I heard...

... I heard the violin play... This card is decorated by a picture cut off from a magazine. Simple, pretty, easy and ecological.

Smart Cut

After The Tiger we have made the rest two of the set of three puzzles. The quality of this puzzle set is not so good at all but the pics are beautiful.

Despite a bit lower quality these puzzles can be made few times but for sure -during the time- the pieces won't look so tidy and whole.

I fell in love with this puzzle. There are everything I love: books, gardens, bikes, words...

...and these smart cut puzzle pieces stole my heart. I have never ever before made a smart cut puzzle but I must say this is The Thing.

Little Pii

Nuka has got a little sister! Watching the adorable puppy and playing with her gives Nuka an excellent brain work. Nuka has been a great help training the puppy. She watches and listens what I want the puppy to do and helps me out out if she sees she can do it better or for me. She -for example- encourages and even herds the puppy. She also defends her from the neighbor's cat. She pounced like a lightning between the cat and puppy when she saw the cat coming too close. 💗

Of course Nuka's bones are the more tasty ones but Nuka is kind and understanding with her. Especially when I take care of Nuka gets the best bits and all that I know she likes. It is not necessary to let her to have it first what comes to the treats and dog training. She knows the word "wait" and its meaning. She sees and understands what the puppy gets and what she gets. The puppy understands it too. That's why it is not necessary to give it all first to the pack leader. In the wild nature the leaders' job is to make sure the heirs are taken care of -it is just a simple fact of evolution. If the older dog is considered as upper to the puppy it doesn't matter if it is not the 1st one always. They do know what we think!

When I need to feed the puppy or give her bones or toys I always tell Nuka to wait and she knows she gets her award; sometimes it is a dog treat (she hates puppy food because she ain't no puppy at all) or just cuddling or what ever I know she prefers in that situation. It might be even to be closed up in her 3 x 3 m dog fence in the garden where the puppy can't get (there are Nuka's big dog bones which are left over bits from the wild game). To get it all to go just fine we humans need to make sure we are equal and fair to the older dog.

Who is the puppy? She is Alaskan Malamute and her name is Nöhverön Pondora-Pii. Just Pii to all her friends.

How she got her name? Well, "Nöhverön" is her dog breeder's kennel name. This litter is the litter "P" so the name must start with the letter "P". The breeder gave the name "Pondora" and we the name "Pii".

Why on earth we wanted to name her as "Pii"? We had few other names in mind but when YoungLady was solving out her home school math mysteries she suddenly shout from another room to me: "It's Pii! The name of the puppy is Pii!" Now I need to tell you that Finnish word "pii" is "pi" in English. "Pi" has also other meanings. In Finnish "pii" also means the flint, a stone you need to light up a fire. In our family it also means few other things. It makes us to remember MrW who studies math. When we play together as a family and need to calculate the scores we use our initials: I am "T", he is "M", MrW is "W" and YoungLady is "TT". When you look YoungLady's initials it turns out to seem like the symbol of "pi" which happens to be " π ".  The final approval from me to YoungLady's name suggestion was the fact that all the dogs we have or have had has got the name with the literature connection. I am sure you have heard about Yann Martel's story Life of Pi. I read it on my CreteDream holiday but also blogged about it in my ReadingChallenge 2017.

Despite Pi is a boy in the book it is an unisex name with many meanings. Our Alaskan Malamute is just a tiny puppy and we don't know what she will turn out. I know that what ever she'll be this name will have the meaningful connection to it.

If you are interested about my methods in dog training and dog life stories read more if you are a mobile user and choose the label "dog".

Tigers and stamps

After the penguin episode we needed something easy to do. That's why we chose this cute little 500 piece puzzle from a set of 3 puzzles we had bought from a supermarket.

I must confess I was totally positive surprised when we went to the supermarket to buy a puzzle and wellingtons for YoungLady. She had to come with me because I could not cut her legs off to test the boots. So, she was allowed to pick up a puzzle too. And what a surprise it was that right on that very moment a saleswoman was unpacking the delivery of puzzles and with the boring scene puzzles some extraordinary popped out too. W O W ! ! !

We were so happy and cheerful about this cute little puzzle. As you can guess, this was finished quite fast. After this we started the one He had bought us to brighten up my and YoungLady's home school and home office days.

I love letters and stamps. This 1000 piece puzzle was such a charming joy to both of us. It was also very educative and we learnt quite many old stamps of Finland.

We loved to do it but already from the begin we had a weird feeling. We always start with the edges but could not find each part for the edges. We seek and seek but no, the pieces were not in the box. Instead we found one very small and weird piece from the box. At the end we turn the house upside down, seek them under the fridge and oven... from every possible place. I have never ever lost a piece from a puzzle. Simply never. When he had checked out the house too we had to believe it, these 2 pieces must not have been in the box.

I contacted the company and told what had happen. I also send the pics from the puzzle. Believe or not but they sent us the two pieces we were missing out! It is extremely rare a puzzle misses a piece (if you have bought it new). I learnt that if any part is missing it is from the edge. It is because of the process of manufacturing the puzzles. It is so rare that we have never faced this despite making the puzzles over twenty years! I should try out lottery for the next!

