Travelog for: Crawfish

Hyvää huomenta, rakas Sanny! 
Hip hei, siblings at home! How are you doing? Is my car all right? It better be!

Here we don´t have a car in our use, which is a shame, because it limits the range of places we reach.
Every time some friend of Henna´s is going somewhere by car, we try to push along.

So, one day we got a lift to the small town of Inkoo.



We drowe to Inkoo in about half an hour, and ended into the harbour of small boats.
Henna´s friend has a boat there, and he had to paint its bottom.



The paint was too strong for our heads. We all started to feel dizzy and see odd animals, so Henna ushered us to walk on the harbour area.



We saw some interesting boats and smelled the fresh sea air, and pinched some ladders so that people who were doing some spring renovations in their boats were soon shouting angrily, unable to get down. 



It is a rather small harbour, and soon we had seen it all, so we walked to see abit more of the town of Inkoo.
Henna was shourting after us "Don´t go too far, and be aware of the cars and the sea and the river and bif dogs.."
"Uh, ok" we said and run away.



Inkoo is one of the oldest towns in Finland, but it must be also one of the smallest.
There is about 5000 inhabitants, but most of them live in the countryside around.
The church is one of the oldest too. Its oldest part is from the 13th century.

Beside the church the "city center" consisted of a supermarket, a bank, a library and two pubs. 



Behind the church we found a local museum.On its yard was a group of hostile aboriginals - local teenagers with their mopeds, drinking beer and trying to look scaring.
We made faces to them and they run away, screaming. 



The museum was shut, but we were watching the old farm buildings and empty bottles the youngsters had left lying everywhere.



Most inhabitants of Inkoo (Ingå) speak swedish. The name of the town is probably originally a mocking name given by the inhabitants of the nearest town, Siuntio (Sjundeå)
The name of the town Siuntio means "Sjunde å" = the seventh river (counted from Turku), and the name of Inkoo means "Ingen å" = Not even a river, because the river running through the town is so small.



Here it is, Inkoo river, not even a river.



We were admiring an old windmill, but then we had really seen everything there was to see in Inkoo. 

We loitered back to the harbour, and saw Henna and her friend still painting the bottom of the boat and seeing odd animals, and so we went and stole Henna´s friends car. 
They didn´t notice anything.



We drove to Fagervik (what do you mean -how ? I was steering, of course, and Zoe was shouting commands to bro Casanova, Momo, Racko and Horatio, who were hopping on the gas and break pedals. No problemo. )
Anyway, it was about 15 kilometers to Fagervik, and we only bumped once against a light pole.



Here is the Fagervik Rokoko style mansion house from the year 1773.
It was the home of the family who owned the Fagervik blast furnace and iron works, which were built here on the 17th century.



Here is the church, which was used by the workers and owners of the iron smithy.
Many of the workers were originally from France. They were huguenots and persecuted in their own home country because of their Lutheran belief.
As they were skilled smiths, they were called to work and live in Fagervik, were they and their families formed a small and tight society.

With them came the first potatoes into Finland in about 1720. 



We walked watching the old industrial buildings, and imagined the sounds and smells three hundred years ago. 
The machinery was of course working with the water power and wood.



I was trying to find what products they actually were producing here, but I didn´t find much information. They just say "iron products", and that can mean whatever. 



Nowadays Fagervik is a popular place to come and spend beautiful summer days.
The mansion and the church are still owned by descendants of the original family, although the iron works was shut down in 1903.
They are keeping part of the buildings open on some days during the summer, and renting the church for weddings.






We had soon seen everything, and hurried back to Inkoo, before Henna and her friend would notice the car was missing..

Hah, they had not noticed anything! We were just smiling angelically and told them we had been sitting in the Inkoo church.
Can you believe they swalloved it?! I thing the paint was really too strong and their brains had started to melt.

Don´t tell them!   
Many kisses from Crawfish!

Hello again, dear Sanny, siblings (and other relations) and friends! <3




I know you want to hear news about our kitchen garden! 
It is growing well, although a bit slowly, because the summer has been very cold and rainy (even more so than it normally is in Finland, Zoe is telling me).
The good side of it is that we don't need to water it so often. 



But now I'm telling you about one day when we were playing behind our cottage, where there runs a small brook.

"Where does this brook run to?" I asked from Zoe.
"Better let's find out!" she answered.
Everybody agreed, and so we started to follow it. 



We run after the brook through a forest area, hopping over stones and fallen trees, and it lead us out from the forest and through a wide field landscape.



The sky over the fields looked rather promising. 
So we were happy the brook took us back into the forest again.



We were covering under the trees while a hailstorm passed over us.
Here! Do you see? A hailstorm could be dangerous for a little toyvoyager - the ice balls were the size of my feet! 



The brook turned into a small lake, and the sun came out a bit.
We sat on the shore, and Henna told us there had been a village next to the lake, but it had disappeared in the 1960's, because there was a plan to build a rail road on it's place.



Soon we found proofs of the existence of habitation - all sort of trash was still laying around where the houses had been.

These are parts of some field machinery.



There was also a wreck of a car. 



And the remains of a once fine bike. 



I felt a bit sad for the bike, but it told me not to. "In my times I was running thousands of kilometers, and now it feels just good to rest in the forest and to turn into part of it", it said. 



Our brook was growing a bit faster now.
There was smaller brooks coming to join it every now and then, and it was growing in size too. 



I found some very funny mushrooms in the forest.
They looked like little bowls or cups.
Maybe they are used by the various spirits living in the forests here.



Our brook decided to turn into a lake again, a bit bigger this time.

Henna told us that thousands of years ago this lake had been part of a long fjord, which run from the sea deep into the area which now is known as Nuuksio.
The little brook we are following had also been part of it.
When the land was rising the fjord slowly turned into lakes and a river. The river (which now is our little brook) had been big enough to sail along still some hundred years ago.. 






Our brook dived out from the lake again, and it was running faster than ever!
We could here it giggling with joy, and it was like it was in a hurry to get into some pleasant happening forward.
What could it be? 



The brook grew into a small river, and it started to gurgle instead of giggling!






The river started to rrrrumble and we understood it was turning itself into a rapid!
So, that´s why it was in a hurry! 



"Jiihaaaaaa! I love to become a rapid!" it was shouting. And we were shouting too, for joy.



Anyway, decided not to walk 20 more kilometers to the seashore with the river, but to walk back home instead.



I enjoyed following the little brook which turned into lakes, river and rapid. 
I wish you liked it too!

Yours, Crawfish 

Kukkeli kuu! 

I'll show you photos from the Raasepori castle ruins we visited one day when we had managed to pinch a car again.
We are getting quite good at it, the car pinching, I mean.

So, we drowe to Raasepori, which is about 40 kilometers towards west from Nuuksio.
The trip went well. Zoe was shouting commands, I was steering, and bro Casanova, Racko, Momo and Horatio were jumping on the gas and break pedals.
Sadly we caused some road accidents. But it wasn't our fault. What can we do if other driwers are so stupid they don't see driwers under 15 centimeters tall and imagine our car is driwing by itself? 



Here is the Raasepori castle, or what is left of it.
It was built by the Swedish invaders on the 14th century onto an island, to guard the main water route along the coast line against competing invaders.

The sea level became lower over time due to postglacial rebound (don't I know fantastical expressions?), and it became increasingly difficult to approach the castle by boat. This is one of the main reasons why the castle lost its importance in the 16th century.



