Travelogue from Dublin:Shopping, Style & Culture

Today I would like to talk about style and shopping – yes, the one that is one of the best female pastimes that is known to man, as in, to humans. I used to be quite a retail-therapist at one time, but no longer.

Tis amazing that any which way one looks to in the nations that one sees these masses of the most sportily dressed but totally unfit populace of both men and women! I personally cannot stand the whole ‘gear’ and do not even own one single pair of sneakers or as they are called here in Ireland, runners or trainers, neither the other parts of the said ensemble. I have done all my life from my childhood varied sports so that I have the fitness without the flaunting gear. Anyway, the said outfit does not feel right on me and it is not in the least comfortable on in ma mind. Others are welcome to wear it as they see fit, pardon the pun.

This nauseous set of outer wear is all that is on the most of the population here as well. There were two or three of the crowds milling on the Grafton Street, the ‘in’ shopping street in Dublin, that did look very smart in their high heels, stylish suits and the handbags to match the other day. There were also a few men that looked so very smart in their ‘real clothes’. These two smartly chic ladies were in a shoe shop where my daughter bought herself a pair of the basketball shoes that are so hip n happening at the moment. The name of the store is good, I think, being called, Office. How handy to tell your significant other that one just goes to the ‘office’ – no need to mention anything about the retail aspect at all! ‘I’m just nipping down to the Office.’ Great. Normally, the ‘office’ is jokingly meant to be the local pub of one in here.

The oh-so-elegant ladies bought shoes, one of them a very, very fabulous pair of stylish black suede shoes for festive wear – I so totally approved of them just my style, too – and the other to my utter surprise got herself, so unlike the style she was wearing, a pair of black leather flats! I was thinking, ‘Darling, Where are you going to wear Those?!’ but held back. Things that one never gets an answer to, but is just left pondering, wondering…Always a killer.

My main former supplier of shoes in this country called, Carl Scarpa, is still going strong on the Grafton Street, in Dublin. The malls off the Grafton Street such as The St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre,The Royal Hibernian Way, and The Powerscourt Town House Centre are excellent to just pop in and to have a lookie or to do some selective shopping and a select cup of coffee, particularly in The Powerscourt Town House on the Suffolk Street. The flagship store in these shores is The Brown Thomas, also located on Grafton Street, where one can shop nigh anything and everything one possibly would desire to have and to hold. There are a couple of great coffee shops in the store as well where many a cup and pastries have been downed by us after a busy spree with friends.

Another great place to chill n sip coffee or any beverage of your choice is The Westbury Hotel off Grafton Street where one can sit in peace and ponder what is and what will be in the most elegant surroundings. It was there that we, as in the daughters and myself, used to wait for the traffic jams to clear before heading down to our home in county Wicklow himself as our chauffeur. It was also in the Westbury that I used to meet my friends who lived in other parts of Dublin, because it was the handiest for them and to me as well to have a lovely lunch or just a glass of wine and something to nibble taking our time as one was not rushed to get off the premises as one is in so many other places these days. There is at times live music as in a pianist and the ambience is tres tres jolie. If you are that way, do go in there and sit down in those most comfy sofas and get the Afternoon Tea or whatever you would fancy, and you will very quickly get the drift in what I’m saying about the place.

Tis for now. Riihele xx.

PS.
The picture is taken by me of the harpist in the concert in the Main House in Powerscourt where the concert was held in the Garden Room; so am all cultured, well-fed and well-shopped!!

Travelogue from Dublin: Coffee Shops

It’s your very own tour guide Barbie here again doing her tour in the Emerald Isle – and yes, me cheeks are killing me with all that smiling…!! This time in the ‘logue it’s going to be about the cafes in the locale where I am staying at the moment and also of the cafes that I like elsewhere in this country. Here is a very handy link to touristing in  Ireland and in Dublin, in particular.

My very favourite cafe, Coolbeans, is in Bray where I just step in and really don’t have to have say a word and the things are served to me with speed and the accuracy of the pro. Just marvellous. I hadn’t been in there for two whole years and the staff remembered me name and all as I walked in there the other day as if I had never ever been away at all. Excellent.

