NordenBladet – Estonia is indeed very beautiful, especially in the summer. Every day seems like a fairy-tale. It might be that the country life has such an effect on me, because there is no tiring city noise, dust or turmoil. The mornings are calm and beautiful. I feel happy taking care of my husband and my family and I enjoy every detail – putting the basil that I myself have grown on the sandwich, cutting the flowers I myself have grown in the garden and putting them in the vase, putting berries that I myself have grown straight on the birthday party cake, etc.

July 27. Allan’s birthday at home. Greeting cards made by the kids, homemade food, whipped cream cake and hundreds of hugs. In our house we generally hug and kiss a lot – I believe we do it every hour! Every pause time either I go to Allan or Allan comes to me to say, let’s hug.

August 2. Me and Allan and Allan’s mom went to a small trip to Käsmu-Pärispea-Viinistu.

The Käsmu peninsula that is located in Lahemaa national park (70km from Tallinn) is like a small still unruined world – cosy, unique and lovely beach village, where on can find a small and simple village shop, a nice restaurant and the cool Sea Museum that is located in the previous boarder guard cordon building.

One can consider Käsmu Sea Museum, along with the museum’s founder Aarne Vaik, the heart and soul of Käsmu. Aarne Vaik lives in the museum since 1993 and the exhibits that can be seen in the home-museum are all from his impressive private collection. Vaik, who is today 82 years old, can tell stories about the captain village, viking era, and sea topics endlessly, if one can only grasp to ask. The museum also arranges seminars and events, one of the best known has perhaps been the long held Science summer school.

Käsmu is in the culture calendar also thanks to Viru Folk that is held in the courtyard of the museum, it has been arranged by Peep Veedla already since the year 2013.

The following are pictures from our Käsmu visit:
Käsmu shop (merekooli 4) and Käsmu Lighthouse Harbour (Merekooli 6)

The businessman Viktor Siilats owns the restaurant Kaspervik (Lainela street 10/9, Käsmu village), there we tasted salmon cream and herb-butter bread, burrata with balsamico, local fish (lil bit too salty) and all desserts (Pina colada mousse was the favourite!). Tasty and wonderfully served meals!

In Käsmu Sea Museum (Merekooli 1)

We also went to the Northernmost village in continental Estonia – Pärispea, where Allan had spent many of his childhood summers, and then we went to Viinistu culture museum and visited the Kellerteater play in Viinistu named “Agatha Christie”.

Pärispea, in Kuusalu parish, near Hara gulf

Viinistu harbour and Viinistu Art Museum (Ranna 1, Viinistu) – it’s a private art museum where one can see an art collection that belongs to Jaan Manitski.

The evening ended in Viinistu Art Harbour, with a play directed by Vahur Keller, named Agatha Christie “And then there were none”. (actors: Liis Haab, Meelis Kubo, Tõnu Oja, Andres Roosileht, Toomas Täht, Riho Rosberg, Rauno Kaibiainen, Hans Kristian Õis, Ülle Kaljuste, Ago Anderson, Liia Kanemägi).

That’s all for this time! Hugs!

On the opening photo with Käsmu Sea Museum’s founder and leader Aarne Vaik.

NordenBladet –  Yesterday evening (July 21st) there was a big concert in Haapsalu Dome church, dedicated to the “Violin play” festival’s 30th anniversary and to professor Tõnu Reimann, and my older daughter Estella Elisheva (18) also performed there. Since the rehearsals started early, the four of us drove frome Saku to Haapsalu already in the morning.

A glimpse at Estella Elisheva’s main rehearsal in Haapsalu Dome church

We drove Estella to her rehearsal and then went to Wiigi cafe (Suur-Lossi 25). Instagram is packed with their wonderful food pics and I was determined to be a part of that food wonder. I ordered Tiger prawn salad (14€) and jasmine tea (6€), Ivanka chose Warm goat cheese salad (13€) and Värska water (3€) and Allan took Duck fillet (22€) and Cafe Latte (3.5€). The food was as good as it appeared! A true pleasure! Then we walked down the beach promenades and headed to the wonderful Müüriääre cafe where I took Condensed milk cheesecake (6.5€), Ivanka Strawberry cheesecake (6.5€) and Allan Raffaello Cake (5€).

