Birch trees and berries

So here I am glorying in the cool Finnish summer in Hämeenlinna. I am so enjoying getting to know my very elegant aunt. Her English is certainly far better than my Finnish but she likes to rely on her dictionary to communicate.







She has the sweetest little garden that feels just like another magical room of the home. Large picture windows in the living room and dining room look out onto the garden so you always feel like you are in it.
Every day she takes her little dog Ines out for a walk in the forests that surround her little apartment. The forests are of silver birch trees--the quintessential Finnish tree and they abound with wildflowers.


I do try to pick up a bit of Finnish from my aunt and she gets most enthusiastic about teaching me when it comes to the names of wildflowers--Yesterday she picked kamomilla (chamomile), clover, lupiini (lupines) and others to make a big bouquet to take home. Finland is the land of berries and what berries they are!! We bought a big flat of fresh strawberries and those were REAL strawberries. I am afraid I will never again be able to eat an American strawberry. These strawberries run deep red with juice and they are so very very sweet.


My aunt made several jars of strawberry jam which we ate with the fabulous porridge that she makes in the morning. Such delicious porridge! I also love the rye bread and cheese so much. Everything seems to taste so good to me here.
Speaking of berries... it is not quite raspberry season yet, but when it is the forests will abound in raspberries. This morning I spied two raspberries in my aunt's garden. I popped them right in my mouth after I took the picture. Just sweet sweet and full raspberry flavor--not the slightest bit sour.

I have always LOVED berries and forests. I have decided to claim this as part of my Finnish inheritance somehow passed down to me.



I was up at 4:30 this morning in the garden. (Still jet lagged). It was still slightly light out when I went to sleep at midnight. And as you can see in the raspberry picture it is light out at 4:30 in the morning too. Not sure if it ever gets completely dark during the Finnish summer. Haven't seen pitch black yet. While up in the garden this morning I also had an exciting encounter with a hedgehog. To a Finn, encounters with hedgehogs are as unexciting as encounters with a squirrel for those who live on the east coast of the US but it may have been my first encounter so I was delighted. Here is more of my far from stellar cinematography if you would like to share the encounter with me.



Today we made a trip into Helsinki to visit the Kiasma museum of modern art.
You can have several chances to interact with the art including if you would like to take a nap on one of the unusual benches outside the museum.