Chinese New Year 2017

A dear blog friend of mine happened, during the week, to mention the Chinese New Year celebrations on January 27^th in Helsinki. Thanks to her we were there. Second time for us. Last time was in 2008. This time the event was in a different place. It was nice and interesting. So colorful, dancing dragons, food stands, lanterns etc. Unfortunately we were able to stay only for about 1 ½ h. Later in the evening there was also a concert and fireworks. Maybe we’ll stay for those next year. It’s the year of the rooster. Online you can check what your zodiac sign is. I found out I’m borne in the year of rooster. I read the definition. Among other thing it says people borne in the year of rooster are often strangely stubborn. Hmmm, that’s what I’ve been told I am for as long as I can remember 😀 Nowadays I’m trying hard not to be too stubborn. In the car on the way home I said to my husband I, actually for once, didn’t take many pictures but I took an about 2 minutes clip of the dancing dragons. I think it is really nice. I was so excited about it I had to check it immediately. I checked it once, twice and a third time. Whaaat ? ! ? The clip was only 1 second ! ! So disappointed 😦

A Few More . . .

It’s so exciting and I can’t contain myself :)I have just turned some more pictures using the Prisma app. My husband wondered whether I’m going to turn all my photos. Such a silly remark. Of course not. Just playing with it for now trying it out with a few pictures into different styles. But, I must say I love these ones on Jacky 😉

Photo Art

I was all oohs and aahs seeing the photos of a dear friend of mine transformed into beautiful art paintings. I told her they look fantastic. She said, you have to try it, it’s so cool. It’s an app called Prisma and it’s free. I downloaded it right the way. And, I totally agree, it’s so cool and fun. One of my secret dreams has been to have the talent to paint. Unfortunately I have zero talent or skill 😦 but, it has not stopped me from trying 😀 Now, thanks to Prisma, I can use my photos, turn them into art paintings in an instant. Well, I won’t turn all of them just play with some now and them. Cool eh ?

Lingonberry Parfait

Not the healthiest of desserts. But delicious. Compared to the strawberry sorbet I made in the summer this one has many times more calories. So quick and easy to make but needs about 5 hours in the freezer.

Jacky & The Tree

We had planned to take out the Christmas tree yesterday. So, in the afternoon when I was ready to do it my husband suggested let’s leave it for tomorrow. I would have liked to have it done immediately but gave in. In the evening when I was watching TV in the living room Jacky, suddenly after several attempts to climb the tree for the past days, finally made it halfway up. My first reaction was the tree’s gonna crash down. But as it looked steady I hurried to pick up my camera and took a couple of pictures. Then I gently took him away and said, haven’t I told you, it’s a no, no for cats to climb Christmas trees. He looked at me. I could feel his answer. Why ? See, nothing bad happened. Then hours later, at 4:00 am, we heard the crash. I was quickly there. Jacky sitting on floor, looking in disbelief, who did this ! ? My husband said, now take a photo 🙂 I was too tired and lazy for any photos. Just wanted the tree out right away and back to sleep.

Hyacinths and Christmas Roses

‘Santa’ brought us this cute burlap bag of Hyacinths and Christmas roses (Helleborus niger). Today the hyacinths looked miserable so I cut them away. I could see there’s one more stem coming up. The Christmas roses still look so nice and there are still many more buds.

Eeek !

A mouse in the apple tree ! This winter we decided to put a tallow ball for the birds. We have never put anything for the birds for the wintertime  because all our other cats were able to stay in the backyard all year round. The backyard is fenced and they got used to stay there from an very young age. I wonder whether we will ever be able to let Jacky stay there by himself ! He’s so different from all the others. We’ll see in the spring.

Today Jacky was watching the birds as usually. Suddenly he made a lot’s of sounds. Loudly telling there’s something he has never seen before. I went to have a look. I said, nope, nothing there. No birds. Just a dry leaf. He said, no, no look closer. Eeek, you are right. There’s A MOUSE ! Where’s my camera. I had to give it try even if I know the pictures shot though the window hardly ever turn out well. Neither did these but, look how much the little mouse ate from the ball in a short time. Guess what. There’s not going to be anymore tallow balls in our apple tree. I hope the mouse will disappear, vanish, move away from here when he finds out there will nothing for him to eat.  Or that some of the cats, I see around in the neighborhood, will fix the problem for me. Or that Jacky will catch him in the spring. The other cats we have had used to catch and bring them in. Which of course made me to loudly scream: take it out, take it out ! Heh-heh. I know I’m a wimp 😀

Cheesecake

I made my first mulled wine cheesecake a couple of days before Christmas. It tasted good and looked pretty to be made by me. But, it has annoyed me that I didn’t get the color of the gel right. So, I made one also for the New Year. This time I used only half the amount of cheese and curd as well as all the other ingredients for the cheese layer. As 900 grams of Philadelphia cheese is a lot. Now the gel color and the cake would haven been near to perfect had it come off easily. One can see that I had to use a knife to get it loose. Who knows, I may nail it next time 😀

Snapshots

Jacky’s first Christmas and Christmas tree 🙂   Santa brought him this tube which he loves a lot. Hubby says it looks like a canoe.

Canelo got a green hippo from Santa.  Watching the birds is tiresome.  I need a nap. The flower is purrfect for that.