There are some other favourite haunts of mine as well such as the Cafe an Seine – yes, it’s very O’ La La, French – which is situated right in the centre of Dublin on the Dawson Street. The pastries are outstanding and the coffee ab fab and the ambience – well, let’s say, very turn of the century as in the 19th century Paris. Another great French place is the cafe called, Cafe des Amis at the Alliance Francaise on the Kildare Street where the food, the pastries, the coffee and the prices are first class. I highly recommend both of these places.

In Dun Laoghaire one of my favourite places for cafes is Costas – a new place in the Pavillion in the centre of the town which is located upstairs of the most marvellous bookstore called Hughes & Hughes. Go n stuff your gullet in there at your leisure and enjoy the fab view! Then there is Walters, where the cappuccino is just right and the food in general extremely good and delicious. The GTI cafe cum restaurant on the George’s Street, that is the main street in Dun Laoghaire, is always great and the service is both humorous and precise. Here is a link to Dun Laoghaire tourism online site.

The Cafe Javas are these days in nearly ‘every’ place around Dublin, but in my mind the best of the lot is the one in the corner at the lower end of the Leeson Street in Dublin. They are consistently fab and better somehow than the other branches for whatever reason. The Bewleys’ Cafes were an institution but as the institutions go, they often lose their momentum and this is what has happened to them as well in my mind. Shame.

Tis for now from your guide in the Emerald Isle. The tour continues… Riihele xx.

PS
The photograph is the village square in Enniskerry, County Wicklow taken by me.

Travelogue from Dublin: Eating out & Restaurants

I said in my last logue that I would be writing about eating out in Ireland – and here it comes! The cuisine in Ireland has evolved to be very international indeed. When I think back to the time that I first arrived in these shores and how impossible or nigh impossible it was to get the ingredients to the dishes that I cook; every time it was a treasure hunt of a kind to get them all together! There is a delicatessen cum specialty shop, Cavistons, in Sandycove – just a few kilometres south of Dublin on the coast – that has the most comprehensive selection of all kinds of everything that one possibly could need in the art of cooking.

Yes, cooking is art most definitely. I remember our Home Economics teacher in Finland saying that: ”Girls, do always remember that cooking is art.” And we were like – ‘oh sure’ – but none us gave a smart-alec remark on the same; not even me, because she was a great teacher and she gave us the freedom to experiment and learn a great deal about everything concerning the cooking and the home economics in general. Later in life I did come to see that the teacher was absolutely right in her thinking.

Not so long ago the choices of eating out here were the pub grub of dried sandwiches and soup that had seen better days or the very expensive but not particularly fancy hotel food. Then bit by bit came the other eateries of the more reasonable bistro/ taverna-style places: Vino Pasta is one of the restaurants that I have liked from the moment they opened in Greystones, County Wicklow. Their food is always first class in taste, in presentation, and in the way it is served. Chicken Gorgonzola is my all time favourite in there. Yummy.

The title of the one of the oldest restaurant in Ireland goes to the place where our wedding reception was in Dublin many moons ago: The Beaufield Mews in Stillorgan, County Dublin. – Ireland has no postal codes so the places are in counties.- This place is in the very tasteful old mews buildings with the most gorgeous gardens and with an antique store as well. The evening out always started there with a glass of sherry either Winter’s Tale or Harvey’s Bristol Cream which were our choices. Many happy and delicious hours were spent in the locale by us and our guests. The menu there is outstanding and I have tried the lot more or less so everything there should be first class with the most excellent corteous service. The prices are on the high side on the scale but worth it.

This time most of my eating has been in Enniskerry, County Wicklow village just a few kilometres south from Dublin where I am staying and where there is a great pub of the new style that is more of a restaurant than the old style pub called, The Enniskerry Inn. The food is good and well presented and the service is friendly as well there. The menu is comprehensive and everything is tasty that we have tried in there. The prices are around the 10 to 20+ euros per dish. The desserts are about five plus euros each and the coffee about 2.50 €.

Also in Enniskerry is the Main House in Powerscourt that has two excellent restaurants run by the Avoca Handweavers where one can eat royally and fairly reasonably in the surroundings fit for a king. Most of my photographs of this travelogue have been and are from there. The food is poetically gorgeous; yes, am vaxing lyrical here… The prices are not expensive about the same as the ones that I quoted above which seems to be the price range at present. Here is a handy link to the facilities in the Powerscourt Estate.

Bon Appetit y’all!