In normal language: the land rised so much the castle nowadays sits deep inland, so it cannot very well guard any coastal routes. 

We climbed inside the castle walls, and there we found an information board.



It was showing what kinds of rooms there had been inside the castle.
Now there wasn't much left, but we made a tour inside anyway. 



Henna told us how Swedish and Danish forces and Estonian and Carelian pirates were fighting over the control of the castle several times during the Middle Ages.

It wasn't of course only the castle they were fighting for - the area of Finland was invaded by Swedes and Danes and by who knows whom - they were fighting over the right to tax the inhabitants, who just wanted to live in piece inside their forests. 



Besides controlling the coast line,  the castle was administrative center of the province of Western Uusimaa.

The mighty castle on the sea shore opposite Revel (Tallinn) city could also control the important trade-route form Lübeck to Novgorod. There was significant custom point and revenues were very big.



"In the middle of the 15th AD viceroy Karl Knutsson Bonde kept his court in the Castle some time. In 1528 the administrative center of the province was moved to Ekenäs (Tammisaari). After that the period of decline of the castle began. It was abandoned in 1550 and was forgotten for more than 300 years."

Watching the ruins and the walls, which are actually only an empty peel of what once has been a mighty castle, it was very hard for me to imagine any "viceroy" living here with his court. 



We were doing our best, and added, in our imagination, plank floors and richly decorated rooms between the stone walls, dudes sipping beer in long wooden tables, virtuous damsels playing lyres and less virtuous damsels flirting with the dudes. 



Henna was telling us that the castle had wide fields and lots of cows on the surrounding countryside, and of course huge working power to serve the noble bimbos in the castle.
There was bakeries, breweries, fishermen, cooks, cupbearers and butchers just to feed them.
The farmers were forced to work certain amount of days for the castle for free, and they were also made to build the castle.

No wonder there were many farmer revolts and uprisings in those times.



We got back outside again - we had got enough of the castle.
It seemed to us that it didn't represent much else than history of oppression and class society forced over people living in natural democracy. Bah!



Good bye! It is much better to live in forest! 

See you again soon!
Your rebellion

Hyvää päivää, kaikki ystäväni! 
= Good day, all my friends!

I'm learning Finnish quite fast here in Finland, and I´ve decided it is time rest of the world learns it too, because it is a wonderful language with 15 noun cases.

Anyway, I'm going to use some Finnish phrases in my every update, so my readers can repeat them 10 000 times per day until they have learned them by heart. I can't even imagine how excited you all must be! 



We stayed some days in Helsinki, taking care of Henna's mothers cats. Kissa = cat
This one in the picture is called Nalli, and she is a very self-secure creature, who loves her infra red pointing toy over everything else. She didn't care a shit of us tv:s, which was probably good.

The other cat, Miilu, is a very shy black cat, who was saved from the street in Tallinn, Estonia, as a baby.
She doesn't trust everybody else than Henna's mother, so I don't have a photo of her.



Besides taking care of the cats, it was our task to feed seagulls, who have their nest on the roof opposite to Henna's mothers kitchen window.
They had two little fluffy, grey, spotted, seagull babies in  the nest on the roof, and we were throwing food for the parents every morning and evening, which is, of course, strictly forbidden by the city rules. 
But who can resist spotted, fluffy little seagull babies?  Not us!
Lokki = seagull



Henna's mother has already some experience of visiting toyvoyagers - so she had loaded the place full of good things to eat!
What a valiant and understanding lady! 



We wanted to be polite and show our total approval, and ate everything!
What do you mean "that wasn't the only reason"? 



Henna's mother collects old dolls. She also makes them herself. There must be some hundreds in her home. 

We were mingling with them a bit. Can you spot us? 
Nukke = doll



We also loaned some of the doll's toys. They didn't mind. 



Soon we had got enough of being inside - we're not used to it - I don't know how those dolls can stand it!
I asked from them, and they said it is "quite pleasant to be sitting here, having tea parties and discussing our new clothes".
Crying out loud.
We went out!



We walked past Hietalahden Kauppahalli market hall, which is just round the corner.
It was opened in 1903.



Next we walked to watch over the Hietalahden Satama harbour area.
Still some years ago this was an important industrial center - here was the famous Wärtsilä shipyard.
It still exists, but the ship building has diminished, and part of the industrial area is going to be turned into very posh living areas.



Still some hundred years ago this whole area had a somewhat murky reputation.
Most inhabitants were shipyard workers and other working class people. There were also some factories, like the Sinebrychoff brewery.
In the time of Russian rule there were some brothels and gaming dens and cheep hostels for the sailors.
The members of the upper class didn't enter the area at all, at least the female population. The men sneaked here quite often. 



This tower stands in middle of a park, which was originally the private park of the wealthy Sinebrychoff family, who owned the breweries.
It was turned into a public park in the 1960's.
It was originally ten times bigger, but the habitation has been slowly eating it away.
It was planned to be totally demolished, but a strong popular movement in the 1980's saved the park. 



We walked through the neighbouring part of town called Eira.
This was built in the beginning of the 20th century. Before that it was a remote, countryside-like area with some summer villas of the wealthy Helsinki families, and otherwise mainly little cottages of the fishermen families.



Nowadays it consists mainly of beautiful Jugend style houses. Many embassies are situated in this area.



This is nowadays one of the most expensive areas in whole Finland.
Had the fishermen just knew it two hundred years ago! 



We came into a beautiful park between the houses, and walked around admiring it a bit. 



The syringas and rhododendrons were in their most glorious bloom. 



There was a nice path over which the syringas were making a tunnel, and in the bottom of it there was a quite horrible bird bath. 



There were some birdies taking a bath, and sis Zoe spent quite a good time peeping on them through the bushes. 



Our walk took us to Mannerheimintie, and soon we saw the famous statue of three blacksmiths.



Here it is - Kolmen sepän patsas = statue of three blaksmiths.
It is one of the most popular things in Helsinki for tourists to take photographs with, but for example some muslim women living here cannot even walk past it, because they don't want to see dudes in the nudd. 






Next to the naked smiths is the Stockmann department store, which, in its time, was the biggest department store in Europe.
It was opened in the 1920´s, and it was the first building in Finland with escalators. 



We walked slowly along the streets, and watched the windows.
I met a relation in a pet shop window.



A nasty statue in Aleksanterinkatu street tried to eat me! 
Luckily I hadn't taken a bath for a week.




We still walked a bit in the harbour area before heading back to spend the evening with the boring dolls. 



There was a wonderful mist over the water. 

See you soon again! = Nähdään pian!
Kisses from Crawfish! 

Hellurei, rakas Sanny, siskot, veljet, serkut, ystävät ja oma punainen autoni!  (= Hi, dear Sanny, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends and my own red car!

Today I show you photos from a walking trip we started in Leppävaara, Espoo, and ended in Tarvo island in Helsinki.



Here I'm walking past Albergan kartano manor house.

The now existing house was built in 1870's, and it is called as Sokerilinna (sugar castle), because it's builder was the owner of a sugar factory, and it is built mainly of the wood get from the wood boxes the sugar was shipped in to Finland. 




We walked from Leppävaara through Perkkaa, along small earthen roads. We saw a sign hanging on a post, saying "children's hut building camp", and followed the sign.

There were no kids around at the moment, but there were various different huts. 



