Travelog for: Momo

Hello, dear mom

I´m sorry I´ve not had time to make my updates - we have been helping an old neighbour of Henna's to repair his roof. The guy is so old he shouldn't be up there at all, and his roof was leaking, so our help was very wellcome. 

But I´m not going to tell you about the roof repairing works this time, but about something totally different.




Mr Casanova had been buried in books and papers for couple of days, and we were sure he was writing a love letter in some difficult language, but he surprised us all by telling us that according to his careful analysis of the water level changes after the ice age, he was pretty sure there was a prehistorical site on our yard here! 

One wouldn't think Mr Casanova has anything else in his mind besides girls, but that just shows how wrong one can be!



Anyway, we decided to organize an archaeological excavation on the spot!
Henna promised to help us with the procedure, hah, like we needed her help! 
Mr Casanova naturally acted as some sort of excavation leader, and was very pompous about it all. 

We started by determining the exact place and extent of the excavation plot and clearing away the vegetation.



There were lots of branches and twigs, growing hay and a whatnot.
We piled all of it onto a heap. 



After clearing away all the vegetation, it was time to dig up a rather thick layer of turf - the layer of decomposing plant material.



It was hard work! There were lots of thick and stubborn roots we had to saw away, and after some time the buckets filled with turf also started to feel a bit heavy!



The excavation leader Casanova (who was also feeling a bit hot, because of work, not because of ladies) let us to have a small pause.



I spent the pause in a raspberry bush! 




We continued our work, and at last we reached the end of the turf layer and reached first the earth and then the fine sand under it!

It was time to bring out our high tech equipment - a camera to photograph all our findings and the cultural layers, and a tachymeter to determine the exact geographic position of everything on the site. 



We took turns in using the tachymeter and holding the measuring rod and writing down all the figures, until we had created proper coordinates for the site. 






We photographed the first under-turf layer.
Boss Casanova informed us that what we were watching was the landform as it had been somewhere in Middle Ages. 

Makes one to think a bit.




Then we continued digging - but now we were not using spades anymore, but little trowels. 




We were digging very carefully, taking away earth about a centimeters level on the whole area and then moving to the next layer.
Even so we were sieving all the earth, in case there could be some so small artifacts we would not be able to see them while digging. 



Thus we excavated away the middle ages and reached the layer of Iron Age. 
Suddenly we found something! Our first find!
We were so excited!
We had no idea what it was - but it was big and looked like something carved out of stone. 



There were more finds! This one was clearly part of a runestone! 






We marked all the finds with marker sticks and measured their position with the tachymeter, and made careful markings of everything to our findings list, like "E29: A blue glass bead (not a beetle, ask Zoe, she tried to eat it)" 



We photographed the finds "in situ".
We let little Racko to do it, because the rest of us were too heavy (all those berries..) 



It was time for a small pause again.
It felt great to lay on the grass, watch the clouds to sail past above, and let the muscles to relax.

But soon the boss ushered us back to work again. 



One task we had to do, was to draw maps of all our excavation layers, where we had to situate all the findings, bigger stones, charcoal and color differences in the soil, because they can mark different activity areas. 



It was an interesting task. I had troubles because a ladybird I was drawing on the map, was moving all the time!  I asked her politely if she could sit on one place, but she just showed me her tongue! 



We excavated through the Iron Age and reached the Bronze Age layers, and found more exiting things.

Now we were able to see that the carved stone was some kind of idol or statue, and that there had been a fireplace in front of it! 



There seemed to be a fish inside the fireplace!

But it wasn't a real fish at all! It was made of clay!  






And then - I just couldn't believe it!
I noticed there was something roundish emerging next to the fireplace, and removed carefully the sand from it´s surface, and, crying out loud! 

I don't know if you have heard of the famous Himmelsscheibe or not, but you should!
The Himmelsscheibe or Sky Disk of Nebra, was found in  a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany.
It has been dated to the Bronze Age, and it features the oldest concrete depiction of the cosmos worldwide. In June 2013 it was included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register and termed "one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.

And here we had something that looked very similar! 
So you can understand why I was so exited!
This place we are excavating, must have been a rather remarkable place one time! 



The excavation continued, and on each step we found more evidence which hinted that what were now excavating, had been an important cult central for long period of time.

When we reached the Stone Age level, there were remains of big cheramic vessels, and also something which looked like bones.






Every ow and then we found some small things also from the sieve - mainly tiny fragments of quarz arrowheads or flakes.






I think I could become an archaeologist, like auntie Henna, when I grow up. What do you think?
Or maybe it is a better plan never to grow up. Then I can do whatever I will! 



There was an odd round object surfacing in one corner of our site. I couldn't make my mind of what to think of it, and neither could our leader Mr Casanova.

We asked Zoe's opinion on the matter (just shows the level of our desperation) and she took one glimpse on the object, and said:
"You imbecills! It is an EGG!"

Damn it, she was right! It was an egg! A huge egg! 



We started then to clean the bones.
There were lots of items - glass beads, ceramics etc, which seemed to be positioned round the heap of bones! 



It was a rather big sceleton we were cleaning.
First we thought it might have been the remains of a prey animal the folks here had been eating, but no - it was a whole skeleton - no parts were cut or missing.

Suddenly Zoe the kiwi started to yell like a  foghorn, and to run around like a hen.
"My ancestors!" she yelled, "It is my ancestors!"
And she was right again. It was clearly an allosaurus skeleton! 



What I cannot understand is how come it had spectacles on its nose. 

Our excavation had reached it's end. There was only hard podsol under the skeletons, and there wasn't any reason to excavate deeper.



Excavation leader Casanova now gave us a lecture.

"Dear excavators! I have now made my scientific analysis on this site, and it is this:
Approximately 145 million years ago there were a family of allosauruses living here, on this site. When the big meteorite hit the earth, forming the Gulf of Mexico and killing the dinosaurs, the unhappy family met its untimely end here (snif).

