Meadow culture

Looking down on the Riisisuo barn from Riisintunturi. We'd been down there previously, following the Riisin Rietas path. The Riisintunturi national park, although quite close by (40 kms drive), provides a huge contrast with the Oulanka national park which we visited yesterday. It's much more open fell country, and parts of the forest have been cleared in previous centuries to provide space for hay meadows. That's what the Riisisuo Barn was for. People would come during the summer to scythe the hay and take it back to the farms where they kept their stock, which could be many kilometres away. The traditions only died away, apparently, in the 1960s. We certainly learned something new about Finnish meadow culture today.

A good walk, full of variety. Lots of duck boards across the rather damp meadows and gorgeoys pathways through mixed woodland. Some sunshine but mainly grey. Windy on the tops. And no mosquitos to speak of. We saw a frog and some interesting bits of dung. No idea what they were. Not quite as far as yesterday, but more floors according to fitbit. Who knew? It didn't feel as hard, because almost all of the "floors" yesterday were done on wooden steps, whereas today it was mainly gentle rises and drops.

Afterwards, we went to Ruka to see whether we could find something to eat. Although there appeared to be some sort of event on, almost all of the restaurants were closed and those that were open were unappetising. As a result we went in the supermarket to buy something to cook, but the choice was amazingly limited. Luckily there was an Alko next door, so with some French red we will drown our sorrows, wondering long into the night at the limits of the services in this part of Finland at this time of the year. We're obviously between the end of the winter season and the proper summer season, and many restaurants seem to be taking a break between mid May and 22 June (i.e. they are reopening for midsummer - whereas most of Helsinki's restaurants are closing for midsummer...).

We may drive around more tomorrow. We've been good so far with lots of walking. We also want to see more of the place.

By the way, the photograph looks much better against a black background.