Looking Glass: A Glimpse into Annikki's Artful World - Part 3

IIn this part I am going to show you how Annikki used her artistic skill in creating gardens.

KodinnKuvalejti Cover - May 2005

This is the cover of a Finnish magazine which covered the design of the garden she created for her invalid mother who could enjoy it by just sitting at her kitchen window. 

But more about this later, as I will go sequentially through the gardens she created over the last 53 years.

I have over a 1000 photographs that display her talent. I will limit myself to key features about each garden that display her artistic talent.

In England, after we got married, we had a small garden in the front and back of the house. Annikki was busy looking after our two babies that she did not give time to looking after the garden. 

I would occasionally mow the lawn because that was required by the owners of the property. Gardening was not my hobby.

When we moved to a small house on the outskirts of Madras, in India, the property had just been constructed. The ground around the house was in a mess. 

There were a couple of shady trees including an amazing mango tree which yielded mangoes as sweet as alphonso, round as a Romani and each weighing a kilo!

Annikki got to work putting down green grass. She chose one called “blue grass” as it was one which did not need mowing and it was very spongy so the children could play on it without getting hurt. 

While all the others in Madras were sitting in the shade in the afternoon sun, Annikki was busy laying down the grass as she wanted to have the garden as she wanted it. With a few potted plants, the garden was soon a spate of colours

In the back garden she planted a couple of banana plants and grew a few vegetables, but she really had no interest in that. 

Her life was always about colour and beauty.

We did not live here for long and then moved to a villa with a large property. She did not work on the garden except for the immediate vicinity of the house, 

She did get the children tidy up the garden but soon decided it was not too wise as there plenty of snakes, especially cobras in the garden. Also, when little Joanna started carrying  stones around, Annikki found some of the stones had scorpions under them.

If Annikki saw a snake she would call the nearby snake park who would come and catch them to take them to the park as they extracted the venom to prepare the antidote.

In our Velacheri Road Villa.

This garden was large. We had a wood apple tree under which there was a leaky tap. The grass around the tap was green and fresh. The deer from the nearby Governor’s residence would come to our garden at night and we could watch them from our upstairs open balcony. We enjoyed the stag fights that took place regularly near the fresh grass.

When we moved to Bangalore we did not have a garden in any of the houses we lived in, so gardening was not on Annikki’s agenda.

When we moved to Finland, the garden at the  Oulu,  Kampitie house belonging to her parents consisted of plenty of gooseberry bushes in no specific fashion, divided between both gardens of the semi-detached house. 

Annikki’s father had an area where he cleaned his fish and smoked it. Also much of the area was for keeping the wood he collected from the rubbish dump to heat the house, There were a few garden chairs, a hammock and a chair swing, but it was not a very inviting garden and it was rarely used.

After Annikki’s father died in 2001, the onus of looking after her mother, the house and the garden fell on Annikki. 

She cleared out the overgrown bushes. As soon as this was done, the neighbour suggested that a dividing fence should be put up. Being a handyman, he did it quickly and I helped him paint it.

The fence between the two houses in Kampitie, Oulu

After this, Annikki found a couple of large boulders just under the kitchen window which was protruding from under the ground. She called a service which took them out. Annikki asked them to put it next to the house in a corner. She then excavated the ground near the house and by putting a plastic layer she created a beautiful pond. There she introduced fish.

She then terraced the land as it was on two levels and threw away a lot of rubbish that her father had collected. 

When that was done she found an old heavy cast iron bathtub had been left behind. She did not panic. She dug a hole in the ground. She then asked me to call my strong muscular friend from Zambia, Kamu, to move the bathtub.

While I was away, Annikki using her Finnish sisu, managed to move the bathtub near the hole and it dropped beautifully in place. It fitted exactly.

Around the bathtub she planned a sandy area with some wooden platforms to put some chairs.

She then took all the waste wood strips her father had collected and built a bridge. 

While she looked after her mother, she worked relentlessly, hammering away till 10 pm, and then working well into the night without a sound. 

At the bottom of the garden she set up a trestle fence and an old wooden door she put it in the middle. Taking a cue from me, she put a green fabric over the door so I could sing the old favourite song “Green Door”! I never revealed the “secret” behind the Green Door to my pestering children! :-) 

As per her specifications I built a shed over the bathtub. Some Thai friends, Unnop and Pailin, of ours made the end pieces making it a Thai flavour.

Annikki crafted everything so beautifully to suit all ages, and especially her mother who could sit at the kitchen table and overlook the whole garden the whole day.

It is impossible to describe the many tens of designs she included in the garden, so I will show you around the garden through pictures and  you can see how her artistic mind worked on every detail.

Front garden Kampitie, Oulu

Back garden Kampitie

Kampitie main pond

Thai pagoda in Kampitie 

Kampitie bridge

Kampitie greenhouse

Annikki releasing her goldfish in summer from her indoor aquarium.