In the Mesolithic Stone Age a family of cave kiwis wobbled on the site, saw the bones and realized it was a burial ground of their ancestors, and declared the place holy. 

Generation after generation, the local kiwi population came here to bring offerings, burn fires and erect statues and rune stones - each generation according to its own style, bringing the best valuables they had.



Who would have guessed! 
A holy place of the ancient kiwi birds!
Our friend Zoe was mute with ave after Mr Casanova's lecture.

It was time to organize our findings.

"An artist, who is specialized in recreating pictures of archaeological sites as they were in a certain time in past, is going to give us some paintings of the site tomorrow, promised leader Casanova. 



Here you can see some of our most interesting finds!
They´re going to shake the science world a bit!






I put here the recreations of the site the artist had made for us.

They are made to capture the site as it was in Early Iron Age.
As you can see, the place was on a sea shore at that time.

The allosaurus remains are surrounded by valuabe items from different times, and there is a small altar in front of the stone stone statue.
The Star Disk is situated in front of the rune stone.



Here the artist has imagined a family of kiwis bowing in front of the statue. 






The language in the rune stone is ancient Finnish, and it says about: "This is a holy place created in honor of our ancestors."

That was really all now.
I must say it was an interesting experience. Auntie Henna is rather surprised too! A remarkable cult center in her yard! And she thinks she's an archaeologist! Hah!

Many kisses from Momo! 

Hyvää päivää, rakkaat ystävät! = Good day, dear friends! 

The autumn here is turning darker and colder, the earth is already often white in the mornings before the sun rises up and melts the rime away.

But we will get there later - now I'm telling you about our late summer here in Nuuksio  .



I think I mentioned last time that we were helping Henna's nearest neighbor to repair his roof.

The roof had been leaking already for couple of years, and the neighbour is too old to do much himself.
So, when Henna found out about the leaking roof she decided she has to do something about it and asked us to help her. 



Of course none of us is a roof-fixing expert, but Henna said she hopes common sense would be enough to guide us.

"Common sense? Is that something to eat?" asked our friend Zoe.
So, as you can see, our "guide" was barely reliable. 



It took us about two months to fix the roof, using almost all the free time we had, and there is still something to do next summer.



But, we managed to stop the leaking! 
While Henna was planning the next steps and using very many interesting Finnish words, which almost burned our ears, we used the roof as our sliding hill. 






There was time anyway also for walking in the nature. 

Sometimes when we had been especially helpfull, Henna told us to go for a little walk to use our energy to something else.



We found this interesting little hollow under big rocks in the forest.



It was a good place to play stone age toyvoyagers. 



Quite near by we found a toyvoyager sized dolmen! How extraordinary!  



It seems almost like archaeology was our destiny!
Henna told us how the dolmens were tombs into which all the members of communities were buried democratically. But they were not only tombs - they were gateways to the other worlds. The people buried into them, were actually seeds, which were put there to sprout again, so that they could be reborn.
Interesting, huh?



We roamed inside the dolmen to see if there happened to be still any bones loitering about. There weren't.






The blueberries were ripe and juicy, and we both ate and picked them to take home, well, mainly ate.. 



What we took home we ate in the mornings with honey and cream.
If you have not tried that, you should! You don't know what you're missing! 



The small, wonderful, wild forest strawberries were ready too and waiting to be eaten!
We fulfilled their will eagerly and as often as possible. 

Cannot stand disappointed strawberries!



I don't know how many of you have been eating wild forest strawberries. They are the original strawberries, from which the tame ones have been bred, and they taste quite different.
The difference is.. a bit like between a wolf and a lapdog. Both are wonderful, but the wild forms are just more, well, wild and energetic and individual.



On our yard the currants were ripe too.
We found red, white and black currants and ate them all. 



In the forest the chanterelles were hiding behind the first fallen yellow leafs and giggling when we walked past without noticing them.



We found many, though. 



The birch boletes were also popping up from the earth here and there and making us smile, because for us they meant a wonderful dinner.



The chanterelles are sometimes called here "metsän kulta" = the gold of the forest. Not because they are extremely valuable, they are not, economically, I mean, but because they are so exceptionally good. 



Have you read J.R.R. Tolkien's book Lord of the rings? If you have, you know that hobbits were crazy about mushrooms. In a way which "outshadowed all the cravings and desires of big people."
Do you think I might be a hobbit, anyway? 



These photos are from a small forest lake called Vuohijärvi.
It was full of waterlilies, and over the lily leafs we spotted some frogs having drunken orgies. 



Over the ethereal looking white flowers the air was full of their lustful croaking and drunken singing. 



"Hi you, frogs!" I shouted, "do you do anything else than to have drunken orgies?"
There was a three second's silence, and then they answered "not much!" and continued. 



We made also couple of trips to the seaside, to walk on the rocks and to enjoy the wind and beautiful landscapes. 







We walked against the brisk wind or leaned onto it and teased the waves by letting them almost get us, but not quite - keeping all the time just and just over the line they were able to reach. They hissed to us angrily. 



"Don't you brats tease them too much!" warned Henna, when a pissed off, white capped wave stretched towards us.
"Let's go and make a fire instead!"



There was a nice place for an open fire, and benches to sit around it.
We had soon the fire burning.



It felt wonderfully warm after the brisk wind and the salty water sprinkles on the shore, and the coffee smelled sweetly. 



There was a bird watching tower on a hill, and we of course climbed it.

"What, to watch birds? If you want to watch birds, here I am - no need to climb towers!" said Zoe, but she was just trying to be fun. She likes to watch birdies too. 



It was quite a high tower and took some climbing to get there.



The views from the tower were very beautiful! A mix of green forest and blue sea. 



I was trying to spot birds flying past, but the only bird I saw was a kiwi.
Don't believe she is flying! She is just trying to fool you! 



In many evenings we admired the moon over the old field behind our cottage. 



Hyvää yötä teille kaikille! = Good night to all of you!
Yours, Momo 

Hello, dear mom and all siblings and friends!
I wish you're happy and in good health! 

