Cactuses

Since I was a teenager, I started to grow some potted plants. By now, almost 20 years later, I still have quite a lot of them at home, including cactuses. My cactuses never bloomed when I was living in an apartment. But here, in my house, they seem to like their life. This year - the Christmas cactuses are blooming for the first time! I'm so happy about it! They didn't start to show their blossom for Christmas exactly, but are blooming right now - in January. So I hope maybe next year, it will be for Christmas...

Zygocactus truncatus - Christmas cactus in our bedroom

Zygocactus truncatus - Christmas cactus in our kitchen

Echinopsis sp - Hedgehog cactus

And I do not know the name of this one...

Skiing weekend

Snow has finally arrived to Estonia for a longer period and anyone, who is fond of skiing, has been able to find a suitable moment to go to the forest. I've always liked skiing. When I was small, I used to go to skiing competitions with my father and my brother. Some years, I've been out skiing more often than in other winters - depending on the snow conditions, of course. For instance, last winter, I was able to go to ski only once!

This weekend we had also the FIS World Cup of Cross Country Skiing in Estonia - in Otepää (south part of Estonia). We didn't travel to Otepää to watch the competitions (but TV was our friend during that time:)). Unfortunately Estonian skiers didn't succeed this year, but many Finnish skiers were really good - and it's almost like our own skiers as Finns are our neighbours.

Photo: http://www.tehvandi.ee/mk/

As the days are so winterly nice, I went to ski twice during the weekend - on Saturday, together with Aune (our neighbour) and on Sunday, with Erik. We have a sports park very close to our home - in Keila - and it has very good skiing tracks. It's such a pleasure to be out in the forest, enjoy the beauty of it and on the same time, breath fresh air and do some activity!

Mascarpone-cheesecake with raspberries and bananas

Normally this cake is made by my friend Eve. She's the specialist making it, and every time, when I have eaten it, I feel that I could eat the whole cake... It's just so good! The original recipe has only bananas inside it, but Eve invented the new version with raspberries which is even better. I'm thankful to Eve for sharing the recipe with me, and this is how my cake turned out. I made it during this weekend for the sauna evening with our neighbours.

Eve's Mascarpone Cake

You need:
For the bottom -
175 crushed Digestive biscuits
50 grams of melted butter
1 tablespoon of honey

For the filling -
250 grams of Mascarpone cheese
2 dl 35% of cream
50 grams of sugar
lemon (about 3 tablespoon of its juice)
2 bananas
100 grams of raspberries (frozen ones can be used)
25 grams of dark chocolate
25 grams of white chocolate

How to do it?
Crush the biscuits, mix them with melted butter and honey. Press it to the bottom of a 20 cm (or 24 cm) cake tin (which can be opened). Keep in the refrigerator. For the filling, whip mascarpone cheese, cream and sugar with a wooden spoon. Add the juice of a lemon, banana slices and half of the raspberries. Pour the mixture to the cake tin.
For decoration, grate (or melt) the chocolate on top together with remaining raspberries.
Keep it in the cold, at least for an hour!

Another birthday card

I made this birthday card already some weeks ago, when we attended Erik's friend Kaido's birthday party. Our gift and card was a good set since Erik gave his book to Kaido for his birthday.

Dining set

New Year has brought several changes in our home. First, Erik finished sauna. Second, I've finally bought a new dining set for us. For many years, I've dreamt of a big dining table where during birthday parties, we can invite our relatives to have a nice dinner; and where during dark winter nights, I can lay out all my deco things and make Christmas cards; or just have a cosy dinner with my own small family. So far, we had just a small table for 4, but in my mind, I've been thinking of a table what can seat 12 people. We decided to choose a very simple oak table which is normally for 6 people but can be lengthen to 12 people. The chairs I ordered from another shop, made by Estonian craftsmen (the table is Finnish). We all are very satisfied with our new table and chairs and already had a dinner there!

Making steam...

This weekend, we had our first steams in the new sauna - both on Saturday and on Sunday evening. It was so good :). We hadn't had our own sauna night for a year, so it was great to introduce the tradition again.

Erik has made everything on his own. Today, we did the final shopping and bought a cupboard to keep the towels and sauna tools such as oils, honey etc.

We are very happy with our new sauna!

You can see how the process went, this is the start: Now Erik has installed the mosaic walls:

And here we have our new sauna stove (a Finnish one - Narvi):Erik has started to install the wooden material, you can see his tools:

One of the wall is already installed and another is in the middle:

Here, Erik has already installed the ceiling as well, and is thinking about the bathhouse platform:

The bathhouse platform is of ergonomic style:

And now, everything is ready, you can see the "before" and "after" picture:

This is the "before" and "after picture in our shower room.

Our showerroom was ready already in early Autumn. The door you see in this picture goes to sauna:

Christmas fragments

Christmas holidays are over again. Our family had wonderful time with all of our relatives and friends... Here you can see some of the moments photographed! Photo: 'Limited edition' gingerbreads - gift from our neighbours. Thank you, Aune and Andres! Photo: My little niece Lisanne celebrating her first Christmas. She doesn't know what to wait ;)

Photo: One of my dearest Christmas decorations... (a gift from Heike)

Photo: And another cute decoration... a handmade snowflake

Photo: These lovely decorations, handmade as well, are a gift from Eda.

Photo: Christmas didn't pass without Santa's visit. He had many lovely presents for us :)

Photo: And our dogs... desperately wanting their own Christmas presents. A female dog or some food :)

Photo: Some of the Christmas cards I received (thanks for all my friends remembering us!)

Photo: Our Christmas presents and 2 little girls under the Christmas tree - December 24 in Muhu island.

Photo: The only artificial Christmas tree I saw this year, but it was very beautiful (at Erik's friend's house).

Photo: Erik's grandma, Anna, Emily and Kert - watching Christmas cartoon

Photo: Anna is having fun!

Photo! Emily is having fun!

Photo: Pre-Christmas dinner at Pille's house.

Photo: While in Tallinn we are still longing for snow, it was not the case in Muhu - the photo is taken on the first days of New Year (taken by my mom)

Photo: New Year's Eve celenbrations together with Kristi, Ragnar and Eve

Photo: 2009 has just arrived. Outside in our village with our neighbours Aleandra, Aune and Andres.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Good times

Good fortune

Good friends

Good memories

As we begin the New Year....

MAY IT BE THE BEGINNING OF A GOOD YEAR TO YOU!!!