Tis for now yet again. I will write about coffee shops later on. Riihele xx.

PS.
The photograph is a bridge in the Japanese Gardens in the Powerscourt Demesne in Enniskerry, County Wicklow taken by yours truly on a toasty hot day.

Travelogue from Dublin: Eating, Food and Such

About food, eating and the like is what I am going to write a few words in this entry today on the Travelogue from Dublin. The green, green grass of the Emerald Isle makes the cattle and also the sheep to produce the most tasty meat on this planet, I should think.

Before I arrived in Ireland in 1980, I had become more or less a vegetarian because the meat in Sweden tasted absolutely foul so that I couldn’t eat the thing without feeling ill, so my solution to the problem was not to touch the meat at all. I must say that I did feel much better by not eating the meat over there. In Israel and in Finland and any other country I am all right eating the meat, it was just the meat in Sweden at that time that caused problems to me. I have eaten meat again in Sweden while visiting and it was okay for me to eat it with no dire consequences.

The very first T-bone Steak that I was served in a guest house in County Wexford was the size of the enormous plate where it was amid the garnish and the spuds winning me over to be a carnivore once and again. Needless to add that it was poetry in the dining! The European Union in its quest to be useful to the citizenry came out one year with a ban on the t-bone in the T-bone Steak, so for a good while twas forbidden to sell and to serve, but I believe, it is all right again by the bigwigs of the EU to have and to hold, even to eat it with relish. Excellent.

Ireland is famous for its great lamb as well, in particular, the Wicklow Lamb, that we used to buy at our butcher’s  who also as a farmer grew his own meat with such skill and care that the taste came through in all the meat he sold. The County Wicklow, which in Ireland is my home county, is also known as the Garden of Ireland due to its lush growth and the rolling green hills with the fresh, clean air to boot. I used to roast the lamb in the oven with lavendar (fresh or dried), cinnamon, fresh garlic, pepper and salt drizzled with honey and the best quality olive oil and serve it with the Roast Potatoes – raw potatoes cut in good size chunks, plenty of herbs as in dill and parsley, olive oil and butter with some gorse sea salt cooked in the oven until golden. Then, of course, with the seasons I would serve it the fresh green salad and other salads or in wintertime with the Ratatouille – the French roasted vegetables of aubergine, zucchini, et cetera. Delicious.

And last but not the least is the fish which is plentiful on this island of a nation. Although, the Irish themselves are/were not so keen on the harvest of the seas surrounding them. At first I could not understand why until I was given the typical fish dish on these shores at the time: the smoked cod with the white sauce and the mashed peas from the dried ones, steeped in water overnight and boiled to death! Terrible, absolutely dreadful, so it is. This was the tradition in here for every Friday being a day for ‘fasting’ – as in no red meat to be had on that day.

I had my work cut out for me in changing the thinking of himself and our Irish guests on the eating fish and considering it to be delicious. I grew-up by the vast river in Lapland that made the border between Finland and Sweden, so I am and have always preferred fish as in the wild salmon, white fish and the like to be superior to the red meat. It was served simply but always so very tasty that one could not help but to love it. That same approach I did with the fish in Ireland as well and it worked.

The Irish Brown Bread is well-renown the worldover, and rightly so, because it is so tasty and yummy. It’s fairly simple to make oneself as the ingredients are not expensive neither is it complicated to produce only really requiring the time and the bother to bake it. At present it is my breakfast toasted and lashed with humous and for the choice of the morn beverage at the moment it’s strong herbal tea. So my breakfast is a kind of ‘west meets east’ and grand so tis.

Tis for now. I will write about eating out later on. Riihele xx.

PS.
The picture is of a walled garden in the Powerscourt Demesne in County Wicklow taken by moi on a toasty hot Saturday.

Travelogue from Dublin: Today in Ireland

This one of the Travelogues that I wrote last year this time while over there.

Today is the day in Ireland when there is the state funeral for one of the most controversial people in the Irish politics, Charles J. Haughey, who died a few days ago at the age of 80. When I arrived in Ireland in 1980, this man was at the height of his political clout and influence. Here is another link to life of Mr Haughey.

Before arriving here all those 26-years ago I knew the following things about the Emerald Isle: IRA, Guinness and Dublin, nothing else until I spruced up my knowledge of the history, politics, geography and who-is-who in the land. It is always wise and foresighted to prepare oneself if one is changing country and culture to find out about these things as much as is possible as it most certainly will hasten the adjusting to the new life and living.

