So what did you do for your first day of Spring?

I wended my way through the hail to 2nd street, near the Pike Place Market. There I discovered that, not only do we have a Moroccan store in Seattle, but there's also a Finnish store! Yup, Tuuli sells all things Finnish and only items imported from Finland. Mostly clothing and jewelry, with some very pretty knee-length skirts, and about 80% of the merchandise for women. But there are also shirts for men, all striped, horizontally or vertically. And the Kalevala label sells jewelry and really cool handmade Lappi knives- but running at $85 unfortunately. Kalevala is named after the national epic poem and art movement which was instrumental in inspiring Finland to independence from Russia/Sweden, as it helped formulate a national identity when it had been largely unknown before due to the lack of written records. (Much similar, come to think of it, to the Palestinian situation today.) My grandfather was technically Russian, for he immigrated here at the age of 6 from the Grand Duchy of Finland, controlled by the Russian Empire.

Kalevala is also the festival I went to a couple weeks ago, celebrating this artistic tradition. We got to hear a lecture and slide presentation on the artwork of Kalevala, listen to some great Finnish choir, and see some Finnish folk dancing. The latter looked like great fun with lots of stomping and colourful costumes, and they take newbies, so with their inspiration it's my intention to join up after I complete my second round of Salsa classes in a month.

But for now, I'm going to start dinner that I picked up walking through the falling snow. Spring's around the corner- I can feel it in the air. Or something like that.