Monday, July 20, 2009

The giant ant hills of Finland and other tales of nature and laundry

I should have written twice yesterday, once about Saturday night's reading, and once about Sunday's events. I even had time last evening, but too little energy after all the weekend's busy-ness. Instead of writing, I researched digital recorders for a project I want to begin.

Fortunately, yesterday was fairly uneventful and included doing the laundry and having dinner with the group. We'd put off doing the laundry for as long as possible, and I'd even washed some underwear by hand. But when Geof reached the point where his only shirt was the quick-dry spandex surf shirt he'd gotten for swimming, we knew the time had come.

The washing machine is the typical washer/dryer all-in-one, which is a great idea. We assumed we'd be able to figure it out fairly easily, but we hit two problems: too many options (with icons that were not quite clear enough--"Does that swirly thing mean water or wool?" ), and the fact that the manual we consulted and then verified with the Finnish dictionary turned out to be in Swedish. We realized this soon enough, and once we found the Finnish part of the manual, things went a bit more smoothly. One kind member of Quo Vadis helped us figure out the fastest wash cycle on the machine and showed us that we had to turn on the water. Then, finally, we were set. My only fear (and not much of one) was that the detergent was really bleach, especially since we could not find some of the words in the dictionary.

After we ate the delicious dinner that Karri had kindly prepared for about 10 of us, we checked on the wash. To speed things up, we hung our clothes on the line to dry. Geof hung the last load after I had gone back to the manor house, and this morning, he retrieved them for us.

Before laundry yesterday, Geof and I took a walk to a nearby bird-viewing platform very close to the residence. Along the way, we walked through a beautiful open field hip-high with plants where I gathered my now traditional examples of flora to press in a book and then display in a picture frame.
My Finnish flora (photo by Geof Huth)
Once we reached the woods, we noticed a pile of pine needles, strangely large. Looking closer, it seemed to be moving, and then we saw it was swarming with ants. Karri later confirmed that these are common in Finland. Geof took several pictures, but the setting was too dark, so we'll have to be sure to get good pictures later. For now, let me just assure you that these giant pine needle ant hills as big as a pitcher's mound are pretty incredible.

Not far from this spot, we found the wooden, three-storey bird-watching platform. From the top, we had a great view of the archipelago we have been living on.
Pine trees at mid-level view
View from the top
View from the top of cows lying down
I took this picture with my father in mind. One of his sayings is that when cows lie down, it means it will rain. While it didn't rain yesterday, it certainly does look as if it could today. But since I can hear the cows mooing and walking restlessly somewhere in the field just out of view, no longer lying down, I wonder how he can explain that one . . .

4 comments:

  1. Very cool stuff Huth! Glad you made it through your reading. The trip sounds fantastic!

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  2. Chank! I've missed you! Thanks, and yes, it's been a great trip. So much like home, but then again, so very different. . . You'll have to tell me how your trip was!

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  3. About your Father said: May be they are not cows but oxs :)
    tjt

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  4. Jouni,
    Ah! That never occurred to me! Good point!

    Nancy

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