When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
My SLR has become temperamental, working only when it wants to. Therefore I don’t often carry it with me on random walks.
I regretted it bitterly as I stumbled upon a collection of perfect spider webs and the hunter on the prowl.
Then again, if I had been carrying my camera, it’ unlikely I would’ve have seen it. That’s how it seems to go.
There’s something special about a summer cottage sauna. Wood-heated, with water scooped from buckets to wash, it’s wonderfully old-fashioned and impractical. It smells like… summer.
My mum wants to build a modern sauna. We all understand it would be infinitely more practical – and object to it with our last breath.
Washing rugs on the summer cottage pier was fun as a child. Mum would throw buckets of water on my feet as I scrubbed as hard as I could. I still love the smell of Mäntysuopa (pine soap).
As we cleaned the wendy house today, the girls tried the traditional method of cleaning a rug.
Their comment was a dry, “Clearly kids in the old days had a different way of having fun”. Apparently, it was hard work.
In Finnish forests, the flowers tend to bloom early and only briefly. Season is short, so this time of the year, forest are mostly a sea of different greens.
Mushroom season is starting, tho, so it’s worth keeping your eyes on the ground!
There is a beautiful narrow strait just next to our summer cottage. It used to be a protected fish migration route, so no building and no fishing were allowed. I think the regulations have changed somewhat, but parts of the shoreline remain untouched.
As kids – maybe 14-17 years old – my brother and I would occassionally take the boat there for a swim. The strait is so sheltered from the wind that the water was always several degrees warmer than anywhere else.
When something is close to home, you rarely see it as anything special.
Pulkkilanharju is a narrow esker gormed during the Ice Age. It is surrounded by the open waters of lake Päijänne, with small green islands dotting the landscape. It is often listed as one of the most scenic drives in Finland.
But because it is so close to the summer cottage, years can pass without us visiting.
This year, we decided not only to drive across it, but also to walk the short nature trail in the national park. The girls insisted the terrain was so challenging they couldn’t possibly have finished the walk without the 1,5l of bilberries they ate along the way. It really wasn’t. But the bilberries were clearly excellent.
We finished the adventure with lunch and ice cream at Vääksy Lock. Another piece of Finland’s must-see scenery.
The clouds were heavy today, but there was (almost) no rain. The occassional drizzle – so light that the wind dried us faster than the rain got us wet – doesn’t count.
A win in my books.
The route from Loviisa to Kotka was mostly on paved roads, rather than the forest tracks and gravel roads we usually look for. In fact, we occassionally end up in paths more suited to game tracks in our determination to avoid bigger roads. Only once have we been forced to backtrack for more than a kilometer or so.
We’ve been lost at least twice.
Still, there were several interesting stops: the Loviisa fortress ruins, Strömfors Iron Works, the Savukoski Museum Bridge and the Tsar’s Fishing Lodge. What supprised us the most was finding a quite large and lovingly nurtured English Garden in the middle of absolutely nowhere (Erja’s Garden).
Finally, a note to self: Sunday evening is not the right time to find great restaurants in Kotka.
A few days before the weekend, the forecast was still predicting massive rainfall – as much rain in two days as we normally get in the whole of July. With that in mind, partly cloudy Saturday felt like a win.
The cycle path from Porvoo to Loviisa meanderered through fields and forests. A few small villages and the occassional grand manor house dotted the route.
Stuart and I have developed a tradition of betting on which animal we see first on our cycling trips (cats, dogs and birds don’t count). I played it safe and put my money on a cow. Stuart guessed a horse. He won – although technically that was only the second one. The first animal we saw was a donkey. Maybe I should have known.
We did not see a single cow during the entire trip. Not one.
Loviisa is another lovely seaside town with a wooden old town and very popular harbor district with cafes and restaurants. Fortunately, the rain gave us a good excuse to call it a night early.
Start of the summer holiday.
The girls, carrying their enormous rucksacks, hopped on a bus and headed to Väiski, a scout camp in Parainen forests with 1,800 kids. Stuart and I seized the opportunity, jumped on our bikes and headed for Porvoo. The plan is to cycle to Kotka over the weekend (about 130km in total).
We have cycled from Espoo to Porvoo before, and the route is not particularily interesting. So this time, we decided to take the J.L Runeberg, a museum ship that sails from Helsinki to Porvoo. Great weather, pleasant sailing, cool ship… but too many people.
Porvoo itself, is a picturesque little town with a cobbled old town, good restaurants, quaint shops and a few decent museums, including the old home of Finland’s national poet, Runeberg.
And luckily Porvoo is worth spending a little time in. Our hotel, approx 25 km away, was in the middle of nowhere, with not even a restaurant nearby. Therefore, timing dinner at the last restaurant on the way required a bit of a planning.
The last few kilometers, with the sun setting on our backs, were beautiful.
By the time we opened the last beers on the hotel garden, it felt like holiday.
It has been the first summer that Alanna and Kiara haven’t spent in kindergarten. Despite a few camps and some time at the summer cottage, six weeks of holiday while Stuart and I are still working is a long time to kill.
The girls aren’t, strictly speaking, home alone. Stuart and I have both been working remotely. But they are in charge of their own snacks, lunch and – most importantly – their entertainment. And many of their frieds are out of town.
So whenever we can, we go somewhere. Even if it’s just a dinner and a short walk in Inkoo.
Blue Moment 