(the blog goes on at length in between the picture galleries)

We proceeded with two plans – walking some more, stepping into a few nice shops, and then spending a few hours in Fra Mare Thalasso Spa (Ranna street 2).

Haapsalu offers art at every step – from a salad on the plate, a cake next to a cafe, to paintings and ceramics! I’ll write about it in a minute!

I really like all kinds of little things, souvenirs and art shops. There are lots of those in Haapsalu, Karja street. In most of them there are interesting products from various artists. This time we stepped into four shops.

We started off with Lija Handicraft shop (Karja 13), where at first sight you would notice interesting and unique ceramic teapots and mugs with faces, by artist Raivo Koit. Also I like illustrator Made Balbat with her interesting fairy tale like art. There was also a lot of china and glass and Alpaca and linen clothes.

Karja street 19 leads you to two pearls at the same time! To the left from the main entrance is an amazing handicraft store Mirimart, where you find a lot of inexpensive and beautiful Estonian wooden art. I couldn’t even leave without a purchase (big cutting board 25€, little cutting board 10€ and pan spatula 7€). Wood and clay are my favourite materials!! They add so much coziness to the home!

To the right, also at the address Karja 19, there is a bohemian art shop owned by an artist couple Aavo Ermel (on the photo) and Piret Port, and a worksop named Portel, where the artist herself greets people behind the counter and where a fluffy cat, so adorable and calm, exists at its own rhythm and adds its part to the shops already so creative energy. You get the feeling in the shop that the art of magic is being done there..

Interesting handicraft bags and super cool puzzles are sold in the shop. I am not exaggerating when I say that I woke up once at night and continued thinking how the logic of the puzzles work, since they are only made of 9 pieces – but, alas, you cannot combine them together.. icccc. Oh I did try to find the key (I counted the roofs, the walls, the crosses, the coats of arms, the ads texts). Unbelievable, how engaging (many hours pass like nothing) and many hours of tickles in the nerves are still to come, since with 9 pieces you can do 64 000 combinations (at least I figured that out)..? For 15€ we got an insanely cool toy that you for example can take on a flight. Besides, it’s an ideal souvenir and a fridge magnet. Such a cool toy, multiple times cooler than the first impression of it!!! I recommend it!

The Portel gallery shop had even more to it. For example, you would notice the work of the artist-illustrator Jüri Mildeberg (Mildebergius) on the walls. A very unique and interesting style of graphics, paintings and sculptures. Soooo my type of art! Mystical, playful and a little bit spooky – just like from a different era or dimension. A very inspiring artist!

We also stepped into yet another shop, a fourth one. There also the artist herself greeted us in person. Karja 21 hosts a romantic and feminine vintage shop “Little Paris” of the ceramics artist Eva Raudkivi, where one can purchase utility ceramics, home textiles and exciting second hand articles.

We were full of emotions.. and headed to the SPA to relax (11 EUR per person).

PS! Did you know that the town of Haapsalu celebrates its 745th anniversary this year! Congratulations!

That’s all for this time! Hugs! ❤️

NordenBladet – Is there anything new and then what’s new? Yess.. For several years I liked doing acrylic paintings. I mostly painted flowers and created so to say illustration paintings for the children’s book “His Highness Mouse the First” that is planned to be published. But now I have discovered watercolor pencils, watercolors and grease chalks and the combinations of those. Super cool!!!

Right now I have two wonderful cat portraits ready and in my mind’s eye I see a naive and childish cat series “Whimsical Ct Art“. More pictures and more talk about the process of making them is available in my ElishevaShoshana.com art blog HERE and HERE). I really like drawing dressed animals!!! I am an unfailing fan of children’s books and fairytales!

