‘Midsummer love’

On the longest day of the year/

We will stand and watch the fire/

On the longest day of the year/

We will use this as our chance/

On midsummer’s day we will stand and watch the fire/

On midsummer’s day/

We will take the chance to dance.

(Click on images to enlarge)

‘When the mosquitos win’

The mozzies are dreadful/

in Finland in summer./

So big they  mess with your head,/

make you feel insane,/

make you run for any form/

of cover./

Or relief.

‘Evening walk in Haukijärvi’

The late evening light/

Encourages a walk/

Through the unknown crops/

Down towards to silver lake.

‘In the green room, in Finland’

Surfing in Finland? Are you crazy?

But it’s amazing what you may find if you look hard enough.

[Using birch loops created by Josephine A. Garibaldi and Paul Zmolek at Arteles Creative Center, Finland]

(Click on the images for larger viewing).

‘The abandoned ice hockey rink (in summer)’

Abandoned and/or disused recreational facilities have a deep melancholy. Their usage long since passed, the screams and shouts have long ago faded and they often stand in lonely remembrance of good times and lives that have now disappeared, or at least changed forever, moved on.

Amusement parks with their fading rides, cracked fibreglass animals suspended in slow decline; boarded up boardwalks, ice cream shops shuttered forever against the bloody sea wind;  old sporting amenities, the arena of minor legendary feats remembered by maybe only one person on earth, their paint peeling and with weeds now ruling the roost.

One such of the latter is an old ice hockey rink near Hämeenkyrö in Finland, in the grounds of what used to be a school, and which is now the Arteles Arts Center. A further tone of poignancy is provided by the fact that, in summer, an abandoned ice hockey rink seems even more redundant.

Some images of that… (Click on images for larger versions)

‘I Will Always Go Seeking Water’ (even in Finland)

My desire to find a body of water in which to immerse myself – or just to simply look at – is one of the strongest I have.

Even whilst in rural Finland, many miles from the sea, I still feel the urge to find water. Of some description.

‘Empty Bars’: a traveller’s lament

Seeing as though I have returned to Finland, here is another reprise of something I did here last year.

Empty Bars…