A story of the Moominpappa mug

-

 

I would like to share with you a story of the Moominpappa mug. Lovely and strictly guarded mug, which we have at home. Because this is something which makes me ponder about saving valuable things for never. Should they rather be enjoyed or protected?




As in most of the Finnish homes, there are also many Moomin mugs in ours. They are perfect size for coffee and the lovely pictures of Moomins make the coffee time very cosy. I have a thing that I paired them according to the characters of Moomins and also colours, so when I make hot drinks for me and Petri, I reach for these established couples. For example, Little My goes with Stinky, green Snufkin mug goes with yellow Snorkmaiden mug and so on.




However, there is one couple of mugs which I only paired in my mind and cannot bring into the reality. And that´s black Ancestor mug with black Moominpappa mug. Very good match! Why does this couple exist only in my fantasy? Let me explain. Moomin mugs are very popular not only among Finns, and they have also become a collecter´s item. Prizes of some of them already reached crazy numbers. One can read about it in newspapers when they´re auctioned. Petri got a feeling that Moominpappa mug is on a good way to become a big deal. In Hakaniemi market in Helsinki, there is a shop where there are among other things Moomin mugs from older collections. And they have higher prize, than when they first appeared in shops. Our Moominpappa is there doing well. So, Petri put this mug on a high shelf in the back of the closet where it can´t be reached to keep it safe.




For me this approach doesn´t make any sense, and I still can´t accept that Moominpappa mug is out of use. We can´t see it, we can´t enjoy it. I think that Petri would want me to forget that we have it so I would stop asking about bringing it on the daylight. Sometimes, but not very often, I convince Petri to make a coffee in it. He says that there must be a special occasion for it. It was for example recently when I baked Laskiaispullat. Funnily, as normally things are around for some time, Moominpappa return to its safe place on the back shelf immediately after we have coffee.

I belong to the people who are using valuable things even though there is a risk of breaking them or that they will look used after some time. I think this is the best way how to cherish their existence. I believe that if Moominpappa mug could speak, it would want to be used and paired with Ancestor mug:) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cooperative feeding of Common Mergansers

-
Image
 September 2022 Common mergansers ( Mergus merganser ), also known as Goosanders are diving ducks who mainly eat small fishes. Their daily requirement of fishes is around 400 g. Mergansers have different strategies of hunting them. They fish individually, but also cooperatively in small or large flocks. Fishing in flocks is a very impressive strategy. Their aim is to target a fish, or better a fish school, and push it together to shallow shore water where fishes can be easily caught. Mergansers are usually firstly moving slowly in loose formation, looking in short intervals under water surface for prey. When the fishes are located, the chase begins: birds rush rapidly on the water and drive fishes to the shore. In short distance runs, Mergansers have wings folded, but in distances more than few meters, they run with the aid of their wings. During this chasing run, Mergansers pack into a dense formation. When the fishes are pushed to the shallow water, some Mergansers dive repea...
Read more

Finnish Laskiaispulla - heaven in the mouth

-
Image
Laskiaispulla is one of my favourite Finnish sweet pastries.  It´s a light fluffy yeast dough, in Finnish pulla , cut and filled with almond paste or strawberry marmalade and decent amount of whipped cream. Extremely delicious! Now it´s a very good time to enjoy it, because it´s connected to the fasting before Easter when the meat is avoided. It pops up in cafes and shops, but the best is homemade anyway. Baking feels cosy and it´s nice to fill home with cardamon smell. For me, yeast dough was always challenging. Czech sweet pastry is also based a lot on yeast dough, and I like it very much, so I tried it several times. But the result wasn´t often as it should be. Sometimes my trials ended up hard and dry or had strong yeast smell. I think that I was making mistake in the method. Perhaps when the dough was supposed to be rising for couple hours and I couldn´t catch the right moment when it was ready.  Also, my dough was often too liquid, so I was adding later more and more ...
Read more

My traditional Christmas in Finland

-
Image
 December 2022 A real winter fairy tale awaited us when me and Petri celebrated Christmas in the Finnish countryside with his mum and her husband.  The travel itself was incredibly romantic. Four hours in the train, a snowy landscape with frozen lakes passing by, and we were excited for Christmas. For the first time in my life, I was in a dining wagon. I had already discovered that Finns are not used to prepare homemade sandwiches. However, they don't mind buying something in a shop, where they often reach for a karjalanpiirakka , but they won't prepare the classic bread with something. That's why they need trains with a dining wagon, which are not common in the  Czech republic , because there we have supplies from home. When we travel in the  Czech republic , our backpacks are stuffed with food and the only reason someone would visit a dining wagon is for a beer. I am a classic Czech who doesn´t travel without at home prepared snack. So, the day before our trip I wa...
Read more