One fine day, it would be awesome to give more life to the best of my drawings, illustrations and paintings – for example to use them on a pot or box, on clothes, postcards, stickers, etc just like Hannag Dale does with their brand “Wrendale Design” (see wrendaledesigns.co.uk) or like Jess Polanshek with their brand (see ofthehills.com).

Also Ivanka Shoshana (16) loves art. Since Ivanka has autism, our lives are tightly knot. We do everything together every day.. She drew her own pictures based on my pictures. I’m such a fan of her “signature” and style!

Together we have also created several pieces of ceramics. Actually, several collections.  I love such a slightly rough and “imperfect” result.  The clay needs to play in the oven and art needs to be unique! And what is more – you must like it yourself. I never understood why people buy art based on labels and names (except when you resell it). You must like the painting on your wall and the plate on your table 🙂

What else has happened during the past week? To cut it short… A LOT!

– Every day I study Spanish on my own. As of today I’ve been studying 165 days in a row and according to Duolingo I have obtained a vocabulary of 840 words. Currently I am still at level A1 but soon already at A2 🙂 Practice makes perfect. The plan is to start speaking Spanish in a year (in 200 days I plan to be at level B1…B2)

– I keep an eye on the stock market and trade. I moved most of my portfolio to Lightyear* (ad link – use the code to join and we both get free stocks worth 10EUR!).. LHV’s huge service fees are not worth it. IB (Interactive Brokers) is also in the creation process, we soon want to do most of the trading via code, and it’s necessary for the platform to allow API. Oh yeah, and what more… does anybody know what’s happening to Yahoo? Their data is flipping big time lately, crazy.

– I try to take Ivanka swimming at least once a week. This week me and Allan went to Mustamäe 21+ SPA on a Monday night.

Also I have been knitting, I completed three tiny rag rugs and also I did embroidery and sewed. (more about those in some other blog posts).

Ivanka and Estella have camps in August and as is usual with women – there’s nothing to wear.. hahaaa. We added things to our wardrobes in Ülemiste center (clothes and footwear) and dined at O’Learys.

On Thursday and Friday we enjoyed a short trip to events after the working day:

June 18th we went to the Aruküla Song Festival stage to see the Comedy Theatre play “The Three Musketeers“. Cast: Marika Korolev, Henrik Normann and Marika Barabanštšikova.

… and on June 19th we went to Kehtna where there was an 80s live concert! Featuring Alphaville, F.R. David, Marju Länik and DJ Allan Roosileht. I’ve liked several of Alphaville’s songs for years.  “Big in Japan”, “Jerusalem”, “Forever Young”, “Sounds like a Melody”, “Summer Rain” and, crop of the cream, “A Victory of Love!” OMG how much I have been crying while listening to these songs as a teenager.. icccc ???

Marian Gold (lead vocalist) who is already 70 years old today, was super fit.. We were thinking to ourselves if we would be able to jump and sing so much during even just one song.. iccccc. And their synth guy Carsten Brocker is super cool too. The way he cheered along to the music is already spectacular.

Until the next blog!
Happy weekend and stay awesome! Hugs!

NordenBladet – It is the weekend.. It’s been a few days since my last blog, but so many things have happened. There are actually things happening all the time and it is way easier to post more frequently as opposed to making summaries over an extended period of time. After every day there are tens of new pictures in my phone and so many things have been seen-done-visited. Anyway, here you can read the best episodes from my past three days.

Me and Allan, we went to see Piret Jaaks’s play “Öökuninganna” in Kolga manor in Kuusalu parish on the Pudisoo river bank. Cast: Ülle Lichtfeldt (Rakvere Teatre), Miika Pihlak ja Jaanis Valk (roles of Elli, Jakob and Meemees/Honeyman). The hall was small but fully booked and the applause after the play ended was neverending. We liked the play very much (especially act II), but it has to be said that generally Estonian actors and the Estonian theatre are at a good level!

