CottageLife

In my previous post I told you how Lapland shows you different things on summer season than winter. But after Summer Solstice, at least on the begin of July the whole Finland seems to close up all its public services and people seem to vanish somewhere.

Lapland's population is approx. 176 000 persons. People mostly don't go away to foreign countries for a longer than 1-2 week holiday in June-August, so they mostly stay in Lapland. But where? Mostly at cottages or at homes. But what is this cottage culture of Finland?

It is "mökki" = the cottage. But why it is there? Why this culture appears so strong all over Finland and also among those persons who already have a house of their own and live even rural? Why they have "mökki"?

First of all it is important to understand that it echoes from old traditional culture from different point of views all over Finland with the same result: summer cottages. When Sámi people lived full traditional life style according to the cycle of the nature they had to travel around like a circle or fort and back, depending on their livelihood. They started to put up permanent small dwellings because it made life a bit more easier. Later when the laws changed because of colonialism they started to have the permanent house where they were forced to stay but still had these dwellings here and there because of their livelihood and surviving. These dwellings still provided shelter when herding, hunting and fishing. Similar culture elsewhere in Finland made people to build dwellings too. All these small cottages were called by different names according to their purposes and geographical location: summer cottages, boat houses, church cottages, meadow shelters etc.

When telling the history of the cottages in Finland it is often connected to the wealthy southern people who started to build up villas by the waters in late 1800 and early 1900. But it is important to understand that the folk had it already and with a long tradition. These cottages had provided even sanctuary during the previous wars and provided it also in 1900 wars. They were the places local people escaped to and hide in  to stay alive over the restless times. Only after the wars in 1900, which means at 50´s-60´s the cottage culture changed closer to it what it is today. People started to maintain only one cottage and they put their money and effort on it. First they re-built their houses in 1945-1950, which were destroyed in the wars, then they kept on building the cottages. And from that the modern culture of the cottages of Finland was born. And because of the wars it is difficult to find older cottages than that in Lapland, where almost everything was burnt in the middle on 40's.

Today these cottages provide sanctuary especially for mental stress of modern work-life pressure for many people living in Finland. We don't have a cottage of our own. We used to go to one shared cottage in Levi. Since covid-19 we have not been there because it was sold. Since that we have been renting one when feeling or needing so. Every now and then we have been invited to visit ones cottages but this summer we actually have accepted few invitations. These pictures on this post are from one private cottage by a big lake in central Lapland area.

If you are invited to visit someone's cottage in Finland they usually say literally: "Come some day for a visit." When a person living in Finland invites you for a visit in their home it means you really are invited and you can pick up the date. In the modern world you are expected to announce the date and the time for the visit ones home. Simply because people are working somewhere else than at home. 

When you are invited to visit the cottage you need to ask the wished date and time for the visit. It means also finding out for how long visit you are invited to: few hours or few nights. When you go, don't expect free room service. You are invited to work there like part of the family, not just hang around like a guest. Don't let yourself to be served. They probably say "no no, you don't need to help, you are our guest" but make sure you are self-initiated and helping also the others. If you are invited over the night bring your own lining or sleeping back and towels. You can get them from the super markets, even disposable, just ask if you can't find. Just use your brains and think how you would like your guests to act if it would be your cottage and your holiday there when your friends are visiting. Like always: live room for the physical space and remember the sauna manners.

The cottages can be very modern with all the facilities. There might be the electricity and sewerage but also no electricity nor indoor toilet. When visiting someone's cottages it is a habit to bring a gift. Practical things are valued, not decorations. Practical gifts can be something that comes to the hygiene or sanitary, disposable kitchen ware, coffee & tea or for example a gift card to ironware store. Also, ask if you can bring something from the grocery. Usually there is no grocery anywhere nearby the cottage so they might have run out of something.

I have wanted to make my own house Green Lady feel like a holiday and cottage. In the way that we don't necessary need to go away to get the holiday mood. If I some day have a cottage of my own I want it to have these beautiful timber walls. Everything else is out of the question. I love these old coffee grinders which are on display at the cottage we visited in June, and will be visiting again in the future. Although I don't drink coffee, I love its aroma. These items reminds me of my childhood.

At the cottages of local people you can see and experience part of the culture history. In Finland you can rent many kind of cottages, also the ones made only for the tourism. They are great too but miss the authentic part.

What is the hook on the wall? Folk calls it "keksin pää". If you use translator for that you get the translation "cookie head" which is actually funny. 😂 It is actually part of the timber rafting tradition. It is like the hook of the pike pole but in log rafting much bigger and stronger. 

