July 08, 2006
All the roads lead to...
So this is it. This is the place that we've been dreaming about in all our journeys. All the while that we've been away, especially in the darkest hour (i.e. after the whole day of banging in the construction site on Saturday in Leijonakaupunki), we'd say "remember how it was..?", "If only we could go there, to the mökki". So this is it. The mökki (summer cottage).
The mokki has never let us down. It is always just as good, if not better, than what we imagine. The only sounds you here in there are seagulls crying, wind whispering in the trees and the distant sound of the roaring open sea, if the wind is strong. Not a person in sight... A (Finnish) paradise..? I think many people from some other places in the world would say "so spookyyy.. so emptyyyy... nobody around... where's all the peopleee..." :)
There's no electricity on the island, only a sun battery + you have to carry water (hmm.. Kaj carries :) from the well + all the drinking water has to come from the mainland and Kaj even chops us wood for the sauna! A fair bit of manual labour is involved in getting even simple things done (do the dishes, clean the kitchen and half a day is gone!).
In any case we managed to engage ourselves in other "projects", such as repainting some tables and the big boat, washing the windows, etc.. Next "project" in sight, I think will be washing the floor rugs in the sea. This is something I haven't done myself yet, but a lot of Finns swear by it - you have to use the traditional type of pine soap and a huge brush + water from the sea and then dry them in the sun. Obviously the rugs come very clean. You'd see people doing that in the boat harbour in Helsinki!
Of course, the best part of the mökki is just sitting in the sun and reading old comics books. But, I guess, we have to get there yet, we still haven't switched our mode to "rest" and want to "achieve" something every day.. :)
Since Kaj brothers haven't been going much to the mökki this summer, the lawn was left uncut and look what happened! Half of the lawn turned into a strawberry field! Its been 2 years since I've been here and look, I told you, some things are better than you remember them! Last week was very sunny and the strawberries ripened in my eyes!
Previous years we used to go to the Sandskär island (it faces the open sea, so the water is much clearer) a lot. We'd go for a swim, sunbathe on the rocks, or just run around hopping from one rock to another. There's also a beautiful forest with heaps of blueberries (not in season yet) and mushroom. Once we even saw an elk (quite surprising considering how far it had to swim to get to that island)! This time we only went once. Somehow we're quite busy in our own mökki and its still quite cold to swim (we've been dipping into the sea only after sauna... wimps!)
After all this travelling, I guess, no matter what, all roads lead to the mökki.
Posted by gkligyte at July 8, 2006 04:41 AM