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...

Sodankylä, June 2020 I was waiting for it many days. In the news they promised it would come. I almost lost my hope. But then, the spring flood finally started. It was a time for a flood adventure I have always loved to experience the power of the nature. And the running water is one of the most powerful ones. It will make it's way. Where ever it want's to go. Now it didn't fit anymore in the riverbed. And started to take over the forests and fields around it. And houses of those wanting to live (too) near the river. With our bicycles we went to look for the familiar places around our city, now taken over by the rivers Jeesiö and Kitinen. It was exciting to cycle in the water. Feeling how the strong stream tried to catch our tires. Wanting to takes us with it. At some point the water went so deep That it was hard to cycle fast enough to avoid falling down. And my fatbike tires actually started to float like a pontoons. Finally, but not surprisingly, we end up swimming in th...

Okey okey, the title is exaggerating. I didn't post here a thousand pictures. I posted twelve. So no worries, this is not that long post. These pictures are from our first adventure with the sun, after the long polar night had ended. So obviously, unconsciously, all my pictures from this adventure are about the sun and the light. Meeting the sun again. After so many sunless (and in this winter case, grey cloudy days) Feels amazing. It's like seeing your dear friend after a long time.  You realize how much you have mist it. So you are just standing in the cold winter air and felling the sun rays dancing warmly on your skin. You start to smile. Feeling a moment of extreme happiness. Many people ask me, how can I live here in the north, where there is no sun in winter time. And I always tell them, that the polar night is my favorite time of the year. This might have something to do with my grim northern heritage ...

I was going to write about my holiday adventures in central Finland. But then came The Big Snowfall and powdered everything. The snowfall still continues outside my window as I'm writing this. So, obviously, we headed for a snowy adventure instead. The destination for this time was Luostotunturi (or Luosto fell). I'm working in the ski resort located there, so I'm not quite easily driving there when it's my day off. The idea came from my friend and he also offered to drive. So why not. And the day was totally worth it. At first we walked by foot, as the snowshoe trail was so used, that you didn't actually need snowshoes on it. But after a while we decided to leave the trail and headed to the unknown. There was surprisingly a lot of snow in the forest. And also surprise rocks just couple centimeters under the snow surface, ready to scratch you knee. The forest itself was calm and quiet. Snow covering...

Pyhä-Nattanen or Nattaset is a place that has been on my to-do list for a long time. Now, finally, with a little push from my friend, we went to explore the fells. It is impossible to not have heard about the place, as in Some looks like everybody has been there. This was obviously for me a reason to go there at off-season, as I don't want to be there with everybody else. First time I came across with the place in Samuli Paulaharju's book about Sompio wilderness area history (Sompio, 1939) . He is writing that Sompio is an area between two Pyhä. I knew the southern Pyhä as I had lived there for four years, but I was curious about this other Pyhä. What is it? Where is it? So we hopped in my car and started to drive north from Sodankylä. We knew that the place should be some kilometers away, but still in Sodankylä commune. As we drive more and more north and 100 km and a bit more than one ...