Do you still remember our kitchen garden?
Well, it was a very cold and rainy summer, so we didn't need to do much watering. As a matter of fact - we left the plants pretty much to take care of themselves. 

But one day Henna remarked that it would maybe be time to go and harvest our kitchen garden crops - they had looked rather ripe when she walked past.

So - next day we harvested our garden, and now I'm showing you photos of it. 



Look at our cabbages! 
They were simply a marvel!



So round and green and glossy and plump!
They had clearly benefited from the rain. 
We were all so happy to see them!

Then we walked to the next patch to see how our radishes were doing.



They had grown so well too!
They were so beautiful! And of so splendid color! 






I bet you have never seen such a healthy growth of french fries either! 

It is actually quite a miracle! We put some little seeds to earth and voilá! After couple of months we have lots of wonderful foodstuff!



There was a burst of colorado beetles this summer, but luckily they had not attacked our fries! They had grown so bright yellow and beautifully crinkled! 



We started harvesting the wonderful vegetables. It was very enjoyable work!



Henna came to see our crops too, and she was a bit puzzled. "What did you actually plant there?" she asked, and looked rather stupid, standing there  mouth open.
Donno what she meant. 



The radishes were so big they hardly fit into the buckets!
Have you ever heard about such radishes? 






"What about the greenhouse?" asked Henna "What about your crops there?"

Let's go and see!



Our pot bananas looked just glorious! 
I gave one to Henna, whose eyes were rolling a bit in her head.
"Is this all?" she asked.

"Not quite" said I, "come and see our orchyard!" 



The bush bananas looked even more delicious than the pot brand! 



The popcorn tree's branches were heavy with wonderful, white, greasy popcorns! 

We finished the harvest and carried or crop home, and Henna too. She was feeling a bit faint. 



As you can see, it was a very happy harvest day! 

Love from Momo! 

Kukkuu again, everyone! 
It's update time once again.

One rainy day in September we made a day trip into the small town of Porvoo about an hour's driwe in a bus from Helsinki.



It was still dark outside when we took the bus in Helsinki bus station.
We had lots of provisions with us, and we started to eat right away.
It is one of the best things in travelling - eating provisions! 



In Porvoo we were just walking around and around the narrow, cobbled streets, watching views and the quaint little wooden houses. 



Porvoo is one of the oldest towns in Finland. It has its beginning somewhere in the 13th century. Before that there was already an important Iron Age castle and village. 



Porvoo has got its name from Swedish words borg+å = castle+river. Here you can see the river. Logically its name is Porvoon joki (Porvoo's river). It has provided a good passage from the sea to the town, and forward towards the faraway inland regions.



This is the old townhouse of Porvoo. Nowadays there is the historical museum.



It was nice to peep into the yards of the small houses. Of course the town has grown lately, and there is a modern town around the old Porvoo, but I think a town of this size, as it was some hundred years ago, would be optimal. You would know all the faces around you, but still would not know them too well to feel suffocated.






This is the mediaeval church of Porvoo. It is an important spot in Finnish history, because in here the Russian Czar promised Finland would maintain its autonomy after it had been become part of Russia 1809.

Some young imbesills, who thought it would be a cool thing to play to be Satan worshippers, burned the church 2006, and its roof was totally destroyed. The whole old town and its wooden houses were too in great danger. The roof was built anew and the church opened again 2008. 



We took a peep inside. It was quite a peacefull place, although there were some tourists.. 






We continued our walking around, but soon it started to feel like we had walked past the same café too many times, and knew already what we would see behind the next corner. 



There was a Moomin house in a shop window, and I spent some time talking with the moomins behind the glass. They told me that they had quite a satisfacting life, taking into account that it was a sweet shop inside which their house was situated. How handy. 







The evening was already getting a bit darker, and we were watching the people who live in these cute houses getting home from work. 



The wind was rising and the colourful autumn leaves were flying around us.
The wind also brought the rain back, and so, on our next round past the café, we hopped in, and spent the last our inside until our bus back to Helsinki was ready to leave.



It was quite a nice, little visit. 

Kisses from Momo! 

Hallo, dear mom! 

My adventures with the lunatics continue. Today I'll show you pics from Turku, where we went with Henna.
She went to take part into some demonstration, and meanwhile we were loitering around. There are not very many pics, though, because we were in  a hurry!



Let me introduce you to Aurajoki river.
The river was an important route towards the inland, and that's why there was a big centre on it's shore already in the Iron Age.
Turku town was grounded on 13th century, and it was also the first capitol of Finland.



There are eleven bridges over Aurajoki in Turku. The people in Turku think it is somehow meaningful on which shore of the river you have been born, but I have not yet find out why and what. "You must be from the other side of the river" they say if people behave in somehow unwanted way. We heard it a lot. 



The Turun Tuomiokirkko cathedral is also on the river front, next to the old market place.
The oldest parts of the church are from the late 13th century.
It was for years the most important place to be buried - the high ranking people were queuing to get buried under its floor. 
In the archaeological excavations, says Henna, was found also for example a cat in it own little cascet. Someone in medieval times had loved her/his cat so much that they had smuggled the dead cat under the church floor to make sure it's soul gets into heaven too. 



I met a chap called Mikael Agricola.  He was a bishop in 16th century, and the first one to translate the Bible into Finnish language. He was maybe also the first person who was writing Finnish with Latin alphabeth. Before that Finnish had been written in runes. 



We met also this other guy. He belongs into a species called "vaivaisukko". They are sculpted in wood and painted, and fixed into church walls to collect money for poor people.  They have a hole in their stomach or back to put coins in.
They were made from 17th century to the 20th century.



Next we went to see the Turun linna castle.
Castle is the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. It was founded in the late 13th century. The Swedish conquerors of Finland intended it originally as a military fortress. During the next two centuries its defences were strengthened and living quarters were added. The castle served as a bastion and administrative centre.



Later the castle served for example as a jail, and it was turned into a museum in 1880.



