On May 8th and 9th I was at a meeting in Vierumäki, and there was a possibility to get a little orienteering practise. The landscape is rather fine, even though there are quite a lot of buildings and construction, and some of the forests have had clear cutting recently. I didn't get too badly lost.
(Posting title is from the poem The Sign-Post by Edward Thomas.)
I walked today for 2 1/2 hours in the forests and swamps at Sipoonkorpi National Park. This was the first time ever to visit the place, and I had some trouble finding it, as there are no signs by the roadside pointing to Sipoonkorpi.
In fact, I drove all the way to Nikkilä until I realized I had missed the turn. Then I switched on the navigator, and it instructed my to drive on a road which had a "no motor vehicles" sign. Well, I circled back, and finally the navigator found the right road for me, and finally there was the Byabäcken parking place I was looking for, with five other cars already there.
I walked from Byabäcken up Bisapottsberget hill, and then south to lake Fallträsk. At this point I was rather careless, not looking at the map or compass. When I finally noticed that the landscape seemed oddly familiar, I realized I was walking towards west instead of east as I had planned.
After getting lost I used the compass more carefully, and walked southeast to Mordmossarna swamp, and to the edge of the fields at Gladersåker. From Gladersåker I walked north to Mariendal, and then I followed the river northwest back to the parking place, walking on the south side of the river.
There were a lot of small paths to follow, but they were often blocked by recently fallen trees. It seems that the National Park is changing towards wilderness, which is great.
Visiting Sipoonkorpi was one of the best things to happen this year. In fact I was almost overwhelmed by the feeling of being in a place never before visited, far enough from roads. Getting lost made me giddy. I have written before that when walking I like to get lost, and this happened today. Nowadays I seldom get lost as I know the forests and swamps nearby all too well. It is a pity.
There were some minor inconveniences, such as the fact that it was raining and I got wet. In addition it was cold, +4 °C. There had been a little snow and hail earlier today, and little pockets of the white stuff still remained. But the wet and the cold didn't bother me any, I was blissed out.
The photographs of blue anemone flowers were taken on April 26th at Tremanskärr.
(Posting title is from the poem The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell.)
Here are two photographs taken on September 8th at Velskola in Nuuksio, east of lake Vääräjärvi. I visited Velskola also a week later, on two days. This is a place with seriously beautiful forests, but one needs some care (and map-reading skills) as there are few marked paths.
I received Pentti Sammallahti's book Here far away - photographs from the years 1964-2011. It is still in the original wrapping, as I have been too busy to start looking at it.
Also, I got the package with was delivered to a wrong post office last week, a map of the Halti-Kilpisjärvi area, 1:50 000. I already looked at the map, and I have a serious urge to travel some day to Kilpisjärvi and walk on the fells. But it may be that doesn't happen any time soon. Just thinking about the logistics of going there with the children, that wouldn't be an easy trip to make.
(Posting title is from the poem Border Crossings by David Wojahn.)
Yesterday I went for a walk with my daughter to Nuuksio, walking around lake Kattilajärvi and visiting lake Vääräjärvi. We left the car at a parking place some distance away from the lake even though there would have been places nearer, but that proved to be a good choice, as there was an orienteering competition going on near the lake, and a lot of cars were parked by the road near the lake.
We met several times groups of two or four people taking part in the competition, apparently organized by Finnish Scouts. A group of two men ran past and had a conversation like this: "Our scout group failed badly this time." "Well, we learned something. You always learn."
Anyway, it was a fine weather to go for a late afternoon walk, about +20 °C, sun low on the horizon, interesting landscape to explore.
I haven't yet processed the photographs from lake Kattilajärvi. These were taken on September 1st in Nuuksio not far away from where we walked yesterday.
(Posting title is from the poem Autobiography by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.)
We had active weather also today, in an even drastic form: in addition to sushine and rain, we got a little bit of snow as well. And hard wind.
Yesterday I wrote about people throwing garbage on the roadside, but it seems that there are also opposing forces: the Green Earth society will organize a campaign on May 6th to clean up Finland. This sounds good!
I have continued learning the Nokia E7 phone. One of the good points is the map service, which so far has mostly worked all right, although right at the beginning I was quite confused by the user interface. But it works, and it is in fact quite nice to be able to look at where you are when you are out in the forests on a walk.
But even though the satellite map shows some indication where you are, a real orienteering map would be much better in a forest. However, it seems that those are not easily available, at least not in a systematic way.
Coming back to photography, or at least the visual arts, I'm currently reading Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud. This is a comic book about comic books as an art form, and McCloud explains the details of how comics work - clearly, deeply, humorously.
And this book also provides something to think about for a photographer, for example the topic of abstract vs. realistic. It is fascinating that as human beings we know ourselves in the abstract whereas we see other people in plenty of realistic detail.
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