Saturday, September 21, 2013

A map folds and unfolds, does not bunch or wrinkle

Two photographs of mushrooms, taken the same day, not far from each other by lake Vääräjärvi in Nuuksio, but quite different feeling.

I have been looking at a map of Halti-Kilpisjärvi area in north Finland, where there are big fells and very rugged terrain. In fact, I got so taken with the map that I wrote (in Finnish) a book review of the map, for a lark, relying on dual meanings of words such as "reading".

It remains to be seen if a reader of the book review takes it at face value, looks for the work in a library or a shop, and is surprised that instead of a book you get a map and need rather different reading skills.

(Posting title is from the poem A Poem That Starts Out Wrong by Landis Everson.)

And it slithered through my fingers

Here are three views over lake Vääräjärvi in Nuuksio. The lake has a rather odd shape (maybe the name "wrong lake" refers to this), and walking around it took 2 1/2 hours, especially as I got confused about the way at one point. There are several other lakes nearby, just a narrow neck of land between them.

(Posting title is from the poem I knew something was wrong by Dorothea Grossman.)

Any Martian could see it

Last weekend we saw a group of canoes on lake Vääräjärvi. Apparently they had spent the night at the fireplace on the east shore of Vääräjärvi, and here they were returning. Some time later they were carrying the canoes accross the 150 meter neck of land between lake Vääräjärvi and lake Kattilajärvi.

(Posting title is from the poem One Canoe by Maureen N. McLane.)