The huts were build from different materials - planks and branches, reeds and moss. No nails were used - all the peaces were put together by using strings, which is great, since some of the huts were up in the trees. 



Nowadays kids have less possibilities to run freely around in the forests, so I think it is very nice they can at least build their huts on this kind of camps. 



We left the earthen roads and continued along small paths, which circulate on the shore line.
The shores were full of reeds, and there were many water birds nesting amongst them.
We sat for awhile on a cable drum brought there to serve as a beach chair. 



We crossed two nice bridges.
There were some people fishing from the bridges. 



We had reached the Tarvonsaari island and went to see the museum of the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

This is Tarvaspää, his atelier home, which he planned and built in 1912, in which was then a long distance away from everything. 




Gallen-Kallela is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work was considered very important for the Finnish national identity.

I saw some beautiful works. This one is called Ad Astra (Into stars), and it pictures "resurrection - spiritual rising from temporal to eternal    consciousness" said Gallen-Kallela. It is from the year 1907.



This is his painting Karhunputki (Angelica Sylvestris) from the year 1889.
I liked them both a lot. 



This painting symbolizes the shortness and temporality of human life, and the circle of life and death.



There was a very nice café in the museum.
We were having blueberry pie with coffee. 



On the yard was a statue with a Kalevala theme - The Giant Pike. 
We were admiring it and then we loitered again to the sea shore.



There were some small fish swimming near the shore, and somehow, I don't know exactly how, we just ended into the water too! 



Henna was clucking like a worried hen (sorry, bro Squab!) and told us to remember what happened to Tuli and stay near the shore. 



The water was warm and wonderful!
We were enjoying laying in it, and discussing about whether it was anything so horrible that happened to Tuli.. she joined an orgy in a river called "Vine river" and found a charming boyfriend, it seems. So? 



I rather think I wouldn't mind an orgy myself in a Vine river.. but I would not stay there forever however charming a fellow I would find! Sis Zoe agreed. But frogs are a bit different.. 



After couple of hours of floating around Henna told us to get back on dry earth before we would grow fins.






Then we sat in the sun, drying our furs, feathers or scales. Henna said we smelled funny, and that we should soon take a proper bath.

See you soon again!
Love from Crawfish! 

Hello, my dears at home! I wrote you a poem:

It's raining like hell
which suits us well
All the worms are on the road
and me and Zoe and a fat toad.

Yours, Crawfish 

Kukkuu! 

Today I'm telling you about Finnish Juhannusaatto (Midsummer Eve).
It is, with Christmas, the most important celebration of the year.
In pagan times it was celebrated as the Wedding of the Sun (Aurinko). 

The Finnish towns empty for Juhannus, because about everyone goes somewhere in the countryside - either into their own summer cottage or into somebody else's summer cottage, or to tenting - the main thing is to be somewhere near the nature. 



We started out Juhannus celebration by swinging.
Besides being fun, it was originally part of the rituals.
The swinging symbolizes the travel of the Sun over the seas in her boat.(Yes, the Finnish Sun was female)(naturally - who on earth would think the sun as a masculine? Hah!  )



In the past Juhannus was a communal celebration. The whole village gathered to spend it together.
Most villages had big wooden swing constructions, called kyläkiikku (village swing). In them was room for example six or eight people to swing together. 



We don't have a kyläkiikku here, so we hanged these small swings between two trees for Juhannus. 

There has been a kyläkiikku in ancient times on a nearby hill here, called Ilomäki (the Joy Hill). 



Zoe was teaching us a Juhannus Keinulaulu (swinging song), and we were singing it while swinging.

"Heilu keinuni korkealle                    Fly high, my swing
Nythän on Juhannusilta                    It is Midsummer Eve
Mesimarja paistaa                              The arctic brambles are shining
Ja tuomi tuoksuu                        and the  bird cherries smell wonderfull
Ja kuulas on taivahan silta.                The bridge of the sky is clear.

Heilu, keinuni, korkealle                    Fly high, my swing
Linnut ne laulavat häitä                    the birds are singing weddings
Minä olen nuori kuin päivänkukka      I'm young as an oxeye daisy
En muistele suruja näitä.                    I don't reminisce sorrows.

Heilu, keinuni, korkealle                    Fly high, my swing
Rintani riemuja laulan                        I sing my inner joy
Kedon helyt                                      I pick the trinkets of the meadows
kullalle kuiskien poimin                      whispering to my love
ja solmin sen vihreän paulan.            and bind them into a green band." 




We also picked trinkets of the meadows (wild flower) and out them on our heads, as is the custom. 

After swinging and singing to our hearts's content, it was time to go to Juhannussauna.



The sauna was heated up to about 70 Celsius degrees, and we were bathing in cool water, smelling of fresh birch leaves and wild mint, which were sprinkled onto the water. 



We were leaning back, shutting our eyes and relaxing, enjoying the combination of the hot steam and the cool water enclosing us into a soft womb. 

The Finnish sauna is not only a place to wash ourselves. It is also a holy space to clean ourselves spiritually.
In Juhannus we clean ourselves to be ready to take part into the wedding joy of the Sun. 



It was time to sit into the Juhannus table.
There is no any traditional Juhannus food. Mainly it was about drinking.. 
Nowadays it is usally food made on barbecue or more simply, anything you can put on a fire in tip of a stick (sausages, corn ears..)



We concentrated into drinking, as proper traditionalists. 






Between drinking we were dancing.

In pagan times Juhannus was one of the times of the year when "Wives were maidens". It meant that on certain times of the year everyone was considered single, not bound to monogamity by marriage. 



So, in Juhannusyö (Midsummer Night) everyone could take part of the wedding joy of the Sun by sneaking into the bushes or into a hay barn with some attractive companion.
This was also a ritual, which was contributing to the overall fertility of the fields, animals (and humans, hah). 

This was also a way to make sure every woman in the society had a possibility to become pregnant, even if the husband happened to be infertile.



I'm not quite sure if we took part into that ritual or not.
My memory seems to be a bit affected by all the mead an singing. 






At midnigh it was time to lit the juhannuskokko (Midsummer pyre).
It is often built on a raft anchored in a lake or in the sea, but we had ours just on the yard. 



There was a custom to hop over the fire in Juhannus. It symbolized a bit different things in different times.
It could be the purifying fire of the holy feast, hopping over which people get purified, or it could symbolize the barrier, the boundary line between the worlds, which was possible to cross on special times, of which Juhannus was one, or it could also work as the ritual fire over which a couple hopped hand in hand, after which they were married. 

We were just wondering the sparks rising towards the sky and singing.



When the fire started to die down it was time to go to bed.
We took the wild flowers from our heads and put them under our pillows to see our future husbands or wives in a dream.

I don't tell you what I saw. 

See you soon!
Kisses from Crawfish!

Hei taas! (Hi again!)
Terveisiä Suomesta! (Greetings from Finland!)

I wish you're all having an enjoyable summertime! Well, you in Australia of course are having a winter time, but I wish it is good anyway. 

Our Finnish summer is delightful - full of rain and mosquitoes!
But, every now and then we see the sun, and I eat the mosquitoes, ha ha ha. 



Here is our little cottage in middle of the summer glory of the nature.
Henna calls this place a small heaven.
The cottage is so old that it doesn't actually feel like anything made by human hands - it is more like something just grown up from the earth, like a mushroom or something. 



There are various flowers growing round the cottage. Some of them are planted by Henna, bur some of them have grown there maybe a century.
These tulips (Queen of night) Zoe planted here some years ago.

