Following the Path

On the other side of the field there is the home forest, a path and a mighty tree..

...that used to separate the earth and the sky and hold them on their own places.

Even if the tree is over hundred years old and has no more green needles it is alive.

It is a home for many and it will take another hundred years before there is nothing left of it.

The tree just calls you to put your cheek against its bark that is so hard that it wouldn't burn in a forest fire and to tie your arms around it even if you cannot reach to touch. You feel rooted and safe.

The path leads to the home forest which was thought to be the kingdom of Hiisi, Tapio and others and where you were not allowed to harm a thing without a reason and asking a permission.

The well provides water for the forest animals and it too is a home for fauna that can be thousands of years old.

If you wash your face with the fount water you will be spireted and perky the whole year.

The path is not only used by us but by the elks and deer as well so it stays open.

On the top of the cliffs there is a white stone where it is said the snakes gathered to meet but it is not the only secret up here where people thought your sacreficies and prayers were best heard.

After the Ice Age the ground started to arise because of the upthrust, but it took thousands of years before there was nothing above the sea. This spot is about 30 metres above the sea level and down there is a hole the seal hunters made 3500-2500 years ago during the Bronze Age.

The cellar

So for the hunters and fishermen these cliffs were a safe harbour on an endless sea.

One of my favourite routes home down by the rock face...

... while she prefers the ones up.

Back safe - without that the goblins took us under the forest.. Not that I was worried.

We always come home richer than we left though hands empty like this time and she is the only one strengths left to run. What does give you the same feeling of peace & having gained?

When the time stands still on Midsummer...

These light, clear late hours of the day, when the wind goes home for the night and the next morning is almost here - I can feel summer with all my sences. Perhaps it is the magic of Midsummer or I just let go of all the worries of the world for one night.

We enjoyed the nordic Midsummer evening already yesterday when packing our boat for an over-night trip to our island Svidi. We had half an hours drive from our pier to the cliff shore where we dropped the anchor, cooked evening tea and watched the silent moments of a summer night when the sun never goes down.

The sheep that we had there every summer for five years did a good job and now the island is airy and only the ancient pines are left and strawberries, blueberries and meadows.

We followed the paths and investigated small animals of the sea, swam in the  cool water and would have stayed if not the every day tasks were waiting and the food-basket was empty - but tomorrow again if we have the weather on our side.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Midsummer Eve, raise the May pole decorated with wild flowers in the middle of our village, perhaps take few dance steps and sing the old sailor songs, taste the new potatoes and try to find nine flowers to put under the pillow - in the boat - in the evening.

Happy Midsummer!

Skepparens vik

The first brimstone and the glittering sea - perfect weather to work in the forest and by the shore! In the end of the village road there is an area called Kattlot and a tiny beach called Skepapera - Boatman's bay - that belong to our farm. We had decided to clean up the area last weekend and prepare parking for cars and boats for cottage owners.  There are people who have cottages at the near-by islands and need a place for their car and smaller boats during their stay. For us it is a way to earn and beside it a way to make people feel welcome to our village.

A lovely old school-path of our grand-mother leads through the fields and forest to Kattlot. Pellas in the back-ground and here in the front what it is left of the old 'Riihi', a drying barn of Pellas.

At right side you can see the boat harbour of Rumar and on the opposite side the old coast guard base in Fagerholm and the old pilot base in Killingholm.

Big cliffs rise high, huge old pines try to find their foothold and especially the beach had had years to grow bushes and collect litter, boats here and there and everyone parking where they had found it most suitable.

We enjoyed the work and the spring weather. We fell down trees, sawed away bigger branches, carried wood to be burnt.

We sat on the boats and warmed our lunch by the fire, had a cup of tea and watched people passing the bay with their boats and listened to the concert of birds from the forest.

Suddenly after a long winter sleep the archipelago was full of life.

And then on Sunday evening so quiet and peaceful when town-people had rushed to catch their ferries to the mainland.

In the end of the village road is also a summer restaurant and a small-boat-harbour Rumar Strand Marina. The house was originally the school of Rumar village, where for example our grand-mother learnt to read and write. The teachers were legendary and taught the village children new skills like how to find mushrooms in the forest. This was the nearest school for the children from outer archipelago and many stayed at Pellas during the school-weeks.

Ps. there are still few parking places left...

http://www.rumarstrand.com/ENGLISH/Welcome.html

Every now and then...

Every now and then we cross the bridge over to Wattkast island and village north of the main island.

During summer we fetch tomatoes and vegetables from the local green houses and in the autumn delicious apples.

This it is the fairway north of Korppoo island.

At winter-time you can see a grey heron by the salmon nets. 

The bridge is not very old, built in 2004, and before that you had to wait for the small ferry to get over.

The sign says it all...

To keep the many deer off the apple yards there must be a fence around the fields. The apple trees in their winter sleep are cut with a hard hand to concentrate on growing a good harvest - beautiful in their winter sleep.

In Wattkast there is also our favourite farm Nystu Kött where we get all the meat that we then enjoy in our table. Big cattle and Finnish sheep are grazing at the near-by meadows, the rushes and taken to the smaller islands for the summer pastures. They are keeping the old landscape open and enjoy the freedom of free graze. And the meat is fabulous, more like game in its taste.

In the middle of the village there is the may-pole and the stables where you can get riding lessons or follow the trail out in the forest. 

We often combine all this on our trip to Wattkast - it is 20 km from our place when our village Rumar is south of Korppoo and Wattkast north.

This beautiful young horse was curious about the visitors and enjoying the sunny hours out with its mother. There are little less than 30 inhabitants at the island but many summer-visitors and cabin owners - and people like us just coming to get some local groceries.

This is a link to an old tv film from the 70's about Wattkast - it was an own municipality then - that can at least be seen here in Finland, but I am not sure how it opens abroad:

http://svenska.yle.fi/arkivet/artikkelit/wattkast_i_augusti_75302.html#media=75306