[photos]

Last weekend we went to the market,

just outside of the old walls of the city

We made all the veggie/fruit shopping there

and for the first time, 

I decided to take one pomegranate

I need to admit, it tastes weird.

I need to find some recipes where it could show the best sides

looks delicious

 We had afternoon walk at saturday in Villeneuve...

....guess what..

Snow! 

we got the first snow!

I was so excited

of course it all melted

but it reminded me of my childhood 

when we were in school and saw the first snow through the window

and everybody was waiting the break so much, to play in the snow.

I love walking in a snowy forest

it's calm and it's just you and the forest

only the noise of the crunching snow under your shoes..

the tiny first snow flakes

And sunday evening, we had a evening walk at the traditional christmas market

and we had to taste these delicious waffles

gaufre à la chantilly et gaufre au nutella

 

cannelle ... definetly the spice of winter

 Some walnuts what we got from Montpellier

P is for Piparkakku

 

 

It's friday afternoon,

and I wanted to take a break

so I made some traditional finnish cookies called piparkakku

you'll need...

 

 cookie cutters

Kaulin aka rolling pin

piparkakku dough 

first, parboil molasse with the spices - don't burn it or overboil.

1 dl dark molasse

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2ts ground ginger 

2ts ground glove

2ts dried ground orange peel

Mix with handmixer 250grams of butter and 2 1/4 dl sugar (white) until smooth and foamy.

Add cooled spicy molasse into and mix again. 

Mix 2ts of baking soda (or 4ts of baking powder)  to 6-12 dl wheat flour, in the recipe it was 6dl but I added more as it was too sticky. It needs to be easily rolled and not sticking to hands.

Mix the flours to the rest of the dough and leave it to rest in fridge until next day.

Making cookies.. roll the dough while it's still cold enough

with some extra flours and bake in 200 degrees celsius around 5 minutes,

these burns easily (like mine) so I had to put less degrees and more cooking time.

Bon Appétit and happy weekend!

Cherry on Top

Uh oh, I got this award from Noora, she has great blog called This Picture ! She writes mostly in finnish,but there is summary in english at the end of the post. She wrote that I have great pictures and interesting stories from France. Noora, You made me smile! Kiitos.

Now I need to complete this mission,

1. give this award to 5 inspiring blogger
2. tell 3 things I love 
3. share the picture I love the most and tell about it.


Mama Hussy - I check your blog almost everyday (even I'm bad in commenting), you take amazing pictures and your family is so cute.

Aurajoon - Your blog has teached me many things on photography, life and how to live naturally.

Me, Mice-Self and I - Beautiful blogger from Philippines, makes me see world differently, You do the things what I'm only dreaming of (traveling, scubadiving...). Love your photos!


Annie Kennedy Photography - Annie from Australia is amazing photographer! Love her style with photos, really inspiring.

Last but not least, Ella Bella Ranskassa - Another Finnish girl living in France, It's great to read another finn's story in France. Blogisi on ihana ja inspiroiva!

And I love...

... open windows at summer day, listening music from Yann Tiersen and baking..

... ambiance of winter.. with candles, spicy scent and warm glögi..

... riding in the forest, I just feel free, relaxed and I could fell asleep while the horse is walking.. Horses (and other animals) relieves stress, it's just amazing.

I love this picture, because it's with my parents.This is rare picture,where we really do something else than traditional family posing, it makes me laugh everytime! My sister wasn't with us when we drove from Finland to France, this was taken on the boat to Germany.

So I had to add one more, with my sister.

 

Lesson learned

 me(aka Dahlia Noir) and our friend F

Raph aka Le Danois

We had the Gangster's Poker Night last saturday, it was great! I have been quite tired after that, we didn't sleep much as we had to drove our friend M back to home (he has broken leg and he lives 40mins away from us, we still prefer that he can join our party though) so we were around 4am at home, crevé. exhausted.

Sunday we went to the Salon de Mariage, just to see our friends stand, as they have their own store to sell dragées (traditional sweets) for weddings and christening. It's called Dragées de Noé, Raph has made the website for the store. It was weird and funny to visit in that kind of fairs as we were not really visiting the fair, just to see our friends, all the sellers were attacking us with their brochures, uuh.

And monday, I broke the lens of the camera. I felt so stupid, but I guess it can happend to anyone someday. Luckily it still works in manual mode, but i'm guessing that the motor inside is damaged as it's bit weird on the automatic mode. weird noises and movements. But finally, it works still. I can continue taking pictures with that until I can get new one. But, without a job, it will take time. This is what I should be doing right now, updating my french cv and writing lettre de motivation. Be more careful with the expencive stuff.. lesson learned.

