hiidenkonttibeta

There was a bunch of snowmen in Otto Karhi park helding “NO to climate change” signs today. Some had “snowmen against climate change” flyers pinned on their shoulders.

Results of quick googling told that it was arranged by Maan Ystävät (Friends of Earth) and similar displays were made in 18 places in Finland and in some places in Russia and Sweden.

According to Vima shop window the fashion this Spring is to hang your shoes from their laces on the right shoulder and walk barefooted. Like this:

I must say that you’ve got to be pretty hardcore to follow this fashion in Finland. On Summer it’s okay (it’s pretty fun actually, I’ve tried it around the city and on the countryside), but we may still have snow and ice on Spring.

The sun was shining brightly today. It doesn’t yet rise very high above the horizon, so it shines directly to eyes, especially if you’re driving a car towards south.

The length of day in Oulu is currently 7h 25min, more than double the length on Winter Solstice.

Now it should be the worst part of the winter, but it’s pretty mild. We have a word for subzero temperatures in Finnish, “pakkanen”. I’m not aware of any other language having such a word. It’s often been -20C in February, mutta tänäänkin on vain kuusi astetta pakkasta.

Somehow two holidays with special cakes are on following days in the beginning of February. Today is Runeberg’s day. Runeberg is a Finnish poet, and we have a special cake called Runegergintorttu to celebrate him:

Tomorrow is laskiaissunnuntai. I don’t know the point of that holiday. My dictionary calls it Shrovetide. Next Tuesday is laskiaistiistai, “Shrove Tuesday”. To celebrate laskiainen we a special bun called laskiaispulla:

It’s a sweet bun with whipped cream and either (strawberry) jam or almond paste inside.

In the lower classes of comprehensive school we used to take our sleds or skis and go to some snowy hill. Afterwards we ate hernekeitto (Finnish pea soup) and laskiaispullia.

Had a package of spread on my non-existing shopping list today. The stuff I use is a mixture of butter and vegetable oil called Voimariini. There’s some variants, but basically the package looks like this:

So I walk to the refrigerated shelves in the shop and pick up a package of “easy to spread” version with yellowish label.

Wait a minute.

There was definitely something wrong with that package, and with all the others on the shelf. It took me a while before my OCR caught up and I figured it out. The package I bought looks like this:

The previous name is based on two words: “voi” is “butter” in Finnish, and “margariini” is “margarine”. But what’s the big idea with oiva?