The animals like the cottage too.
An owl lives in the attick, and so does a family of bats. How do they find each other as neighbours, I dont know.
Under the eaves are two nests of Pied Flycatchers, and guess what! We found out that it is the same male with TWO familes in different nests!  We have been trying to hide this fact from little Horatio..



These roses are very old. They are called Juhannusruusu (Midsummer rose) because they usually bloom on midsummer, not in this year, though, they are a bit late because the summer has been cold.
Henna says they should be cut so they would make more flowers, but Zoe says Henna says that every summer, and the roses are never going to be cut, because they have been growing according to their own will for hundred years, so let them grow.. 



The old field grows wild too.
It was in the 1960's when there was a crop growing last time on this field. A neighbour kept here his horse few years ago, that's why it has not turned back into forest. 



On those days when it is not raining we have to water our kitchen garden.
That is ok, but the weeding can be tedious task in middle of the mosquitoes.
We lit little fires round the garden, and put wet leaves onto the fire, so that they form lots of smoke, to keep the blood lusty beasts away, but that is not quite enough.
So last time I, Zoe and Horatio were eating mosquitoes as fast as we could, while bro Casanova, Momo and Racko were doing the weeding, but can you imagine they were complaining it was not fair that they did all the work while we were just eating! What ingratitude! 



Our onions have grown well, but the other plants are suffering from the exceptionally cool weather and lack of sun, so they are still very small.
Let's see if we get any kind of crop! 



Our greenhouse plants we have to water every day, of course.
We do it in turns, although bro Casanova never needs to do his turn unless he really wants to!  There are always some eager girls ready to do it on his behalf. Last time it was a young squirrel who lives on a spruce next to our well.



I like the work. It is nice to feed the plants and put sticks and strings to support them if needed, and to see them growing from day to day.
Besides, there're always lots of worms and plant lice to take care of. 






Henna has her own bigger greenhouse, but it rather an odd looking construction, because she made it herself from wooden bars and plastic tarpaulin.
Sometimes I help her there too, because she lets me grow my pumpkin there. 



Here I'm in Henna's greenhouse helping her to tighten the string supports of the tomatoes. 



And here is my pumpkin! The first flower has just opened! 



I was growing them inside the cottage for some weeks, because it was so cold!
I only brought them here a bit before Midsummer, and still they are late, but maybe there's hope still, let's see! 



Well, this was all I wanted to show you this time, but see yo soon again!

Your Crawfish! 

Terve taas! (Hullo again!) 

We spent again some days in Helsinki, taking care of Henna's mother's two cats.
While not cleaning cat potties or feeding the little beasts, we had time to walk around the town and to watch more sights, emblematic to Helsinki.I'm now going to share them with you, if you want or not. 



While leaving the apartment and walking towards the town center, we walked past this wooden church.
It is called Vanha Kirkko (The Old Church), and it is in middle of a small park, which was originally a graveyard for the victims of the 18th century pestilence.

Doesn't sound a nice place to hang, but it is a very popular spot to spend sunny days. 
This summer we don't have any.

We went into the church too, but there was a young couple rehearsing  for their wedding with a priest, so we felt awkward to take any photos. 



Near the church we saw the statue of Elias Lönnrot.
He was one of the guys, who trotted round the forests in Eastern Finland and Karelia, collecting the folk poetry, which later was published as "Kalevala".



Next to Lönnrot sits Väinämöinen, the legendary shaman character in the old poetry.

This is one of the statues in Helsinki most preferred by the pigeons and other birds as a nice platform to rest. So it has to be cleaned once a year.  (It is good sis Zoe cannot fly).



We came to Kamppi area, and saw Hiljaisuuden kappeli (Chapel of Silence), which is also build of wood.



The chapel was built 2012, and it is meant to anyone who wants to escape the noise and hurry of the town for a moment, and to sit in peace.

The shape of the chapel imitates an egg - the egg of the Sotka (common goldeneye - Bucephala clangula) from which the universe was born according to old Finno Ugric religion. 



Inside it really is very peacefull and comfy, like inside an egg, I imagine.
I asked Zoe, but she says she doesn't remember her egg-time so well. 



We walked past Finlandia talo culture and congress center.
It is very famous building, and thousands of tourists go to see it every year for some reason I don't understand, because, come one, it looks like a swimming hall and is boring as hell. 
Ok ok, it was built by a famous architect Alvar Aalto, and it seems to be a groundbreaking building stylishly, but I must say I'm sorry this kind of ground was ever broken. 



We walk also past Kansallismuseo (National museum).
Maybe we could go there in one of these rainy days we have so many here. But not today. 



This building is also nowadays a museum, called Hakasalmen huvila (Villa of Hakasalmi).
It was originally the summer villa of a very wealthy family, outside the town and on the shore of a bay.
The town was growing, and when the railroad was built, part of the bay was dried.



Then we saw the Musiikkitalo music hall and the sculpture called Hauen Laulu (Song of a pike) on its yard.
The sculpture is made after a poem by Finnish poet Aaro Hellaakoski.
The poem tells about a pike, who rises into the top of a pine to taste red cone and to sing. 




We walked towards South along the Esplanadi boulevard. The weather had turned suddenly sunnier, and we were so amazed by it we almost forgot to walk, just stand there gaping in the sudden light. 



In the Esplanadi park we met the Finnish National Poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg.
He was the chap who wrote for example the poem "Maamme" (Our land), which was later turned into the national anthem.

In February the Finns are eating Runbergin torttu tarts, which were invented by the poet's wife Frederika.
It seems the poet had a sweet tooth. He would fit well into our company! 






Next we met another, very nice statue, called Aallottaret (feminine water spirits).
It was sculpted by Victor Jansson, Tove Jansson's father. He used Tove as model for this Aallotar.
I have to admit I and Zoe were more interested into the fish she was holding under her arm. 



It made us rather hungry, the fish, and we tried to gnaw it, but it was too hard.
First the big pike singing and now this!
There's some limits to our suffering, just saying.



We came to Kauppatori market square.
Until the end of the 18th century on the place of the market square were the docks of the fishing boats, from which the fishers were selling their catch.
The proper market place was on those times on the square, where the Lutheran Cathedral was later built.
1812 the new Kauppatori was opened.



Kauppatori is open the whole year round, although it is understandably more popular in summer time. 
They sell here Fruit and vextables, mushrooms, fish, food, souveniers and handicrafts.



Behind the square is Presidentin linna Presidential Palace, one of the official residences in Helsinki of the President of the Republic of Finland.
It is there they have the Independence Day Ball, which is a very important happening in Finland, which glues about 3 million Finns in front of their TV:s (televisions, I mean, not toyvoyagers) every year, to criticize the dresses of the people who have got invitation to the ball. 



On the Kauppatori square stands Keisarinnankivi memorial. It was erected 1835 to honor tsarina Aleksandra, wife of czar Nikolai I, who visited Helsinki that year.



We walked along the shore, past many sightseeing boats, to see Vanha Kauppahalli, the old market hall.



The hall was opened 1888. Main reason to build the hall was the need to control more the sometimes wild life in the market square, where bootleggers, prostitutes and pickpockets were horrifying the decent citizens. 



In the beginning there was about 120 sellers in the hall, nowadays there is about 30. Supermarkets have of course eaten the popularity of the market halls everywhere.



We went in to see what they were selling.
There was a throng of people, mainly tourists.






