Find me here

If you're interested, now you can find me here :)

White

Today, a lovely comment from my sweet blog-friend from JARDIN ANGLAIS reminded me how much I neglected this blog. So here I am ! I am fine, and so it is my whole family. Did I say we already celebrated two birthdays this year ? My youngest doughter turned 12 and I turned 40. She is growing, while I experienced some kind of regression, I probably mixed up forty with fourteen. So in the last month I spent so much time drawing, listening to music, writing and spending time outside. I am dreaming of a long series of teenage-like things I want to do. I wonder if this is just normal once you become middle-aged. I mean, I don't need to prove anything anymore, I don't need to compete, I don't need to behave. It's kinda fun, even if few of your children might think you've gone nuts ...
So what about the odd title of this post ? Wait and see, white is the perfect word in this moment ...

Have a wonderful week, and a great new month <3

Love, Flavia

Following the light

In the past five or six years I got more and more interested in the natural world. I started my journey thanks to Clare Walker Leslie and her beautiful guides to nature journaling and observation. Since then, I kept many nature journals and nature studies, and when we moved here in Finland my interest was especially drawn to how the light (or the lack of it ) impact the natural life, and which are the signs that the outdoors gives us to hint snow, or rain or especially low temperatures. So far I learnt a lot, but so much it is still out there to observe and understand. In the last couple of weeks Finland experienced very low temperatures, friday was the coldest day for us, with -29 here in the south. The amazing side of these freezing days is that usually they are bright and sunny with clear blue sky. So one day I had some fun litterally following the sun during the day, taking pictures every once in a while from the same window. If you wonder why all this excitement about the sun, here some facts: at the solstice, one month ago, the sun was rising at 9:23 and setting at 15:07 ( we had 5 hours and 44 minutes of daylight ), today the sun has risen at 8:49 and the sun will set at 16:10 so 7 hours and 22 minutes of daylight, almost two hours more in less than a month. This has a terrific impact on every living being's life. Birds wake up earlier, and humans wake up easier and feel less tired and in general the energy level increase so much. Life begins anew somehow. But here my four more significant pictures, showing the path of our star.

  Taken at 1:10 pm

 Taken at 1:30 pm

 Taken at 2:51pm

Taken at 3:42 pm

The Creation is amazing, the nature is such a great gift and teacher. If we could only live in armony with it, and with each other, our world would be such a beautiful place to be.

Have a great week !

Late ! Late ! Late !

I know, it's a long overdue post. But I really wanted to post those three pictures from New Year's night. Why ? Well first of all because I like the idea that my blog it's somehow my journal. Then because I really love those picture. But most of all because that night has been beautiful and fun. My older children are most of the time now truly great friends, with whom I can laugh and talk and share all aspects of life ( and yes, sometime they're an handful too ) while my little one is pure joy and curiosity and sweet love ( and yes sometime he's an handful too ). And I love all of them. And I'm very fond also of you my dear readers ;) 

So... Happy 2016 !!!!!!!

Bye bye beautiful

Another year went by. It has been a painful, beautiful, full year, filled with laughs and tears and thoughts. The last year of the third decade of my life. A lot of reflections about who I am, who I was and who I want to be. In this year I tried to come to terms with the fact the the dream I have been chasing for 10 years will not come true. It has been hard, but now I feel like I finally let it go. It belongs to the past. This has left me wandering in my own life somehow. You have a target, a goal. You know what are you aiming to. But when you deliberately close that door you find yourself walking along a very long corridor filled with doors and you're not sure which one you should open ( or want to open ). So I decided that with the beginning of this fourth decade I will go back to square one. My first passions: drawing, writing and taking pictures. Not because I decided to become a writer or a painter or a photographer. Or maybe because I decided to become either a writer AND a painter AND a photographer. Or because I want to lit the flame of passion again. I Know 40 will be a great age: my older children have become such great friends, with whom I love to laugh and talk and learn, and my little one keep me young, letting me see the reality with his pure and joyful eyes, and my age set me free from the stress of pleasing other no matter what. I have the luxury to be myself, no competition with my fellow human beings. I feel so blessed. So what I am doing this year is to sign in for an online class (illustration and mixed media art ), writing few short novels and maybe entering some literary contest for beginners, taking more pictures. AND keeping a written nature journal and journaling more. AND reading a lot of books. Oh and eating healthy and living and vegan as much as possible. It seems that 2016 will be full of interesting things. So bye bye 2015, bye bye beautiful, you've been a good teacher, but now I need to move on. With Love, Flavia.

The last pictures for this year, nature and family and Christmas. So much joy. 

Happy New Year !

Merry Christmas

Christmas has arrived. It is knocking on the door of my heart. I want to wish to all my friends and relatives, closer and far away the most peaceful and joyful Christmas day. May this special day fill you up with happiness to last until the next one. For my Christians friends ( as me ) this is such a very special day, in which we celebrate the birth of our very special friend and the wisest and most loving teacher, Jesus.
Here few pictures from my house, mostly the lights, colourful and so necessary in the darkness of this month.

Merry Christmas !!!

Happy Solstice !

So here we are. The darker moment of the year is here, but this mean that the light is about to come back. In two days the hours of daylight will be longer and longer. I love this moment of the year, as it reminds me that in life we have darkness and light, and even if darkness can be scaring and depressing and sad, it is the prelude to light. A light much more sweeter and bright just because of the previous darkness.
I took these pictures of the sky at 15:00 (3 pm ) just when the sun was about to set. In few months at 3 am we will have much more light than this.
  I love the Creation we're living in.

 Happy solstice to everybody !

Today's details:

Sunrise at 9:23

Sunst at 15:07

Daylight: 5h44min