Back in Blighty....

So we have returned to the UK for another year. It's amazing the differences we notice immediately on our return, which has also led me to reflect a little more on our time in my favourite country.

Whenever we return, even coming into land, you can see how much the landscape of Britain has been raped and plundered. Everything is so....flat. Not many patches of forest, lots of ploughed field separated by scrubby hedges; and of course lots of houses. I had to drive to the supermarket today after our month away and was taken aback by the amount of cars EVERYWHERE. But then, you must remember that while Finland is about 3.5 times the size of the UK, they also have a population of a mere 5 million people, compared to the 65 million or so residing in the UK. I realise that if Finland had 65 million people, things would look a lot different. It also leads me to wonder, why isn't the population larger? You would think in the Winter, there wouldn't be much to do!

I was also struck by how much 'fear' we live our lives in, in Britain. When we first arrived in Helsinki this year, I accompanied my friend and her 2 year old child to a local park. Whilst there, a boy on a bike came over to chat to us and remained with us for some time. He showed me things in the park and chatted to other passers by. To be honest, I felt a little uncomfortable. Had an unknown adult tried to strike a conversation with a child, immediate cries of 'paedophile!' could be heard in your head and probably the child's too. When we visited and stayed with a family in Lapland, their 7 year old was off at a skate park and had been all day while they were at work. He didn't return home until around 7.30pm, under his own steam. No parent felt the need to go and collect him.

This led me to cast my mind back to when I was a child in the 1970's. It was a similar situation as Finland today. A whole gang of us who lived in the same road used to be out in the Summer from after breakfast until we would magically appear in time for dinner. And our parents didn't know where we were. And they didn't worry either. It's very sad that these days have gone.

On the return journey, I composed a list of things to bring next year that I can't seem to find in Finland. I expect it will get longer....

Wooden spoons
Marmite
Jungle Formula insect repellent
Decent cheese grater
Milton sterilizing fluid

It's a long way to Kuusamo...

We had a trip planned for Dom's angling writing, to make a feature about the Kuusamo factory where they produce fishing 'spoons'. Everything had been arranged with the Director of the company and a rude awakening of 5am greeted me as we had to be on the road for 6am. The journey was mainly uneventful until the further North we went, the more vast and beautiful the scenery became.
Every time we visit Finland, we hope to see an elk or moose. Sadly this has not happened so far, but we saw the next best thing; a raindeer wandering around the road like a village drunk! We tried to get some pictures, but obviously the Finns are used to this sort of thing and beeped their horns at it. On the return journey, I saw a single raindeer laying down in a ditch by the side of the road. I hope it had not been hit by a car....
The lakes in the area are HUGE and clear and clean looking. The weather was so calm, the water looked like a mirror.
On arrival at the factory, we were greeted by the director, who took us over to meet his partner who ran the shop. Both of these people gave us such a warm and friendly welcome and had offered their home for us to stay at whilst we were there. Annukka and I got along extremely well and they prepared us a fine feast of smoked trout and risotto. Their home was beautiful and they also took us for a little tour around the town itself and showed us the sauna cottage they were building beside a lake.
The next day, Dom and I went fishing with Kimmo (the director) in his boat, that he had arranged at an old traditional Sami village. The chap who ran the place, Tuomo; was a softly spoken, friendly and gentle man. His wife prepared a superb lunch for us which consisted of locally caught whitefish, vendace and pike. I can honestly say it was the best fish we have ever tasted. Over dinner, we were told about the history of the place, which was very interesting.
I was very sad to leave Kuusamo and our new friends. Everyone had been so hospitable, kind and proud of what they had achieved and their roots within Finnish culture. We have been invited back next year, which we probably will do!
On the journey up, we were driving quite quickly and we sped past an art installation that I had been aware of from Finnish friends photographs. We promised ourselves that we would stop on the way back, which we did. As you can see from the picture, it is called 'The Silent People' () and was constructed by artist and dancer, Reijo Kela. These are wooden crosses which are clothed and have peat cuttings for heads. There are nearly 1000 of these in a field beside the road. It is quite an eerie sight. We were told by the people who maintain the installation that it was also like a big second hand clothes store and that we could change something if we wanted. There was rather a nice Vihti biker gang t-shirt, which I swapped with the one I was wearing; a band that I know very well. They are going to love it when they see the pictures!

I don't want to overthrow the Government.....

...but I would like to buy a washing machine. Finland can be an odd country for bureaucracy. They have no problem with us buying a house here, we pay our taxes and other bills. We even have a Finnish bank account! - but the most difficult thing I have found so far is trying to buy a washing machine! Because we are not Finnish citizens, we do not have the 'magic' social security numbers to ease our way through our time here. As I couldn't understand the web site, I telephoned the store that sells them. The first lady I spoke to was extremely helpful but told me the item was out of stock, although I could still order it. Unfortunately, they'll be back in stock when we leave.