When boating with my Forest Sámi grandpa I was his deckhand. On that time children's' life jackets were unpractical, even dangerous if not needed for the saving your life in the water. That's why when carrying out deckhand's duties on his boat for him I was not using the life jacket. Our safety rules were the fact that I needed to be able to dive, swim for 5 minutes in the river / sea, scream aloud and wear a loose-neck shirt. He never allowed me on board before checking my shirt. Why? 

Diving: If I fell off the deck into the water I needed to be able to hold my breath and dive. You fall actually at first into the water. You get up when you just kick by you legs. The surface is always there where is more light. 

Swimming for 5 minutes: It was the time my grandpa evaluated he need for to rescue me.

Screaming aloud: At least that made him to notice I fell off.

Loose-neck shirt: He picked me up from that by the hook of his log rifting pike pole back on the deck. Wow! 

Sounds rough but that's how the life was back then. He had worked also in log rifting so he knew how to do and handle it. But with me he never needed those skills to save a kid. 😅

The cabin we visited has an interesting project going on. There lives bats which you spot in Finland quite rarely. Usually people fear bats and don't want them nearby. At this cottage they have put up even few bat houses after spotting one that needed human help. In Finland I have never seen a bat. Travelling in Greece I saw one at once. 💛

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Water safety rules: Learn to swim. Teach your kids to swim. If the water is a strange element to you, take a course for this and practice your skills. Never go into the natural waters if you can't swim. There might be surprises under the water even it looks shallow. In Finland you can have fatal hypothermia even in low waters during the summer months!

ValmariMuseum

Winter is a very special season in Lapland, Finland. But summer is too. Summer opens the other doors. Then you can see something you can't see on the winter season. You will see what is under the snow. And that is the culture. For example many local museums are open only few days in June-August. Some are open 6 days in a week for 2-3 months, but some really one day in a week. Or only on request. This is Valmari Museum in Keminmaa. On the area located Kemi hundreds of years ago until it was re-located to its modern location. There used to be also the church and the grave yard from which also Valmarinniemi tablet weaving band was reconstructed. This house is not that old but still old, survived over the wars and still there -worth of visiting.

Valmarinniemi Museo shows the history of one local family. This is an old wooden travel trunk that traveled to U.S.A and back over 100 years ago.

You can find out interesting facts and items there. It all proves it was a wealthy estate by the river Kemijoki when it still was free and full of salmons. The estate got its living from farming, salmon fishing and trade.

The museum includes very modern machinery of its time and shows the equality of a woman. The young bride said that when she moves in she wants a sewing machine and she got it. She knew how much it eases her work.

Her loom is beautiful too. It is traditional and smaller style than you see in Finland these days. This design is smaller and fits better into smaller houses. My loom -which I have had for almost 10 years now- has the similar design.

These local museums are small but very interesting places. There you will see and learn very authentic way the life of local people. This is a cow house for 3 cows. Cows, sheep and horses were very valuable animals and received a good care also over the winter times when you had to keep them indoors and safe from the frost.

This is sauna at Valmari Museum. The bench is at high. The heat rises up so it is warmer there  than lower. Especially during the hard frost season the floors can feel freezing. It is also practical to have the benches up high because you can place a small human to wash laundry under it and keep warm during the winter. Usually poor people made a hole into the ice and rinsed their laundry in the river even it was frost.

When ever you visit an old log building in Finland it is fun to spot old graved wood marks on the timbers. They all have different kind of meaning but even without knowing them it can be amusing also for the children. I recommend fun summer activity for kids in Finland to photograph the wood marks by their smart phones and try to find out what they mean and where. Adults can enjoy it too.

If you visit Valmari Museum don't forget walk to the river banks and set up for a fire for barbecue. You can buy fire wood at the super markets and gas stations. Like at saunas remember to leave space for other people and use as low voice as possible. By the fires you don't need to share your food with the other people. They all bring their own. You can provide a cup of water or coffee if someone seems to be alone and you are not sure if the person is ok. Always extinguish the fire before leaving if none remains there after you. If you arrive to the fire place that still has the spirit of the fire on, you know from that there was perhaps a local person. According to the old habits you leave the spirit of the fire and salt behind. The tourists are not recommended to do so. During the wars almost the whole Lapland was burn't. Make sure it doesn't happen again. For the respect -if it gets crowded- the one who arrived first leaves. If the weather is good you can go out and standing. Always leave the space for the others. There need to be air at least 50 cm between you and the other people. If not, it's crowded. 😉

When leaving the area notice at right just before the crossing to the "high way"😅by the meadow the iron cross. It is the memorial monument of the old church and grave yard of Valmarinniemi.

