All posts by samstarbucks

I’m a daughter, sister, aunt, godmother, former and future cat mom and I'm a Swiss who used to live in Texas and is now trying to find her way back in the old homeland - these are things that I am, but not necessarily define me. I love to doodle, run, write, spend quality time with my friends and family - they define me!
On the road

New Year’s Eve

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New Year’s Eve, what a happy occasion. How we wished we could have simply left the old year with all its ghosts behind but as we know from loooong experience that is jot how it works.

New Year’s Eve is just another day. Though the number of the year changes the next day, very little else does. We thought it couldn’t get much worse but only over the last couple of hours we realized it can. It’s been all downhill so far but do not lose hope – what goes down usually rises and blossoms again. That is the law of nature. Though whatever rises from the ashes might take another form. Whether we’ll like it or not is yet to be seen…

Wishing you all the best, especially good health and lots of strength through these rough times. Big virtual hug!

On the road

Baking Power

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The wish for some seasonal baking has been in the room for a while now and things finally fell into place with all the right ingredients and plenty of time at hand to engage in some creative baking.

Joulutorttu was the suggestion and it seemed straight forward enough even for my long idling baking abilities. And so it was… until the oven played a trick on me and burned the marmalade. Because we were supposed to use preserves instead of marmalade which we only did for half of the Joulutorttu.

But never mind, we didn’t eat the run out, burned marmalade and since the rest was still very much okay we had ourselves a nice little baking adventure. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself…

On the road

Another Cold Run

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Tuesday, 29th December called me for another run in the cold. I don’t mind cold runs as long as I got my exercise-induced asthma under control which unfortunately I have to admit is easier away from my cats (I only learned I have a cat allergy when I already had cats).

The surroundings were eerily beautiful in their white snow cover and today I did not meet one soul outside of the shelter of their heated cars.

When I passed a seemingly forlorn hamlet I saw a sign warning me to beware of the dog – which according to the picture had to be massive. I felt utterly grateful to not have met that beast in person.

A little after the hamlet back in the woods my eyes caught a slight glimpse of something that attracted my attention and when stepping closer I realized it was a bunch of white crosses in the middle of the woods surrounded by a white snow blanket. That definitely gave me the creeps and I sprinted for a little while, remembering the pretty little cottage with the birch alley I spotted earlier on in the run. Just keeping my mind busy and getting as much distance between the cemetery and me.

Sometimes if you’re not quite in the mood for a fast workout life hands it to you anyway.

On the road

Sh** Happens

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The day started differently than anticipated – an outside control peep hole for the toilet drainage overflowed and this indicated a… situation. The drainage pipe must be clogged.

So the plumber was called, hours spent with unclogging the pipes and our grocery shopping trip postponed to the evening hours.

Apart from standing outside and freezing the tushes off we still managed to have an enjoyable vacation day. In the meanwhile the blockage has been fixed and all is well again, so nothing that couldn’t be handled.

On the road

Run Through the Woods

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A happy run is an important ingredient of every good, restoring vacation. Be it in a new city, by the beach or in the woods as was the case here.

I was going for an easy 5-6k but ended up doing 9k owing to a missed fork in the path which send me on a 2.5k extra loop.

Apart from the fact that dawn was drawing in which makes every single forest a somewhat mystic and even slightly creepy place to be I didn’t mind in the least as the running was going smooth and easy and I had a general feeling of peacefulness and content.

Pure outdoors bliss!

On the road

Christmas Feast

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For Christmas Eve we created a very traditional dinner with a Finnish ham, turnip and potato casseroles and Russian salad.

The food in fact lasted several evenings because the smallest ham we were able to find after what seemed to the younger generation like an eternity was still over 2kg.

I didn’t mind, I mostly love leftovers as they’re easy to handle and only need warming up. Great choice in menu, my Wiking man!

On the road

Shopping Frenzy

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As we lazed through Tuesday it was our fate to go grocery shopping on Wednesday, 23rd. The master suggested we add some more Christmas spirit to the house so we combined grocery with Christmas lights and ornaments shopping.

When we checked out at the utilities shop we imagined the clerk wiping away a tear or two because we sure made his Christmas business that day… possibly even that week or the whole month 😀

Our bags and cartons contained a lighted reindeer, penguin, VW beetle, four tiny LED figurines in the shape of a bird, snow flake, Christmas tree and reindeer head, three light strings and a Christmas tree complete with lights and baubles.

After a refreshment and some nourishment we tackled grocery shopping for the coming week. Shopping for a week’s worth of supplies can take a while and thus started to feel quite taxing… especially the teenager nerves got strained severely which the grownups absolutely showed understanding for and thus rushed through the last sections of supply racks. We were especially efficient when choosing the Christmas ham, we later learned… :-p

On the road

Shopping Frenzy

Leave a comment

As we lazed through Tuesday it was our fate to go grocery shopping on Wednesday, 23rd. The master suggested we add some more Christmas spirit to the house so we combined grocery with Christmas lights and ornaments shopping.

When we checked out at the utilities shop we imagined the clerk wiping away a tear or two because we sure made his Christmas business that day… possibly even that week or the whole month 😀

Our bags and cartons contained a lighted reindeer, penguin, VW beetle, four tiny LED figurines in the shape of a bird, snow flake, Christmas tree and reindeer head, three light strings and a Christmas tree complete with lights and baubles.

After a refreshment and some nourishment we tackled grocery shopping for the coming week. Shopping for a week’s worth of supplies can take a while and thus started to feel quite taxing… especially the teenager nerves got strained severely which the grownups absolutely showed understanding for and thus rushed through the last sections of supply racks. We were especially efficient when choosing the Christmas ham, we later learned… :-p