Saturday
Got things packed for the trip to our family cottage in Pihlaja.
Antti picked me up early afternoon, stopping in Kotka to buy a smoker box for cooking fish. Afterwards we loaded up on groceries and booze from Citymarket and Alko.
We arrived in Pihlaja late afternoon. Started building 3 fires: outside, fireplace, and sauna. Tried out the new mountain pie makers I just brought from the U.S. The first batch got pretty burnt, but later ones were quite good. Will take the piemakers along when I visit Puumala next weekend.
The sauna got up to about 80 degrees Celsius (176 Fahrenheit)…very nice! This was the first sauna I started since Summer 2009. Later Antti and I smoked some kirjo lohi (salmon) in the new smoker…it was very very good! We consumed lots of food and lots of booze (beer, cider, long drink, wine, rum and coke).
The mokki (cottage) turned out to be quite hot, especially up in the loft. Both indoor fires (living room, sauna) kept things toasty!
Watched the Olympics on TV. Today was the last full day. Finland won their 2nd medal, this time in the javelin, This was the first time I’d been in our cottage since we got a television set, courtesy of my cousin Tapio.
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- Testing my macro lens on some flowers
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- Love the detail
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- A rose, for you
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- Plastic clothespins
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- The backyard at Antti’s parents house
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- How do you like them apples?
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- Such a clean house. Here’s the bathroom/shower area…there’s a sauna to the right
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- A sitting room. Nice fireplace to the right of this photo
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- The living room
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- Another view
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- The kitchen
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- The guest bedroom, where I slept
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- More flowers, extra close
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- Getting ready to chow down at our cottage
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- Antti mans the grill
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- Breaking in the new mountain pie makers
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- Hmmmm, I think I kept this one on a bit too long
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- Antti salts the salmon in the smoker box
