Mysteeri

Interesting tracks in Mellunmäki

Winter is fantastic time for detectives...

You can see has anyone left the house before you in the morning & figure out has it been a woman or a man, or perhaps a child with a toboggan or someone with a long tail. You can easily see how intoxicated your spouse was when arriving home judged based on the trail left behind...

You can also trick people believing in things; granny used to wear granpa's large rubber boots to make tracks in the deep snow on a narrow country road (in the middle of nowhere) - You might wonder, why was she in the middle of nowhere in my grandpa's boots... and the answer is: she lived in a small cottage alone... in the dark winter time she thought that the big steps would keep potential unwanted guests out of the estate. Soon after she was persuaded to move to the nearby town to live in her own flat (with running water, electricity & central heating).

Can you detect a rabbit hopping in the snow - How about the smaller tracks?

On top of the standard beautiful marks on the snow, one can not pass without noticing the yellow & brown tracks on white background. Unfortunately it kind of gets worse when the snow starts melting... but hopefully it's not time for that yet, although the first migrating birds have started to return to Finland... The winter has been fantastic; beautiful and snowy - perhaps Mr. Snow greets us at the end of the drive way for a bit longer?

Spies

Spies?

As the resident nerd technologically competent person I get to do exciting things for Hiiri (and actually although Konna may say otherwise I have to do the same for her too):

• Change lightbulbs & fuses
• Buy and change printer cartridges
• Reset the cable digibox when it falls over
• Get the TV off menu when the wrong button is pressed
• Upload/download photos from cameras & phones
• Install/update antivirus (and any other software) on her computer
• Put batteries in, and demonstrate the use of, any new piece of technology around the home

It also means that when Hiiri says to Konna 'Your cousin asks you can see their house on Google?', I realise that:

A) They are talking about Google Maps Street View (which is still fairly recent and hot topic of conversation around these parts);

B) Somehow Konna has never heard of it even though it was around causing controversy (yawn) in UK before we left;

C) I am going to have to show them how to use it in about 30 seconds time.

So after owning up to having already scouted my cycling route from here to town (as the Helsinki pictures seem to have been a summer afternoon) we set to 'visiting' said cousins house, Hiiri's childhood home (which is apparently a forest based on the view we could get), our current abode & Konna's childhood house (so Hiiri and Konna could complain about the owners leaving rubbish bags outside and not watering the plants). Then Konna hit on the bright idea of 'visiting' my Mum's home for Hiiri to see (as she has never visited... for real that is).

So I show the house ('Wow isn't it big and nice looking' says Hiiri to my momentary disbelief, forgetting she would not be used to the boring 60's English developer semi/detached suburban typology). Then I show my Junior school at the top of the road. Then the stereotypical english (red brick Oxford movement) spired church where my Mum is the verger. Where my Mum spends a lot of time... Where my Mum is standing outside the front door of the church apparently oblivious to the camera car... hello Mum!!