Having been around a few places these last few days while here, one thing is for sure: the country is even more full of the foreigners than ever before that I can recall anyway. My daughter finds it amusing that I ask the people working in the shops and cafes where they do come from. I am also quick to reply that I am a foreigner myself here. Heli, my daughter’s, comment to me was that in her opinion it would have been easier for me to feel at home in here if it had been so international then as it is now. I tend to agree with her on this.

The new EU states, such as Poland and Hungary, seems to be well represented in Ireland at present. Funny, in a way, because Ireland is one of the few countries that did not sign the Schengen Agreement of the passport-less travel between the EU countries. Yet it is to here the crowds gather to work and to live. Although, Ireland is very expensive to live in everyway, the housing, the medical, the transport all are high and the level of the salaries does not match these for many.

Poland and the other new states in the happy family of the European Union were given a ‘quarantine’ time, ie., restricted entry to the ‘old’ EU countries when they joined in May 2004. It was a bit like ‘Welcome to The Family, but do not call on us’. Here is what I wrote on an earlier entry about the EU.

It is a very handy and practical thing to have the same currency as one moves from one country to the other in the EU; though, some of the old EU countries as in Sweden, Denmark and the UK did not join the common currency of the euro. The Euro has made it dead simple for the populace to compare the prices on the very same products and so on in other EU countries and to realize that they differ vastly from one country to the other. We are being had as the saying goes!

Tis for now. Riihele xx.

PS.
The photograph is one taken by yours truly a few days ago. It is one my favourite scenes in Ireland, the Sugarloaf Mountain in County Wicklow which is just a few miles south of Dublin.

The OASIS of EIN BOKEK

”The Dead Sea has a climate which boasts year-round sunny skies and dry air with low pollution. It has less than 50mm mean annual rainfall and a summer average temperature between 32 and 39 degrees Celsius.The winter average temperature is between 20 and 23 degrees Celsius. The region has weakened UV radiation, particularly the UVB (erythrogenic rays), and an atmosphere characterized by a high oxygen content due to the high barometric pressure. The shore is the lowest dry place in the world. (Wikipedia)Photo: Mountain, Palms & Hotel in Ein Bokek

The Dead Sea measures 67 km (42 miles) long, 18 km (11 miles) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley. The main tributary is the Jordan River.The Dead Sea has attracted interest and visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. It was a place of refuge for King David, one of the world’s first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of products as diverse as balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers.Photo: Ein Gedi

”Although the medicinal indications of the water have not yet been adequately researched, this therapeutic resource is a great attraction, which gives the area advantages over other such places in Israel and the world. In addition to the medical properties of the water, the climate and atmosphere of the region have a therapeutic value of their own.The high atmospheric pressure, the highest in fact on earth, results in the highest oxygen content on earth and low ultra-violet radiation. This permits prolonged sun bathing without danger of burning on almost every day of the year.The absence of polluting contaminants makes for pure air, which eases bronchitis and bronchial conditions. On the other hand, the combination of low humidity and high evaporation contributes to accelerating the body’s metabolic processes. These climatic properties have a considerable effect on the non-specific treatment of certain diseases based on stimulation of cells and tissues while acting against unhealthy internal and external stimuli.” WikipediaPhoto: The Swimming Pool

King David, King Herod, Jesus, and John the Baptist stayed in the Dead Sea area. The prophets knew it via the infamous Sodom and Gomorra.During the Egyptian era it is said that Queen Cleopatra obtained exclusive rights to build cosmetic and pharmaceutical the area. Later on, the wily Nabateans discovered the value of bitumen extracted from the Dead Sea and needed by the Egyptians for embalming their mummies. Aristotle wrote about the remarkable waters. Photo: The Dead Sea is really this colour