The last play we saw before the “Öökuninganna” was a long time ago. I guess it was the end of March in Kaja Culture Centre, a play directed by Jaanus Nuutre and set up by Mart Sander for Raimond Valgre’s 110th anniversary – a musical drama play “Peaksime rääkima Raimondist” (We should talk about Raimond). Cast: Liisa Pulk, Mart Sander, Nikolai Bentsler, Jürgen Gansen (Kuressaare Theatre), Hardo Adamson, Miika Pihlak, Kristjan Arunurm (Salme Theatre).

The play was “beyond the generation of me and Allan” and this was reflected in the play’s audience.. but… knowing bits and pieces of the history of that time, being aware of Valgre’s music, it was very proximate and profound and fascinating in Mart Sander’s style. By the way, “Viimne valss” (the final waltz), that was played at Valgre’s funeral in the play by Mart Sander, today belongs to Mart Sander. Fun fact, isn’t it?

Also today was a mega cool day! My older daughter Estella Elisheva (18) has actively started branding our Elisheva & Shoshana brand. When my daughters were young, at one point I was thinking that I’d love to give them something for life and so I created a brand after their names (see the story of our little family firm here: elishevashoshana.com).

Now for an n-th time already she registered us for a fair. This time it was July 13th in Viimsi Open Air Museum (Rohuneeme street 53a, Pringi village, Viimsi parish) where the seashore people’s festival “Sea song’s PARTY” took place. In the frame of this event also an extensive old property and handicraft fair was held. Estella Elisheva was selling our handmade Estonian handicraft cosmetics – handicraft soaps, hair care products and body care products, scented bath salts, etc. The pictures from the fair are taken before it started and therefore there are few people in the pictures.

The event was free of charge for the visitors and thus it was packed. Estella did a decent box office and is very enthusiastic about entrepreneurship. This is how one gathers experience… 🙂 I am very proud of her entrepreneurship. She not merely takes action and not merely collects in the piggy bank, but she also studies different possibilities for investment. Such a great baby that I have! Hopefully, once I am retired, I am gonna have at least a back-up wine fund 😀 hahaaaa… hahaa

We helped Estella set up the sales desk and then Estella stayed alone in the Viimsi Open Air Museum to sell E&S products. Ivanka Shoshana went with Margus to Tallinn Sea Days and me and Allan, we had a day for the two of us. The first thing we did was at Viimsi Pihlaka cafe, a Cafe Latte and lemon cream eclair! My all time favourite from among the shop’s cooking dough products. Yumm!

Then we drove to Tallinn old town with Allan, parked the car and just walked in the old town. I hadn’t done that in a while and it was so nice! Viru Street, Vene Street, Town Hall Square, Harju Street, etc. And then…

… All of a sudden we stumbled upon a tiny old town courtyard – Master’s courtyard (Vene street 6), where in the courtyard’s back pocket I found something astonishing — a Ceramics chamber! What fantastic ceramics! Firstly I thought it would be an exhibition, but it’s a ceramics shop where they sell the art of various artists. I may be wrong but I guess there are the works of six artists that have graduated from Estonian Art Academy (Rita Randmaa, Elize Hiiop, Üllo Karro, Ann Nurga, Janne Runin, Jana Zgun).

WHAT AN AWESOME GALLERY SHOP!!! Really!! Oh how I love ceramics, I have been attending a ceramics class with Ivanka for years now… I was/am so amazed! I liked everything that they sold there.. but most of all I liked Ann Nurga‘s art. She can be found on social media under the name Savinõid. I am still so excited about what I saw. I liked it a lot, it was very inspiring… I got the exact feeling you get in your stomach when you feel like you’re ready to create something new, when you feel like you’re filled with inspiration. AWESOME, THANK YOU!!!

