Down the memory lane...

 My mother enjoying her southern holiday late 1960's I suppose.

Mama goes to Mallorca, Daddy goes camping. These photos of my father were taken before he even met my mother.

After my grandparents died, 

I found out that he had been married to another woman for 10 years before meeting my mum. I also found out that my grandpa from father's side had by mistaken killed his brother during the wartime.

 I found a tent just like the one in the photos a while ago from a second hand market. 

 Then again this is me, 4 -5 years old holding my very dear dog in my lap. The photo was taken by my aunt's husband, who had a day time job in a paper factory but spent his evenings painting, photographing, experimenting with serigraph and playing golf.

 And here is my mother again. I'm not sure when this was taken or where. She was born already in 1939, her family was evacuated from Karelia and they found new place to live in Rauma, after touring in Finland for a while.

My grandfather built this house and in my memories, it was the most beautiful place in the world. I love the "shades" in the windows, the fringe of the parasol, the chairs and table my grandpa made himself.  In the garden, the apple trees made what my grandpa said to be transparent "glass apples" - apples, that had a very special taste.

  There is an intriguing family secret about my mother's childhood and youth. At the  age of 18 my mother left to United Kingdom to work as a nurse. This wasn't very common at the time in Finland and especially not in a small town like Rauma or in the family she grew up.

Ofcourse in her family, many of her aunts and uncles had immigrated either to USA or Soviet Union before (in the turn of 19th & 20th century) but there was something else in my mother's case. Oh well, maybe one day she feels she can tell her story, and if not, then we'll never know. Here she is with her sister in year 1946 bringing flowers to their grandmother.