Article: ‘The Race is on to save the Dead Sea’ on The Sunday Times September 3, 2006“…proposal is to carry sea water from the Gulf of Aqaba to replenish the Dead Sea, which has shrunk by a third over the past 50 years and faces total evaporation. At stake is the area’s delicate ecology and a tourist industry — that draws 100,000 Britons each year — centred on the sea’s mineral-rich waters and mud.A sequence of canals and pipelines would channel sea water down through the arid Arava valley in southern Israel and Jordan to the salt lake at the lowest point on earth, 415 metres below sea level. Action is urgently needed. Over the past 50 years the Dead Sea’s depth has fallen by 20 metres. The so-called “Red to Dead” plan is to reverse this fall, which has been so dramatic that it has left the Israeli spa resort of Ein Gedi a mile from the water’s edge.Photo:The Courtyard at the hotel

“However, Friends of the Earth warned that mixing water from the Red Sea with the unique chemical soup of the Dead Sea could create a natural catastrophe. “The Dead Sea’s mix of bromide, potash, magnesium and salt is like no other body of water on the planet,” said Bromberg. “By bringing in the marine water, this composition will be changed.There is concern about algae growth and we could see the sea change from deep blue to red and brown and the different waters could separate.” Photo: Palms in Ein Bokek (iNFO: Wikepedia) Photos: Riihele TIS FOR NOW. Rii xx HAVE A SUPER WEEKEND! © Photos: By Riihele. All rights reserved.

Incidents and Such Like ~ DRINKS

I had only arrived in Ireland and been just for a few days in Dublin when the uncle living in Belfast died, and we all hurried to the funeral in the north – as in Northern Ireland. The funeral part was over and we were in the hotel for a meal and a chat with the relatives and friends of the uncle, when a group of old ladies, Queen Mum look-a-likes with handbags and outfits to match the QM, were all ordering these fancy drinks of which names I had never ever even heard. My mouth was wide ajar with surprise and wonder of it all so that I could not utter a word, when himself says to me:

“YOU will order orange juice!!” And so I did.

To my absolute amazement the rounds of drinks were many and plentiful. I said to himself that never, never, in the Finnish funerals – though, being a nation of heavy drinkers – would no body but nobody ever dare serve alcoholic drinks. It would be considered most inappropriate.

Another humorous funeral incident with a macabre twist was this true story that happened for a long, long time ago to her family in Ireland as told to me by an Irish-Italian woman, who I got to know while living in County Wicklow. The old custom of mourning in Ireland is to have a wake for the dead that goes on for a number of days with heavy drinking and plentiful singing and story telling around the coffin.

Anyway, this is what happened: the party was in a very merry way after several days of the wake when suddenly there was a knock at the coffin coming from the inside and they opened the lid, and the “deceased” one rises up to a sitting position and says:

“GIMME A DRINK!”

He had only been unconscious for a good few days and not dead. Twas a lucky man and a good thing that the wake was taking place and not an immediate burial.

Tis now for Incidents and Such Like this time. Rii xx.

TREASURES in LIFE: True Friendships

These two friends are my daughter and her friend
in the countryside one summer in Ireland.
Photo by me.

“A FRIEND LOVES AT ALL TIMES”
(Proverbs 17:7 Ampl.Bible)

In some countries it is harder than in others to make the ‘cut’ – that is – to get into the mainstream of the life and the living but once you are in, ‘you are in’, for good! Finland, Sweden and Israel are like this. It requires much patience to get there. The Finns, the Swedes and the Israelis are cautious at first, then after a while they let their guard down and you will be firm friends for life. No matter how fiercely your opinions on matters differ and how much you would argue, at the end of the day; it only clears the air and strengthens the bond of friendship. I am not saying that this the rule 100 per cent in each and every case, but certainly in my own personal experience, it has been the norm.

The Irish give the ‘hail fellow, well met’ – impression of ease and quick skills of getting to know other people. That does not lead to lasting friendship, most of the time. It is just politeness, social skills or whatever one will call it. I am most outgoing but it was in Ireland that I found it the hardest of all to really get to know people where they would be genuine and real. No stereotype Irish, but the person, the people as they are.

A friend said this in one of her comments in my page on another entry on friendships:

“Funny how to put the differences in friendships in a cultural view, because I’ve had to deal with this issue myself. Americans are more like the way you describe Irish…easy get by with on basic social levels, friendly in that “hi, how ya doin, see ya” way.

But maybe because it’s so easy to become “friends” with them, you don’t realize that you aren’t really really friends, true friends, until you try to get closer and come up against a wall. I sound disparaging, but that’s the way I am. My Israeli friends often tell me that they see Americans as hypocrites, or pretend friends. And I find the Israeli friendships to often be suffocating. It’s worth knowing when you go to a strange culture.”

