nomen est omen? greetings from the summer cottage

well, to start with... our last name, Hirviniemi, is a compound of two nouns: hirvi (a moose, a horse sized animal living in forests) and niemi (a cape, a point of land) - which would turn into english quite near as 'a cape of moose'.

Last week we were relaxing at my family's summer cottage, located on a small cape of an island. One peaceful evening Olivia was in bed and sarita, boys and I roasted some sausages for the supper outside. I heard some splashing from then lake and expected a canoe passing us by; suspiciously though, the splashing remained but nobody was coming and i went to check what's going on. To my surprise (some friggin' surprise) as I reached the jetty, I saw a huge momma moose with a kid approaching us swimming. They were less than 10meters from me, and in half a minute they'd have risen from the water and run between us and the cottage... Now, as soon as they saw me running they u-turned and swam back to the opposite shore. The first shot is them being afraid of me... being afraid of them...

Here are the boys before the uninvited guests.

and here's some other cheerful events:

Joonatan with the up-to-date biggest fish he's got: 800 g pike, that turned out delicious, smoked in alder and a table spoon of sugar. Benjamin got a similar one, but it appeared too scary to be posed with in a picture...


Joonatan and Benjamin starting the day by dipping the toes in water in pyjamas.


And here's some timberwork


PS. Joonatan turned 6 the day before the vacation (July 27th). here's the late post. Later in the day, he had a bunch of friends coming over and the sound of the celebration was... for you to get the picture... like in flock of gulls in the fish market...

On Monday he heads to preschool for the first time. As thrilling to him as it is for mom and dad.