There were many fish sellers. 
The wonderful smell of fish was drawing me like a strong magnet towards the counter. I could see Zoe too, moving like in hypnosis, towards the fish.



Before we even realized, we were both sitting amongst the fish, eating away as fast as we could.  It must be the famous animal magnetism, cannot explain it any other way.

Anyway, after two and half salmon we were found out and then we were all running like hell. Luckily we are so small it was rather easy to disappear amongst all the people in the market square. 



When the angry shouting died down, we sat a bit down, to digest the salmon, and watched the old sailing ship and the ferris wheel on the Katajanokka shore. 



Then we walked to see the Havis Amanda statue next to Kauppatori.



Havis Amanda was sculpted by Ville Vallgren and erected 1908.
Havis Amanda is a mermaid who stands on seaweed as she rises from the water, with four fish spouting water at her feet and surrounded by four sea lions. Vallgren's intention was to symbolize the rebirth of Helsinki.
The model for the statue was a then 19-year-old Parisian lady, Marcelle Delquini, and the respectable people of Helsinki were shocked about a "Parisian prostitute being brought to show her nudity shamelessly to everyone".  The sea lions, with their human tongues hanging out, were said to represent men lusting after the mademoiselle.



Every year on Vappu (20.4), Manta serves as a centrepiece for the celebrations. Students of the local universities put a cap on the statue in an elaborate ceremony.

There is also an urban legend that Havis Amanda patronizes men's sexual potency. Some men believe that washing one's face with water from one of Havis Amanda's fountains and shouting thrice "Rakastaa!" (To love!) increases men's sexual ability. 
We were keeping bro Casanova away from the water, into which he tried to jump. 

We visited still some more sights, but I have to show those to you in my next update. 
A big salmon-smelling hug from Crawfish! 

Titityy, everyone! 
How are you all? I'm loving all the humidity of Finnish summer.

Now I have some time to show you the rest of the Helsinki sight seeing photos. 



We start in Helsinki päärautatieasema (central railway station).
The railway station was built on a former sea bottom, and the area was mucky and stinking swamp. 
The whole area had to be ditched and piled with wooden poles, and stone and sand was driwen to turn the earth more solid.
Still many people were sure the whole railway would sink. 




The station building was designed by Eliel Saarinen, and inaugurated in 1919, and it was pretty famous in those times.
It has been chosen among the 10 most beautiful station buildings still in 2012, 2013 and 2014.



The lanterns are hold up by Light Bearers, designed by Emil Wikström.




This is where the trains leave everywhere in Finland, St Petersburg and Moscow. 



We walke away from the station, but I took still a photo of its tower. 



We stopped for a while to watch the Helsinki trams run past. This is one of the most modern ones.



We saw the statue of marshal Mannerheim, although I could as well call it the statue of Käthy, who is the horse.

The guy Mannerheim was the sixth president of Finland, and the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army during the wars.

Kathy was his last horse. 
Behind the statue is the Helsinki modern art museum Kiasma.




We went to see the Lutheran Cathedral.
There was an international gymnastics happening going on, and the stairs of the cathedral were full of people watching the show. 



We climbed the stairs too, and saw too fine performances by the groups of Italy and Israel. 



The Israel's group did a very acrobatic show - it looked more like circus than traditional gymnastics.

The Italian show was very pompous with flying flags and scenes from the high points of Italian history. 



We turned to watch the cathedral itself.
It was so radiantly white in the sun, that it almost hurt our eyes!



We walked through the Hietaniemi cemetery.
It is a huge area!
There are sections for Lutheran and Orthodox christians, Jews, muslims and atheists to be buried or cremated.



A graveyard is usually not one of my favorite places to spend time, but Henna told us it is actually also a rather popular touristic place to experience, because it is a beautiful place, and there are many very impressive and artistic monuments of artists, writers, poets, political leaders etc. 



So, we walked a bit around, watching the place.
To me it looked like a perfect place to spend the Halloween in. 



It is very easy to imagine someone rising from under this stone under a full moon..



It was actually quite a beautiful place - there were lots of blooming flowers, and many big trees, interesting stones to climb on with funny names, and chains to swing with. 



We chatted a bit with an old gardener, and he told there have been troubles with some young stupidos pulling stones down at night time.
We suggested him we could help - we could go there at night time too, to walk around in white bedsheets to scare the stupidos away.

Guess waht - the old boy said he has already been doing that! 






We came out through another gate near the Sibelius park, and headed there. 



There was a beautiful little bond.
We tried to see if there would be any fish, but we only saw mosquito larvae. Well, they were tasty too. 



We saw the famous Sibelius monument, which dedicated to the Finnish composer, Sibelius.

It was inaugurated 1967, and it is made of over 600 metal pipes, which resemble both organ pipes and icicles hanging from a cliff.
The monument is said to represent the symphonic music of Sibelius.






Next to the pipes over the rock is a face reliefi of the composer. 



We sat to chat a bit with the head of Sibelius.
"Hello, why is only your head here? Where is rest of you?" asked I.
"Ha ha, you little smartass creature, my body went to swim, but I don't want to get water inside my ears, so the head stays here", said Sibelius's head. 



Then we went to shout through the pipes - they have a nice echo.
Our shouting was scaring the tourists away very fast. 






Then we went to see the newest statue of Helsinki. Here it is. 

I hope you liked my pics!
Many kisses from Crawfish! 

Hei taas! Terveisiä Suomesta! (Hi again! Greetings from Finland!) 

It is the best berry time now here in Finland, and we spend lots of time in forest, just eating and eating, and also collecting some (not very much) to put into the freezer. 

One day we had enough pluck to break away from the spell of the blueberries, and go for a trip in Suomenlinna, which is an inhabited sea fortress. in front of Helsinki.



We took a ferry to Suomenlinna from Kauppatori. There is a ferry about every half an hour, and the trip takes about 15 minutes. 



The ferry was really full of tourists, and there was no room to sit, so we stayed standing on the car deck, where there was no window glasses between us and the view over the sea.

This is a cardinal mark for north.



Here we are passing Ryssänsaari island.
The little red cottages belonged originally for a fisherfamily, nowadays some society owns them.

I wouldn't mind living there! I would just eat fish, and row to Helsinki if I wanted to eat something else (which I don't believe). 



We arrived to Suomenlinna and said good bye to the ferry, which left back to Kauppatori.



This is the gate building, through which we enter the islands. 



We started to follow the main road, which leads from the ferry quay towards Susisaari island.

There were very cute wooden houses along the road. Most of them serve as cafés or restaurants, but there are also people living in them.



This is Suomenlinna church, which also serves as a beacon, since its central dome doubles as a lighthouse. 

The church was originally built as an  Eastern Orthodox garrison church for the Russian troops, and it andit had five onion domes. The Orthodox church was converted into an Evangelical Lutheran church during the 1920s, and the onion domes were taken off.  I don't think the god could care less if there are onion domes or not, but that's just my opinion.



The Suomenlinna fortress comprises six islands  (Kustaanmiekka, Susisaari, Iso-Mustasaari, Pikku-Mustasaari, Länsi-Mustasaari and Långören) joined together by bridges.
This is the bridge between Iso-Mustasaari and Susisaari islands. 



We made a round on the old Susisaari industrial area.
There was a busy drydock, still partially in use, and a State Aircraft Factory, which starts build aeroplanes and powered ice sleighs in the 1920´s and 1930´s.   



