Midsummer in photos

We have a cottage on an island of the coast  of Vehkalahti, in the Gulf of Finland. I spent Midsummer, from Friday to Sunday, there with my father and his spouse Merja. We had the best of time.

We arrived at the Island on Friday about 11 am. It was unsually calm.

This is the typical way for Finns to behave during Midsummer, but usually it requires a bit of booze; at least in broad daylight.

No idle Midsummer for us. Merja started to dye yarn immediately upon arrival. In the background you can see father getting lunch.

the pot simmers.

The results, colour gotten from lupine flowers:

 Father did get lunch:

Which he also cooked. Hard life he has.

I was also busy, taking care of the right temperature:

After eating luch we had to start on the supper, which was a rosvopaisti, a traditional pit-roasted meat. We had  about five kilos of elk meat.

You need to keep the fire going for four hours to hotten up the stones.

wet newspaper is essentail to prevent the meat from burning .

the net protects the roast and makes it easier to handle

in the pit the meat goes, covered with hot stones and insulating earth.

Not for vegetarians:

We roasted potates in the pit, too:

We meant to eat the rosvopaisti on Friday evening. However, in the 13 years we've made the dish (in a row), this was the first time it was not done in the allotted time. So, back to the pit it went, we kept fire (which doubled as Midsummer bonfire) on it, and ate it for late lunch on Saturday. It was delicious, and the view from our table was not bad, either.

 

There are some vegs on offer, if you look closely, you can see some green on Merja's plate.

Friday evening ended up with keeping the fire going. We could see seven other bonfires from where we were sitting.

A few of these lights on the mainland are bonfires.it's about 11 pm.

We spent Saturday and Sunday in similar way, dyeing yarn, fishing, knitting, reading, drinking various kinds of cool drinks. The Sun shone, and the wind really got up only on Sunday.

We also practise some longline fishing; got nothing with it. We caught  fish only with nets.

There where others about, such as these Russians:

It was just lovely

 However, at some point we just had to leave.

the home jetty.