Finland Album: The First 6 Months

We landed in Helsinki at night at Midsummer. A pink supermoon lit our way as the taxi took us to our urban apartment by the sea — our home for the next year.

“I want to fill up my basket with All The Finnish Things,” I said.

I’m an expat, having lived abroad for 23 years except for a couple of summers and one longer stint in 2003-04. And yet, I have strong connections, deep ties that bind me to this place. Family, friends, memories, language (I still think in Finnish most of the time), fondness for certain foods I can only get here, and — in the last ten years — a fascination, even an obsession with a culture of self-reliance, gardening, foraging, making things from scratch, traditional skills, which I know Finns have traditionally cultivated and mastered. How else would they have survived here, between 60 and 70 degrees Northern latitude, where the sun barely creeps in the winter and which it floods, briefly, in the summer?

So I was going to make the most of our family’s sabbatical in my native land. I was going to finally learn to make all the traditional foods, learn all the characteristically Finnish crafts, dig deep into the ecological roots of what has made life here possible.

Here are some of the highlights from our first six months here.

Our Helsinki Neighborhood by the sea

First day exploring our neighborhood -- jetlagged but happy

Herttoniemenranta, Helsinki, by the Baltic Sea

First CSA pickup from our neighborhood urban farm

Helsinki cafés are the best. A day of downtown hopping with my girl.

The bird sanctuary, just 1 km from where we live

Boat trips out to the islands: our favorite late summer adventure

Life at the mökki

In the summers, most Finns head to the *mökki* (summer cottage) to live close to the land. Most *mökkis* are by the water. A wood-heated sauna is a must.
We’re incredibly lucky that my parents have a mökki in Central Finland, very close to the family farm where my dad was born and where I spent my childhood summers.
Life here is a bit more rustic, a bit slower. Lots of playing in the woods, swimming in the lake, fishing and rowing boats. Really good food, often with ingredients harvested from the lake, the forests, or the garden, and water straight from the spring. Treasure hunts and games and the obligatory evening ritual of swimming-sauna-swimming-sauna-swimming.

At the family farm
At my grandparents’ old family farm, now managed by my aunt, I get to step into childhood memories and old traditions. My aunt has been working hard to preserve the farm’s history and keep old traditions alive while bringing in fresh new winds, like WWOOFers from around the world. She’s just finished building an off-grid cabin out of 100-year-old logs on the land and hosts wellness events and retreats on the farm.
Many of the things that made life here possible in the olden days — like the wood cookstove, the root cellar and the composting toilet — are still in daily use here because they (still!) make sense.
I spent my childhood summers here. Whenever I write, I sooner or later end up here on the page. It is probably my most sacred place, what Finns call *sielunmaisema* (landscape of the soul).

Egypti's flock amidst the currant bushes

100-year-old logs of the reconstructed log cabin my aunt is building

The wood cookstove, still used to heat up the house and make the daily morning oatmeal

The masonry oven, the heart of the house

Just like when I'd wake up here as a kid and my grandma had baked fresh buns...

Traditional Crafts & Skills

No surprise here (for those who know me). I’ve been pretty obsessed with traditional crafts and skills for the many years now. Being in Finland has been an opportunity to explore Finnish cultural history and crafts, the Art of Making Things that Finns of past generations cultivated out of necessity and many still keep up today. This journey has led me to try jute and birch bark basketry, weaving on a loom for the first time, and visit house museums and revived folk celebrations when I can.