The big red tile building is the old aeroplane factory.
Gee, wouldn't I love to have a time machine, with which I could visit the factory in its glorious days in the 1920´s! 

In the beginning they built here, with a license, different German and English planes, but later they built planes after Finnish blueprints - aeroplanes called Haukka and Sääski. 



Suomenlinnan telakka is the oldest drydock in Finland, and one of the oldest shipyards in Europe.
Building of the dockyard started in 1750. Under the Swedish rule there were built many ships for the Swedish navy.
During the Russian rule and the Independence the ship building continued until 1974.

Nowadays the shipyard is rented by a society, which is repairing there old wooden sailing ships. 



The drydock works so, that when the water pool is dry, they put up rests for the ships. Then the gate (which is the black thing behind my back) is opened so that the water flows in, and the ships can sail into the pool. The water level is then lowered gradually, so that the ships land over their rests, and the pool is emptied again.

Originally this was done with a windmill, which pumped water out. 






We left the old industrial area and walked towards Kustaanmiekka island, where most of the fortifications are.



We saw the tomb of Augustin Ehrenswärd, who was a military architect, artist, and creator of the Suomenlinna.
He was chosen by king Frederick I of Sweden to design and construct the fortress, and building the fortress became his life's work. 



The construction of Suomenlinna fortress started in 1748. Its main purpose was to guard the Swedish coast against Russia, which was trying to expand its borders in many directions.

Ehrensvärd's design was a low-profile bastion-type fortress that would follow the natural contours of the islands and thus remain inconspicuous to enemy fleets. That's why there are no imposing buildings to be seen. 



At the time Suomenlinna was built, Helsinki was still a very small town - there were only about 3000 inhabitants. Of course the real amount was much bigger, because the official count involved only the people whom the official could reach. 

The construction works of the fortress brought suddenly 6000 inhabitants more to the area. Besides the soldiers, officers and their families and servants, lots of people from countryside and other towns came to Helsinki, lured there by the possibilities to find work around the fortress, or to sell something.



Part of the soldiers lived on the islands. Originally they lived on tent camps or on the vaults of the fortress they were building. Later barracks were built for their use.

Officers lived mainly in Helsinki town - Ehrenswärd himself and some other high officers lived in Susisaari island in their own housing. 



We walked still along the main road, which took us through a gateway towards the sea shore.



We walked along the beautiful shore, admiring both the nature and the fortification buildings.
Most of the shore was somehow deep rock, and the fortifications were lurking in between them, many of them still with hidden cannons.






I waved to a sightseeing ferry, and some tourists waved back to me. 
You can see Helsinki town in the horizon - some church towers are easily recognized. 



There were little pools between the rocks, and I and Zoe checked if there happened to be any fish in them.. 



The weather was cloudy, and there was a thin rain pouring down every now and then.
The moss was blooming, and the stonecrops (sedium) looked wonderfully red on many rocksides. 



I climbed onto a thistle, and the wind was swinging me so much that after some time the latest herring in my stomach was turning around. So we continued our walk. 



Here is one of the many cannons we saw.

The interesting thing is, that Suomenlinna was, on its time, the strongest maritime fortification in Europe, but the only time it get into real action, in the Siege of Sveaborg  in early 1808, during the Finnish War, it surrendered only after two months to the Russian fleet.
Sweden lost Finland to Russia, and the destiny of Finland took a new turn (to the better direction, to be honest, but people didn't know it at those times). 



The plausible reason for this were that the fortress had earlier received very poor funding. Since its completion in 1791, Suomelinna received no extra financial support from the government (the reason for that is still a mystery, but naturally related to the weak Swedish economic situation). The military equipment was in an unsatisfactory condition. Most of the supplies were of bad quality and the fortress was lacking most supplies.
The cannons too, were old and partially obsolete. This meant that their range was shorter than that of the Russian artillery (which is a problem if cannons are stationed on a fortress). The fortress was unable to return fire on the Russian troops that were bombarding the fortress heavily.  The fortress was also in shortage of gunpowder. 

Hah - so it was like if kids built a great snow castle, but didn't make any snow balls to whirl towards the brats of the next block. 



This looks like the Shire - the hobbit village, but actually the turf covered buildings are gunpowder storages.
The turf was both hiding them from the enemy, and it was thought to somehow also soften a possible accidental explosion.






The old stone constructions are under constant repair works.
The repair works are done by the prisoners of the Suomenlinna open prison, where the prisoners are learning the skills they need in the society after getting to freedom. They can also graduate to the construction work.



We peeped inside some of the old stone constructions, which is always a bit risky, because according to many tales they are so full of ghosts it is hard to turn. 



During the Finnish civil war they kept prisoners in these dark, cold buildings, and many of them died here because of dysentery and Spanish flu, which both raged amongst the prisoners.



It is their ghosts supposedly wandering in here. 
And possibly also the ghost of Carl Olof Cronstedt, who was the commander of Suomenlinna, who decided that the fortress would surrender. 

We didn't see any ghosts (sadly), but it was very damp in there, and the ceilings were covered with some yellow, slimy looking substance, and that was horrifying enough! 



We got out again through a tunnel, and Zoe was being a pain in the ass, and talking about a light on the other end of a dark tunnel after the death, and made us all feel a bit uneasy, and very glad to get out! 



We rested a bit on the shore, and were happy to be alive and free to walk around, and able to hear the waves and see the seagulls on the sky. 



Then we started our walk back towards the ferry to take us to Helsinki.



We passed some old garrison buildings.
Some of them are turned into apartments, and some of them serve as restaurants, art halls, workshops and for example spaces in which bands can rehearse.






We took the main road again. Or maybe it was the road who took us, who knows. 



We saw the ferry approaching, and started run towards the quay!
It was this time a blue ferry.



We reached the Susisaari bridge about the same time as the ferry! ( What do you mean - "how come you're taking photos if you're running in a hurry?" - camoon, have you not yet learned we toyvoyagers are able to do many tasks at the same time! Like eating herring and whipped cream simultaneously!)






The ferry was honking for us to move our asses, and so we moved them to Helsinki and home. 

See you soon again! Toodle-oo! Crawfish! 

Hello, all my dearies at home and here and there! 

I´m sorry I´ve not had time to make my updates - we have been helping an old neighbour of Henna's to repair his roof. The guy is so old he shouldn't be up there at all, so our help is very wellcome. 

But I´m not going to tell you about the roof repairing works this time, but something totally different.




Brother Casanova (sounds like a monk, which he certainly is not) had been buried in books and papers for couple of days, and we were sure he was writing a love letter in some difficult language, but he surprised us all by telling us that according to his careful analysis of the water level changes after the ice age, he was pretty sure there was a prehistorical site on our yard! 

One wouldn't think bro Woffe has anything else in his mind besides girls, but that just shows how wrong one can be!



Anyway, we decided to organize an archaeological excavation on the spot!
Henna promised to help us with the procedure, hah, like we needed her help! 
Bro Woffe naturally acted as some sort of excavation leader, and was very pompous about it all. 

We started by determining the exact place and extent of the excavation plot and clearing away the vegetation.



There were lots of branches and twigs, growing hay and a whatnot.
We piled all onto a heap. 



After clearing away all the vegetation, it was time to dig up a rather thick layer of turf - the layer of decomposing plant material.



It was hard work! There were lots of thick and stubborn roots we had to saw away, and after some time the buckets filled with turf also started to feel a bit heavy!