The day ended in a traditional Italian cuisine restaurant Controvento (Vene 12, Katariina passage).

Until next time! Hugs!

NordenBladet – It is summer (for quite a while!), but I don’t want to start each post with the sentence that I don’t know how time flies so quickly and that I haven’t been posting in ages again 😀 hahaaa… Well and now there are already three Spain trips that need to be reflected on… Also I need to post for March, April, May, June… Really, OMG!!! But no worries… Now I have got a good idea. I will just start scrolling my phone and write everything retrospectively… (at some point) 😀

But it is the easiest to start from today. Therefore… Today is Wednesday, July 10th. I woke up at about 8:00 (nice long sleep aaah?) and prepared a royal breakfast:

– Taarapõllu farm’s “Unquidonia juice” shot (boosts the metabolism). I bought it out of interest already a week ago to test it and I really like it.
– Warm oatmeal porridge with green salad, seasoned with sugar and drowning in sour cream.
– sandwiches with yellow tomato and ham and cheese
– strawberries, grapes and sweet cherries
– and COFFEE with milk!

PS! On the kitchen table up to today the daisies that I picked and the roses that Allan gave me last week still please the eye! These pictures are also from last week… such is our almost every breakfast and I do not take new pictures each time :).

Anyway… when everybody was full, Ivanka attended her online private lesson with my little sister Hanna-Liisa in Zoom (or maybe in Google Meet (they do one hour of general studies daily), I went to the garden to weed and mow and Allan was at the home office.

The garden is large, so I do a little bit every time. Today I completed the surroundings of the strawberry bed and planted salad seeds and dill, since those I planted 2.5 weeks ago didn’t grow. Mhmmm.. Also I am amazed that the various strawberries I bought from Bauhof (Korona, Ostara, Elsanta, Elvira, Senga Sengana) grow leaves and shoots but there are no berries. Maybe there will not be berries during the first year. Who knows? Not me..
Pictures from the day I planted the strawberries (June 2nd 2024). I asked Allan to build me some more boxes for plants. So I got two new beautiful boxes. The plants were so small when I bought them and it seemed that everything was alright… but now a month from that I realize I planted them too close to each other and I actually need more boxes…

On June 2nd we also did our first grill this year 😛

Now garden pics from today. PS! I first planted the seeds of salad, dill and basil on June 24th (these little tassels that you can see in the pics have been growing for a few weeks). Today I added to the same bed some salad and dill, it seems the seeds don’t grow. By the way, it is not the first time this happens that I buy the seeds and there is hardly any harvest. Maybe they sold me old seeds? Mhmmm… There’s also a chance that birds come and eat up all the seeds.

To conclude it, here are some pics from my latest manicure. Mega beautiful! Also the garden was super beautiful after the gardening works, the weather was amazing today and Ivanka was in a good mood… such a positive vibe!

Hugs! XOXOXO
…Now I’ll have a look at what the markets (stock exchange) is doing and then maybe I will start another blog 🙂

NordenBladet – On December 31 we returned from a several weeks long family trip to Spain and on January 1 after a long time I woke up at home – in Estonia. It was so nice to wake up at home, but the excitement was cut down by the lousy skiing weather, the minus degrees and the Northern darkness.

By the way, flying from Spain back to Estonia was like in a horror movie – it got darker outside every five minutes, even darker when we got back to Estonia. To celebrate New Year’s, we sipped up several bottles of champagne and therefore the sudden climate change was no longer a problem. However, what was a problem was the chest pain the next day. Namely, I cannot take champagne (that sucks), now I have been assured several times already – drinking champagne does not end well for me. Luckily there’s no problem with wine yet. Ptui-ptui… Icccc.

In Malaga airport on our way back to Tallinn.

