Independence Day celebration is a bit serious, especially as it is at this dark time of the year. In the evening we light two candles in the window, and we watch the most boring (and yet so interesting) TV program, a direct broadcast from the Presidential Palace: the arrival of over 1,000 guests in their best dresses (that is the fun part) to shake hands with Mrs. President and her husband; and then the dancing crowd. It would be so much satisfying to watch this show with a female companion. Mr. K is a dear and lovely man, but his comments on dresses are far less than expert.