Archipelago Winter Theraphy

Voisi kuvitella, että tänne olisi tulijoita jonoksi asti kuin Itä-Suomen lammaspaimeniksi, jos kaikki kiireen kurittamat tietäisivät, mitä ovat metsätyöt. Näin ainakin hoemme, myös asiaan vähän epäilevämmin suhtautuvalle teinipolvelle, joille puskee tenttejä ja koeviikkoja juuri, kun olisi paras savottakeli.

One way to gather the family to forest work is the bonfire meals but it is only one of the benefits. After a day outdoors, your muscles knowing why they need the rest and all the worries thought through while working, piles of wood ready to dry for the next winter and old meadows opening, it is the balance of body and mind that is the best price of all.

Yhtä kaikki olemme - lumella tai ilman - metsässä. Talven tuntomerkit on pitänyt päivittää uudelleen, niin yllätyksellisiä ovat ilmat. Ennallistamme vanhoja metsälaitumia, jotka viimeisen kuudenkymmennen vuoden aikana ovat metsittyneet ja vain muutama satunnainen kasvi, piikkilangan pätkä paljastaa vanhat lehmien kulut. Raivaamme suuren osan maata peittävistä katajista, kaadamme riukumaiset nuoret puut. Kelot ja suuret hongat saavat jäädä. Samalla syntyy ensi talven polttopuut. Nuotioeväät ovat päivien kohokohtia, kaikkien mielestä, ja saamme houkuteltua niin teinit kuin vanhanparin ainakin ihailemaan työn jälkeä.

 Maisema avartuu myös toiseen suuntaan ja on jännittävää nähdä, miten niittykasvit alkavat itää uudestaan metsänpohjan paljastuessa.

The scenary is wider and when more light gets to the forest bottom the old meadow flowers will return. The Juniper bushes covering the ground are burnt in bonfires and even if the weather gives us a suprise after another we walk over the fields to forest whenever we find time.

 Sitten heräämme taas lumiseen aamuun. Nyt eivät katajien versot erotukaan, on hyvä keli polttaa kuivuneita rankoja ja tehdä latuja.

When given snow it is time to take the skies! Once in the forest you would love to stay but the short winter days force you indoors.

Metsällä on merkillinen voima, kun sinne haluaisi jäädä, keuhkot täynnä raitista ilmaa aistit tuntuvat näkevän enemmän. Sinnittelemme viimeiseen asti, kunnes jalka kompastuu Hiisin jokaiseen ansaan ja alkaa epäillä mitä sahaa. On pakko palata sisään, lämmittämään uuneja ja asettelemaan kintaita kuivumaan. Jäsenissä tuntuu tehty työ, ja uni tulee kutsumatta. Jokaisen ajatuksen on ehtinyt ajatella, mikään ei jää mielen pohjalle.

 Ja taas herätään tippuviin räystäisiin! Kevätvalo alkaa olla huumaavaa, sillä nyt ei ulkoa malttaisi ollenkaan sisään ja iltakin on pitkä. Ensimmäiset mustarastaat nokkivat pihapöydälle tuodut omenanpuolikkaat ontoiksi. Joko on aika kerätä sukset ja luistimet? Onko ne metsässä huhkitut päivät vai nouseva mahla, kun uudet ajatukset itävät levänneessä mielessä, askel on jäntevä ja voimansa tuntoinen.

And a warm morning again - is it now time to gather the skies and skates when the first blackbirds have arrived and are enjoying the apple halves we offer on the garden table?

                                               Meistä on tullut voimanpesiä! Yhdessä tekemisiin kasvetaan, eikä sen tarvitse olla pakolla vääntämistä, kun siitä voi tehdä leikin ja ylpeyden aiheen, eikä pieni tuntipalkkakaan haittaa. Samalla ehtii kertoa monta tarinaa, kuulla piilopaikoista ja kuulostella ääniä oksilta.

Forest has made as strong! It also makes us strong together. It is good to learn how good it feels to work and work together. You can make it like a play, full of stories and observing the voices from the trees. And thinking of some pocket-money helps, too...

But the best pal in the forest is Julle the dog, always there, at least so long the picknic basket is there. Wish to be able to do this every day!

 Kaikista innokkain metsäkaveri on kuitenkin Julle, joka on taas jaksanut olla mukana työssä koko päivän. Se ottaakin varsin rennosti. Niin kauan kuin eväskoppa on riukujen päällä, ei kannata kiirehtiä kotiin. Kun tätä voisikin tehdä joka päivä! Kyllä kiittäisi mieli ja ruumis!

Treasure Hunting

No, it's not a picnic, just a break in mushroom hunting.

No coordinates because the best places are well kept secrets.

Though this time there would have been no use of the gps because it was rain that we would have needed to find the mushrooms.

Luckily we found other treasures of the forest.

Forest is rich and generous with its treasures.

Café Cecilia made me glad today!

Our first pop-up café ever was today! And we had such a great fun - both prepairing for the day and opening our home for people who popped in for a Sunday coffee and cake.

The whole family and grand-parents helped with the preparations and bakings and the closer we got the pop-day the more there were new ideas popping.

Some we had time to try out and some will have to wait for the next pop-up.

The bakings succeeded splendidly - even if our muffins became too healthy: we had forgotten the butter from the dought...

Luckily they didn't look too healthy!

The Italian chocolate cake, torta di ciaccolato is our favourite and the queen of every big celebration in our family.

The Kisses are baked according to an old recipe and are dopped in melted butter and sugar.

It was lovely to meet new people and have time to chat with old friends, and of course, tell about the house and Cecilia...

