5 years on his spirit lives on...

Today is 5 years since Annikki's father, Matti Reinikka, passed on.

Matti Reinikka, 1916 - 2001

He was a wonderful man, full of life and full of his faith. He lived his faith in every way. Even though with a weak heart, he physically worked himself to the bone, every single day of his life.

Just yesterday, there was an article on the BBC website Finns open playgrounds for adults

At the Santa Claus Sports Institute in Lapland, a group of elderly Finns leap around on climbing frames, swinging on the swings and bouncing on a see-saw that is more of a people launcher than anything I remember from my days on the playground.

It is the latest Finnish wheeze to get people more active......

Someone like Matti did not need any playgrounds. He was busy from morning to evening, all through his life, doing things, active things, meaningful things, like going to the rubbish dump to collect wood on his little mopo with a trailer attachment, stacking it neatly in the garden all through the year, and then putting the right amount into the cellar, where he used his own creation, his wood splitting machine, using a motor from an old washing machine, to make the wood just the right size to go into the furnace.

He had the house at the right temperature with running hot water, all through the year. No automatic system for him!

In summer he mixed pleasure with essentiality - he would go fishing in a small boat and bring home a sack full of a variety of fish, caught by him. He would sit in the garden and clean the fish. Then he would smoke it in his own designed smoking drum, and then bring some up to us, happy to share his catch with his family members.

He really knew the art of catching fish.


Matti holds his prize catch -
the massive Salmon he caught

He was so happy when this picture of him, holding his best prized catch of the years of fishing, graced the cover of the book written by Annikki and me "Handbook For Survival in Finland". His life was the ideal example of a true survivor! He fought on the front lines right through the wars of the 30s and the 40s, and came through to understand what it is to love your fellow human beings.

Annikki inherited her father's faith and his skills of recycling everything, big or small.

The entire Kampitie garden was created by her out of all the waste materials that lay around the garden. These included the wood, an old cast iron bath tub, and a greenhouse which was on the point of falling down. She took one beam of the construction and created an art piece out of it.


Beam from the old greenhouse
becomes an art centerpiece

Old electric bulbs, aluminium candle holders, old aluminium food trays, nothing gets thrown away, but stored as Annikki develops her ideas and then creates what are most unusual products.


Matti with the women in his life.
Annikki is the second from the right

In Annikki, her art and Matti's recycling genes she has inherited, have become entwined.

The calendar of cakes, which has now encircled the globe, and with appreciation of her "Edible Art" pouring in from all corners of the globe, is just a tiny fraction of an example Annikki's artistic talent.

And to think Annikki does all this while she cares with love and affection for her 85 year old mother on a gruelling 24 hour basis, makes Annikki, in my mind, the most outstanding woman that I have ever known and a tribute to the life of her father. I am proud to be her husband just as I am proud to be the son-in-law of the late Matti Reinikka, a humble carpenter, just like his Master that he followed, faithfully.