At home there was a big present from Allan’s brother’s family waiting for us, that brought back the Christmas feeling, and Allan requested sauerkraut and black pudding. He got that! I served them with Meie Mari “Cloudberry jam” (yum!) from the beautiful Christmas-themed ceramic plates made by Ivanka! I have been going to ceramics class with Ivanka since 2019 and I think today she makes really beautiful and unique ceramics. She does need supervision, but she has a very nice and original art style!

But now to the summary of January. Just like you get the January post after the February summary (see HERE), I’ll do the December trip’s summary after the January post.. The blogging came out like this, let it have such logic.. iccc.

In the beginning of January I created a Lightyear* (adlink) account. I do not yet know how difficult or easy it is going to be to submit Lightyear reports, but compared to LHV‘s criminally high service fees and commission fees I decided to do my trading via Lightyear account or via Interactive Brokers (the plan is to register a business account there and once our robo-counsellor is ready, we will trade via their app). There’s a big difference whether you pay service fees 30 eur (LHV) for buying the stock, or 1 eur (Lightyear), the same applies to sales. On the other hand, there are frights connected to Lightyear – when you trade with larger sums, does Lightyear provide guarantee for the deposit? What does the later report system look like (hopefully one doesn’t have to add each and every transaction in the report and it is automatic). LHV excels with reliability, great service (I like that they answer the phone immediately) and I like that they offer amplification. A huge minus for LHV (which in the long run would still mean the investors and traders will move to some other platform) is the abnormally high service fee. 🙁

It also looks like there are age-related changes going on. ? ? Besides sewing nonstop, I started attending rag rug knitting courses in January!!! In January I completed four little rag rugs. I took pictures of the first three rugs and you can read about those rugs from ElishevaShoshana.com handicraft blog HERE (rag rug #1), HERE (rag rug #2) and HERE (rag rug #3). I also bought myself Liidia Mälksoo’s book “Fabric knitting” and I silently dream about my personal looms. Since the idea behind rag rugs is recycling, then I like to make the rugs largely from self processed materials. Therefore I spend lots of time cutting old fabrics into knitting strings.

(blog continues after the photo gallery)

January 14th was Allan’s brother’s wife Tiina’s birthday and we celebrated it on the 13th of January. The guests were first of all invited to a private excursion to Tallinn City Hall and after that to a dinner in Tallink City Hotel restaurant “City Grill House”

In January I was also struck by a mania of sewing little sachets. Here are just a few examples – all in all I made at least over 20 different pockets and even one larger glasses case. It is so nice to mix fabrics, laces and ribbons. Besides self made pockets you can also see my stylish blue January manicure in the pictures. It was such a nice nail polish colour that I already miss it 🙂

There’s a lot more to post about January, but to zip it up quickly, I also did the following:

*I went to the SPA and massage several times
*I read and focussed on self development, more precisely learning the art of Manifesting
*as a generator of ides I tried coming up with new ideas to carry out
*I practised thinking big and thought about how I could be of use to the world and the people. I wish to accomplish something that humanity would appreciate. Something that would help many people.

In conclusion, two pictures from today’s dinner. I prepared a quick and easy home made meal (pasta with cheese, fish fingers, pickles and sour cream-mayonnaise sauce).

PS. also these beautiful brown plates are made by Ivanka!

That’s all for this time! Hugs!

NordenBladet – School holiday is here (26 Feb – 1 Mar) and Allan’s vacation starts tomorrow. We plan to fit into this week a small renovation, the practice of using a gun on the shooting range, I plan several chores at home, and Allan keeps developing our personal robo-counsellor. For the weekend we have invited guests over. Estella went skiing to Sälen, Sweden, with her uncle’s family for ten days. I’ll do the summary of February and when there’s time left, I’ll retrospectively do a summary of January too 🙂

So what exciting and new things have been happening so far in February?

Tadaaaa! I decided that it is time again to study something, so I started several language courses! Firstly , I registered to a 4-month Tartu Folkuniversitetet Zoom environment web based Swedish language advanced course, supervised by Kristiina Kisler who has studied Scandinavian languages and culture in the University of Tartu (course price: 195 EUR, takes place 1x weekly, 2 hours per one time).

