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| Good start for a day: coffee from a Moomin mug. |
Facebook kindly reminds me of what happened in my life a year ago: there is a picture of a palm tree covered in snow. Oh, that day… I wake up, take my Moomin mug and have some coffee. It’s -10℃, sun is shining. I need to pack my bags and drive 120 kilometers to work.
Scottish Palm Trees
I have been at home 10 weeks. During those weeks we had the polar night, some freezing nights of -40℃, snowstorm, which almost blocked our front door with a pile of snow and now these dazzling sunny days of spring.
It’s only me and Väinö up here. Timo drove to Scotland in early January. He picked up the caravan from Germany where we left it, visited a couple of good camping sites we found during the tour and took the Eurotunnel across the canal. The caravan door handle broke completely. He had to duct tape the door close. And the caravan tires collected the two screws British people had left on the road. (The same procedure as last year…) Anyhow, he made it to sunniest city of Scotland, Dundee, and to the university on time.
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| Palm trees in Dundee. Picture from Timo. |
We learned there are palm trees also in Scotland. But they are not covered in snow. Timo is sending me pictures of blooming cherry trees and crocuses. February has been historically warm in Scotland this year. It seems something historical happens every time when our family is around - but assume it’s not the cause nor the effect, just coincidence...
Back And Forth
I have been living the tour year again and again in my mind. Not because of nightmares, but because I have been sorting out the hundreds of pictures we took. As a part of the Quickstarter campaign we promised to make a picture book of the tour. You can still order one if you want. I have also had three events in which I have showed pictures and told about our tour. It’s really difficult to squeeze up 11 months to two hours! You can take a quick tour with the videos I made from the pictures.
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| Giving a presentation of our tour. Picture: Tuula Lampela. |
You could think we have stopped driving now that the tour is over. Well, Timo had to drive the 3800 km to Dundee. He stays about 15 kilometers away from the university, so he drives about 150 kilometers every week. Väinö takes the 18 kilometers bus drive every morning to go to school. I’m directing a poetry group and a theatre group in the city of Kemijärvi, which is 120 kilometers from our home. I go there twice a week. So, actually, we will be on-the-road more now. It’s just the same roads back and forth.
Happy Kalevala Day!
The last day of February is the celebration of Finnish national epic Kalevala. I love Finnish folk poems and have made several performances out of those. In the Quickstarter campaign we reached the stretch goal of a poetry video. That will be an old folk poem translated to English with a help of my British friends. I still need to practise my pronunciation for the video. I wrote poems to our board game Darwinning! One of them, for the fish, was made with the traditional rhythm and style of Finnish folk poems and Kalevala.
From the blue back of the waters
From the white-foamed waves of ocean
Arose the fish, golden, flaming
Bounced out the blazing pike
To greet the neverending light
To sing for the midsummer night
It’s not yet midsummer, but ,man, it’s bright and light here!
