REMEMBERING THE SUMMER LIGHT ON THE DARKEST DAYS

A few weeks (three to be exact) ago the paper would state that the sun would set at 15:29 in Helsinki, and rise the following day at 8:45, while the next sunrise in Utsjoki (in Northern Finland) would be on January 16, 2016. That's kaamos for you. Now, with just a couple of days left until winter solstice, we are at Up at 9:22 and Down at 15:12. So one could say it's pretty dark over here yes.

I'm getting a little nostalgic about midsummer, six months away, when the sun rises before 4 in the morning and sets around eleven at night (and above the polare circle it does not set at all) - it never really gets dark.

As there are no snowy slopes and frosty branches to post for the moment, I'll go for some light summer night memories from last midsummer (...that are very relevant now six months later...) instead.

We were out in the archipelago as usual. 

With the big harbour next to us.

Picking flowers and tasting chives.

And having lunch.

My cats turn into archipelago panthers.

Midsummer dinner set. Next week it's time for huge tables and settings and family dinners again, with a Christmas tree instead of birch branches.

The eleven pm sunshine. I love this moment, the long sunset and it's colours.

 

 The sun has set.

Out on a nightly walk by the shore. Here's a silvery trunk that the sea had washed up, shining in the pale blue night. The wood was so soft.

Around 1 or 2 am and a ship comes in.

The pale midsummer night.

On midsummer's day Dag turned three. He got a lion bag for his birthday, which he now uses when he goes to playschool.

And he was very sad that he could not go fishing with the older boys and guys on the wet, slippery rocks.

Dissapointement maximus. He may have been one year older, but still too small for so many things.

But then got a cake and things were fine again. A rubarb cake. Rhubarbrs are in season in June. I wonder if we'll get any next year as the sheep pretty much munched them all away last summer...

And then some sudden sea fog. Kind of what it looks like all the time now, in December -

The fucked up thing is that the weather was almost the same last June as it is now at the end of the year, which was wrong then and is wrong now. Around plus ten and rain, when it should have been ten degrees warmer then and ten degrees colder now (Celcius, obvuiosly)...

This year summer came rather and late, and last year winter arrived just a few days before Christmas- perhaps we'll get lucky this year again, and get a little snow after all just in time?