With children in nature
As a mother of two, the time spent with my children has been limited for years, so I've tried to make the most of it (not just being together) when they were little. I made it a habit to take them on day trips to nature on Sundays and holidays as often as possible.
A few times we have camped overnight.
Last year (2022), I convinced my younger teenage son to join me on a five-day backpacking trip to Kilpisjärvi, after I had gained enough confidence from wilderness school to do it. That was an experience we will certainly remember for the rest of our lives.
To continue the hike, we had another adventure by car in Norway on the island of Senja. This was another unique experience - a new combination of mountains and sea for me. It was strange to see lingonberries growing and reindeer grazing on the Atlantic coast. And the idea that we were so close to home, already home to whales and other ocean dwellers, in the middle of an insanely vast ocean...
A dizzying climb up the sail-shaped Segla Mountain in a tourist queue to take photos - and a near heart attack when a boy wanted to hang over the edge and take a picture of the vertical wall. It was a landscape worthy of its media fame, and we got to experience it on the only sunny day of the trip.
On the last night in Norway, my son got the icing on the cake and photographed the first, spectacular northern lights of his life - just as I was in the shower! It was the highlight of the trip for him, and therefore for me too. We happily rumbled south on the night train.
Another memory is of a quick trip to Porkkalannieme, which was planned too late on a summer evening. Packing the stuff, piling up the food, hauling too much rubbish in milk trolleys through the forest, setting up camp in the dark. A nightly, exhausted, hungry and half-failed campfire cooking and roasting. The reward, however, was waking up in the morning from a sleeping bag to admire the sea and sandy beach shimmering from the tent door. Drinking the world's best tasting coffee on a cliff with birds screaming summer - glad we went!
Many great experiences have taken place nearby, such as a ski trip across the ice to Vasikkasaari, a shoot and enjoying thermar salmon soup in the house. It was as if we had travelled into the wilderness far away from everything, even though the continent was in sight.
And that skiing holiday in Kainuu. When a young person, who lived his everyday life largely on his phone and computer, stopped on the slope and said: 'Mum, listen!' I can't hear a thing! We were silent for a couple of minutes, out of unspoken agreement.
We guessed at the luppo and the naavaa. We ate the monks and warmed ourselves with fires, which I was proud to have resurrected from the ashes. On our return, the teenagers were lost as I was left once again to describe the details of the winter forest.
In spring, the first Mother's Day picnics to the white goose paradise, wherever. Ramsholmen in Tammisaari outshone the others.
Kolmården's giraffes and their cubs, lions, elephants, tigers and monkeys hanging in the pines. Of course, Korkeasaari and the Haltiala farm. Poor owls and polar bears in Ranua. Dubai's marine aquariums. A joint reflection on the ethics of zoos, for which there is probably no unequivocal answer.
When the children were primary school age, our ritual every Sunday was to watch Avara Nature on TV before going to the sauna. How meditative, especially the stunning sea scenes. Many an experience of nature would have been missed without this programme, which I hope will go on forever.
Once the family life course was over, I had to start looking for opportunities to practice my skills. A trip upstream from the mouth of the Sipoon River, along a river that resembles the lush jungle of the Amazon, was an absolute delight. A full-day canoe trip to Linnansaari National Park was one of the highlights of the domestic motorhome tour. Yeah, great excursion by the way, but the gas for the trangia was left at home, so the picnic was eaten cold and no seals were found despite an extremely diligent search. But the lake scenery and the beautiful July weather with white pouty clouds, it was the most beautiful Finland!
It was also an experience to wade hundreds of metres towards the outcrop and watch the sunset on the shallow sandy beaches of Kalajoki, to learn about the history of the midnight sun celebrations in Aavasaska, and to gust to the top of Taivaskero in the drizzle after hours of driving. An encounter with awe-inspiring reindeer in a paradise-like stream valley stopped the clock.
At Teijo, we took a soft descent into the national park via the hotel and pizzeria, climbed up the slopes to the lodge (from where we escaped to a tent in the middle of the night to escape the mosquitoes), jumped off the cliff into the lake and pulled ourselves onto the island in a tugboat. The final prize was a night in a tree house and a test drive in one of Finland's largest smoke saunas, ah!
Some of our trips must have rubbed off on the adult son, because he went with a girlfriend to Nuuksioon for a weekend last summer and wanted to join a high school ski trip in the UKK park on his own initiative. And I thought he couldn't care less, because his mum has always dragged him along the backwoods.... Gosh, I'm so glad!