        Thank you for your visit - we had a great day!

Through the Lens

At the same time in several places in the archipelago and Turku we were wandering, looking through the lens and observing with new eyes familiar paths, roads, streets - cliffs, beaches, neighbourhoods.

First it seemed that my inner lens needed some cleaning and my artistic eye wasn't finding anything special - 

 - the road to Almas and the lovely beach of our home village Rumar had too many memories of winter sledge rides, hot long days at the beach with books and picnic baskets and magical night swims in the waves. I could see them all. 

But I truely enjoyed - the spring air and the dimmering evening sun, the brave flora raising their heads and the eager companions chatting and running, creaping and observing the small and the wide. 

And at home I realised that I had managed to catch quite a lot with my dusty lens and baggage of memories. 

It is interesting to see what the others saw and caught: 

http://www.varkultur.fi/varkultur-2012/fotovandring/ 

- our guide was Renja Leino, our local photo artist: 


http://www.renjaleino.com/

The Winter Date

I attended again an inspiring Winter Date of the Biosphere Area of our archipelago - and this year here in Korppoo at snowy and glittering Korpoström - on Friday. We were many to listen to speeches of sea and nature, tourism and small-scale food producing, and writing down ideas and new ways to see the life here.

Equally inspiring is always to meet other people from all over the archipelago, see friends and notice how many there are who have the same kind of thoughts about the environment, our beautiful archipelago and every-day life here.


We had a dinner together and sat in long tables while the evening light outside on the icy sea was darkening. We tasted the menu of ContemporaryArt in the Archipelago - CAA -  from last summer made of carp bream sandwiches and forest mushroom kornetto - a risotto made of barley.

During summer time it is only a short boat trip from our village harbour to Korpoström, you can almost see it behind the trees on the right...

The culmination of the evening was a short-film made by Lotta Petronella about everyday life in the archipelago during winter-time. She had interviewed a female ferry pilot, children who travelled to school by a boat  two hours every Monday and returned home again on Friday, a local baker, a farmer etc. And they all had their own view about life in here but had in common a deep love for this place. I was touched - because I knew many of them and because I admired their guts and because I recognized their thoughts. 

What is my everyday life like in the archipelago? What do I  need to know and what skills do I need to be able to live here? Or you...?  I'll continue thinking of the questions, but the special feature of living here is that 
you don't want to leave...


People and places from our archipelago - pay a visit:


Janne Gröning -Moving to the archipelago was the best that has happened to me. www.archipelagophoto.com 
Lovely Nötö and http://www.majatalobackaro.com/en/
www.suurenmoinensaaristo.fi - partners of the PAN Parks organization
www.aaltojenalla.fi - about the Baltic Sea in Finnish
and also in English: www.itameriportaali.fi 
And the beautiful photos underwater: http://finland.fi/Nature_Environment/vedenalainen/index.html 
Korpoström, an ancient harbour and a modern centre of the archipelago: http://www.skargardscentret.fi/index_en.html 
and Katja and her work at the: www.skargardshavetsbiosfaromrade.fi 


and come then to meet us alive - 
maybe you want to stay, too...

A Day at the Continent..

Every now and then we have to leave our escape and visit the mainland with a long list of to-do's and shoppings. Today was one of those days. We wake up early and to make it all the way to Parainen, Pargas -  one and a half hours journey and two ferries - we always have with us sandwiches that we eat at the second ferry between the island of Nauvo and Parainen. And newspapers, make-up-bag to make full use of the 5 minutes crossings and sometimes tea in a thermos if we are really early.

"If you lived here, you would be at home already..." Wellcome to Korppoo!

The journey is beautiful - old oak forests, hills, bridges over to new islands. We try to see sea-eagles and at this time of the year count christmas trees. The narrow archipelago road is winding. Everyone living here carries a timetable of ferries in the car and you can guess that the next one is soon to be leaving when people start driving faster... If you have a red permit card at the window you get to drive in first - we don't so sometimes we have wait for the next one if the ferry gets too full.

One of the high-points of our busy day at the continent is the choosing of the lunch place - some people just feel happy when listening to their stomach. Today after visiting the bank, library, hard-ware-store, supermarket... my husband said he knows perfect place to eat near there. I first thought it must be a joke. No restaurant in Finland can be called The Golden Elk, Kultainen Hirvi. It did, and it was a lovely place with good food and friendly service - many Finnish meals like the baltic herrings fried in butter with mashed potatoes that I had today. So we recommend!

http://www.kultainenhirvi.fi/?o=0&k=2&s=0

On a Big Ferry!

For such a short distance we have dashing ferries - from Turku to Stockholm. At this side of the bay we call them the Sweden boats and on the other side they are called the Finland boats because of their destination. We decided to have an overnight-cruise between the two countries last weekend with the children.

Turku harbour early on Saturday morning

The both archipelagoes are lovely, first with old wooden villas by the sea and then islands where the vegetation gets fewer the more we reach the open sea, until they turn to bare cliffs. 

We got a climps of Mariehamn by the harbour, the capital of Aland islands at a brief stop there and then  the evening lights of Stockholm before taking some passangers and turning back.

Inside the ferry Amorella we had a luxurious buffét-table - this time with a hint of autumn and x-mas menus - and had a lot of fun trying the bingo-game (won a new cruise..), following the karaoke and Isak at the ball pit. 

After the Tax-free-shop we all had a cloud of perfume around us and favourite chocolates for the coming x-mas holidays. 

A ferry over from Nauvo to Korppoo on Sunday morning

When returning in the morning to Turku and on our way to Korppoo a frozen white archipelago was waiting for the home-comers.