The Grey Land
also
on video

The Grey Land

Create Your Own


These photos were taken at Kyläsaari and Kalasatama in Helsinki. Waste land, old harbour -a deserted resort in the middle of Helsinki.
But not for long.

Last chance to take these photographs. Soon the area is going to be modern, urban and expensive, and the crows will have to fly to new pastures to find their food.

The Wind

The wind so brisk,
so fresh the breeze
on my skin,
in my heart.
Pure and new.
Like myself.

To start all over again.
Without you.

No more
stale thoughts,
the stink of
booze lingering in my nostrils.
No more you.

I feel the wind.
Fresh.


***

The weekly theme for
Moody Monday is
fresh

The Blaze of the Sky

This photo was taken today,
at 16.30 or 4.30PM.
The sun was shining today, as she did yesterday too,
and the clear blue sky turned in the afternoon into
a pink, purple and orange coloured blaze.

Please, help yourself!

The Big Hug

The photo is taken
in Jyväskylä
at Animecon 2007

***

Free hugs for every one!

***

The weekly challenge for
Moody Monday
is
brotherly

Backwards

Say
that you love
before
the end.

***

The weekly challenge for
IF
is
backwards

***

Body

I searched for your soul,
I reached for your body.

Found nothing.

The mere cold touch
of your flesh.


***

The weekly theme for
Thursday Challenge
is
Body

The Perfect Object

The smoothness of her skin
the elegance of her eyes
the tranquillity of her lips.

She’s perfect and she knows it.
That’s all she has to do.

Be smooth and just perfect.
Be still and hush up.

***

***

***

She was photographed here.

***

The weekly challenge
for Moody Monday
is
smooth

Tiny

The weekly theme
for IF
is
Little Things

Red

The weekly theme for
Thursday Challenge is
red

The Independence Day

Today is the Independence Day of Finland and Finland celebrates its 90^th birthday. There are going to be festivities all around the country, but the main event will be the reception held at the presidential castle in the evening. Finland’s President and her husband throw a party for about 2000 people –politicians, artists, actors, writers, sportsmen, executives, some ordinary people, too. The gathering is broadcasted alive and all those who were not invited to the party, sit at home on their sofas and look at the somewhat stiff-looking merrymaking in TV.

The Finnish way of celebrating the independence of the nation isn’t something you’d call a carnival. No, the Finnish way is to celebrate such an occasion with dignity, modesty, and humbleness. Laughter for nothing is forbidden, because the independence was gained by war, defended by war and we all know that war demands offers: dead soldiers and civilians, dead happiness and laughter, and still –after decades- the laughter is forbidden.

On such a day, you have to remember the times when the nation was “all for one –one for all”. You have to admire the spirit of those days, the oneness that people felt, the sacrifices one was willing to do for the country.

On days like this, I always feel that people wish there would be a war going on again, because during no other period, the times have been so good when considered the mental state of a nation. Only then, there was bravery, honesty, modesty, unselfishness, and respect for the others.

A national feeling demands a mutual enemy, preferably a war. Otherwise, a nation isn’t anything. It loses its moral, its strength, its honesty, and its power.

An Independence Day is for me a day to remember how important an enemy is for a nation.

I think it’s weird.
Or am I?

Voices

The weekly challenge for
Moody Monday
is
chaotic

it's
here

Cuts

The weekly theme for IF is

Excess

HaPpY

The weekly theme for Thursday Challenge is

Happy

and she inspired me.

Photos were taken and the wine
was poured
in June
2007.

A happy occasion to meet a friend.

I REMEMBER

The Zoo once again

It was raining and the wind was quite fierce yesterday. Just the perfect day to take a stroll in the Zoo. I haven’t been in the Zoo of Helsinki for many years. I have this thing with zoos: I don’t know whether I like zoos because they can preserve animals that are in danger to vanish from world or do I despise the idea of captured animals walking monotonously around in circles.

I walked in the storm and tried to make an opinion about the matter. I saw very few animals –they had the understanding to stay indoors in such weather. I saw very few people, too.
I seemed to be the only with no sense.

Soaking and dripping I entered the house with snails, cockroaches, turtles, snakes, apes and all kind of screaming birds. The humidity in the rainforest section was less than the one outside, so I could dry myself and take a look at animals without water dripping to my eyes.

A toucan gazed at me, parrots yelled their heads off, and a couple of turtles were on the brink of having of fight. They approached each other slowly, so slowly that I didn’t see how the boldness of their slow head movements ended. Did they have a fight or did they just turn the other way around.

