Holey ice-cream, winding river, tassled grain . . . but still no moose . . .

The day began with frustration as Geof tried to finish a booklet for tomorrow night's reading in Turku. Geof settled on a work-around solution, and Karri arranged for it to be printed. At 1:00, we gathered downstairs for a group picture and then to listen to Satu's presentation of her emergence and process as a visual poet. She is amazingly productive, and her work is ever-changing and beautiful. She is also an elementary teacher, so I've enjoyed talking to her and learning a little about Finnish education.

After Satu's presentation, Geof and I prepared our scripts for tomorrow night's reading. Even though I will still have to use my reading glasses, we blew my poems up to a bigger font just in case. With that finally out of the way, Karri drove Geof, Christian and me to Turku to pick up Geof's booklets and to have dinner. We spent a bit of time scouting out stationery supply stores but when Karri found us a shopping mall right in downtown Turku, we were set.

Not only did we find a book/stationery store, but we also found more Mövenpick ice-cream, our new favorite. Since it was likely the shop would be closed by the time we finished eating dinner, we decided to have this as a pre-dinner dessert. I had an intense banana flavor. As the counter girl dug craters into the ice-cream containers, Karri and I joked that Christian and Geof were struggling to resist the compulsion to smooth out her scoop-holes (as had been previously discussed at dinner). Geof has been smoothing out my ice-cream holes for years, a thing that never ceases to amuse me. She offered to allow them behind the counter to smooth out all the uneven spots, but they declined.

We had yet another great dinner and then walked along the Aura River. I took many pictures as Karri, Geof and Christian walked ahead and talked.

Once again, the main topic of conversation on the ride home was whether we would see any moose, what we would do IF we saw any moose, and how to avoid death if we happened to be surprised by a moose on the road. The conversation took a strange turn when Karri said he'd seen an article about a man who supposedly jumped on a swimming moose and rode him for a few meters. From moose, the topic became a discussion of which grain we were passing--rye, wheat or barley. Although I didn't contribute much to this discussion, I did helpfully supply the word "tassle."

Once again I find myself sitting here, feeling pretty darn awake with light still outside my window, only to realize that it's heading towards midnight. Since tomorrow is a big day, and since I'm trying to get to bed before 2:30 a.m., I will finish by posting some pictures from our visit to Turku.

Turku Market

Inside the Turku market

Turku Cathedral

See no moose; eat no moose

I just wished Geof "happy birthday in time at home"--which means it's 5:25 in New York. Which means it's 12:25 a.m. in Finland. Which means I'll be up much later than I really want to be, but that is the routine we've fallen into here.

Teemu and Satu working on dinner

Last night, for instance, the entire poetry group had a great dinner made by Teemu and Henriikka, although others helped, too. At some point, a beer run was suggested and subsequently made, and so, we sat around the kitchen table drinking various Finnish beers and discussing various topics. Poetry, language, families, accents, travel, beer, Canada, the U.S., bad jokes . . . it was a good time. I kept looking out the window trying to determine the time, only to fail miserably. By 1:00 a.m., the sky had darkened just enough to give me the sense I was justified in feeling a little tired, and so we left. We walked up a short hill to our little apartment and went straight to bed, both of us tired from our long but enjoyable evening.

Today, Karri suggested that he Geof, Christian Bök and I go again to Naantali for dinner. This time, Naantali was teeming with tourists visiting the open shops and enjoying the beautiful summer weather. We had a fine dinner, and I chose the "game casserole," because Karri suggested the "game" was probably "moose." Unfortunately, since it's (apparently) not moose season, I did not eat a moose casserole, but we did determine that it was comprised of two different antlered (but indeterminate) animals. And I ate it all.

A Naantali doorway

After dinner, we searched for ice-cream and while most of us got pear, I tried orange-caramel. Earlier, we had walked by a group of women knitting beneath some trees with baskets of goods for sale. I stopped briefly but moved on. When we passed again, on our way out of town, I decided I needed to look more closely at their knitted goods, mostly socks of many colorful stripes. We also ran into the St. Birgit's Night procession, and since she is the patron saint of midwives and beer (makers?), what's not to like?

St. Birgit's procession

On the way home, we again searched for moose. Karri always says he can't promise that we'll see any, but he always has us looking. We have hope, anyway. By this time, it was about 11:30; the sky was light salmon, and a skin of fog hovered above the ground.

Because Geof and I are both writing about this trip, I'm well aware of our different perspectives. For instance, although I attended Karri's presentation today and enjoyed it, I will let him document it in more detail. I've also chosen not to write today about a performance we attended by Quo Vadis, a theater troupe housed at the Saari residence this summer. I, therefore, refer you to Geof's postings for more specific information about the poetry workshops and a different perspective.