My Northern Home

Our adventure to Sattasvaara hill was full of little wonders. It is wonderful to keep up crouching by interesting plants and weird mushrooms and rocks. Touch different kind of things you found. We are never too old for that! The terrain was super rocky, like most of the places here in Lapland. But I like it. And that also means here is a lot of different kind of rocks. Like in pic below! Magnetiitti or magnetite ( Fe3O4 ) is a rock-mineral and one of the main iron ores. Like the name refers, it is magnetic and I actually made a little experiment at home with a magnet from my fridge and a little piece of rock I took home. I could feel little pull between the magnet and the rock. I showed this to my geologist friend and he told me, that the blue and violet color comes from erosion by oxygen and water. So this one here is actually a rusty magnetite. How cool is this! Kalliokynsimö or Norwegian whitlow grass ( Draba norwegica ). Whitlow grasses (which are a...

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.  ...