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In summer months it is more safe to rent a car or arrive by your own, and drive around Finland. Especially if you have no experience in winter driving. Snow free Finland have a lot to show. If you seek local museums -which usually don't get any public funding- where ever you travel in Finland notice that they usually don't have English web site. The right Finnish word for googling it is "kotiseutumuseo" + the location. And then if you use the help of translator you can find out more. If you see no opening dates, hours or fees it doesn't mean it is closed. It just is not open on that exact moment or regulary or they just don't know. In that case send a message in English to the contact person and ask when they are open. Remember, people do it usually volunteer, on their free time and without any financial or other income to show it. It is not their work or source of living. It is something extra so be respectful and understanding and the doors will be open for you. Be ready to pay 20-50 € for a private opening hours. Tip is considered rude but buying some product if they have anything to sell is correct and least you can do to support the local museum. It doesn't need be anything expensive. It is just a sign of a support and respecting their time and trouble. In public opening hours the local museums have either free entrance or 1-10 € entrance fee.

Red&White

I have woven this band in a traditional way by rigid heddle. It is a traditional national costume band. I made it for Perä-Pohjola national costume.

Perä-Pohjola national costume includes two pockets fastened to woven band. I had the factory made band which I used before in the lack of time. Since that I have desired to weave it myself. You can see the factory made one that is the lowest on the picture above. Can you spot the difference and see the factory made is not like the original design. 

Sauna

Finland's population is 5,65 million inhabitants of which for about 176 000 persons live here in Lapland. In Finland there are for about 3,8 millions of cars and over 3 million of saunas. It is very hard to find a house in Finland which doesn't have sauna of its own. Also we have sauna of our own.

We've been planning to update our sauna for few years. Like with the parquet I've been unwilling to remove any proper wood only to replace it by another wood. That's why we ended up to wax the walls and ceiling. They sell 3 manufactured shades of the sauna wax: white, grey and black. You do can have any shade you want but these are the pre-mixed factory made shades. 

We chose the pre-mixed factory made shade black. Yep, I know, it looks brown. It looks actually tarry wood. How did we make it? Just using the black wax. See, the original shade of the wood changes the applied shade. It is translucent. Our wood panels were already darkened to yellowish brown (see the 1st picture). This is how it appears through the new black wax. Of course you can't never be sure about the result, only to predict it, but at the end you never know until it's done. That's why you should test it at first on a small spot like we did.

We don't have a functional electric light in our sauna because when it was renovated by the previous owner according to the millennium fashion, which didn't last in actual use. The electric wires are installed in a way that taking it down would need taking the whole ceiling down in both sauna and bathroom. Because we have the window in sauna we have been coping without electric light very well. We considered to install electric lights but decided not to. Having them installed would cost of course but finding an electrician in your desired time window is not easy around here. 

Because the walls get darker now, we need extra light there. I discovered another option than electric lights. They are not candles. Candles in sauna are not very fire-save option. What I discovered? You will see that later when I have been able to buy and install it. Obviously by the autumn when they start to arrive into local supermarket.

We replaced the old sauna bench wood. We could have the old ones sand dusted and fixed. Instead we decided to get new ones, because we need to buy some wood anyway for some garden decoration thing. Instead of buying new wood for garden, we decided recycle the old sauna bench there, and buy new ones for the sauna. In this way we were able to make the benches 10 cm wider, despite we used the old frame to build it all.

Usually people shade all the wood of sauna to the same color. We didn't want to have dark benches because of the lack of the light. I can't see very well. In sauna I can't use my glasses. When it is dim or dark I see even worse. For the light and security we wanted the benches to be visible. For the benches we used aspen tree that is traditional material for sauna benches. And it is a great shade because in our bathroom and everywhere else nearby sauna the wood is in the natural shade, which you can see in the 1st pic of this post. Without these original shade of aspen benches sauna would have looked a bit too different and dark if waxed with black compared to bathroom. Also, notice the green tiles that create more shade difference in the dark sauna during the long & dark winter months.

We have already tested it and the benches are great. They are heavier than before so they are also firmer. He installed some extra support for the bench. I love the wider benches!

Sauna is a great place to be silent, relax and be empowered. Sauna is like a temple or church for the soul healing. You get connected with the spirits in there. Traditionally you got born and die in there. Today you get mostly the traditional soul purification in sauna. That is more than enough.💚

If you visit a sauna in Finland remember to go all undressed and not to hide inside your towel. It is considered very rude when all the other people are in the dress they were born and you warp in your clothes. Remember to leave the space for the silence and physical distance. If you really need to talk, use as low voice as it is possible. Otherwise you will scare the spirits and make them angry and even get their revenge. You can use lower benches/steps if you feel it is too hot. Nobody will laugh at you. Admitting fairly that it is too hot, you will be only considered as a brave person who dares to show your weakness. 