I telephoned the next day, after deciding to order one and negotiating with our lovely neighbours (who's English is not there with the chap and a little with his wife) to supervise taking the delivery. I went through the options with the different woman who was not as forthcoming as the last person I had spoken to. It all went swimmingly until I asked for the bill to be sent to our UK address, so we could pay it. It all went downhill from there. She informed me that we could not make the sale because 'you do not live in Finland'. I was quiet for a time and she asked if I had understood. I said I had - but was just flabbergasted at the response! She was clearly not going to give an inch, so I gave up. Instead, I've had to ask a friend in Helsinki to order it and hold onto it for when we come next year.

So, that's the saga - now to the machine! It is known as 'pulsaattoripesukone'. It is basically a machine that uses electricity, but you put the water in yourself. We have no running water at the house and we draw water from our well by rope and bucket. In the sauna changing room is a wood burning water heater. Oh boy, does the water get hot! So you put the water in one side and start the paddles, adding the soap powder and gently placing your clothes in it. The clothes get washed and you put them in the other side of the machine to spin. Then you rinse them, let the dirty water out, replace with clean water and repeat the process for rinsing. Genius!

We witnessed this when our neighbours showed us there 40 year old Hoover pulsaattoripeskone. And they washed our clothes for us! (Thank you Teuvo & Anita!) We have always done it by hand in the past and it just wasn't cutting the mustard any longer (cheesy towels anyone?).

So, we'll have to wait until next year to give it a try; but I'm quite excited! Which is actually quite sad :)

Rainy catch up

It hammered down with rain in the evening yesterday and is continuing today. Still, I awoke to see a green finch and a great tit at the feeding table, having never witnessed a bird near it! We were going to head into the village and the Marsh/Willow tit (I've not quite discovered which on it is) that I've been trying to photograph well for weeks, was sat on the handrail to the porch steps and stayed there for ages while we looked at each other! Camera was not to hand so the opportunity was missed.

We were headed into the village because I needed to visit the 'apteekki' (chemists). Yesterday,when I went to fetch the washing in, I stood on two nails at the same time that both went through my shoe. Ow. I had to pull myself off the nails and the only antiseptic we had in the house was vodka! It did sting as I doused the areas. Hopefully I won't get lockjaw. I can't remember when my last tetanus shot was....The picture in this entry is a sculpture by the apteekki. It's a Wood Ant - and it's made of old motorcycle parts. I can't tell you what it's playing; a lyre, perhaps? Lovely though isn't it? Unusual to find something like this in a village as small as ours.

Still, even though it is raining; there is something primally reassuring about being holed up in a warm house with log fires burning, in the middle of nowhere. It's very cosy. There is still painting and wallpapering to be done upstairs, but Finnish wallpaper is very wide and the pieces I need are long, so with my painful punctured foot I can't stand on steps.

It's the football world cup. England are playing later. Even in the forest the football will still be on! D will watch it. I bought a copy of 'Mökki' magazine to translate.

The start of the Blog...

We've been here for three weeks now at our little corner of paradise in Finland. How we came to be here is a bit of a story, which I will expand on at a later date. I will also write more about what has happened this year when we return to England, as the computer we have in Finland is old and wheezes like a person with chronic emphysema.

But, today a chap turned up with a map and asked to park on our land. As we continued to talk, he informed us that the farmer that owns the surrounding land of our paradise, wants to chop lots of the forest down. The visitor rubbed his fingers together and said, 'It's all about money.' He also suggested we buy the land ourselves. I think this has come from the farmer as he tried the same thing with me last year. The visitor, Juha, looked at the map and told us it would cost about 40,000euro - which we don't have.

One of the reasons I love it here is for the peace and the nature, even having previously been a 'city girl'. I am happy for hours sat outside and watching everything being 'busy'. The birds, insects and animals going about their daily business of feeding their young, themselves, looking for shelter or a mate. As more forest gets decimated, where will they go? Or will they die? I don't want this to happen. I have no idea if we have anything rare here; but that is not the point. I don't want this spoiled.

In future, I'm hoping to expand on this blog with pictures and anecdotes of the time we spend here and the people we meet. I'm also thinking of starting to ask for donations to go towards buying the farmer out and just leaving the forest to be itself. I can't afford to do this on my own and maybe, one day, this blog will be read by people worldwide who want to help. Think about it - if 40,000 people read this and each gave their equivalent of 1 euro - that would be the forest saved. 40,000 people is not a lot in the big wide world.

I ask that if you read this, you ask a friend or two to also look, who could ask more friends and so on.And wouldn't it be cool if you knew you'd helped save wildlife from the grabbing hands of greedy people.