The speakers announced that the Zoo was closing. I pushed my way through the stormy weather and remembered that I still hadn’t the answer. At the same time, I realized I hadn’t eaten anything for several hours. I hurried home and decided to think about the answer some other time. First things come first.

Human way of thinking.

*****

I made a very short film about the day in the Zoo, you can watch it here, if you like.

The Zoo

They silently sit
Nursing their drinks
Mending their broken souls
Trying to remember what it is to be a human

Prisoners, locked in their useless dreams

***

The weekly challenge

for IF is

the Zoo

Play it again

Play me again.
Play me
simple and loud.
Play
and let me
forget
everything,
let me melt
into the the black
of the night
into the white
of the stars.

Play me.

***

The weekly theme for
Thursday Challenge
is
b&w

Naturally natural

a natural beauty
a natural muse for Modigliani

a natural liar

***

original photo by me,
the Modigliani touch by this

***

the weekly theme for Moody Monday is
natural

The Colours of My Mind

I've been playing with colours, slide shows and remix today. Above is a slide show with colours I'm craving for and the same colours play in the remix under this text.

Be aware

Be aware
and take care
mind your steps
or else it gets

you!

***

The weekly theme for IF is

Superstition

***

Have a safe weekend!

The Portrait

The writer Kirsti Ellilä, photo taken in May this year.

***

The weekly theme for Thursday Challenge is

Portrait

Lavish Love

Come with me
and I’ll give you everything
you need, all you want,
the gold and the diamonds of the world,
the love and attention you’re worth of.
I’ll drown you in pearls and jewels,
sprinkle scented water on your skin.
I’ll build you a temple and make you my god.
You’re born for my worship, my admiration, my love.

Nothing is too much for you.

********

The weekly theme for Moody Monday is

Lavish

A memory

Had to put this old slide show here, had to get an assurance that there still is light and warmth, a summer to come.

A summer with green leaves and the blue sky, the water in the lake, so soft and mellow, gently caressing the overheated body. The everlasting rays of the setting sun, the beginning of a pale night with no stars. The white night and the white wedding of the fairies who dance over the lake, almost disappearing in the mist, giggling to each other.

I want to remember. I have to remember.

Mr Music

The weekly theme for IF is

Scale

Rain

Chrome3d inspired me to look at clouds, and I went after blue and white ones, with a hint of grey and a promise of rain.

You'll find the rest of the clouds here and if you want to look at a cloudy slide show, go this way.

The Real Book

1.

-You should be a writer!
-But...I am a writer...?

-I mean a real writer!
-Is there a thing called a false writer?

-You should publish books!
-Should I?

-Yes, absolutely! Then you would be a real writer.
-Just wait a minute. Do you mean my writing isn’t now for real?

-Well, you can hardly call writing to blogs writing, can you?
-I can.

-Anyway, it isn’t real writing. Only books matter. Only if you’ve published a real book, you’re a real writer. Blogging doesn’t count. Anyone can blog. It’s for amateurs, mainly. Not professional writers.
-Hmmm. Books doesn’t sell very well, not in Finland anyway. If I’d publish a book, would I get as many readers as I do with my blogs?

-That doesn’t matter. Not the readers nor the sale.
-Only the book matters?

-Yes.
-But if I’d write a book, I wouldn’t have time to write to my blogs!

-That’s my point. Instead you’d be doing something worth while.
-A book.

-Yes.
-That no one would buy. That no one would read.

-Yes.
-Life is weird.

-You are. You lack passion.

2.

-Have you been thinking about that publishing?
-OK, I’ll humour you. I’ll publish a book. A collection of poems.

-Which publisher?
-I’ll publish it myself, there are plenty of that kind of service. You just send your manuscript via net and home comes the book. Would you buy my book?

-Self-publishing is not real publishing. How much?
-How much what?

-Your collection of poems?
-Don’t know. Maybe twenty euros.

-Are they any good?
-You should know, you’ve read them.

-What? Where?
-In my blogs.

-Forget it. You do lack passion.

Rats that wear Hats

harry lime
became a slime
as he crossed the line
like a greedy swine

chorus:

oh, harry, oh,
stick to your wine!

better to drink
forget how to think
or else you’ll sink
begone in a wink

chorus:

oh, harry, oh,
pigs are pink!