It sometimes seems to me that all the written history is just of invading, fighting, power struggle and other stupid, mainly masculine activities. 
What I would like to learn about history is how common people lived and how they did see the world in the context of all those idiotical happenings in the back ground.



There were some renovation work of the walls going on again, while we passed.



Inside the castle it was a too dark to take many photos. I tried to took one every time there seemed to be enough light.



We saw the castle's church, which was very beautiful. It is a very popular place to get married.
If ever I'll get married, I think I would rather do it just under the full moon on some crawfish populated shore. 




There was an exhibition to show the clothing and other items of all sorts the royal people living here would have used in the 17th century.



This is the hall in which the court was eating its meals in long tables.



In this photo you can see how thick the castle walls are.
I cam imagine the brats living in the castle spending lots of time on the window sills. 



That was all we saw of Turku, sadly. Henna came from her demo and collected us and we get back to Nuuksio again.

See you soon! Kisses from Momo! 

Hello again, dear mom, siblings and all the rest! 

The autumn had arrived and brought the colourfull leaves and mushrooms with it. We made an autumn trip to the forest, and I´m now putting here photos we took then. 



The nights had turned cold, and when we went onto the yard in the morning, we noticed that there was ice in the water buckets.

It looks like a piece of art, doesn't it? There was a beautiful print of a dry leaf on it's surface.






The weather was wonderful, and there were inviting heaps of dry leaves everywhere.
We decided to make a mushroom trip into the forest.

So we packed our bags and took a tent with us too. 



We walked trough the wonderful forest, and started to sing wandering songs.

♪♫♫♪
Lähtekäämme maailmalle,
reppu selkään, keppi kouraan, matkaan vain!
Soikoon laulu koko pitkän tien,
matkaan mukanani laulun vien.
Pellon poikki, kuusten alle,
sieltä alkaa polku kauas matkaajain.
Polveillen käy virran juoksu,
mutkikas on polkummekin maailmaan!
Soikoon laulu koko pitkän tien,
matkaan mukanani laulun vien.
Pellon poikki, kuusten alle,
sieltä alkaa polku kauas matkaajain.
♪♫♫♪

Let's go to the world
take your bagback, take your wand, let's just go!
Let the song echo troughout the whole trip,
I the the song with me into the world.
Trough the fields, under the spruces,
there begins the path for travellers who want ot get far!
The brook is meandering in it's run,
and so is our path to the world.
Let the song echo troughout the whole trip,
I the the song with me into the world.
Trough the fields, under the spruces,
there begins the path for travellers who want to get far!







The glorious trees looked like flames against the blue skies, and we stopped to admire them every now and then. 



We couldn't resist the call of the leaf heaps, and why should we? 



We dived  under the leaves, made somersaults, hopped  and roamed around. 






And then we rested panting on the soft, nice smelling leaves and watched the clouds sailing across the sky, like sheep grazing in a blue meadow.



We continued our hike through the forest, in search for a perfect spot to put our tent up. 






When we saw the first birch boletos, we knew we had found our place to stay. 



So we put the tent up. Isn't it a splendid one? Just the right size to home a bunch of voyagers!



Then we went to pick mushrooms! To fill the larder for winter! 



I wouldn't mind living like they did in stone age - just by collecting stuff from the nature! Berries, mushrooms, hay, herbs, roots.. only thing missing from the list is chocolate! That's not so easy to collect! Unless you collect it from a super market, but then they send the security after you.. 



Many people don't know these mushrooms are also very good to eat. Lycoperdon perlatum, common buffball. When they get old and dry, their spore spreads up to the air like smoke, if you step over them.
He he, Henna told us that in Portugal they are called Bufas da Velha = old woman's fart. 
In Finnish they're called käsnätuhkelo. A nice a useful Finnish word of the day into your vocabulary. 

Soon we had got more mushrooms than we could very easily carry home. So we called Henna and told her to drag her lazy ass intothe forest next morning to carry the mushrooms! 



Then we went back to our tent and slept very well, although Zoe was snoring, as usually. 



Good night! See you soon again!
Kisses from Momo! 

Titityy, my belowed ones! A hug for you! 

The autumn was turning muddy and cold, and Henna said she was tired of pulling us toyvoyagers from each others throats, since clearly the lousy weather was effecting our mental atmosphere too.  I admit it. 

Anyway, Henna decided it was time to get into warmer climate, which would put the smile back on our faces.



It was time to say goodbye to the little cottage. It felt a bit melancholic. The poor cottage looked a bit melancholic too, standing there in middle of late autumn and dying nature and all.
Good bye!



In our last evening in Finland we had a candle light dance on the yard - we lit candles behind the differently formed ice blocks we got from buckets. 



Then we, umm, danced around the flaming ice blocks, sang and drank a bit of something called Salmiakkikossu (which we found hidden under Henna´s bed) I don´t know exactly what it is, but it made our dancing faster and singing wilder. 

It also made us to fall asleep and forgot rest of the evening. I doubt this was a devious plan by our host Henna, since I heard her earlier muttering something about a "bunch of restles enfant terribles to handle on a night flight, what would I pay to make them to sleep!"and also by the fact that she had hidden the bottle in a place from which she certainly knew we would find it! 

Anyway, there is no photos of our flight to Portugal, because we were all slumbering like little angels. 



We were waken up next day by a rather pungent smell, and by Henna who told us to get out from her backbag and greet the sun.

I roamed out into a totally different world! There was sun, light, warmth, a blue glistening sea, a sand beach, and the source of the piercing smell - fish drying in the sun! 

What else could a toyvoyager ask for?
It certainly put a smile onto our faces, like our cunning host had forecasted. 



We walked towards the blue Atlantic ocean.
Henna told us that traditionally this was a town of fishermen - about everyone made their living by fishing or by turning the fish into conserves or other products.




There are still some active fishermen, and some traditional, colourful fishing boats on the shore. 

