Suomi, Sun and Sauna

Life in Finland (Suomi) is good, with sunny clear days and cool quiet nights.

Yesterday evening I was introduced to the Finnish Sauna ... many Finns' homes have saunas, and my Hosts' is no exception. It takes about an hour to get the wood stove going, then when everything is heated up one rinses under the shower and steps into the heat. At first, I had a hard time breathing, but once I settled into it it was fine ... until Steve threw a couple of ladels of cold water on the rocks, creating surges of heat and steam. After some minutes of sweltering, one steps out of the sauna and immediately under a cold (or at least cool)) shower. Rinse ... repeat. We were in and out of the sauna two or three times. They say that when you're at someone's lake house you run from the sauna and jump into the cold lake, but here in town the shower suffices. It is also customary to have a cold drink in hand in the sauna ... but needless to say if you don't drink it quick, it ain't cold for every long.

Earlier in the day I had picked tomatoes and green & wax beans in their garden. After the sauna, Steve grilled some sausages to go with a batch of gazpacho I made with tomatoes, and the beans that he had cleaned and cooked up. And I finally tried Drew's herring ... not something I'll be revisiting.

I fixed supper the other night and did my usual pork roast and saurkraut, this time adding some fresh mushrooms (chantarelles) that we got at the market in Helsinki. Barbara was happy to have leftovers to take to work yesterday for lunch.

This morning I made a cobbler with fresh peaches and blueberries, sitting in the sun on the backyard swing while that was in the oven. Very nice.

I hear Finnish chocolate is very good ... seems to me some research is in order.