Parquet

We have lived in and with Green Lady for 17 years. We have vintage parquet flooring in 2 rooms. Already then when we moved in, it needed updating. And we've been doing so. But actually nothing has lead to desired outcome. We've been talking about changing the parquet flooring but we see it vain. Simply because it is old wood flooring and I want flooring that at least looks like old wood. So, what is the point to waste wood and forest for that? It is not very sustainable.

We could have sand dusted it all like it is recommended but have not chosen that option. Why? Because the parquet is from early 60's, and it has few very deep holes that reach so deep that if you sand dust it all the way deep in, that would broke the whole parquet. Anyway we would need to leave it half way and it would look brand new here and there and very old here and there. That would probably seem funny. Also, we still have the traditional insulation in the house, which means we have sawdust also under the flooring. If it gets heated up by sand dusting by machinery it causes a risk of the fire. We don't want to take that risk. Add to that, sand dusting cause a lot of dust and avoiding it would need a lot of trouble. Too lazy for that.

That's why we have been trying to create the surface to look vintage old but cared and loved. All these years. With many different kind of methods, liquids, waxes etc. With the unsatisfied result. Until now. Now it seems I have accidentally found the way.

In early June I fixed the broken wind catcher. I used Extra Virgin Macadamia Nut Oil that Young Lady had forgotten into our kitchen and it was out of the date. I used it for the wind catcher. Later I used it for the weaving tools and noticed it really creates a beautiful surface also with 3D surfaces. I got a bit excited and oiled by it also some spinning tools. And there I faced an accident. I dropped just one tiny drop of the oil on the parquet. I did like always before when I drop any oil on the parquet. Wipe it by my sock and pretend nothing happened and a moment later none sees nothing. Except now I noticed with horror that it didn't fade away. I just spread around and left a very visible dark brown spot! EEK!!! 

I comfort myself that the parquet is so ruin already that nothing can make it worse... Except next day I noticed it actually looks great. I talked with Him and we decided to make a test for ½ m2 area because it actually is so ruin that we really can't make it worse. After few days we noticed it looks great and decided to oil the whole parquet flooring in these 2 rooms by the Macadamia nut oil. Then we ran into a problem. In the whole Finland, actually the whole Europe, seemed to have run out from Macadamia nut oil. I even consulted my Australian friend to find a shop that can deliver it online straight from Australia to me. See, Macadamia actually origins from Australia. But, we actually found two small groceries in Finland that seemed to have this oil in their store. One was 1½ hour drive far away and the other 12 hours drive away! I called to the closer one, they kindly checked out the situation and set aside their whole storage (4 x 250 ml bottles) for me. We jumped into the car and head to south.

Poor Pii was not very happy about the oiling because it lasted for 3 days and she is a person of order. She was quite ok for the first 2 days until we need to remove her dear loom to get also her very own corner oiled.

I did the oiling by my very own bare hands. I rubbed and massaged the oil into the wood. I must confess it was a very hard job because the starting point with our vintage parquet was so miserable. I have worked hard before with our flooring so I knew what to expect. I always did one part of the floor and moved the furniture to be able to do so. That's why it lasted for 3 days. But we all are satisfied with the result. Also dear Pii who needed to be separated from her dear loom just for 10 hours. 

I know Extra Virgin Macadamia Nut Oil is considered one of the most expensive cooking oils. I must tell you it is anyway cheaper than many liquids & waxes manufactured for wood & parquet floor maintain. Besides it is 100% natural oil without poisonous ingredients. Of course it doesn't fade away the holes and all the scratches on the flooring's surface. It actually deepens most of their shades and all the holes and faults in the parquet. In our case we had so many that it actually looks good now. The oil highlights all the natural figures of the wood and scratches. Now it all looks very old and worn but also loved and cared. I love it when I can spot out some scratches which origin I know. I love this house full of stories. 

I needed 4 dl oil for 36 m2 area. I still have 3 full bottles left. I will re-oil it all after a month. And in the future few years at least once in a year. That will show do I need to oil it annually or not. The cost for 4 bottles and gasoline to drive there and back was total 50 €.

NOTICE: The towels & rags you use in oiling include the danger of fire when they dry out!!!! You need to dispose of them in a special way. Check that out -before starting- from your local instructions. I did burn mine in the wood burning fire stove. If you don't have that option you need to find the way not to cause a fire! I used the rags only to wipe away any extra oil.