The fishing could be a dangerous occupation, though - specially in former times when the fishermen didn´t have motors to fight the Atlantic wawes - just oars or small sails.



The fishermen´s wives had their own way to deal with the risks. When their husbands were on the sea, and it turned stormy, they took a statue of Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, and put him into a bowl of water up to his neck, and told him that he would only get out of the water when the husband was safe back at home. If the storm get worse, or the husband was late of returning, the wives rised the water level in the bowl slowly. 



Up upon the cliff behind the beach is the other part of the town.
There was an important center of pilgrimage, which was built around a wooden image of Madonna and child, which appeared mysteriously into a cave in the cliff in the 8th century. It was believed to be carved by Josef, the step daddy of Jesus, who was a carpenter. 



We climbed up to see the church and the famous madonna, Nossa Senhora de Nazaré.
(The whole town got its name after the image, who was believed to have wandered here from Nazareth. Yeah, wandered. The holy images here have a long tradition of wandering around according to their own mind.) 



Here is the church in which the precious image is reciding.
Some hundred years ago the pilgrimages brought lots of wealth to the town - they of course payed for their accommodation and food, and if they were wealthy people they were ready to pay a lot, and also leave valuable gifts for the church, and maybe purchase pieces of some relics with good price. 



Here is the famous wandering Madonna. We couldn´t get very near, so I had to use a zoom, and couldn´t be in the same photo with her.
There are many theories about why she is black, since people from Nazareth at those times usually weren´t.



We came out from the church and walked following the edge of the cliff, admiring the view over the town. 



Nossa Senhora da Nazaré -image made here an miracle in 1182 I´m sure you all want to read about:
"On the early morning of September 14, 1182, Dom Fuas Roupinho alcalde of Porto de Mós, Portugal (quite a name!), was out hunting near the coast, when he saw a deer which he immediately began chasing. All of a sudden a heavy fog rose up from the sea. The deer ran towards the edge of the cliff (on purpose, I´m sure) and Dom Fuas  realised he was next to the small cave where the image of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré had appeared.  Thus he prayed out loud "Our Lady, Help Me!" All of a sudden the horse miraculously stopped just on the edge, one hoof already outside the cliff. " 

Ok. Miracle it was - the deer was saved! 



We saw the lighthouse of Nazaré. It is the building in the end of the cliff. We didn´t go near, because there was a modern pilgrimage of tourism thronging towards it from every direction. 



We hopped into a small museum, in which we saw miniature versions of the traditional fishingboats.
They were just the right size for us, but the auntie in the museum didn´t want to loan them to us.



The evening started to settle in, and so we finished by eating a bowl of Caldo verde soup in a small café.



It was a good first day under the sun. 

Sunny kisses from Momo!

Hellurei, rakas äiti! 

Greetings from Portugal again!
We slipped fastly again into the Portuguese style and rhythm of life.
The sun, warmth and colours or summer (in our eyes) lulled us to believe into everlasting summer indeed. Sometimes a longing for snow and ice tried to invide our brains, though.
Well, no snow this year even in Finland, it seems. Just mud. Good riddance.

Anyway, I´m going to share with you some pictures from a trip we made into a small town called Castelo Branco.



We took a train from Lisbon to Entroncamento, where we had to take another train to Castelo Branco.



We had half an hour time to spend in Entroncamento, and we marched to the other side of the railyards where we could see a row of old steam engines.
Oo I love steam engines! 



The tracks were following the river Tejo, and the lanscapes became less tamed.



In Castelo Branco, we saw the Sé, the main cathedral Igreja de São Miguel.



And Cruzeiro de São João stone cross, which was erected in the early 16th century.



Then we went to see the Jardim do Paço Episcopal garden.  It is a barock style garden, originally the private garden of bishop  D. Joăo de Mendonça, turned a public space in the 19th century.



The garden in best known because of its statues. These stairs are occupied by the Portuguese kings, but there are also statues representing the virtues, the seasons, the zodiacal signs, the continents and what not elsewhere in the garden. 



I think this king wasn´t very popular, because he was nicknamed "o gordo" = the fatty, while the other kings are named "victorious" or "magnificent" etc. 



Here you can see the area of the geometrical garden. Looks rather unnatural, but I guess that´s what people wanted at those times.



There were also various pools and fountains, in which I could see some beautiful, big swimming in.



It was a nice little garden. I could have one like that myself in the backyard. 



Here I´m sitting on the lap of bishop of Milan, santo Ambrosio. 



After the garden we climbed the hill to see the ruins of the castle after which the whole town has got its name.
There wasn´t much left, though, just some walls. But the view was worth of seeing! 



We walked forwards and backwards on the piece of wall standing, and then we climbed down to the city and went into a small local bar to have a bowlful of soup. 



That´s what we saw of Castelo Branco. We don´t know what Henna saw - she shut herself into some museums for the whole day!  Or that´s what she said! I have my doubts!



Later in the night we saw a beautiful, lighted fountain. It looked a bit like fireworks.

See you soon again!
Hugs from Momo! 

Hello hello hello! It is your favorite ruminant Momo  online again! How´re you all thriving?

Today it is a short day trip into a small town called Leiria in turn to be unravelled here, so let´s begin, oh ye fellow voyagers. 



Leiria is a small town about 150 kilometers from Lisbon. We travelled there by a bus. (Autocarro in Portuguese.)



The trip took over two hours, and everyone in the bus looked rather sleepy and bored. So we thought it a good idea to cheer them up a bit with some vigorous singing. 

I don´t know if they were cheered up, but certainly they weren´t looking half so sleepy after some energetic Finnish songs, especially the hundred verses of song called Sillivati seilaa (Herring bowl is sailing.)A very interesting song! If you ever want to learn it, be free to contact me!



"The name "Leiria" in Portuguese derives from 'leira' (from the medieval Galician-Portuguese form 'laria', from proto-Celtic *ɸlār-yo-, akin to Old Irish 'làr' 'ground, floor', Breton 'leur' 'ground', Welsh 'llawr' 'floor') meaning an area with small farming plots."
I have nothing to do with this information!  Mr Casanova told me to write it here (to boast abut his university education, undoubtedly.)
To say all of this in a simple language = Leiria was originally a small farming community.  It started to grow in size and importance in the medieval times.



