Singer sing me a song

Last weekend we had a visitor from the UK and on Sunday we took her out to the Akseli Gallen Kallela museum just out of Helsinki city centre. Gallen Kallela seems to have cornered the market in Kalevala art. The exhibition we saw was sketches for his grand project (& ambition) to be the national Kalevala artist. Something he has arguably achieved even if the project as he imagined it was never completed. The Musuem is housed in his old studio and was built in that period of the late 19th/early 20th century which gives it a suitably garnd scale and then factor in the eccentricities of an artist (he had a monks cell installed in the tower) and you have a wonderful space, full of light and slightly dotty.

The exhibition was really interesting, especially now I have read the Kalevala and know the stories. There was one in particular which was a very geometric version of the defence of the Sampo which really got my attention and although I've been searching for it on the net I haven't found it. However during my searches I found this portrait of old Väinämöinen which I really liked.

Our friend is a vegetarian and we enjoyed cooking proper food without meat. We made a lovely Miso soup and served it with rice on the evening she arrived, then we cooked a Thai red curry with tofu on Saturday night and had a lovely pasta with tomatoes, olives, chili and spinach on Sunday. All very simple to make and easy to do on a evening after work.

This week I have been out a couple of nights and finally last night the boss & I made some fajitas. It was an object lesson in the fact that shop bought stuff is not as good as cooking it by yourself. Yes we were pushed for time and lacked motivation and yes we bought the simple shop ready ingredients. The guacamole was the most disappointing and we have now learnt our lesson anew (the hard way) that good food is home made food.

Tonight we had some home made chips baked in the oven and some steak with red onions and mushrooms. Lovely.

Tomorrow the kitchen closes for one week as I am off skiing in France. Service will resume in early April.