I had some problems lately with the comments, so I didn't see the last ones until now. Sorry about that everyone! It should work now.

wine tasting and weekend walk

This morning I woke up with a headache.. and saw dream of a fox who was waiting that I share my crepes and sausages with him, while I was sitting in a rocky slope. Is it the wine what made this weird dream?

Last night we went to taste some wines in Place de l'horloge, my first wine tasting fête. I discovered really good red wines, and that Côtes du Rhône Primeurs are funny tasting but still good. And in the middle of the tasting, I got headache, as we didn't just always taste, we did drink too. I also lost my taste, after few wines I couldn't taste anything nor smell the wine, everything lost. With 3euros, you get a wine glass and then there is about 20 different producers around the area offering different wines (white,red,rose and primeurs). Imagine after few, if you don't spit, you are quite drunk. So they offer alcohol test too. I was clear but I can't say the same from my friends after I saw their tests. I forgot my camera to home, so I had to google some images of the place (some are from the christmas market, but they use the same lightning and cabins for both)

 

Hôtel de Ville (city hall)

Last weekend, we went to Montpellier to see R's oldest sister. We had 1,5h drive, and we went directly to the food market what was near her apartment. It was so much better than the market we have in our Place every saturday. I was craving to buy the products. We didn't as Nathalie had already made the shopping when we arrived, so we just quickly looked and then went to her place.

After lunch, we had a walk in the center. Montpellier is a huge city, 8th biggest in France and it was crowded at saturday afternoon. The next day we had a walk outside in the forests of Montpellier, so then I had my camera finally with me.

Have a great weekend!


Ps. I have new addiction...

memories

I’m supposed to be a woman but I still feel like a girl
Even though I’ve grown up tall I feel small in this big world
The candles that I’m blowing are adding up as time goes by
I used to wish to be a grown up now I miss the girl inside
Oh those days of play dates in my friend’s back yard
And sand pit spades, dress ups, potions, monkey bars
Now we’re paying off our debt
Dealing with our daily stress
If I could just forget I’d go straight back to when
I was young

 Coby Grant - When I was young

I got this challenge from Pinea, another Finn in France. Thank you very much, it was much fun to think of my childhood ! It was originally in finnish, but I made (bad) translation so anyone can read it here.



1. What did you answer to the question "What do you want to be when you grow up"?
I wanted to be a mounted police or firefighter. Mounted police because I loved so much horses and firefighters because I loved fire. It was fascinating and it still is.

2. Which comic strip you did like the most?
I did love Winnie the Pooh when I was kid, and later on Donald Duck. I don't read much comics but these two were really good ones. 

3. Favourite game
Making cottage from the sofa pillows and sheets and taking care of my (bike)horse. 

4. Best birthday and why?
I don't remember many birthdays, so I would say all were great ones. I don't celebrate much anymore, but I think I will start celebrating soon again and inviting friends for a cake party.

5. What would you have wanted to do in your life, what you haven't done yet?
I wanted to buy a horse since I was a kid, and I haven't had chance to do it yet. I will someday.

6. First favourite hobby
Horses and riding. It's somewhere so deep in my heart that I can't live without it.

7. First music idol
Ha. This will be funny, I loved New kids on the block, Prince and Alice Cooper when I was little. 

8. Best christmas/other gift
Our family's dog, Naku. She is a lovely 13 years old grandma. It was the best thing ever, since our parents really didn't plan to take a dog. I don't know what happend but we got her! 


 
Mice, I would like to hear about your childhood!

i turn my camera on

Most of the times, I just turn my camera on.And snap.

I discovered some random ones from my laptop

These pumpkin pictures are my first attemp to use big flash at evening, our house is really dark at evenings.

I really don't like of flash but I guess it would be good to know how to use it anyway.

little visit outside

I'm getting obsessed with the christmas decorations. I went to Ikea last week and found that they have already christmas things up and running. With the reindeer patterns and ornaments, these reminds me of Finland. 

We don't actually own any christmast decoration with R, so this year I will get some. soon. And they had glögi and other christmas sweets and foods, but way too expencive I think.

This morning, Avignon was covered with mist. So beautiful, so we thought of driving out of the city. So we went to have a little walk in Saint-Saturnin-lés-Avignon, to collect few pine cones and get fresh air. 

Well, pine cones.. I was excepting huge ones but all were gone. I just had tiny ones. These are enough for me still.

I love these colors of autumn.. When we got home, I had a note from post office that I have received a package from Finland! I'm guessing it's my parents sending some spices to make piparkakku (gingerbread)and glögi (mulled wine). So happy!

R's dog poop decoration