We climbed to see the Castle of Leiria (in ruins) which is the most interesting thing to see in Leiria.



The castle ruins were quite entertaining. I was amazed to read that during the early mediaeval times all the town population was living inside its walls. 



We climbed about 500 stairs up onto the castle´s watch tower, and spent there a good time watching the landscapes around us. 






We left the castle and went to have lunch in a local café with auntie Maria. 



It was really njammy! 

After eating we took a bus into an even smaller town near by,  called Batalha. There we had only 45 minutes time and the only thing we saw was the famous Monastery of Batalha.



Here it is. It was really an overwhelmingly magnificent building!
The monastery was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385.






We peeked inside too, and were very impressed with all the gigantic pillars and what not.

Such a huge space brought into our minds the idea to try out its acoustics..    ..so we tuned our song Sillivati seilaa again, and soon we were kicked out from the monastery, which was good, because otherwise we could have been so lured by the music as to miss our bus back to Lisbon.



So,we got in time to our bus and safely back home. 

Many tender kisses from Momo! Toodleoo! 

Terve taas!/Olá de novo!/Hello again! dear fellow voyagerists!

I wish all of you are feeling well and exuberant! Or at least well enough to suffer through a new update with your favorite cow. 



We made again a day trip, this time to a small town called Pias, towards south from Lisbon.
Henna and auntie Maria had to meet some people in the town, and meanwhile we had free hands (or paws, hooves or whatever) to amuse ourselves in the house of auntie Maria´s parents. 

It is an old house and whitewashed, like all houses here, and standing wall to wall with the neighbouring houses, like is the custom here. The houses form long, white rows on both sides of the roads. It can be a bit claustrophobic experience to walk in between,  without escape right nor left. 





Anyway, we stayed mainly in the yard, instead of lingering on the roads, because there were so many things to see there!

December or not, many plants were in bloom and some others were heavy with ripe fruit, while some were just otherwise interesting. 



Behind me and the wonderful rose you can see part of the yard, an old well and some sheds.
This has originally been a self sufficient farm with enough land and fields to produce livelihood for an extended family with servants, but now there is just the yard with some fruit trees and room for a kitchen garden.



We went to explore everything. 
Some of the trees drop their leaves for the winter here too. The dry leaves made delicious, raspy sound under our paws.



The lemons were ripe! Wonderful, plump yellow balls bursting with juice and smelling wonderfully!
There were already many lemons dropped on the ground too.




We were pushing them into piles and carried them into the house and into Henna´s bag to take with us back to Lisbon. 



The oranges were also ripe and wonderful!
Did you know that it were Portugueses who brought them to Europe in 15th century? What smart people! 



There were many oranges on the ground too. We started to roll them into piles too, and then I got an idea! 



We made and orange man, to feel more like winter, since there wasn´t much hope of snow. 
But it didn´t feel quite the same.



We climbed the trees to pull down those oranges which were still hanging on the branches.
"Ahoy! Orange coming!"



Some of them were stubborn and demande lots of swinging before they surrendered! What a great excuse! 
Nay. Heaven forbid the day when I need an excuse to have fun! 



The olive trees also needed our attention and care, and we gave it to them gladly!



I had soon my basket full of glossy blue-black azeitonas. 



After hard harvest collecting we were just resting under the blooming trees and enjoying the mild afternoon sun, buzzing insects and other blessings. 



Like wine.. 






There was a pile of old roof tiles in one corner of the yard, and in some way or other that gave us an idea to celebrate the approaching christmas time by arranging a living nativity scene.



Here is our impromptu crib! 

Well, yeah, I don´t know how christlike that brat of Zoe´s is, but he was the only baby available! Besides, he is quite cute! 



When the sun got low, we went inside the house, and amused ourselves by climbing the beautiful old furniture. 



We built a fire into the kitchen´s fire place. In olde times this was the only place to make food. Usually a cheramic vessel was put onto the hearth near the fire with the food ingredients.We were just enjoying the warmth and beauty of the fire. 






In the morning we had to say goodbye for the old house, and took our load of fruit back to Lisbon.

Goodbye! And see you soon again!
Your Momo! 

Hello again, dear toyvoyagers and hosts! 

Our Christmas and New Year here in Portugal went past so fast we didn´t have time to hop in. 
It was raining all the time, and everything looked like a very rainy April in Finland, and Henna had a flue, so we were mainly staying in our nice and warm and cosy tv -nest, reading and eating gingerbread cookies.



We went to see the big christmas tree in Rossio, though, but otherwise the whole yule tide just slipped somewhere.. 



And then it was January an year 2016, the sun roamed slowly out from the clouds, and we forced Henna to roam out too from her bed and to take us out again. 

We went for a hiking trip onto an protected area called Arriba Fóssil da Costa de Caparica.
We started our hike from a village called Fonte da Telha, which you can see in this photo.



Inhabitants of the village are mainly either fishermen (or women) or keep a little bar for surfers and others who like to have their lunch on the sea shore.

The aloes on the edge of the village were just opening their first flowers when we marched by. 



The coastal cliffs of Costa de Caparica are called fossil cliffs, because they are fossil-bearing layers of Miocene age,and because they´re not in direct contact with the ocean, not suffering from sea erosion.



The fossil sea bed formed many interesting and fantastical formations, and we spotted many seashell and conch fossils in them. 



We were mainly walking over soft sand, which made the walking a bit heavy. I could feel my leg muscles growing!

We saw more beautiful flowers. 



In this photo you can see the town of Lisbon far away in the horizon. A perspective to the town most Lisboners have never seen. 



We were walking along the ancient coast line towards a lake called Lagoa de Albufeira about eight kilometers away. Eight kilometers there and eight back would be just suitable length for a hiking trip. 



