Postcards from Hameenlinna: 1

 Our neighbourhood Idänpää is full of old wooden brightly coloured houses like this and modern glass, super-insulated apartments like the one we live in, with forest all around.

 

Amazing art-school/theatre/cinema/immigration centre on our side of town on the banks of the River Vanajavesi.

Between two great cities.

The ARX is a joint base for producers and consumers of children's culture in Hameenlinna.  Fab.

 Jean Sibelius was born in 1865 in Hamennlinna; he was hugely inspired by mythology and the forests at the heart of Finnishness and his overtly political 1899 Finlandia symphony became a powerful symbol of the Finnish struggle for independence.

Malika rocking todays charity shop find, a top by the iconic finnish design company Marrimekko xx