The excavation leader Casanova (who was also feeling a bit hot, because of work, not because of ladies) let us to have a small pause.



I and sis Zoe went to eat raspberries. There were even some maggots inside them! Extra njam! 



We continued our work, and at last we reached the end of the turf layer and reached first the earth and then the fine sand under it!



It was time to bring out our high tech equipment - a camera to photograph all our findings and the cultural layers, and a tachymeter to determine the exact geographic position of everything on the site. 



We took turns in using the tachymeter and holding the measuring rod and writing down all the figures, until we had created proper coordinates for the site. 






We photographed the first under-turf layer.
Boss Woffe informed us that what we were watching was the landform as it had been somewhere in Middle Ages. 

Makes one think a bit.




Then we continued digging - but now we were not using spades anymore, but little trowels. 




We were digging very carefully, taking away earth about a centimeters level on the whole area and then moving to the next layer.
Even so we were sieving all the earth, in case there could be some so small artifacts we would not be able to see them while digging. 



Thus we excavated away the middle ages and reached the layer of Iron Age. 
Suddenly we found something! Our first find!
We were so excited!
We had no idea what it was - but it was big and looked like something carved out of stone. 



There were more finds! This one was clearly part of a runestone! 






We marked all the finds with marker sticks and measured their position with the tachymeter, and made careful markings of everything to our findings list, like "E29: A blue glass bead (not a beetle, ask Zoe, she tried to eat it)" 



We photographed the finds "in situ".
We let little Racko to do it, because the rest of us were too heavy (all those worms..) 



It was time for a small pause again.
It felt great to lay on the grass, watch the clouds to sail past above, and let the muscles to relax.

But soon the boss Woffe ushered us back to work again. 



One task we had to do, was to draw maps of all our excavation layers, where we had to situate all the findings, bigger stones, charcoal and color differences in the soil, because they can mark different activity areas. 



It was an interesting task. I has troubles because a ladybird I was drawing on the map, was moving all the time!  I asked her politely if she could sit on one place, but she just showed me her tongue! 






We excavated through the Iron Age and reached the Bronze Age layers, and found more exiting things.

Now we were able to see that the carved stone was some kind of idol or statue, and that there had been a fireplace in front of it! 



There seemed to be a fish inside the fireplace! I and sis Zoe almost clonked our heads together, wanting to see better.



But it wasn't a real fish at all! It was made of clay!  



And then - I just couldn't believe it!
I noticed there was something roundish emerging next to the fireplace, and removed carefully the sand from it´s surface, and, crying out loud! 

I don't know if you have heard of the famous Himmelsscheibe or not, but you should!
The Himmelsscheibe or Sky Disk of Nebra, was found in  a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany.
It has been dated to the Bronze Age, and it features the oldest concrete depiction of the cosmos worldwide. In June 2013 it was included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register and termed "one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.

And here we had something that looked very similar! 
So you can understand why I was so exited!
This place we are excavating, must have been a rather remarkable place one time! 



The excavation continued, and on each step we found more evidence which hinted that what were now excavating, had been an important cult central for long period of time.

When we reached the Stone Age level, there were remains of big cheramic vessels, and also something which looked like bones.






Every ow and then we found some small things also from the sieve - mainly tiny fragments of quarz arrowheads or flakes.



I think I could become an archaeologist, like auntie Henna, when I grew up. What do you think?
Or maybe it is a better plan never to grow up. Then I can do whatever I will! 



There was an odd round object surfacing in one corner of our site. I couldn't make my mind of what to think of it, and neither could our leader Mr Casanova.

We asked Zoe's opinion on the matter (just shows the level of our desperation) and she took one glimpse on the object, and said:
"You imbesills! It is an EGG!"



Damn it, she was right! It was an egg! A huge egg! 



We started then to clean the bones.
There were lots of items - glass beads, ceramics etc, which seemed to be positioned round the heap of bones! 



It was a rather big sceleton we were cleaning.
First we thought it might have been the remains of a prey animal the folks here had been eating, but no - it was a whole skeleton - no parts were cut or missing.

Suddenly sis Zoe started to yell like a  foghorn, and to run around like a hen (rather like bro Squab).
"My ancestors!" she yelled, "It is my ancestors!"
And she was right again. It was clearly an allosaurus skeleton! 



What I cannot understand is how come it had spectacles on its nose. 

Our excavation had reached it's end. There was only hard podsol under the skeletons, and there wasn't any reason to excavate deeper.



Excavation leader Woffe now gave us a lecture.

"Dear excavators! I have now made my scientific analysis on this site, and it is this:
Approximately 145 million years ago there were a family of allosauruses living here, on this site. When the big meteorite hit the earth, forming the Gulf of Mexico and killing the dinosaurs, the unhappy family met its untimely end here (snif).

In the Mesolithic Stone Age a family of cave kiwis wobbled on the site, saw the bones and realized it was a burial ground of their ancestors, and declared the place holy. 

Generation after generation, the local kiwi population came here to bring offerings, burn fires and erect statues and rune stones - each generation according to its own style, bringing the best valuables they had.



Who would have guessed! 
A holy place of the ancient kiwi birds!
Zoe was mute with ave after bro Woffe's lecture.

"An artist, who is specialized in recreating pictures of archaeological sites as they were in a certain time in past, is going to give us some paintings of the site tomorrow, promised Woffe. 



Meanwhile I made my own personal sacrifice to the spirits of the place. 




I put here the recreations of the site the artist had made for us.

They are made to capture the site as it was in Early Iron Age.
As you can see, the place was on a sea shore at that time.

The allosaurus remains are surrounded by valuabe items from different times, and there is a small altar in front of the stone stone statue.
The Star Disk is situated in front of the rune stone.



Here the artist has imagined a family of kiwis bowing in front of the statue. 






The language in the rune stone is ancient Finnish, and it says about: "This is a holy place created in honor of our ancestors."

That was really all now.
I must say it was an interesting experience. Auntie Henna is rather surprised too! A remarkable cult centrum in her yard! And she thinks she's an archaeologist! Hah!

Many kisses from Crawfish! 

Hyvää päivää, rakkaat ystävät! = Good day, dear friends! 

The autumn here is turning darker and colder, the earth is already often white in the mornings before the sun rises up and melts the rime away.

But we will get there later - now I'm telling you about our late summer here in Nuuksio  .



I think I mentioned last time that we were helping Henna's nearest neighbor to repair his roof.

The roof had been leaking already for couple of years, and the neighbour is too old to do much himself.
So, when Henna found out about the leaking roof she decided she has to do something about it and asked us to help her. 



Of course none of us is a roof-fixing expert, but Henna said she hopes common sense would be enough to guide us.

"Common sense? Is that something to eat?" asked sis Zoe.
So, as you can see, our "guide" was barely reliable. 



It took us about two months to fix the roof, using almost all the free time we had, and there is still something to do next summer.



But, we managed to stop the leaking! 
While Henna was planning the next steps and using very many interesting Finnish words, which almost burned our ears, we used the roof as our sliding hill. 



There was time anyway also for walking in the nature. 

Sometimes when we had been especially helpfull, Henna told us to go for a little walk to use our energy to something else.



We found this interesting little hollow under big rocks in the forest.



It was a good place to play stone age toyvoyagers. 



Quite near by we found a toyvoyager sized dolmen! How extraordinary!  