New steps construction to

Kampitie to handle the wheelchair

Annikki submitted a letter to a leading Finnish magazine of how she had created a garden for her invalid mother out of recycled materials.

They did an article about Annikki and her garden which I give below.

Annikki’s garden was not just for summer. She spent the winter making use of snow as a medium of art. The garden a lot of fun for her grandchildren, she even made the first moving ssnowman.

Snowman in Kampitie

Sliding snowman 

Annikki enjoying her working with snow.

Our cat joins Annikki

to enjoy the snow.

Video of first Mobile Snowman from YouTube

Annikki’s humour is infinite like her art. 

After her mother died, there was a huge fight between all the siblings about the property.

Annikki left it to her lawyer but she knew that nothing would come of it.

Annikki’s caustic humour!

Before she finally left the fight, she prepared a huge snow cake in the front of the house with the six siblingsaround a huge snow Cake, knowing with the advent of spring there would be nothing left of the cake as it would have melted away only lining the pockets of the lawyers.

Annikki’s mother passed away in 2008 and by December we moved house to our daughter’s home nearby on Vesaisentie. There was just a bare garden. 

Bare Vesaisemtie garden

Other than a sandpit and a swing, there  was nothing in this garden.

Annikki got to work and created a beautiful haven for the whole family and these pictures show a few different aspects of her creations.

Driftwood in sand  

A cherry tree planted by Annikki.

Our evening tea place in Vesaisemtie

Annikki's coffee corner where she would rest between doing her work.

The Green Door became a silver door!

But this was short lived and we moved house to Sarkkatie with a large garden which was bare.

Annikki got to work and soon created yet another beautiful summer and winter garden.

Annikki relaxing with a pulla and coffee - a rare sight!

Annikki working in her Sarkkatie garden! Always relaxed!!

Snow volcano creation by Annikki.

Snow moon rising in Sarkkatie, a creation by Annikki.

Annikki doing the snow work in Sarkkatie.

Annikki created this snowman at the gate "to frighten" the snow plough driver who deleiberately piled the snow in front of our gate. A touch of Annikki's humour!

Annikki hanging up the bags and bottles to collect the birch sap.

 

Annikki's Newton moment when a drop of birch sap fell on her head while sitting in the garden when she broke a branch! Without damaging a tree she collected bottles of this healthy sap from the birch trees in the garden.

A bird decided to make its nest on one of our cycles, and it was carefully gaurded by Annikki!

Till the winter of 2019 Annikki was still doing the snow work, even as the first stages of dementia set in.

I have limited the photographs to only a few of the thousands I have taken over our 50 years but it is only a very small sample of the work of Annikki in this field of garden design,

Many consider that Annikki walks in my shadow because I am loud and outspoken. This is positively false. 

In the first three parts of this series I have shown  that I cannot even live in her shadow.

Finally our health problems caught up with us. We had to move to an apartment. Our gardening days are over. 

In the next part of this series I am going to show you yet another facet of Annikki’s art. 

I miss all the gardens that Annikki created. Luckily, I have photographed much of her handiwork, as shown above. It has been my pleasure to share this with you. 

Maybe there will be a chance that I can compile a comprehensive book about this subject as every picture has its OWN interesting story..

Stages of the Art of Annikki Part 2

In this blog entry I want to show you what Annikki did with house interiors.

Our small semi-detached house in Shawbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire! 1967

My first lesson came when our first daughter was born in Shawbury, England. We had a small company semi-detached house with two bedrooms and a small study upstsirs with the living room, kitchen and dining room on the ground floor.

There was no central heating but we had a coal fireplace in the living room. We had a paraffin heater in the entrance hall and an electric bar heater in the dining toom. The upstairs was quite cold as the only the heat that permeated upstairs was available for us.. 

When Annikki was admitted to hospital for the birth of our first daughter, Susanna, I discussed with a couple of my colleagues and we all thought Annikki would be more comfortable if we moved the bedroom downstairs as the living room was always warm with a raging coal fire.. 

So three of us moved all the bedroom furniture of bed and cupboards down the narrow winding staircase down the living room and took all the living room furniture upstairs including the large television. A job well done by three people!

After 7 days I brought Annikki home from hospital.  I showed her our handiwork but she said absolutely nothing.

The next day I returned in the mornimg to my work and came home  at 5 in the evening.

I got a shock of  my life as this little lady had, by herself, reversed all the work we has done! 

I did not question her as this was her home, but it was my first experience of Finnish “sisu”.

I never again interfered in “her home” as the lesson was quite evident,

We moved to India in 1969 and we lived in a small flat in the city centre. Annikki was not happy.  

Three of our children in thded garden of our home in Madras.

I found a small independent house with a garden in the suburb of Madras. It was in the Defence Officer’s Colony at St. Thomas Mount.  This  house appeared on the market for rent. 