My response to her:

“Yes indeed, it is wise to know some basic things about the strange, as in different, culture one is moving to. It makes the adjusting so much easier. The Scandinavians, particularly, the Finns are considered ‘cold, aloof and distant’ by the others who don’t understand that the culture is such that people take their time ‘letting’ you through the barriers bit by bit.

Then once you are IN; YOU ARE IN for life. This kind of process takes a lot adjusting to do but it’s worth it in the end. I’m not a typical Finn in this aspect either but more Latin in my manner, style & personality in that I am not reserved in meeting new people, yet still Finnish in this that when I am your friend – I truly am your friend through thick & thin!”

Tis for now. Riihele xx

NATURE of The Nature: HAY FEVER

It is not that I do not love the nature, but the nature does not love me! Love unrequited and one-sided is always tough and hard to bear. How come, you may wonder? Well, the fact of the matter is that ever since having the children, the extra bonus* was getting a curlier hair – no perms needed, great saving – though I aim for the straight look, if you know what I mean. The opposite ‘effect’ was becoming very allergic to anything and everything – I mean, nearly every thing – that grows for the whole season the ‘ting’ keeps growing. That is, from the month of March until the end of September, depending on the climate in question, I am in a terrible state of sneezing, wheezing, coughing, tears running, not because of emotions, but of all the pollen. Here is The Times of London online take on the subject.

It is not pleasant, may I say. Hay fever is a dreadful ailment. I remember when I was growing-up that whenever I heard that somebody was suffering from the condition and of sinusitis, – inflamed sinus cavities – I used to think: N’ah, it’s nothing. What’s the fuzz? No big deal. No longer for years have I thought of hay fever as trivial, as it does wear one down seriously and affects your daily life in a big way.

The head is about to explode with the all that pressure on the sinuses and then all the rest of the symptoms. There is medication and that is great, but the downside of that is that they make one feel really drowsy when taken in full doses to have any effect. Then one increases the amount of coffee to stay on the feet. And voila, the spiral is going round and round in its merry way – coffee – medication – coffee – medication…

One day I was walking along the most gorgeous lakeside scenic promenade with an outstanding view any which way one looked. Lovely. Yes, but rather more unlovely for one suffering from hay fever. Not nice. At one point we had to seriously fight for our breath – the air was so thick with pollen flying around us that were coming from the alder trees above.

Tis for now. Riihele xx.

The piccie is one that my elder sister took of her rose and to one which I gave a makeover so that it looks like it is seen through the eyes of a person suffering from a severe dose of hay fever!! Sneeze to Your Health!

* Of course, them dahlings are The Massive Extra Bonus, absolutely worth all the trouble and strife,. Would not want to hand them back, would I now.

SWEDISH SUNSET: Da Blonde on HAPPINESS

Mark Twain – said this and more on the link on the word happiness :

“Happiness is a Swedish Sunset
– it is there for all,
but most of us look the other way and lose it.”

Why the ‘Swedish’ I do not know. Could it be that in the summertime the sunsets in Sweden are so long and so very bright that nobody could/should miss the stunning beauty and the illuminating brightness thereof? And yet one chooses to be blind to it by turning one’s head the other way – refusing to see the ‘show of this beauty’ by one’s own willful actions. One is so blind to one’s blessings of happiness right then and there. Tragic.

“Happiness or glad is an emotional or affective state that is characterized by feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction. As a state and a subject, it has been pursued and commented on extensively throughout world history. This reflects the universal importance that humans place on happiness. States associated with happiness include well-being, delight, health, safety, contentment, and love. Contrasting states include suffering, depression, grief, anxiety, and pain.” Wikipedia

The science of happiness is an interesting field, just have a look at this and this. The latter is called, The World Database of Happiness! There is even a test to do on the Beeb site. A strange thing to me is in the The Declaration of Independence – which particularly names the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ as one of the goals/things to be achieved. That very word – pursuit – makes the happiness flee faster than the lightning, totally unattainable to all.

“Whether one is poor or one is rich –
whether one has nothing much
or one has millions to live on,
but nothing to live for;
makes one utterly
miserable and poor.”

(Riihele quote)

Tis for now. Riihele xx.

© Photos: By Riihele. All rights reserved.