Then I thought: since it is already for some time quite topical to get us a winter home in Spain, I can’t get around the Spanish language and so I registered for entry level Spanish lessons at hispaaniakeeletunnid.ee. It is supervised by Sebastian Wesman Bustillo who lives in Estonia today but comes from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The classes are also in Zoom. Web based studies are very convenient, then you don’t waste time driving to some place (course costs 70 EUR a month, takes place 1x weekly, 1 hour at a time).

Besides, I created a Duolingo account and bought a family package where up to 5 people can join (the annual price was, I guess, $119.99). An absolutely amazing language learning program!!!! I love it so much! With this app I am currently learning Swedish as well as Spanish. Very playful and nice. I just did an exciting article about language skills and isn’t it an exciting fact that one can communicate in a new language on a beginner’s level already when one knows 300-500 words! Thus, at the same time next week I’ll already be talking decent Spanish (I hope :P).

So, what else? I continue knitting rag rugs. In February I completed three nice and big rag rugs (which I myself have knitted on looms – no 5, no 6 and no 7). I still haven’t taken decent pictures of them, but here’s a little sneak peek for you:

#5 My 5th self-made rag rug. The four first ones were little rugs, this one tagged #5 is my first large rug! It is from the same batch as my similar tone little rug (rug #4), which is still at the Koome Koos looms house in Nõmme.

#6 My 6th self-made rag rug (also large)… Until now it’s my favourite!

#7 My 7th, striped rug is completed, but still on the looms and not taken down yet. I made that for Allan’s home office, like the previous little light blue rug, of which you can see more pictures HERE if you wish).

February 8th was my younger sister’s birthday. This time once more she unfortunately didn’t celebrate it and we met only this weekend in Tartu. I made her the following gift: based on her own kitchen, a Mice-series painting, which was also exhibited in the Estonian National Museum. You can see more pictures of it and some background info here –> #31 Paintings by Helena-Reet Ennet: “His Highness Mouse the First” (series – painting no 13), March 2021.

February 10-11th there was a Valentine’s Day Fair at Mustamäe center and Estella Elisheva wanted to go and sell our Elisheva & Shoshana products there (you can find the web store here –> ElishevaShoshana.com). Vendor fee (considering that it is a small center) was quite pricy for two days, almost a hundred euros (97.60). I was pretty sure that by the end of the day we’ll have a negative balance, but I didn’t want to kill Estella’s vibe and so I agreed. Luckily the event created some profit – Estella earned herself some pocket money and I was happy that she is so venturesome.

Valentine’s Day (February 14th). I cooked and baked and Allan brought flowers – as always on different events celebrated in our home.

The day of me and Allan, i.e. the monthly Love Day (February 22nd). From now on we slightly break the tradition and we don’t make lasagne or whipped cream cake on the 22nd of every month… but despite that the day is always FESTIVE! This time grapes, oranges, cheese schnitzel with cucumber and tomato and Pagarini’s “Raspberry cheesecake”. Very tasty, but I still rarely buy it because I don’t like E-additives being added to store food.

We celebrated Estonian Independence Day (February 24th) at Marie and Raido’s place in Vorbuse, Tartu. Sprat sandwiches, cabbage, potatoes and other stuff like always. Festive atmosphere and Estonian National TV program. Must admit, it is only now that I realize – when my granny on my mom’s side once said, it was the best moment of her life when Estonia became free again. Long live free Estonia! Let freedom and peace go on! ??

To conclude it, a picture from February’s manicure! Now I start cooking lunch (gosh, there is so much food in our lives!!!) and then (maybe already today) I will make a summary of January. Hugs!

NordenBladet – In September school started again. We went to Ülemiste center with Estella Elisheva to find clothes and other things for school and then we had lunch in CHI. Estella Elisheva (17) lives also this year during the week on school days in MUBA school dormitory and thus these mother-daughter moments are of great value to us.

