it is christmasholiday

and will be for two weeks. Today I had my mobile ringing at church in the middle of the service with all schoolkids laughing out loud and the priest making observations from the pulpit. YES!!! Then I had coffee at Erkku and delivered some picture-CD:s before driving to Äänekoski-city. There I collected one of my sons and we did some shopping - food mainly for christmas (12 kg ham etc...). Now we will not starve...
I'm going to rest this evening and then become absorbed with the two manuscripts I am working at. The boys will happily enough take care of practicalities like cleaning and cooking and the christmastree. Somehow I'm feeling quite happy and contented.

well well

It has been dark, but somehow it doesn't affect me. I don't seem to notice. I've allways been more apt to get depressed in spring. Not so much nowadays as when I was younger. You get more endurance by the years. It takes alot to kill a man, a lot more than you imagine. On the otherhand - less than you imagine, just a tiny error in estimation.
We have 'The Artsalon' open at Aanekoski - some new kind of pictures - collages.

Lazy me

I promised to myself not to make keeping this blog a stressing must and so the days pass and nothing happens. Everyday life just glides from one day to the next and so on. I'm not sleeping well and my head aches continually. I should not be such a perfectionist - it is childish and unrealistic. Just to do my job and be content. Yes. but how difficult it is!

Changed

my blog to this new form. Somehow I'm slow to make changes, but eventually they take place if not sooner then later...

slippery ice

on the road today, and last night, when I was driving home. Today I had my daily walk.
Now I've been going through some old fotographs. Bloody time, running too fast.

iceflowers

iceflower
iceleaves
snowbride
winterlight
and cold, so cold. At this time of autumn, it is quite exceptional. But beautiful it is, no denying. I took 200 pictures on my afternoonwalk. And I tried to film the full moon in the evening. Haven't checked the result yet. Lovely to have all this new technics to play with, to explore.

light white icing

a scrap still life with icing
the skull


Yes, it is here, the winter. For a while we shall chop firewood and warm up the ovens. And have cosy evenings with hot wine by the fire. It doesn't much matter even if the electricity is interrupted because of a fast wind or excessive snow.
But it is hard to the car, and I have to admit that I'm not the sporting momwonder that I used to be. But just day by day we shall plough our way through the winter.

Nice weekend, anyway. with boys and their friends.

darkness comes

backyardscene
spot little mii
black tram

earlier every day, especially when it is cloudy, like today. We have had a little dog to look after for the weekend - quite heartbreaking: I've been without a dog for one and a half years and it is so nice to have someone to walk with and someone to come and sniff at my trousers when I just sit still here. But on the other hand Tisi, my old dog, lived to be 18 years old and that is quite a time to take care of someone. I'm not so young anymore and there are other complications.... but like this it is really wonderful: just fun and no responsibility. Tomorrow he will go home.

It is the autumnholiday so the boys will be home for the week. I suppose we will go to see grandmother Maija some day. Otherwise it is just to take in the gardenfurniture and to rake the fallen leaves. I like to rake: you get heaps of leaves that rustle and are colousful. And in my yard under the leaves there is a thick darkgreen moss covering everything like in some sort of japanese garden. It is beautiful, very special.

travelling

Spent some warm autumndays in Helsinki. Bought a few books and some clothes, met a friend or two, took long walks and a lot of pictures...

alone at home

The boys are in a disco at the village. I will go and fetch them home at midnight. The laptop downstairs is compressing the film, and will continue for the next 26 hours. Quite a heap of material. And then to DVD.
Roads are a regular mess because of the rain. Otherwise it is good: waterlewell is so low.
I have been raking: a lot of leaves have fallen from the trees, although some remain. It is pleasant work.

rain, rain

somehow my mind resembles these pictures...

It is autumn: leaves are yellow and red and brown, and the wind is tearing them down. The air is thick and dim, soft rain kind of sticks to your skin like a wet kiss. And darkness comes earlier every evening. I like autumn. It is peaceful, no hurry, you can stay at home and be cosy with a book and a fire burning.
The film lacks a few minutes of music and some stillpictures - it is almost finished, a week maybe...
It is like being pregnant, the last weeks, the last days, and finally you part.

flyfishing...

Last sunday my brother from Helsinki with two 12 yearolds came to fish at Kapeenkoski. Or they came on saturday and I joined them on sunday. The weather was lovely and the place fascinating, but no fish was seen... it was of course dissappointing to boys, but we fried some sausages insted.

Paw-shop

closed on saturday and today we cleared the space. Summershop it was and that's it. I haven't yet unpacked the car.

We did some recordings to patch up the original soundtrack - haven't checked them yet, because there were some dark clouds and I'm scared of thunder - it breaks computers etc with electrical pulses. But there is a day tomorrow too.

no rain today...

It would cheer me up - rain. Soaking wet world, water pouring from heaven for months, at least two, and the pump would not shout so long in the evenings, when the consumption is highest.

Only one scene to go - but it needs a monologue - and I've not written the final words. But it is taking shape. Rather a gentle movie it will be, nice - I'm a bit ashtonished, but it is ok. They have bruises in their souls, those two, but they can still...love?

And it is the last week of August....

plane shingles

that's what they did, a couple of friends of mine. And I had my camera ' tukkasotka' with me so they will plane shingles forever... Sounds quite fatal. So I did some forging - been a long time since I was at the smithy: it has been just too hot. It was hot today, too.

time flies

just amazingly. I've dedicated my time to the film and it is so slow and timeconsuming work - I'm still cutting, now also the soundtrack. That was tricky, almost lost my nerve but now I'll manage. Still quite a lot of recording to be done: missing dialogue etc. But slow you go and good youll be...
The school has started so there is some driving around on these miserable roads.
Last night we had a bonfire at the yard, and some beer and sausages - prosaic, but quite enchanting with the darkness and the stars. There also were some northern lights in the sky like fluttering light green curtains.
Still no rain, or just so little that it doesn't matter. The pump shouts long in the evenings, when we take showers: shortage of water. Praying for the rains... wouldn't it be lovely if it rained for two months! No thunder or such, but just heavy, silent rain falling endlessly... some thirty years ago there was such a summer - I remember how I painted the walls and doors and ceiling at our summercottage and it felt like living in an aquarium. Distinct memory.
Last week we took some pictures of clothes - it did rain then!

harvest

and seeds of all kinds begin to overwhelm the nature. I have not had time to see these things in a long time. And the school began today...welcome back to the ordinary world!

lovely

to have a quiet and gutsy feeling of deep satisfaction: it is there, I just have to take of the unnecessary. As you see I've looked through the roughly cut scenes....

alone at home

so the day seems to be long and quiet.

We have filmed almost all - exept the flying of the kite, but that will be easy. And I've started to cut the scenes, to create the rythm of the whole dramatic process: a lot of work there. 'Kill your darlings' said my teacher Risto Jarva - I don't know. But little by little...

Still hot and dry weather. Yesterday at Jyväskylä to see mom and to do some shopping. I tried to film some architecture but most of the try was too restless - no cameramovements, no zoom, no no. Somehow it is very difficult to stay still. Here some pictures from last winter - how would you show it as a cinema?