Ok the new place is here! We moved the blog to this new site. Hope you like it! On the familiar side, we visited the Indiana dunes national park recently. Really pretty fall colors and perfect temperatures!

There’s quite a bit to report on from August! We’ve already posted photos of Finland (first week of August) and the air and water show (weekend in mid-August), so now I’m going to go back to the second week of the month and go right through to Sept 1 for thematic reasons – skipping over the air and water show. Right after Finland, I had the mole removal procedure, which all readers have heard a lot about! Sarah was so amazing on the day of the procedure, coming over with an Ottolenghi eggplant parmesan and a salad – doubly meaningful…

This weekend we had front row seats at the annual Chicago Air and Water Show, one of the biggest airshows in the world! Because Liam works at the big water purification plant by Navy Pier, all employees and their families are able to enter the facility to view the show (normally its a federally protected space due to the fact that this is where all of Chicago’s water is processed). Due to the location, it really is a perfect location to view the show! Here we are at the blue dot, looking directly north onto all the action happening at…

Ronan’s home and holiday cottages are all on The Kvarken Archipelago, a world heritage site, that was formed as glaciers retreated in the last ice age, depositing rocks to form long thing “moraine” islands, and with the retreat of the glaciers, causing the land to rise, 9mm a year, to this day! On Wednesday, despite a late night on Tuesday, we got an early start to take a boat out to explore one of the islands on the archipelago, about a 30 minute boat ride from the coast, and the last island before you enter Swedish waters. The boat ride…

Day 2 in Vaasa was forecast to be rainy, so Ronan and Lena suggested we spend the day in Vaasa itself. But before we headed out, I managed to fit in a short swim in the part of the sea that stretches almost over to Ronan and Lena’s property. This water is the Gulf of Bothnia, the body of water that separates Finland and Sweden, with this region of the sea called Kvarken. Ronan suggested I get into the water at a nearby boat ramp, and it was definitely interesting figuring out the best approach, with all the grasses at…

The 4-hour train trip from Helsinki to Vaasa was a very comfortable with pleasant views of the Finnish countryside and forests. Along the way I picked up the shocking fact that Finland has 10 trees for every person on the planet. Great vacation spot for a Treekeeper! Here are some views from the train. Hoping these maps serve several purposes – showing distance and position of Helsinki and Vaasa, showing the language areas of Finland and that our trip has been in bilingual Finnish and Swedish areas, and introducing Björköby, our final destination outside Vaasa. Vaasa is the Finnish name…

We had a full day in Helsinki so headed out early (some may dispute the definition of early but i felt very rested!) to do a lot of sightseeing. First we stopped at a cafe for some breakfast where I learned that ‘toast’ on a menu means toasted cheese sandwich! Next stop – the silent chapel. see the curved wooden structure behind me in the first photo – inside there is a beautiful small chapel that is completely silent inside. While that space is totally silent, we’ve found other places in Finland to be pleasantly quiet. The Finnair flight had…

We had a very smooth flight to helsinki, and from the airport took a train from the airport to the downtown train station, and then had a short walk to our hostel. Once checked in to a very nice private room there (just in case anyone though we were sleeping in a dorm room!) we headed to the Allas Sea Baths nearby. I’d scoped the baths out in advance and wow did it live up to expectations! There are 3 outdoor pools right by the harbor – one with lanes for different activities (we floated in the ‘dipping’ lane, other…

By the charts, we’re coming up on the halfway point of summer, so I thought it would be a good time to do a post about some swim and gardening highlights so far. And ice cream! First, our front garden. I was much more diligent this year in identifying plants early and pulling weeds. And I spread mulch very early in the season, which kept weed growth down. Both efforts have paid off in that now there are plants covering the parkway area, without crowding. Now, you might say, hmmm there are maybe too many milkweed plants in there –…