23 July 2025

On 13 July I introduced our trip to Finland with photos from 2017 so while I was there I took similar photos for comparison. Some things changed and some stayed the same.

The biggest change was the weather. On our last visit we wore jackets most of the day but this time we wore summer clothes. With lows in the upper 60s and highs at 80°F+ it was dry, very sunny, and felt hot. Climate change has brought Finland hot, dry weather this year while North American mid-latitudes are having heat and heavy downpours. The Finnish Meteorological Service issued Moderate to Severe High Temperature warnings during our entire visit.

While in Helsinki we passed by the Lutheran Cathedral on the tram but did not visit it (too hot!) As you can see it’s under wraps as it undergoes facade maintenance. Compare this to what it usually looks like (click here).

To beat the heat in Helsinki many people went walking, running or biking in the early morning at Töölönlahti Park. A few went out on the water among the barnacle geese. I counted 200 geese spending their summer flightless period at the park. [On 29 July the New York Times wrote about the goose problem in Helsinki.]

At Rikkavesi lake we stayed in the guest cottage as we had eight years ago. Erkki and his young grandson painted it red with white trim a few years ago. (See it brown in this similar photo from 2017)

We hiked at their son’s cottage near Bromarf where the landscape looks a lot like Maine.

And we made sure to visit the cows, most of whom no longer wear udder support. The old farmer retired. The new farmer put straps on only one cow.

We enjoyed our time with friends and relaxed with delicious Finnish food from the garden and lake. Our friend Helena is an excellent cook.

That evening after a very hot day the wind picked up and made it feel much cooler close to shore. At 1:00am on 21 July the sun was lower than on 1 July 2017 when I took a similar photo. Three weeks make a difference in the amount of sunlight. (Click here to see 1:00am on 1 July 2017)

We are very glad we visited.

22 July 2025, flying home from Finland

Today as we’re flying home from Finland I’m musing on the fact that I have seen barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) on nearly every trip abroad. This is not surprising since they are the most abundant and widespread swallow on earth. They occur on all continents because they are vagrants to Antarctica.

Of course I saw them in Finland.

“Swallow Tails” are one of the barn swallows’ most important features. Here are some Cool Facts about them.

• “According to legend, the Barn Swallow got its forked tail because it stole fire from the gods to bring to people. An angry deity hurled a firebrand at the swallow, singeing away its middle tail feathers.” — All About Birds: Barn Swallow

• “Barn swallows are capable of sharper turns and dives than other swallows. This increased maneuverability in flight is a consequence of the highly forked tail.” — Birds of the World: Barn Swallow

• The length of the tail streamers is very important. Studies in Ontario have shown that the longer the male’s tail, the better success he has in attracting a mate and nesting early. In Europe “tail length and degree of asymmetry in the outer tail feathers have been found to be predictors of individual quality in both males and females and those traits are used when selecting mates.” Everything — from breeding to annual survival — works best for the longest tailed barn swallows in Europe. — Birds of the World: Barn Swallow

When I get home I’ll see barn swallows in Pittsburgh. I’ll be sure to check out their tails.

13 July 2025

This spring, for the eighth year in a row, Finland was rated the happiest country in the world by the World Happiness Report. Unfortunately the U.S. lost ground and fell to #23, our lowest ever position on the happiness scale since the report began in 2012.

Today my husband and I are flying to Finland with a one night stopover in the 3rd happiest country, Iceland. This is our third visit to Finnish friends whom we’ve known since Erkki was a foreign exchange student at our high school. I’m looking forward to lots of happiness.

The map below shows our locations: Pittsburgh (P), Iceland (orange) and Finland (red). On Icelandair we only have to change planes once, in Reykjavik.

While in Helsinki we will stay across the street from Töölönlahti bay.

Even from afar we will be able to see Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral, one of the most famous buildings in Finland. The steps to its plaza look like a wall in this photo.

After a couple of days in the city we will visit the countryside at Erkki and Helena’s summer cottage at Lake Rikkavesi and their son’s cottage on a peninsula near the Baltic Sea. Lake Rikkavesi is pictured at the top of this article, the guest cottage below. In 2017 it glowed at 3:30am, just after sunrise on 2 July.

Summer cottage life is one of the things that makes Finland such a happy place.

The Nordic lifestyle is closely linked to nature and the highly anticipated but short lived summer season. The most popular and ideal way to spend the summer months in Finland is in a lakeside cottage surrounded by nature. This tradition is grounded in traditional culture and lifestyle and forms an important part of the Finnish national landscape. Many Finns consider the cottage to balance out city life.

— Cottage Culture in Finland: Development and Perspectives

There are 5 million people in Finland and 500,000 rural cottages, called mökki. About 50% of the Finnish population visits a cottage on a regular basis.

Most of the cottages are modest in size as shown in these Finnish summer cottage facts from Mökkibarometri 2025:

• The average cottage is 91 kilometers (56 miles) from home and 70 square meters in size. (753 sq ft, about the size of a one bedroom apartment.)
• 75% of cottages are connected to the electricity grid.
• Solar panels are in use at 19% of cottages and heat pumps at 34%.
• Fixed broadband is installed in 12%. (Cell coverage is so good in Finland that I never needed WiFi at the cottage.)
• 55% of owners bring their drinking water to their cottage.
• Most cottages are owned by older people. 55% of owners are retired.
• Shared ownership has increased. This is the case, for example, with cottages owned by heirs.

Even though it sounds like a lot of cottages, the lakes seem remote. Buildings do not crowd the edges of lakes as they do in the U.S. and the lights of other cottages do not shine across the water at night.

On walks in the area with my husband Rick, Erkki, and his wife Helena in 2017 we saw lots of trees …

… and cows at this dairy farm, but we did not encounter other people.

I’ve marked this map of Finland with blue “X”s at the four places we will visit.

We’ll relax, enjoy time with friends, and be happy in the land of the midnight sun.

There will be birds, too. More on that later.