Sunday, April 15

 

 

For the second morning in a row we got up late and happy. We went straight into lunch, after which I went for a walk with Bluegrass Greensky for company.

In the middle of the afternoon we drive to Kamppi to see Irma’s mother. We park five minutes walk away. As we enter the street she lives in I look at a pillar and the stickers that have been stuck to it. I notice Andy Capp, who means nothing in Finland, as far as I know. Intrigued, I photograph it.

Mummi will talk happily about many things. I will talk to her about Wendell Berry and she will talk to me about an Italian author whose name I had forgotten seconds after she said it. She will giggle while telling us that her royalties from Teosto stopped last year. Apparently Irma’s grandfather wrote the Finnish lyrics to Tannenbaum, known globally as The Red Flag, 71 years ago.

We will stop for the final day of Stockmann’s Crazy Days on the way home, and top up our fridge from the final sales at the deli.

We will both go to bed early, and both sleep soundly through the night.