Per Perkins Perhe: Four Fabulous Finnish Fusions

Here we go again ... its Monday and I put together some items for The Grove in anticipation of Strawberry Days. I found most of these a few weeks ago when we went to Janet Brough's funeral in Tooele, at an estate sale, good timing.

On Tuesday we went to Orem to get my friend Keith's huge lavender bush, that he was getting rid of. It took Dad, Keith, Chuck and me to get it into Dad's jeep.

Chuck, Keith and Dad. We then stopped and got groceries at WINCO, and it was a trick to find room to put them in. After that we stopped at the nursery in Benjamin, that was tricky too.

It was also Ian's 24th birthday.

While we were working on the garden, getting in the lavender plant and putting in the tomato plants, our friend Stina stopped by and dropped off a beautiful orchid plant for my birthday the next day. She had come down to the temple to make a day of it. She is just lovely, and we had so much fun visiting. She lives in Highland, so that meant a lot. This was our first Finnish Connection of the week.

That evening we pick up Darby and headed downtown to see Wicked! It was the fifth time for Dad and me.

Here we are at the Theater, we met up with Becca and her two oldest kids inside.

Trevor's family.

Here's the whole gang from the isle.

This is when we discovered that Titan and Aunt Darby are the same height.

Trevor and Nell et al.

On Wednesday I went to work and then that night we took the Indian Food we had ordered on Saturday and went to Nadine's house for Hallmark night. We paired our Indian Food with a romantic story of a Jewish family where the younger brother, not active in the Jewish faith, is told it's his responsibility to marry his older brother's widow and raise up posterity to him. It was pretty cute.

It was a fun way to celebrate my 71st birthday ... this is Dad's collage, and he posted the nicest comments about me. What a Good Guy I got.

Thursday morning, I went to preview my friend Tiffany's vintage sale in Santaquin.

Here is where I hung the black background mushroom painting. So cool, it has a tiny tear, so it was only $6, what a bargain. After that I went to work at Treasures, and Dad had his temple assignment. That night we had dinner and watched an episode of Castle.

On Friday I got up early and met Ann at Salem Pond at 7. It was so beautiful.

Here is Ann

and here I am.

One of the first things we noticed was this family of Canadian Geese. The are four babies in that bundle.

This beautiful estate comes right down to the water ...

That's where we saw these 6 cormorants all in a row.

As we got closer, they took off one at a time, from the left side, like they were waiting in a line.

Then as we were heading back, we saw 3 high school kids walking to school.

We were amazed to see the kid in the front with her pants belted around his knees. The skin you see there is below his boxers? Are people insane?

A couple of ducks and the Canadian Geese family have come to greet us as we finish our cruise.

When I was at home for a few minutes before heading to do some junking, and then going to work at the Grove, I saw our neighbor's chicken in front of the rose bush here. We have really enjoyed their chickens. They don't wander in the road at all, and head home when they want to. I guess they are free range chickens, which means we have a home on the range, right? Home, home on the range ...

While I was at work Dad put a board across the top of this cupboard, since the header shown here behind the duck had sat down in about four inches before, I think it looks so much better on 'top'. Yea Dad.

Dad picked me up from work, and we went to the train Depot in Ogden where they have two murals on either end, with the work on the rails coming together nearby. I thought it was very interesting.

This is Casey Bond, from the announcement on our fridge, (thus the magnet) and his fiance Liv. I just loved this picture.

Here we are with them. This is our Finnish Connection number two for the week.

Since we were so far north, we took advantage of the situation and stopped to visit Doug and Shirley. Which we always enjoy, of course.

The next morning, we headed north again, this time to the Avenues in SLC where we would attend the State Historical Society's Historic Home Show. We haven't gone for several years but couldn't resist the houses in the Avenues opportunity. I took this selfie in the car while Marko Polloing Barb and Robin, because the icons matched my sweater ... what can I say, it's a long drive ....

The tour started in a church that had been refitted as a home. The family lives in the back, behind the chapel, and hopes to rent out the chapel space for small weddings and music recitals. This is the stained glass window, what a beauty.

I met this lady at the church, waiting in line for the restroom, and thought she looked like my Aunt LaRee. I told her so and asked for a picture. I told her what a great lady she looks like.

There were only three houses and two churches on the tour. This was our favorite house.

Love this half tower.

This is the owner of the house, her name is Emily. Her family is only the second to live in the house that was built in the 1890's. Her parents bought it from the grandchildren of the original owner, a doctor, in the 1970's. They have since passed and she inherited.

This is her friend Sumie. After we had chatted for a few minutes, she said that when she saw us coming around the back of the house to this deck, she worried we were coming to chat. We talked about the similarities between our home and this one, which also has a finished attic, (of course Dad shared pictures) and (In fact all three of the houses had finished attics) It was when I told her that a finished, or lived in attic is called a garret, that she admitted she had somewhat dreaded our visit, but she said she had loved it. We took the pictures together because we both graduated from Viewmont high, albeit, 30 years later. And because I clearly have flair, like she does. (her opinion) She was so fun, but I'm not at all sure if I should be offended about this. She and Emily plan to come down for a tour of the house sometime this summer.

The next house had a tiny princess room in the garret that is inside the tower of the house. Dad could stand up in the room.

I thought the weathervane of a cricket, was hilarious.

Next, we stopped at an LDS church in the tour, with lovely stained glass windows.

The next and last house was small, though it was designed by the same architect, Richard Kletting, as were the other two houses and the first church we went to. It was originally 1,000 square feet, and yet it was still divided into 2 apartments during the Depression. The house only had one bedroom, so they built another room on the back to accommodate the second apartment. The man, shown above, is an artist, and his wife has been a garden architect for the Salt Lake Temple grounds, before taking over the top spot at Thanksgiving Point. It was so fun to talk to them. They have since dug a basement and finished off the attic into a garret. Somehow Finland came up, and it turns out that the guy's best friend served with Dad in Finland, in fact they were in the Language Training Center in Idaho for 2 months before they both headed to Finland. We told them they should hook up Rowberrys, and come down to see our house, we even promised them dinner. I hope they come. That was our third Finnish Connection for the week.

This small house was just along the way, but I loved how they'd painted the trims.

My Crafty friend Shirley has been playing with a new ap and made me this cute 'art' portrait based on a photo.

After we got home we had a quick dinner and headed north again to see A Wrinkle in Time with Adi starring ...

Adi played one of the three witches

The character in the orange shirt to the right is the one that Eli played the night before.

She always looked so serous, I guess she was just staying in character.

Here we see the whole cast at the end.

I sat on the end, and took this before Darby came and snuck in the other end.

Her Dad was so cute, he swung her around, and there were hugs too.

Then we ran into Kevin and Terri Mitchel, who went to Finland to serve not long after we served our second mission. It turns out, their daughter's kids are classmate to our grands. That was our fourth and final Finnish Connection for the week. It's just amazing how our missions just keeps on blessing us.