*******

With an old poem about Harry Lime
(with a hat!)
and a refreshened picture
-the weekly challenge for IF is Hats

The Sun Barber

The weekly theme for Thursday Challenge is
Orange

PumpkinPetal

Now you can play with me, mush Susu in the pumpkin and animate the disaster!

Creepy!

Happy Halloween!

fancygens.com

Lazy

I want to be lazy. I want to do nothing, just linger in the sun, just lay on the grass doing nothing, absolutely nothing. No has-to-do-things, no hurry, no nothing. To be without time, melt into the memories too far away to remember, feel the stillness of the moment.

I want no tomorrow, no yesterday, no challenges, no demands, no thoughts of the future. I just want to be. Alone, and vanish into the nothingness of time. Doing nothing, thinking of nothing, seeing nothing. I only want to hear the breathing of my motionless body, nothing else.

Lazy. Nothing else.

******

The weekly theme for Moody Monday is Lazy

The Nightmare before Halloween

The weekly theme for IF is
Trick or treat

Birthday Bob

Because my Finnish main blog celebrated its birthday yesterday, the writer of the blog also spent a nice evening on the town listening to that mighty guitarr virtuoso Bob Brozman at his concert. It was a nice evening with sounds of blues and roots all over the world.

The Toddler

The first picture ever
in my first blog

Today my main blog SusuPetal celebrates the honourable age of a toddler, 2 years! That’s not a long time, although it absurdly sometimes feels like an eternity.
It’s quite unbelievable that for three years ago I didn’t even know the existence of blogs. In fact, I spent very little time in the net.
Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe…

I started my blog to keep up with writing. Before my blog I’d spent almost six years –due to various reasons- without writing. I had a need to write, just didn’t have the means. I’d seldom fantasized myself writing a book, because I had difficulties with longer texts. I just didn’t have the patience to write one story for a long time. I had to get rid of the text as soon as possible.
I knew, and know, that short stories are my thing. Very short stories.

And when I found blogs, I knew I had found my way, because like all writers, I also wanted readers. If that wouldn’t be so, you might as well put your writings into a cupboard.

When I started publishing my very short stories in my blog, I wanted to illustrate the stories as well. I didn’t want to use other people’s pictures, didn’t want to mess with rights of this and that, so I had no other possibility than to start to draw myself. I had only Paint in my computer, so I opened it and started to draw, having never before drawn anything with a computer. Having actually never drawn much at all…

Nothing is impossible, I figured, and I’ve noticed that it is sometimes true.

After having written very short stories for some time, I decided to put up another blog for photos, a blog with fewer words. . I’d acquired a digital camera, but didn’t take much photos, just occasional shots now and then. After starting my second blog SusuPetal –kuva ja sana (SusuPetal –picture and word) I began to have my camera always with me. Photos gave me a holiday from words, which I sometimes needed, being occasionally fed up, and tired of words.

Toying with Paint and digital photos made me want to learn more about picture making and I loaded some free programs from the net (Pixia, Picasa) and started to manipulate my pics. This proved to be very addictive and very satisfying also.

Somewhere along the manipulating, I started my third blog SusuPetal –RunoSaari (SusuPetal –the Poem Island) where I publish my poems for children.

Blogging is a global thing, and when I found my way through some Finnish bloggers to bloggers from other countries, I was struck by the urge of writing in English. Therefore, I started my fourth blog, the one you are reading just now. If you got this far….

And when you start, why stop? The fifth blog was in Swedish.

(I’m not talking now anything about my homepages, got to spare you)

And maybe you already know about this….

Really, two years ago I had no idea of where this addiction could lead to! I’ve found the possibility to write, to take photos, to draw and manipulate photos and while doing all that, I’ve had the luck in getting to know a lot of wonderful people. Other bloggers, their posts, their comments, are the thing that keeps me going. Therefore, I’d like to thank you all and say cheers!

Until you've learned the meaning of the blues

I’ve been trying to learn a new song. It isn’t completely new for me, I’ve heard it years ago, but I don’t know it by heart, if you know what I mean.
I don’t read notes without playing, that is: I can’t sing straight from the notes. I have to play the piece with piano to learn the melody. Sometimes it’s hard, because I’m not a virtuoso with piano and the melody comes out in a peculiar way.
Luckily I have hundreds of CD’s and LP’s, but not all the music in the world and that is why I’m thankful for youtube.

