The Carnival of Lights at Linnanmäki and the Amazing Amos Rex

It's that time of the year again when the trees shed their glorious autumn leaves and everything turns grey, dark, and dismal. Fortunately Linnanmäki amusement park had its annual Carnival of Light again this year. We didn't go on any rides this year (because of The Babe), but the cotton candy popcorn and hot chocolate and the gloriously creepy haunted carnival ambiance were enough for me.  Here are a few pics if you missed the festivities.

This was The Babe's favourite. She kept pointing and going "Ka" which is her word for "duck" (ankka in Finnish).

I love this old carousel!

The ferris wheel in the distance

Teacups!

We also visited Amos Rex, the new museum in Helsinki city center. The exhibition by TeamLab, a Tokyo-based interdisciplinary art collective, is just mind-blowing. My favourite was an installation that had a sort of tropical fantasy world that was constantly on the move, and it was interactive, so when you touched the wall, flowers blossomed, and you could create your own fantasy animal that then became part of the installation. The Babe had the best time chasing after them.  It's running until January 6 if anyone wants to check it out. 

Into the Woods

Autumn is my favourite time for enjoying nature: nice, cool weather and minimal bugs, not to mention all the leaves turning gorgeous colours. Here are a few snaps from last week's walk near Porvoo. (The trail leaves near Haikko manor and is only about 2.5 km long if anyone wants to give it a go.)

A beautiful lake

Here's a painting Albert Edelfelt did at the lake

Lingonberry leaves just turning

I'm not sure what this is called in English, but in Finnish it's karhunsammal, bear's moss, because it's a nice, soft place for a bear to take a nap on.

Are you looking at the trees or are they looking at you?

Ferns carpet the forest floor

Ant metropolis

Fairy tree

Do you dare venture off the beaten path?

Book Fair Time!

I made it to the book fair this year, yay!

There was all kinds of weird stuff for sale, like this beautiful book called The Witch Doll and a practical guide to telepathy.

I had a pretty good haul this year: I finally found Howl's Moving Castle in Finnish and a bunch of Roald Dahl books, all of which I'm collecting for when The Tot is old enough to read them. (I also got a mountain of Spot books, because I'm getting sick of reading the two we have, and some Christmas presents.)