Creative artist's vision

When Annikki created this:



she had a vision of this:



and the detail is this:



When she created this:



she was seeing this:



What do you think she was thinking when she created this?



As it under the branches, the snow still has to fall on this bird to create the effect Annikki desires.

And I am still awaiting your entries of what she is thinking when she put that wire mesh in the wooden bucket. All entries received are nowhere near what she has in mind and she has told me what it is planned to be!

A new artist phase - Wire Mesh....

Annikki goes through phases as an artist. She has been through her chalk drawing, textile designing, ginger bread houses, edible art, rubbish recreation and many other phases in her 60+ years. Each one is ahead of its time and a few years after she has exhausted her phase it can be seen in art decor magazines.

Winner of the 1998 Ginger Bread House Competition.

Her unique cake calendar adorned many tables across the world for the whole of 2005!


The happiest face of this creative designer -
When she has ME guessing!

This year she wanted to protect the sand pit from cats in the neighbourhood who were using it as a toilet.


Cat intruder protector disguised as a wire mesh wigwam

So she created a wigwam from chicken wire mesh, but her thoughts were not just about the protection as she was already thinking artistically as to how that wire mesh would look as winter snow and frost descended on Oulu.

A few weeks later she was hunting in Oulu hardware shops for all sorts of wire mesh as she had entered a wire mesh designing phase


Cone covers for plants

Her first attempt was to create some cone covers for new plantings.



Then she created a bird which she hung on the tree in front of the garden,


Wigwam now gets clouds

Then she decided her wigwam needed some clouds hovering over it.


What is this going to turn out to be?

Many more creations have found their way into the garden. But now she has got me foxed as she has put a bundle in a wooden drum in the front of the garden and she has me guessing what this is going to turn out to be.

I will have a prize for anyone who correctly forecasts her intentions! (Honest, I have no idea what it is going to turn out to be!)

It's great fun to be married to someone who has retained her little girl character and enjoys playing with things!

Antiques and Migrating Birds

Posted on my Jacob's Blog and the Oulu Best Buy Blog.

Sunday before last I met Ilari's aunt, Lizzy, at the CHAFF meeting.

Victor and Lizzy

Lizzy told me that she and her Dutch / English husband, Victor Glazer, had moved from Pudasjarvi to a neighbouring county south of Oulu, Liminka, and they had opened an Antique Shop, Viliga Oy (Address: Kauppakatu 6, 91900 Limika; Mobile: 050 5566069; 040 7608503; Fax: 08 3113151).

Ilari Sohlo was Joanna's colleague when studying for their Masters in English Philology at Oulu University. Ilari then became a close friend of Jaakko, our elder son. Subsequently, Ilari and his now wife, Ildikó and Annikki and myself have become good friends, bridging the generations!

Annikki and I are looking for some old fashioned chairs for our old fashioned dining table. Our present set does not have all the characteristics we desire.

Last Sunday, after the CHAFF meeting, we headed out to Liminka, for a dual purpose. To see the new antique shop and then to visit the reputed Liminka Bird Park where migrating birds are said to stop over on their way south.

An interesting signboard

Room filled with antiques

Annikki browses for her interests

Dolls galore

More antiques

The antique shop rambles through three large rooms and some connecting spaces. You look and you may find what you want. There is no one pressuring you. There is no one making a hard sales pitch. If you want clarification, ask Victor, who will tell you what he knows.

As this building was also used to serve as a bank, it has an enormous safe vault. Victor is using it to store some antique deactivated guns.

The concept of Lizzy and Victor is not just to have the run of the mill antique shop. They intend to make it a cultural centre which will host the work of artists, have performances by musicians and make the experience of visiting their centre a real experience.

Lizzy and Victor are visionaries. Annikki was taken by this effervescent couple. They could bring much character to the County of Liminka.

If the County authorities can stretch out their hand to help them develop their unusual ideas, we can predict that this small venture could make history. For instance, the dairy opposite the shop is lying unused. They want to use this for their cultural centre.

Annikki suggested to Lizzy that it may be interesting to leave all the dairy machinery intact, putting the exhibits in that setting, making the atmosphere unique and unusual!

The shop was well filled with customers on this Sunday afternoon. What was surprising was that people were also ringing in to ask about various antiques they have.

The shop has its own web page. Victor told me that this is undergoing a major upheaval.

Beautiful metal candle holders find their place at Kampitie.

Annikki found these really beautiful metal candle holders and they were quickly in their right place at Kampitie when we returned home!

Well done Lizzy and Victor.

Annikki and I wish you very well and we give it high marks on our Oulu Best Buy Blog.

After the visit to the antique shop we set out to visit the Bird Park. We found a large signboard pointing to the Bird Park. I drove in that direction. About 5 minutes later, we turned up at the main road again, where there was a sign for the Bird Park pointing back along the road we had come.

We thought we must have missed the turning to the Bird Park.

On this road there were two side roads, but both turned up blank - no Bird Park to be found.

Finally, after about a half hour of driving around we came across a young lady out for a brisk afternoon walk. Annikki told her our dilemma that we were looking for 200 swans who were supposedly in the Bird Park and we could not find this Bird Park despite the signs.

I do not know whether this young lady thought we were drunk.

She said we were driving in the Bird Park which is a residential colony and some migratory birds do settle down somewhere in this area. However, she had never seen any swans around here!

We gave up our attempt to find the Bird Park and swans and laughed all the way back to Oulu thinking about what that lady would be thinking about us!