Real winter

As usual, spring and summer here in Finland went fast over. Even though we still have the mystic August left with full of enjoyment as the new harvest gives all kinds of gifts of nature. People come from summer holidays and gather together to enjoy darkening warm nights. Garden parties with barbeque and small graden lamps are the thing of the month, as in August we get the dark nights again!
Before summer news I want to tell what kept me busy this spring. My biggest effort was my graduation from university. In March I went for two weeks to northern Finland to Kilpisjärvi. My university gave me the opportunity to spend that time in the research station there to finish my thesis. I also enjoyed the nice snowy landscapes with -15 to over -30 degrees of Celsius. The place Kilpisjärvi is exceptional in Finland as its nature is really mountainous like northern Norway. Despide of writing I went to skiing to the lake Kilpisjärvi.
It was so touching to feel the real winter again, the one I remember from my childhood. There was snow about one meter high and you could see stars and also the Northern Lights in night time. In southern Finland we hardly get minus degrees and there was not enough snow to ski in the whole winter.
Those two weeks were my real winter and I noticed how effective they were spiritually. Even though the light time of the day was very short, the snow gave so much light to the landscape and so many beautiful colours to the sky. Combined with that extraordinary mountainous landscape the beautiful light of the Lapland went deep in my soul and I could feel the mystic powers of nature.
I decided that I have to get at least one week of real winter every year, that keeps me vigorous and full of life along the dark, gray and nowadays wet wintertime in South-Finland. I just wonder how to arrange it. Usually we have to be in Bio Fach just at the same time as our children have the winter vacation from school.
By blog about twelve days in Kilpisjärvi is in Finnish but you can see the photos of the landscape in http://kilpisjarvi.blogspot.com.
The 15th of August in cloudy Espoo, where nature starts to prepare for the coming wintertime and the birds collect together to fly away to south.
Yours, Marja(´)