I don´t know what these flowers are but they were huge!  Henna said they might be globeflowers (Trollius europaeus) but she is not sure. What do you think?






The last kilometers we walked under pines and blooming mimosas. 






At last we reached the Albufeira lake.
On it´s other shore was a new ugly living area and it didn´t look very interesting. The other shore is a protected area for water birds´s nesting, which is great. 




On the third shore we had a foam party. 



After enough partying we returned to the sea shore, and walked a while along the nowaday´s beach before returning to the ancient cliffs.



Here you can see both. 



Then we walked our eight kilometers back to Fonte da Telha.

See you soon! Kisses!! I hope you have been walking a bit too!
Your Momo 

Hello again, dear folks! 

It has been some months since I last made an update, and I´m sorry about that, but believe me, folks, it wasn´t my fault!
I would have been making updates every single day, but my host Henna went kukkuu or lost her rocker or maybe lost some Moomins from the Valley, because how else would it be explained that she told me she needed a holiday from toyvoyaging, I just ask!? 
Unless it is a case rather for an exorcist than for a psychiatrist, like our friend Zoe was suggesting. 

Just in case we drew some pentagrams onto the floor, and clearly they worked because as soon as Henna saw them she suddenly became very energetic indeed and run after us some kilometers shouting horrible curses, and we run like there had been some demons after us! 
So, we got her on the move again, and she is ready to take us to see things again, hooray! 



After some more months in Portugal we came back to Finland, where the little old cottage was waiting for us, messy and chaotic as ever! 

Outside the nature was waking up after the long winter, and the crocuses were the first plants which hustled themselves from the black earth towards the sun.



Soon on the heels of the crocuses came the white anemones and covered the yard with with a white, cloudy -looking bedspread. 



After the anemones it was like the nature´s big bag had broken, and all the spring plants had fallen down - everything was suddenly growing with such a hurry we hardly had time to greet everyone! 



The rhubarbs we were greeting with a double joy, because we know that they can be turned into a wonderful soup, which is specially delicious when it is served over vanilla ice cream! 



Yep! They certainly look ripe enough! I´ll coax Henna to make us soup! She is actually pretty easy to coax, and if it doesn´t work there always is the blackmailing. 



When we had settled properly down again and had started to feel like home, we were ready to go a bit farther away from the yard and its wonders.
We have been following Henna on some interesting geocaching trips! 



I don´t know how many of you are geocachers - I know some are - but anyway, I´m sure you understand the excitement of searching for the caches according to hints, and solving riddles!
But even more exciting is that we never know beforehand in what kind of place we will get into in search for the cache! 

They can be hidden for example on the premises of an old manor house, like in this case.
It is the Munkkiniemen kartano manorhouse behind my back.



It is also nice to see how creative people can be when making the caches!
This one was camouflaged like a log! 



Running after the caches we often see very beautiful or interesting places. Here we are in a park called Härkähaka, which means "bull pasture". It has been a grazing area for the bulls of the Munkkiniemen kartano manor house some hundred years ago.



We found there a cache and a geobug, a little budgie!
Geobugs are a bit similar than us toyvoyagers - they travel from cache to cache round the world while we travel from host to host! 



We passed a glorious field with glowing dandelions!



Ooh, such little suns on a field!  We just had to pet them!



Here we are searching for a cache in the forest, in trenches which are part of an old defense system.



This is a bunker in the defence constructions, quite a creepy place - dark and humid and full of mosquitoes!
It is quite horrible to think anyone staying here, specially during the winter, brrrrr! 



But we found the cache! We are much better in finding caches than our host Henna is! She is such a sissy she doesn´t want to put her hands into dark holes in case there are hairy spiders or centipedes, hah! 



These are marsh marigolds (rentukka in Finnish) and every ditch and brook and pond is full of them at the moment! Aren´t they wonderful!?



I finish this first update now, but I promise I´ll soon be here again! 

Many kisses and hugs to you all! And hairy spiders if you like them! 
Your Momo!

Hello again, dear fellow toyvoyagers, siblings, lunatic family members and patient hosts! 

Today it rains "kuin Esterin perseestä" like the Finnish saying goes, and it is a good day to write updates!
What? You want to know what the Finnish saying means? Are you quite sure?  Just asking, because sometimes it is better not to know.. 
All right, all right, but remember, it was you who demanded me to tell! 

Litterally it means: "It rains like from Esther´s arse." Yep. Simple and logical, isn´t it? And yes, it is a genuine and wide spread Finnish saying.  If you want to hear the historical explanation too, you better ask our friend Mr Casanova, I´m sure he knows everything about it! (He usually knows everything that has to do with ars.. Hi, don´t hit me with that pillow! Ok, ok, I don´t write it!



But now to the update. Do you think I talk too much?  Some folks say I talk too much, which, I think, is an absurd idea, cannot understand where it comes from! I can tell that compared with some other toyvoyagers around here (no names mentioned) I talk very little indeed!
Ach, the update, where was I? 

Here you can observe our valiant gang, and if you are very observant, you can maybe realize we´re sitting on a boat! Yes!

It was a boat named Viking Express, and we were on our way to Tallinn, Estonia! 



I bet you cannot guess why we were travelling to Tallinn! 
We were going there because our host Henna wanted to buy a book, an Estonian book, which she was not able to buy in Finland.  Quite an interesting reason to travel to the neighbouring country, but like I´ve said before, there are probably some Moomins lost from her Valley. 
Anyway, it was a very fast trip - the going over the Finnish Gulf took about 2 hours, and then we had about four hours time to spend in Tallinn, before our ship left back to Helsinki again. 



We enjoyed the trip! We went to promenade on the deck, and it was fun, because it was so windy there we were able to lean against the wind!
The seagulls were using the wind to float over our ship, and one of them was in a nasty mood, and tried to hrm.. bombard us. It maybe had something to do with the fact that Zoe theKiwi shouted "Hi, mate, bring us some herring, since you don´t seem to have anything better to do!" to it.   