It seems almost like archaeology was our destiny!
Henna told us how the dolmens were tombs into which all the members of communities were buried democratically. But they were not only tombs - they were gateways to the other worlds. The people buried into them, were actually seeds, which were put there to sprout again, so that they could be reborn.
Interesting, huh?



We roamed inside the dolmen to see if there happened to be still any bones loitering about. There weren't.



The blueberries were ripe and juicy, and we both ate and picked them to take home, well, mainly ate.. 



What we took home we ate in the mornings with honey and cream.
If you have not tried that, you should! You don't know what you're missing! 



The small, wonderful, wild forest strawberries were ready too and waiting to be eaten!
We fulfilled their will eagerly and as often as possible. 

Cannot stand disappointed strawberries!



I don't know how many of you have been eating wild forest strawberries. They are the original strawberries, from which the tame ones have been bred, and they taste quite different.
The difference is.. a bit like between a wolf and a lapdog. Both are wonderful, but the wild forms are just more, well, wild and energetic and individual.



On our yard the currants were ripe too.
We found red, white and black currants and ate them all. 



In the forest the chanterelles were hiding behind the first fallen yellow leafs and giggling when we walked past without noticing them.



We found many, though. 



The birch boletes were also popping up from the earth here and there and making us smile, because for us they meant a wonderful dinner.






The chanterelles are sometimes called here "metsän kulta" = the gold of the forest. Not because they are extremely valuable, they are not, economically, I mean, but because they are so exceptionally good. 



Have you read J.R.R. Tolkien's book Lord of the rings? If you have, you know that hobbits were crazy about mushrooms. In a way which "outshadowed all the cravings and desires of big people."
Do you think I might be a hobbit, anyway? 



These photos are from a small forest lake called Vuohijärvi.
It was full of waterlilies, and over the lily leafs we spotted some frogs having drunken orgies. 



Over the ethereal looking white flowers the air was full of their lustful croaking and drunken singing. 



"Hi you, frogs!" I shouted, "do you do anything else than to have drunken orgies?"
There was a three second's silence, and then they answered "not much!" and continued. 






We made also couple of trips to the seaside, to walk on the rocks and to enjoy the wind and beautiful landscapes. 







We walked against the brisk wind or leaned onto it and teased the waves by letting them almost get us, but not quite - keeping all the time just and just over the line they were able to reach. They hissed to us angrily. 



"Don't you brats tease them too much!" warned Henna, when a pissed off, white capped wave stretched towards us.
"Let's go and make a fire instead!"



There was a nice place for an open fire, and benches to sit around it.
We had soon the fire burning.



It felt wonderfully warm after the brisk wind and the salty water sprinkles on the shore, and the coffee smelled sweetly. 






There was a bird watching tower on a hill, and we of course climbed it.

"What, to watch birds? If you want to watch birds, here I am - no need to climb towers!" said sis Zoe, but she was just trying to be fun. She likes to watch birdies too. 



It was quite a high tower and took some climbing to get there.



The views from the tower were very beautiful! A mix of green forest and blue sea. 






I was trying to spot birds flying past, but the only bird I saw was a kiwi.
Don't believe she is flying! She is just trying to fool you! 



In many evenings we admired the moon over the old field behind our cottage. 



Hyvää yötä teille kaikille! = Good night to all of you!
Yours, Crawfish 

Hello, dear Sanny and all siblings and friends!
I wish you're happy and in good health! 

Do you still remember our kitchen garden?
Well, it was a very cold and rainy summer, so we didn't need to do much watering. As a matter of fact - we left the plants pretty much to take care of themselves. 

But one day Henna remarked that it would maybe be time to go and harvest our kitchen garden crops - they had looked rather ripe when she walked past.

So - next day we harvested our garden, and now I'm showing you photos of it. 



Look at our cabbages! 
They were simply a marvel!



So round and green and glossy and plump!
They had clearly benefited from the rain. 
We were all so happy to see them!

Then we walked to the next patch to see how our radishes were doing.



They had grown so well too!
They were so beautiful! And of so splendid color! Pretty much like me! 






I bet you have never seen such a healthy growth of french fries either! 

It is actually quite a miracle! We put some little seeds to earth and voilá! After couple of months we have lots of wonderful foodstuff!



There was a burst of colorado beetles this summer, but luckily they had not attacked our fries! They had grown so bright yellow and beautifully crinkled! 



We started harvesting the wonderful vegetables. It was very enjoyable work!






Henna came to see our crops too, and she was a bit puzzled. "What did you actually plant there?" she asked, and looked rather stupid, standing there  mouth open.
Donno what she meant. 



The radishes were so big they hardly fit into the buckets!
Have you ever heard about such radishes? 



"What about the greenhouse?" asked Henna "What about your crops there?"

Let's go and see!



Our pot bananas looked just glorious! 
I gave one to Henna, whose eyes were rolling a bit in her head.
"Is this all?" she asked.

"Not quite" said I, "come and see our orchyard!" 



The bush bananas looked even more delicious than the pot brand! 



The popcorn tree's branches were heavy with wonderful, white, greasy popcorns! 

We finished the harvest and carried or crop home, and Henna too. She was feeling a bit faint. 



As you can see, it was a very happy harvest day! 

Love from Crawfish! 

Kukkuu again, everyone! 
It's update time once again.

One rainy day in September we made a day trip into the small town of Porvoo about an hour's driwe in a bus from Helsinki.



It was still dark outside when we took the bus in Helsinki bus station.
We had lots of provisions with us, and we started to eat right away.
It is one of the best things in travelling - eating provisions! 



In Porvoo we were just walking around and around the narrow, cobbled streets, watching views and the quaint little wooden houses. 



Porvoo is one of the oldest towns in Finland. It has its beginning somewhere in the 13th century. Before that there was already an important Iron Age castle and village. 



Porvoo has got its name from Swedish words borg+å = castle+river. Here you can see the river. Logically its name is Porvoon joki (Porvoo's river). It has provided a good passage from the sea to the town, and forward towards the faraway inland regions.



This is the old townhouse of Porvoo. Nowadays there is the historical museum.



It was nice to peep into the yards of the small houses. Of course the town has grown lately, and there is a modern town around the old Porvoo, but I think a town of this size, as it was some hundred years ago, would be optimal. You would know all the faces around you, but still would not know them too well to feel suffocated.






This is the mediaeval church of Porvoo. It is an important spot in Finnish history, because in here the Russian Czar promised Finland would maintain its autonomy after it had been become part of Russia 1809.

Some young imbesills, who thought it would be a cool thing to play to be Satan worshippers, burned the church 2006, and its roof was totally destroyed. The whole old town and its wooden houses were too in great danger. The roof was built anew and the shurch opened again 2008. 



We took a peep inside. It was quite a peacefull place, although there were some tourists.. 






We continued our walking around, but soon it started to feel like we had walked past the same café too many times, and knew already what we would see behind the next corner. 



There was a Moomin house in a shop window, and I spent some time talking with the moomins behind the glass. They told me that they had quite a satisfacting life, taking into account that it was a sweet shop inside which their house was situated. How handy. 







The evening was already getting a bit darker, and we were watching the people who live in these cute houses getting home from work. 



The wind was rising and the colourful autumn leaves were flying around us.
The wind also brought the rain back, and so, on our next round past the café, we hopped in, and spent the last our inside until our bus back to Helsinki was ready to leave.



It was quite a nice, little visit. 

Kisses from Crawfish!