Spring indeed

It is not green-time in my garden yet. I show you it anyway just to give you good tips how to fertilize your garden in easy, practical and eco-friendly way.

I never take anything out from my garden. Meaning that I use everything as compost. You don't need to process it all through a real man-made plastic compost. You can use it all in layers to cover your flowerbeds, put it under the shrubs, apple trees etc. Layers is the point. How? As long as you remember to put something hard (branches etc.) to form out a layer every now and then it will be just fine. These layers of open compost made of hard material make it more breathable, spongy and airy so that the process can go on.

This invites also birds to investigate what might be hidden there. Slowly, with the birds, the other animals dare to follow.

At the moment in my garden is a lot of going on. He is making the new fence for which we need 1,8 m high and 58 m long net. We need it for my little Mother's Day gift.

I wish you all -the mothers and heart spirited as mothers'- a very happy Mother's Day on this very special time.

WhiteSocks

I designed and knit these pretty white woollen socks for myself. I used Danish Filcolana's Arwetta yarn (80% superwash merino wool, 20% nylon) (50 g = 210 m). This trademark is new to me. Last October when visiting Turku, South Finland, I bought some balls of Arwetta just in case if needed to knit or crochet something for the dress project of the year.

On 2014 I made Dream Blue Sleepy Kit for myself. On 2017 I made it again because I needed new pair of hand warmers and woollen socks for sweet dreams. It seems one set lasts for 3 winters because now I need to make one set again for the next winter.

Buns

I just realized I have not shown you the promised pics of the hair and the dress yet. Unfortunately you won't see the proper pic of the dress because I don't have any which I could show you on public. Instead I show you just the hair I did myself for YoungLady. It consists of 3 buns. To get it fit and last, you just need to

1. make 3 pony tails first very close to each others
2. plait each pony tail
3. form the buns one by one 
4. pull O N E hairnet over it all
5. use pins to fasten it all

You can see tons of hairstyle videos in YouTube. For sure you will find similar to this there too. The tips above are the ones I learnt when doing this and remember the time I needed to do Ballerina Hair for the ballet lessons and big shows.

I have blogged about another easy hairstyle with beading before.

Tasty gluten free bread

Gluten free products are always more expensive than other products. You can save a lot by baking your own gluten free bread. But how to make it tasty? I have share my own gluten free GarlicBread and GarlicLovesCheese TeaBread recipes. Today I don't share recipes but tips how to make your own tasty gluten free bread. You just need the basic gluten free flour mix.

You can spice the dough what ever you find from the cupboards. Just spice the dough when it still is quite wet so that the spices will mix out well.

I have a proper kitchen garden of my own. The arctic climate limits a lot what I can grow. Some plagues are actually very healthy and excellent herbs. Nettle is one of them. Especially nettle seeds are very healthy. It is easy to pick up fresh nettles and dry them like the fireweed (see the link below) or just wait until the seeds are matured and pick up the seeds and let them dry more. If you dry it, it doesn't sting. Just use cloves when you harvest it.

Fireweed is my favorite. I harvest it every year and have blogged how to dry it and handle it. The same idea works with the nettle. You can add the herbs available: rosemary, thyme, basilica, oregano... what ever you have.

When you are on gluten free diet you need to make sure you get fibers. I love buckwheat, in this way. Buckwheat flour, if you add  it a lot (more than half) makes the bread taste poor or bad (my opinion). Buckwheat flour is a good base in bread because when you add a bit it starts the process in the dough with the yeast. I add whole buckwheat over the bread and it gets roasted in the oven and turns out very tasty.

I always save the left over cheese for baking. When you add it over the buckwheat you get even more tasty cover for the bread.

This is how you can make it. First you need the dough spiced with herbs...

Then add some seeds, buckwheat or perhaps olives...

If you use cheese you don't need to add any oil or butter into the dough.

It all looks as tasty as it is.

Let it cool down covered by a baking towel.

To avoid it to get too dry cut it always from the both ends. Cut only the slices you are going to eat immediately. Notice, it needs to be cool enough to be able to cut it.

MayDayCelebration

Despite COVID-19 and isolation it is time to C E L E B R A T E ! ! ! Last summer was quite hard and we hardly had enough harvest for our own needs. At this time of the year I can say it was just enough. We still have left exactly that much that we'll run out just when the next harvest season begins. I have just given away 2 kg of raspberries and 2 kg of chokeberries and that's all I can share. Despite the harvest was quite bad the quality has been great. The hops have given a good kick to my mead.

This year we made also churros with sugar donuts. Sugar donuts are traditional Finnish May Day sweet dessert. Churros are more exotic.

This time I don't share any gluten free churro or donut recipe. I am sure you can find them easily online. Instead I share you a tip how to make the holes in gluten free donuts cooked in oil. In gluten free  baking the eternal issue is how to get it off from your fingers. This way it happens easily. See the video!