We have been blessed – or cursed- by unusually warm and hot days. The children have had 4 days off and they have fully enjoyed the summer like weather including shorts, sandals, t-shirts and the like. We’ve also had exciting days watching the back yard slowly starting to turn from brown to green and some kind of green perennials pushing from he dirt, growing every day. Last autumn I planted some perennials, don’t really remember what they were. There were some tulips though and they are vigorously growing. It’s kind of amazing. I’ve never had a garden before and I don’t come from a family of gardening enthusiasts so this is all new and strange. But the kids are excited. It’s been almost too hot to work. We’ve done some work on the house though and I worked today setting up a place for the rhododendrons.

Yesterday I felt really irritated and headed to the gym. It felt a bit ridiculous to work out in the gym when the weather was so great but I really needed it. This morning I went for a jog and ended up training for one and half hour. My calves are a bit achy now but otherwise I felt good and energetic. This was the first time I ran to Haapaniemi from our place via the Saaristokatu. And it was quite stunning. The road is not officially open yet but you actually can get all the way to town by it. The views are just beautiful and as the day was sunny, it was very idyllic. Saaristokatu will be such an incredible improvement for us and others who live in the neighbourhood. I’m already now looking forward to cycling and walking to the city centre. It’s also great for walking and jogging.
As I was a kind of super mom today, doing my exercise routine, cooking two delicious meals and being at home with the family, I was feeling guilty of not getting to do some work I wanted and needed to do. Well, I guess I’ll be more focused on that tomorrow but it’s so hard for me to relax when I know I have work waiting that could be doing now. This is silly, I know, but I cannot help it.
Luckily, in rained in the evening and now it seems a storm is approaching. The shower was needed and very welcome. And after it, an enormous rainbow. The image by Pekka.

Last week I found out I didn’t get more production funding for my new group piece so I have to see how I manage to produce the work with the existing funding. Not easy. If at all possible. Will have to see.

Hope you are well,
Johanna

 …in Finnish:

Freelancerin kesäloma

Kevään viimeisten esitysten jälkeen kesäkuun lopussa ajattelin, että nyt vihdoin pääsen työasioista irti ja lomalle. Tuleva ’loma’ ei silti ollut ihan rentouttavimmasta päästä, sillä vuoden kestänyt rakennusprojekti oli huipentumassa muuttoon, mutta työ rakennuksella ei millään näyttänyt vähenevän. Kaikki mahdollinen ’loma’ kului siis rakennustyömaalla esimerkiksi kattoa vaneroidessa ja portaita kasatessa. Yöt istuin netin ääressä vessanpönttöjä ynnä muita hankintoja vertaillen. Samaan aikaan mieltä painoi, kun en saanut mistään raosta irrotettua aikaa lupautumaani blogikeskusteluun, josta myöhemmin syksyllä julkaistaan artikkeli. Muuton jälkeen makasin selkä tuhannen sohjona, lähes liikuntakyvyttömänä aivastustakin peläten, kunnes menin lääkärin ja sain semmoiset kipulääkkeet, että pystyin istumaan ja osallistumaan blogikeskusteluun. Sitten alkoikin lappaa talossamme kaikenlaista ohikulkijaa, jotka enemmän ja vähemmän kauhistelivat työmaan keskeneräisyyttä. Hyötyäkin heistä toki oli; heidän avullaan on mm. saatu kannettua yläkertaan kylmiö, kivitasot ja takkasydän. Aikataulujen vuoksi olin joutunut sopimaan seuraavan projektini kuvauspäivät muuttoa seuraavalle viikolle, keskelle ’kesälomaani’, ja kipulääkkeiden voimalla saapastelin korkokengissä pitkin lähimetsiä uutta teosta kuvaten. Kun kuvaustiimi pakkasi kamansa, pihaan kurvasi mieheni sisko perheineen. He lohduttivat, että heidän tuttavat ovat asuneet talossaan vuoden ilman  muuttotarkastusta. He katsoivat siis viisaammaksi jatkaa matkaansa kuin jäädä työmaallemme majailemaan.
Jos en ole pystynyt osallistumaan jonkun työn tekemiseen, niin olen kestinnyt työläisiä ja muita vieraita. Välillä olen tuskaillut kahden kirjoittamattoman kolumnin kanssa, palaveerannut tuottajani kanssa, oikolukenut seuraavan ANTI-festivaalin käsiohjelmaa ja pitänyt Skype-konferensseja festivaaliin liittyen. Eilen juttelin puhelimessa äitini kanssa, joka kysyi: ”Niin, onko sulla nyt loma?” Ja minä vastasin: ”Joo, on. Tavallaan.”
Kesäkuussa tapasin erästä kulttuurialan konsulttia organisoidakseni työasioitani kenties hieman järkevämmin. Ensimmäinen asia, mitä hän korosti, oli etukäteen päättää minkä ajan vuodesta pystyy käyttämään aktiivisesti projektien toteuttamiseen ja minkä jättää koskemattomaksi, jotta luovaa taiteellista työtä jaksaa tehdä muullakin kuin nuoruuden innolla. Näyttää, ettei yksi konsultaatio riitä minulle.

Johanna Tuukkanen

It’s been more than busy and chaotic since we moved. There’s still a lot of work to do in the house and every moment one can or has energy (or one is not in too severe back pain) is used in working in some part of the house. I had a video shoot with Maija last week, we’ve had visitors checking out the house who have been more or less terrified how unfinished it all is but we have also had great nights with friends sitting in the living room enjoying lovely dinners and sipping wine until the early hours. And many by passers and visitors have also helped us with some work; with the help of Hannu we managed to carry the fridge and one of the stone work tops upstairs, Jukka helped with the veneering of one wall in the living room and with Juha we got the large stone work top into its place and carried the heart of our fire place upstairs. And Lea brought all kinds of plants from her garden for us to plant into ours. So thank you all very much!
I’ve also promised to write a few columns and participate in one blog discussion which will be published later in the autumn in one magazine. It’s been difficult to find time to write in piece with all the work in the house as well as the visitors but last night was great as Pekka went fishing with Hannu (what a great dinner we ate with fish and mushrooms today!), Justiina was outside playing with other kids and Zulani left to visit his grandparents and I managed to write one of the columns in peace. It’s a bit tricky to promise to write columns and participate in all kinds of discussion and have production meetings and video shoots on your so called ‘freelancer’s summer holiday’. A consultant I met with in June, said that I should very precisely define each year when I work and when I absolutely don’t do any performances, work on any projects but totally take time off. I guess I need more than one session with him to sort out my schedules! Hopefully my producer will be able to help me with that as well in the near future.

Hope you are all well and rested,
Johanna

ps. It’s Johanna’s name day in Finland today!