Day 22 – The Secrets of Muhu

Today we took our time getting ourselves together because nothing opens before 10am on the island of Muhu, except the bread shop! However we were to late to go get Muhu bread, even the supermarket had sold out! But before we went there, we went on a little adventure, looking for the song festival ground where they do midsummer. I had it my head it was in one location so I put this into google maps and off we went, however when we arrived it did not look like I had remembered it, it was like a camp ground for travellers. So we quietly turned around and left that area then mum mentioned the area we were looking for was opposite a church so I put into google maps the church in the village we were in. On the short drive there I noticed the local Coop supermarket had Muhu designs on the window, this really makes me smile and makes me feel a little spark of joy! Of course we had to stop and get photos! During our travels dad noticed we were driving back to the Sadam and he told me I have been voted off the island and I need to leave but I have to leave the car here for them. It appeared we had created a new voting system for our travels with the amount of votes always changing and the outcome doesn’t really matter. It was good for a laugh anyway. We found the grounds we were looking for. It was as I remembered it, with the big swing and a stage with folk costume material as the feature. I really liked it here and you could see they still had a fire there from midsummer. This place brough back memories from 2019 when we accidentally found this place because I was so confident at my navigation, which was not good, when looking for Käsitöö shops, dad trusted me and I ended up getting us lost, however it made us find this beautiful place. After a little pit stop and amazement at how they protected the sandpit, with a flip off lid that turns into a seat, we headed into Liiva, the main town. As I mentioned before, we headed to the bakery but it was sold out, by 10:15am! This was a bit of a shock but it didn’t matter, dad went to the shop next door and got some smoked eel. We then went to the supermarket to get a few supplies for dinner and headed off to a Käsitöö shop on the way to the farm museum. It was along a long road and a little farm house shop. We had been there before and it still amazed me how much this lady produces and sells. She still had the blanket she had been working on since 2019, which she showed us last time. There were so many flower patterns, unique to Muhu. I remember my grandmother painting these flowers on things in her later years, I still have a treasure chest with some of it on it, beautiful. We then headed to the open air farm museum but it was raining so we headed to the Käsitöö shop there. I noticed they were selling key rings much like in my Estonian Designs AU store and I am glad they were all roughly the right price, seems I had done my home work! We walked past the museum and took a few photos of typical Muhu houses, they are unique to this area, more on that later. We went home for lunch and a little nap, first time I had done that in a very long time.

​In the afternoon/evening we headed to Kadri’s summer house in Muhu and what an adventure that turned out to be. We arrived and it was as I remembered it, a fairy garden. She had the table all set out ready, in the sun, as this was the first sun we had seen in weeks. Although it did get a little hot sitting in the sun but it was still lovely to do. We had some wonderful conversations and she was so excited about my business and wanted to hear more about it. I of course brought her one of the Muhu designed mugs and coaster and she was amazed I did it all myself. I wanted to give her this gift as I feel she would really appreciate it, and she did. Dad of course was the grill master and made sure the sausages were cooked perfectly and Kadri made some salads including this one with purple cabbage, salt, oil and lemon, it was really good. After dinner Kadri offered to take us on a little tour around her place and the village. She took us to where she grows cucumbers and managed to grow them from seeds to big plants in 3 weeks, dad was really jealous! She did share some gardening secrets though and dad has some new ideas on how he might be able to do it at home because he struggles with the pickling cucumbers. She showed us her little huts and explained to dad what they were for but she said there was a lot of work needed to be done so I suggested a farm stay where people pay to come and stay here and work on the farm. She thought it was a silly idea but I explained this is a big business in Australia, and this would be good as it is a very unique way of living in Muhu. I hope she thinks about this and considers it because it is a really good idea. Kadri then took us on a little walk around the village. What strikes me about Muhu is the moss on the stone walls. There is a stone all around the village then each Talu or farm house area. Some where redone, some where old. They were all beautiful. Their cellar construction is unique to Muhu architecture in the way it looks, so beautiful. Kadri showed us these stones with crosses on them, which signified the boarder of different properties, they were all over the village. We saw the big family swing in the middle of the village and their midsummer fire area. We walked around to the village well which the infrastructure to get water was recently reconstructed, only 2 weeks ago. It was the same one in the open air museum in Tallinn and you use it from the end that is closest to the well, not the back end, which is what dad and I originally thought. It was so peaceful walking through the Muhu village, soft grass, beautiful colours, just something so unique. When we got back to the house they wanted to show us her friend, Kadi’s house so we walked a short distance to watch the sunset. She purchased this house 3 years ago and it was nothing but the walls of the cellar. She had to reconstruct everything new and had placed a modular home on the property with a cute little outdoor area. It was really nice in this space and we sat on the veranda and watched the sunset. Dad then mentioned he could fix the lock on Kadi’s house, which he did then she gave him some win as payment. He also mentioned he could fix Kadri’s gate as it was leaning and not very stable, so we went to Kadi’s shed and got a heap of power tools, all needed to be connected to main power with an extension lead, and selected the timber plank he needed. We went back to Kadri’s house and dad got to work. He was in his element just working things out, fixing the gate and explaining to Kadri what different tools were for because she was asking him. Dad’s knees were so dirty after this job we insisted he have a shower when we got home. It was challenging because when we were holding the gate up for him to stabilise it we had ants running all over our feet! He had to use stones from the wall and hit them in around the post using some heavy objects to help stabilise the gate then attach the brace to it. It was a somewhat small task but dad was able to do it. Once he finished work, at about 10pm, we said our good byes and headed back home. It was such a fun and memorable evening, unexpected but so much joy and laughter.
Until tomorrow
Marissa xx