I learned a while ago another song with youtube, and although Ella Fitzgerald was performing, I didn’t get upset. I sang it my way…




Today I’ve been listening to Etta James and her version of the song I’m bound to learn. Etta has turned jazzier in her old age, I prefer the young Etta with the raw rhythm’n blues style. I don’t hate jazz, just prefer the blues and that is why Ella Fitzgerald doesn’t thrill me half as much as Etta James, Koko Taylor, Wynona Carr or Bessie Smith. Billie Holiday is jazz for me, although many regard her as a blues singer. Her lyrics may be bluesy, but her interpretation is jazzy.




Dinah Washington is jazz, but luckily she recorded an album with Bessie Smith songs.




Listening to these female vocalists makes me want to sing like them. I know it’s an impossibility, but that doesn’t matter.
To want is not necessarily the same as to do.

The Colours of Autumn

Get Your Animation

I've been looking a lot out of the window for the last few days,
thanks to a fever.
No outdoors for me.
Today
the scenery looked like this.

Big

The weekly theme for IF is Grow

My New Toy

I’ve been writing less for the past few days (which many may cheer to, if trying to catch up with all my blogs...). I’m not tired with words, like sometimes happen. No, the reason not to write is completely new: I’ve been toying with my new camera and especially tried to study how to film videos.

I’ve never filmed anything, not with an old 8 mm or such. Moving pictures is quite a new genre for me to work with. I’ve always been a film freak and used to sit in the Finnish Film Archive’s movie theatre and look about three films a night for many centuries ago. So, I’ve seen a lot of films and I can assure you that seeing films doesn’t help you much or at all in making short video clips. But it doesn’t matter, because I have absolutely nothing to say and I have almost no vision. I just toy around.

A moving picture fascinates me. I’ve tried different slide shows and sometimes I’ve managed to get to a result that satisfies me. Mostly not, because the movement has been artificial, stable and sometimes boring. I’ve wanted more, more action, more life. I’ve craved for life on film.

Now I have the possibility to make life with my camera. It would be maybe good if I’d have at least some idea what to film, but I won’t let that bother me. Maybe some day I’ll think about manuscripts, or at least a synopsis, but not yet. Now I just want to have fun with my new toy.

What is the idea of filming on the whole? Short video clips with no sense? For me?

I have the answer: you can start a new blog just for your videos:))

Lucky

To have the luck to create, to express
yourself,
is lucky indeed.


***

The weekly theme for Moody Monday is Lucky

Seeking for the extreme

They look like ghosts.
Tall and thin and silent they yearn for the storm,
seek for the lightning.
They sail in small boats to their island,
wait for the thunder and when the storm begins,
they become dangerous to touch.
Thunder and lightning electrify them
and they start to glow.

***

The Hattifatteners by Tove Jansson

***

The weekly theme for IF is Extremes

Light

The weekly theme for Thursday Challenge is Light

Not like the other girls

She sees things we don’t know about.
She hears voices we can’t hear.
She stays in her own world, her own place where no menace can enter.
The world outside her mind is too dangerous, too complicated and she wants to be safe.
She has no other possibilities than to run away from the real world, its demands, and its stress. If she’d stay, she’d be broken. Like finest china, like ice in the spring.

She’s too fragile for real world.

In her own world, she’s got everything: courage, power and strength. All skills that is required for survival. She’s afraid of nothing, she’s never alone, and she’s able to do anything she wants to. She copes with the stress, with the cruelty of other people, because in her own world the facts of real life don’t exist. In her own world she doesn’t have to be on guard all the time, she can breathe more easily, she can enjoy life without fear.

She’s not like any other girl. And she wants to stay that way.

******

The weekly theme for Moody Monday is Solitary

Six months

I was in Turku for the weekend. Visited the book fair and strolled in the crowd, listened to writers and met some fellow bloggers. The trip did well for me, because I’ve been in a lousy mood already for some time. Year after year autumn gets harder for me. It’s just a fact I’ve got to accept. I’ve tried to fight against my melancholy moods, but I haven’t succeeded so well.

I’ve tried to think positive (after autumn and winter the spring is sure to come…), I’ve tried to sleep enough (seven hours a night isn’t enough…), I’ve tried to find new, inspirational hobbies, tried to take care of my physical health.

I’ve done my best, and nothing helps. This is I. I despise autumn and hate winter and there’s nothing to do about that.

Maybe this is just the time for me to be moody. Maybe I’m built this way: I’m not meant to be happy for six months a year. Well, I could turn this thought around and think that I can be happy for six months a year.
But I won’t.

I’ll settle for this, I have no intention to fight against things that won’t obey me. Nature is too strong an enemy. For meanwhile.

But my time will come.