The Quiet Picture

Said and done. First thing after breakfast, I drove to Punkaharju to do an inventory of the broad-leaved helleborine. I found 23-25 individuals, some already withered, others in full bloom and some only starting to bloom. I also found one individual which was HUGE – 1 metre tall, easily. All of them were growing right by the road, or in the roadside ditch. I didn’t find any on the other side of the ditch, so the road must be providing them with the minerals that they need.

Having endured the traffic, dust, mosquitos and pollen, I finally emerged from the ditch with the memory card half filled with orchids. I still can’t believe I found them here.

I played a real tourist today and took a cruise from Savonlinna to Punkaharju and back. I got a good look at the Saimaa lake system and islands (no less than 40000 of them, including the small islets) and a short hike on the nature trail in Punkaharju. I can now proudly say that I’ve seen the tallest tree in Finland. It grows in the middle of the forest so it’s hard to appreciate the height when you’re standing right next to it, peering up and trying to see the tree crown. I’ll just have to take their word for it.I wasn’t expecting to see many orchids here in Finland – the occasional heath spotted orchid but nothing more, really. I was astonished to discover lesser butterfly orchids right behind the summer house, all withered but I’m positive about the ID. Then today during the hike past the tall trees, I saw a creeping lady’s-tresses orchid. And when I was already on the way to the harbour to catch the ship back to Savonlinna… a new orchid, I was stunned! I couldn’t ID it on the spot, so back at the cabin, I hurried to check the book… Broad-leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) and it also happens to be a fairly rare orchid. Amazing! Too bad I was in a hurry, I just took a few quick shots for the ID and had a brief look around for more individuals, but this was the only one I could see. Right there beside the road… I’m not kidding, it wasn’t fully half a meter from the curb. Yikes. I’m going back tomorrow to look for more of them!

Let’s not forget that however we nature photographers try, Mother Nature is still the best artist there is. Our job is just to document it.

…comes the sun. Even the wind was behaving itself so I got some flower photography done for a change.

Don’t ask me how I did the background in this one. It was grass and it wasn’t very far away but somehow it seems to have been far enough. All I did was to adjust white balance (auto setting in Lightroom!) and added a little bit of vignetting (I have to watch out because I’m starting to like the vignetting effect). Everything else felt like overkill, but that’s viewing this on my PowerBook so it will be interesting to see how my home PC displays the same image.

Third day straight, hard wind. Add the dark skies and the occasional shower and you can imagine that my photo album is not exactly exploding. But I’m still producing at least one picture per day and coming up with new subjects – for a better weather.

I did some local sightseeing today. Since we’re surrounded by lakes, there’s a dead end (and a boat) in every direction but one. So I saw a lot of water, some dramatic cliffs and plenty of forest with summer residences (and the occasional permanent residence) scattered all around, by the water of course. And then there are some deserted houses as well, some more recent than others.

One thing I’ve been wondering about is how everyone looks so familiar here. Every time we visit the town, I keep staring at people (especially the older ones), thinking that I know them. It wouldn’t be impossible because this is where my family comes from (almost all of the younger ones have moved elsewhere but the older folks remain in the Savonlinna region). But no, every time I have to conclude that they are all strangers to me. I think I figured it out today though. The older folks all look so… Savo. Not just Finnish, but southern Savo. I will probably look just like them in 20-30 years…

* * *

The windy weather has continued. I have just about exhausted my ideas for windy weather photography, so I can only hope for the weather to turn tomorrow…

Funny how time flies when you’re doing nothing. I honestly can’t remember exactly what I’ve done from day to day since I arrived to our summer house in Savonlinna. Somehow it sounds like I’ve been making perfect use of my holiday though…My sister with family and dog in tow arrived a couple of days after me. The dog is an absolute treasure, impossible not to like her. Quiet as any dog I’ve ever seen, very attached to people, will do any trick for a sausage but once she gets a whiff of a rabbit, you won’t see the tail of her. She’s one of those supposedly low-allergenic species but allergenic enough for me it appears, so in a way I’m relieved that they’ve left now, it’s getting easier to breathe.

Photographically speaking I haven’t done anything special. I aim to take at least one picture every day during my stay here and I’ve reached that, but the results are pretty much the same old same old. I was happy to see that not all the flowers had reached their peak yet, so I have something to look forward to next week. The weather has been less than perfect, a couple of days of rain which doesn’t really bother me but the wind is killing most of the ops. Currently it’s almost storming so I might as well sit inside and type this. If something good has to be said of the wind, then it’s that it’s keeping the mosquitos and biting flies in the hiding. Plenty enough of those otherwise!

Looks like I lamented about the fate of Savonlinna a bit too early – there seems to be life left in the old town yet, reaching the foreign news. If only they could spell it right!

I recently got the sad news the Savonlinna School of Translation Studies (Kansainvälisen viestinnän laitos, KVL) is going to be moved to Joensuu to be housed together with the rest of the University. I spent five years of my life at KVL studying translation and Savonlinna has always had a special place in my heart. Firstly, it’s my birth place. Secondly, the family summer house is nearby. Thirdly, I’ve spent just about every summer of my childhood in and around Savonlinna. If there’s one town in Finland I miss, then it’s this one. But the problem is that it’s a fairly small town tucked away in the Eastern Finland. Unemployment is sky high with all the businesses leaving the town one by one, so the loss of KVL feels like a death blow. Just about the only thing that is holding the town up now is the Opera Festival and the rest of the tourist attractions, with what Savonlinna ideally situated between two major waterways and the Linnansaari National Park close by. But how many people can the summer tourism support? It’s just two months of the year… for the remaining ten, the town dies.I would dearly like to be a positive statistic for the old town. But I might as well stop dreaming right now, because there’s no job for me either. My only chance would be to freelance – as a translator? No, haven’t done that since 1995 when I got my degree. As a photographer? No, I don’t have what it takes. Could I get a job as a Lotus Notes Administrator? Nope, doubt there’s a domino shop left in town.

Since I heard the bad news, Amy Grant’s old song Nobody Home has been playing in my head. It’s always been a favourite as I’ve considered it to be a metaphor for my life; a bright future behind me. But now it also has a literal meaning as an epitaph for my beloved Savonlinna. It’s even more depressing.

Main street u.s.a boarded up and dry
Knowin’ what once was here just makes me wanna cry
Used to be the favorite place
Now what remains are memories even time cannot erase
Old man Johnson’s store, where we grew up too fast
All that remains today are echoes from the past
Used to be a boomin’ town
All that’s left is either broken up or broken down

Singing, oh ah, oh ah, oh ah, oh
Where we used to belong
There ain’t nobody home
Said, oh ah, oh ah, oh ah, oh
You can knock all you want
But, ain’t nobody home

Packed up, moved away, runnin’ from the past
Leaving behind the dusty dreams and broken glass
Used to be a busy town
Now, everybody passes through, but they don’t stick around

Was a newsstand on the corner
Right next to the barber shop
And down the street there
That’s where all the kids would stop
And they would tease the neighbor’s bulldog
Laugh and run away
Now, there’s no one left who knows the truth in what you say

(song written by Glen Ballard & Siedah Garrett)