My Northern Home

 The plan was to go for a hike. And maybe spot some new rocks to climb. And have a picnic on top of the hill, of course. As it is the harvest time in forest and berries and mushrooms are ready to pick, I packed a fabric bag and my mushroom knife, just in case we would find some. Little did we know. The warm rains had made it. The forest was full of mushrooms. And I'm not exaggerating. Like really Full Of Them. First we picked what we found, but the amount of mushrooms was so overwhelming, that in a while we grew more selective. It was hard to decide which to pick and to what direction to go for them. Eventually, the mushroom mania hit us. We end up wondering around the hill sides for five hours. This of course included long and nice picnic on the top, including, among others, carrot cake muffins and home made pizza slices. In that moment life felt just perfect. We have saying in Finland "tulee kuin sieniä sateella" Meaning, that something will "come as mushrooms in t...

Here is some of discoveries from Kiimalaki, Kaarestunturi. Same as with Sattasvaara, I wanted to separate them in to their own blog writing. As I have been trying not to make these writings too long! I manage again find some Palleroporonjäkälä ( Cladonia stellaris ), which like wikipedia says is an important lichen for reindeers to eat in wintertime. Now days though when there is too many reindeers, you can't find this lichen anywhere else, but the places which are so rocky and deep, that reindeers can't go there. I'm always so happy to see this little guy. Back in Eastern-Finland we had this a lot everywhere, but there is no reindeers so no wander why. I found also from the top of the hill a place where a lightning had struck. And then this guy. For me it little bit looks like a dragon's head with big mustaches, like with the Chinese dragon. The most interesting thing I found though, was this weird piece of bone. It was super light, s...

Kaarestunturi is a wide mountain with many peaks. Both times when i have been sitting on top of Sattasvaara, I have been looking over here and promised to myself to explore this mountain also. Now it came time to keep this promise. Like said, it's a wide mountain with many peaks, so i decided to cut this adventure in smaller pieces. From the map, I realized that I actually live now super close to Kaarestunturi on it's southern side. My plan was just to drive on bumpy little dirt roads and see, where would be good place to ditch the car and start hiking. When I found the road that was leading to the foot of the most southern peak of the mountain, I parked the car and thought, I will take just a little look while I'm here. Well, we all know what "just a little look" means. I spend nearly three hours (of course without water or any other supplies) on the field and actually climbed on top of the first peak called Kiimalak...

Sattasvaara or Sattas-hill The name translates to sand-hill, as "satta" comes from sami-language and means "a place where is a lot of sand". Highest point 515 meters from the sea level, according to my tracker. I visited here first time last winter, when it was cold and shiny day and there was a lot of snow everywhere. And have to say, that it was definitely easier to climb up there in winter time, when all the rocks where under a snow. Now the paths were really tricky and we had to look where we step instead admiring the view.  The northern wind was same as last time, a bit cold. But the sun was shining from the south, as in the last time. So we dicided to eat our sandwiches and drink tea on the door step of the old fire watchman's hut. Hut covered us from the wind and the sun warmed our bodies and souls. And of course the view is better to the south, as there is a big and not so beautiful mine on the northern side of the hill.  ...