Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

A funny thing happened on the way to the laundromat   I discovered another arty place  - BSW OY ( Birch Sewer) in Helsinki, Finland. . from a magazine article  On 5 June, it was a wet, fairly cold and grey Tuesday and we had lots of dirty clothes and the unthinkable prospect of another week of  wearing "smelly" clothes before we reached our friend’s home in Oulu .  Determined to locate a laundromat (about a 25 minute walk from our hotel)  we started off with a map, and found some wonderful little streets with quaint shops, formidable buildings and a Swedish designed Gothic revival   Church! One of the shops I spotted was worth further investigation, once I saw the sewing symbols and the beautiful cheerful orange pansies in the window boxes. I boldly entered and then realised that I couldn’t even pretend to be a customer, as this was a dressmaker’s studio for custom made clothing. But not just any dressmaker! The delightful , talented and exuberant Annu Koivumaki,

Background:  Jim, my husband and I  have just returned from a  6 week  holiday to visit family and friends in England, Germany, Finland and Hong Kong.  I have enough material for my blog for the rest of the year, but I have decided to start with a few weeks of  family history. While great contacts were made re: the Simmons/Jones family in England, I have decided to start this blog series "Family History" with a profile of Lily Lee.  I met Lily Lee for the first time in Hong Kong, last Friday 15 June 2012. Why did we make contact? Aunty Lily's father, Philip Lee Chun sponsored my grandfather, Thomas Lee Fong to live in Australia, adopted him as a son, and  ensured he was educated in Sydney at Newington College. Lily was born in Sydney in 1910 and that makes her a "young" 101, and 102 next October.  She was the third youngest of eight children, three girls and five boys ( excluding my grandfather).    Aunty Lily moved   to Hong Kong in 1933 with her parents

Coffee and Pulla in Finland , a photo by empresswu designs on Flickr. It's been 11 years since I've been in Finland. Coffee and pulla ( something like a brioche, but better - either plain, with cardamom, fruit filling....) is still one of my favourite memories! This was at a little outdoor cafe set up for the summer months in a small market place in Helsinki. I was attracted by the decor - rough hewn tables, assorted chairs, candelabra ( in the daylight) and vintage props - typewriters, motor scooter helmets, Singer sewing machines.... I was just filling in time here waiting for my washing to be done at a nearby laundromat where the owner gave instructions "go and have coffee and pulla and come back for the laundry in an hour" .

Three rivers , a photo by empresswu designs on Flickr. Today, we were in Passau, Bavaria (Germany) where the Inn, Danube and Ilz Rivers meet - the three different colours of the waters are easily seen. The lightest - Inn, the darker blue - Danube and the darkest (just visible in the lower right hand corner)- Ilz. Just across the river is the Austrian border. This photo was taken about 6pm after a day walking amongst the tree tops in the Bavarian National Park - what a beautiful part of Germany!