Now on Friday when she came home she wanted to watch TV with me but I was so tired and I said I can’t. Allan had been at home ill during the past week and I myself have not been feeling well either. Estella’s eyes went watery and she said that there used to be times when we hugged and watched TV together all the time but now I only laugh together with Allan and do everything only together with Allan. I was touched by this comment. How can she think so, I do love her so much! We immediately made a plan that on Saturday we will hug all day. I watched TV together with Estella and Ivanka for half of the day, then we played cards together (Allan, me and Estella) and chatted about all the things in the world.

Estella is so efficient that sometimes I wonder where that comes from. Let’s say, I give this honour to Margus big time. I am everything but academic and hard-headed. The Finnish joke applies to me so well “Äiti haluisi, että minusta tulisi tuomari tai juristi, mutta minusta tuli juomari ja turisti!” (mother would have wanted me to become a judge or a lawyer, but I became a drunk and a tourist!). Hahaa..

But continuing with Estella… In the summer she found herself a job. This time she offered to work in a kindergarten (she said that working with children will benefit her in the future). By the way, she took the job like I would recommend everyone to do (if anybody asked me..icccc): think about what you like, what you are good at, and where you would like to be and then offer to work with those people, don’t wait for the “right” job offer, don’t stand in the application line. Estella is a perfect example of how to take control in life. Every spare moment she practises the violin, works out and listens to English language podcasts. Estella is such a big fan of audio books that she bought herself from her own money the yearly subscription to Scribd. Although she still has three more years at MUBA school, she already looks around to find a conservatory for future studies. (Oh how easy it is to be a good mother when you have such a wonderful child!) 🙂

Her current interests lie here / she has selected four music colleges:

*University of music and performing arts Vienna (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien). Austria is the mecca of classical music and the school is famous for its classical music program and esteemed professors.

*The royal conservatory of Madrid (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid). The royal conservatory of Madrid is among Spain’s most prestigious music colleges and offers high level violin studies.

*Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, America. Curtis is a really prestigious small private college that focuses on individual studies and top notch music education. By the way, it offers full scholarships to students.

*The Juilliard School in New York, America. Juillard is among the world’s best known music and dance colleges and it has a reputation as one of the highest level music institutions in the world.

What can I say.. set high goals and you will reach high goals! ???

That’s all for this time! Hugs!

NordenBladet –  In September we went to Saaremaa after a hundred years. The children go to Saaremaa often, but I hadn’t been there for like five-six years, if not more. Allan had to go check the servers in Saaremaa airport and we decided that I and Ivanka will join him on his trip to Saaremaa and we will remain there for a longer time.

On Friday morning (September 8th) we started off from home so that by 10 o’clock we arrived in Kuressaare. I went shopping with Ivanka (we shopped until lunch in Auri center and the shops in the city center). A positive surprise was Saaremaa Department store’s food world, it had been made really stylish and beautiful. At lunchtime we went to the hotel. We had booked the Grand Rose SPA hotel (142 euros for three people), which also included the SPA visit and breakfast. So the three of us spent the evening indulging in the SPA and the next day we shortly visited the Saaremaa Food festival. By lunchtime we were already on the barge from Kuivastu to Virtsu and in the afternoon we were back home.

Ah yes… PS! The water samples taken from Kuressaare water supply system still show contamination with E. coli and other coli-like bacteria and thus the Estonian Health Board does not recommend using tap water for drinking before boiling it. Though we only drank bottled water, we still used tap water in the hotel to brush our teeth. For quite some time I was afraid that maybe we caught the coli bacteria but since now it’s already been a while since our Saaremaa trip it seems as if we are safe.

See also:

PICTURES from Saaremaa! Kuressaare (old town, town hall, market place, castle park, bishop castle, …) December 24th 2018