We watched small islands to slide by Yes, thank you, dear Mr Casanova, I know quite well the islands were not sliding, it were us who were sliding, or the boat, to be exact. It was just a figure of speech! (What an smart ass..)



In the stern there was a deck bar, which looked quite nice, but when we tried to enter, there was a  guy who told us to show our papers.
Well, we all rummaged through our pockets and bags, and presented all our papers to the guy - Racko had a bus ticket, I had some caramel wrappings, Mr Casanova had about 800 love letters, Zoe had some toilet paper (unused) and Crawfish had a paper which had been round a kilo of herrings some days before, but even so the guy didn´t let us in, although he showed some interest towards Mr Casanova´s letter collection. 



So we went back in and had our own party on a window sill! Usually our own parties are the best parties, anyway! 

Pretty soon we arrived to Tallinn!



Tallinn´s name comes from the Estonian words "Taani linn", which means "The Danish town".
Denmark controlled the town after they had beaten the Estonians in the Lindanise battle 1219.
The town existed though long before, and its original name was Revala, a name which had to do with the dense population of foxes (rebane in Estonian) which lived on the caves and holes  and burrows on the hills over which the town had been built. 



After running with Henna to her precious bookshop and dragging her out again screaming and kicking "So many interesting books! Just half an hour more!" we still had some time to walk in the old part of the town.
We saw narrow medieval alleys paved with cobble stones, and lots of churches and very inviting bakeries and sweetshops.. 



The old town consisted in the medieval style of upper town and downtown.  The elite lived in the upper town, and there was also its administrative center, department of justice etc.
The common people, craftsmen and labourers lived in the downtown, and the two parts of the town were rather hostile towards each other, and no wonder too - the elite consisted of invaders - first Danes and then Germans, and the common people didn´t trust them and wise versa. There was a big, guarded gate between the two parts of town.. 



We climbed on the upper town hill slope to see the walls and towers the elite built around it to guard themselves against the people. There were many bloody rebellions and uprisings throughout the medieval period - so there was a good reason. 



But now it was a peaceful place. The sun shone upon us, and the hillside grew many wild flowers, the butterflies were flying around us, and a bunch of local drunkards were singing in a very entertaining way some distance away. A beautiful summer day! 

In middle of all this peace and beauty, we talked about weird things - why is the history of people so full of  fighting and invading? 
Well, of course we toyvoyagers fight all the time with each other, and invade the beds and swings and sandwiches and whatnot of each other - but to be serious with it and really hurt each other?  That would never do! Our fights always end in five minutes and we settle it all and be best friends again - after all - we are all toyvoagers! maybe humans will learn this some day too!



The sympatethic red bridge runs over what once was a moat. I don´t think they ever had crocodiles in it! They would not thrive in Estonian climate. 
Nowadays the area is a popular park. The moats have been turned into pools in which ducks swim around and people are feeding them.



Sadly we had to start to walk back towards the harbour and our ship which was waiting for us.
But on the way there we saw still many beautiful old buildings.
The yellow building on the left is an old school. 



I liked Tallinn, or the little part we had time to see, at least! 
Maybe we come here still another time, never know, if Henna wants to buy another book! 



We returned onto the Viking Express and climbed onto the deck to wave our goodbyes to Tallinn.



So long, Tallinn! Maybe we meet again! 

And we, my dear readers, will meet again pretty soon!
Your Momo 

Hello again, dear and ardent followers, mom and siblings!
It is your favorite bovine here again! 

We have arrived to the wonderful midsummer, although it seems the Finnish nature imagines it is autumn already. Everything is oddly ahead of time. 



Look the glorious lupines on the old pasture next to our cottage!

But what comes to the nature having lost its marbles.. well, usually for example the blueberries ripen here in Southern Finland in the end on July, but this year that happened in the end of June. The leaves on the trees start normally to turn yellow in August, and it´s happening already!  Some species of birds, who normally start to get ready for their annual migration in August, are behaving like that now over the fields, and even the spiders, who on normal years start to tuck into our little cottage in September to hibernate there, have started to roam in! 
(If you have very good eyesight you can see the spiders roaming towards the cottage here. ) 



We all wonder if it does mean something. An old man in the neighbour said it means that the coming winter  is going to be very cold and harsh, but on the other hand he has also told us that if there is lots of berries in the rowans and if the frogs jump high in July the next winter is going to be cold and harsh. 
So we don´t know what to think.



Of course it has its bright side too - we have already started feasting with forest berries - blueberries and the small, wild forest strawberries! 



Here we are heading into the forest (I mean, deeper into the forest - we live on the brink of it!) to pick and eat berries.
We don´t eat much anything else these days- and it is a bit so and so with the picking too - but we eat a lot! 



Nam nam nom nom mums mums slurp! 
Aren´t you starting to drool just watching this photo?



Our host Henna is picking berries into a big bucket and putting them into freezer in small plastic bags, to be eaten throughout the winter, and that is of course very smart, since she´ll have hungry toyvoyagers round her throughout the year, but we toyvoyagers pick a small bucketful each per day, and on the next morning there is nothing left - we got hungry during the night too! 



Here we are ready to head back home with our full buckets and full stomachs! 



In the long, luminous summer evenings we´ve gone for long walks onto the beautiful forests or meadows near by. 

Try to guess what is the time in this photo! Huh? 
It was taken at 23. 51! The sun  doesn´t set very low on these latitudes.



This time we were walking on a seashore meadow, where there are young bulls eating fresh hey! 
"Moo!" I shouted, and they stopped chewing, their jaws dropped and they stared at me.
"Ammoo!" they answered, "come here, sweet maiden, and we give the best hey to youuuu!" 
I just sent them a blow kiss, which made them to go go crazy and run around mooooooooing.



These boardwalks continue some kilometers on the wetlands, and our host Henna told us that when she went to high school, this was her route to school. 



Now we must hurry to pick more berries!
I wish you were here with us!
Kiss from Momo!