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Finland: Cousins Gathering

Posted by katelaity on

Now that I’ve finally finished that one novel and sent it off — how lovely to type those two words, “The End”– I can get back to showing more pictures from my trip to Finland (and a million billion other things). Today it’s the day of the cousins gathering, which was great fun. I have to convince Bertie to come to the next one in 2015.

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Helka and Jussi consult on the booli
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The recipe for the welcoming punch is complicated and requires a lot of taste tests 😉
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Helvi and Sanni didn’t have to come too far; they were just next door.
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Soon the house is filling up; at first a lot of people were reluctant to try to speak English, but it soon turned out that everyone spoke better English than my poor Finnish.
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Lots of pictures taken: I hope to get some later to replace my simple camera photos.
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Helka orchestrated the events, from humorous speeches to a quick rundown of the family tree and more.
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Although the family originally springs from Kemi in Lapland, cousins have spread across Finland and the world, but many were able to come.
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We got sunburnt in Lapland drinking booli.
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Yes, there was kantele music! Marja played and sang beautifully. Sometimes she even got her daughters to join her. The concert kantele is a long way from my 5 and 10 string instruments.
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Everyone enjoyed the music. Quite a few sighs and tears; her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was exquisite.

More to come: it was such a wonderful visit!

2 Comments

  1. Sartenada's avatar Sartenada says:
    August 20, 2013 at 13:08

    Very enjoyable and warm hearted post. I love Kemi, because there is world’s biggest snow castle:

    World’s Biggest Snow Castle .

    How did You find Kantele music?

    First time I heard it played in Loviisa in its church:

    Salla plays Kantele.

    Thank You for this interesting post!

    1. katelaity's avatar katelaity says:
      August 20, 2013 at 14:03

      I play the 5, 10 and 15 string kanteles, so I am very familiar with the beautiful music. Someday I will work up to the concert kantele.

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