Annikki liked it and we took it on rent. It had just been constructed and the house had two bedrooms, a large study and a large living cum dining room room. Just ideal for the two of us and our two small children with a third one on the way. Annikki furnished it minimally and we lived there for a couple of years,

Then a good family friend told me that he had a property of about half and acre with a large two storey villa type house with three bedrooms, a large living room, a large dining room, an entrance toom, a pantry and an enormous kitchen, with  a verandah upstairs, a large. study room for the children, and a verandah at the entrance of the house. It also had a small covered car shed. The house also had a small outhouse for any live in home help.

 

Standing in the garden of our Velacheri villa in Madras. 

I took it immediately and Annikki got to work to furnish it.

She wanted a good living room set. Those on the market did not appeal to her. She designed her own to have it made. Rosewood and teak wood were expensive, 

I took her to a wood depot and she knew exactly what she wanted. 

White ceddar logs were lying there were really cheap as nobody could find use for it. Annikki got the logs sawn to exactly the sizes she wanted. Annikki then called a local carpenter and told him how she wanted the furniture to be made. No nails were used but using the wedge shaped locking design she designed all her furniture. 

The carpenter, an old man, was extremely good and made the three seater and a single seater sofa set. 

As MM Rubber was part of our family group, she got the foam cushions made to suit the correct size. They were just superb and became a talking point among our friends. 

All the other furniture was also designed by Annikki and they suited our needs.

They lasted the next 10 years we lived in India. When we left India we got the price almost three times it had cost us to make them.

Her choice of cushion covers, curtains and other furnishings  made use of the wonderful Indian textiles and the enormous range of colours and designs that were available.

The houses we occupied alway had her paintings to make them unique. Her creations as this one of handed painted fused light bulbs and aluminium foil was before the concept of recycling had even been thought of as an important international necessity!

She mastered the space concept be creating use for every square millimetre. Using even the exterior of a wall cupboard as valuable space.

She even recycled detergent boxes making them into file holders.

We also had a large collection of Indian antiques, but that is another storey which we will blog about later.

When we moved to Finland we had to leave most of the stuff behind but she brought whatever she thought were important for our new life in Finlsnd.

Our first home Finland was a small living cum dining room, an attic room  and another even smaller attic room with a  tiny kitchen. We were six, two adults and four children of ages 17, 26, 13 and 11. 

The photos above show how she used her skill as well as creating her own designs to make the home a place of sheer beauty.

Annikki was absolutely super in the way she organised that small 25 sq m space. There was adequate room for everyone.

Two children left for England within a year and the four of us were very comfortable for the next 9 years when our third daughter moved out. 

Then our son went to boarding school in Turku and we were just two and it was luxury.

When Annikki’s younger brother moved in, I decided we would move out. We found a lovely penthouse on Torikatu. Annikki did a masterful job setting up that home.

However, her father passed away and we had to move back to Annikki’s mother's home to look after her mother who had developed dementia. The house was remodelled by Annikki to suit  the situation. 

Annikki implemented many aspects making it suitable and an outstanding house to live in and look after her disabled mother. 

At the same time she did the house interior so beautifully that living there was like being in heaven. And I never saw her work as she was always doing something and I only saw it when she completed each task.

Her designs are worth talking anout.

She created an ordinary goldfish bowl into an art creation.

She took an ordinary fish tank and it became a piece of art.

The colours were self generated by sunlight coming through tghe window.

Her table top aquarium was a masterpiece as it became our cat’s tv. She would sit on it or lie on it to see the tasty gold fish swimming under the plastic cover.

She converted an outdoor flower stand into an unusual and excellent aquarium.

When her mother passed away in 2008, our daughter, Joanna, had moved  to England to study medicine. We moved into her house. Annikki worked wonders in that house but she was not happy in this borrowed home.

By good fortune we found a house on Sarkkatie. It was just right for her. 

The photos above show a small portion of her creativity. For instance, the antlers are not antlers but a branch from a tree fashioned as antlers!

We lived there for 10 years and it became the personal museum of Annikki. It showcased her interior design competence. Everything she did was artistic!

Unfortunately, my heart failure and amputation of my foot meant we had to move to an apartment as neither of us were able to maintain a large house and garden.

I am no interior designer and just tried to make everything practical for me as an invalid in a wheelchair to manage a apartment also and Annikki who had developed dementia.

I sadly miss Annikki’s special skills as an interior designer which I had thoroughly enjoyed throughout our married life! 

It is only now I discovered the enormous talent Annikki possessed as everything in our homes was always just perfect. 

She was prepared for every eventuality that everything was taken by me as granted. She was never stressed. 

Only now I realise how much she had worked to get the homes right for all of us.

I am not even close to being an interior design. 

What I have shown you here just a few examples of Annikki's capabilities. 

In my next blog of this series I will show you that beside interior design she was so competent as a garden designer. She created four of our gardens so beautifully that every single day I miss that skill of Annikki.