Final pictures from tonight at Parikkala...

The sun was shining as we leaped into Lake Simpelejarvi for the final time after a wonderful sauna session tonight!

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Last day in Parikkala...

Sandy and Olivia, working on some colouring pictures.

Taken underwater in the lake, by Sandy.

Half in and half out of the water, again taken by Sandy.

Dad makes a leap for Russia!

Sandy in the air.

Olivia dive bombing!

We were up early this morning- young Arnold was running around from about 6am! It was sunny in the morning, so we spent a good amount of time in the lake, enjoying the warmth of the water.

After lunch, Anna's parents and Olga were all packed up, and their driver, who was supposed to appear about 3pm, actually turned up at 1.15pm, so they set off early after saying their goodbyes. We did a bit of shopping and returned to the statue gardens, Patsaspuisto, that we visited earlier in the week.

This evening, we are all packed, and we're about to head to the sauna for the final session here close to Parikkala. Tomorrow, I'll update the blog from the following page.

Today's photos come from Sandy's new camera! (I will upload more this evening, from our swims a few minutes ago!)

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Friday 13th July

Today, finally, it rained! This morning we had thunder and lightning and this afternoon after stopping for a while, the rain returned and it is still raining now, at 7.30pm. Despite that, we have been shopping in town and swimming in the lake, as well as enjoying the usual sauna- lake routine. After the heat of yesterday, the lake felt very warm today, which made swimming really pleasant!

Tomorrow, Anna's folks return to St Petersburg, so we expect their driver to be here in mid-afternoon, so that they can be away by 3pm. Knowing the way things go though, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he turns up at lunchtime!

After that, we need to get packed up ourselves, as we will be leaving early on Sunday morning, for the 4.5 hour journey to the next cottage close to Jyvaskyla. We'll be splitting the journey in two, as we'll meet Jyrki and his family at Kuvansi school, and go with them to one of the parents of his pupils, for lunch. Sounds good :-)

Dinner tonight in the cottage.

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Day 5- Thursday 12th July

Olivia at the front this morning.
It's been sunny and warm today, with the temperature reaching 25C this afternoon and therefore there has been lots of time spent in and around the water.

This morning Sandy was upset because his birthday present that he wanted in March, a waterproof digital camera for filming underwater here, began to steam up- suggesting it was taking in water. I asked him about it and he admitted he had dropped it on stones close to the jetty. After trying to dry it out, we went in to Parikkala to see if any shops here had a similar item. Luckily, one did, so I bought him it and it (an Olympus) appears to be a much better camera than the Kodak it replaced, and also at a price significantly less than I would have paid in the UK. The shop lady also knocked 20 euros off the price of it after I pulled a face after asking and being told the price- I had already seen the price and was quite happy with it :-)) Anyway, he has spent the day reading up about it and testing it thoroughly- and Olivia has inherited his old one, so everyone's happy!

With the Russian contingent!

This afternoon I nipped back into town to have my haircut- and I am also much happier after my first Finnish trim!

And to this evening and the usual round of saunas and leaps into the very warm lake- we all enjoyed this very much. Apparently tomorrow the weather suggests it might rain, but we will wait and see. I think it's been significantly better than Scotland's weather, even if it rains tomorrow.

On the jetty this evening

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In and around Parikkala today...

This morning we headed into the town of Parikkala, which is about 3 miles or so north of the cottage. We all went to have a look around a couple of little museums and a craft centre, both of which were nice in the morning sunshine. Then we visited a little Russian church, which was very little indeed- I would imagine that at full capacity, it might hold 20 people!
In Parikkala village, by the church.

World War 2 memorial.
The tiny Russian orthodox church!
Living room in the cottage.
In the sauna this evening.

This afternoon it was a mixture of sunbathing around the house, and later Anna and I went back into town for some shopping. I also decided I need a haircut, so I have arranged an appointment for tomorrow. That should be interesting! After dinner this evening, the sauna was heated once again, and it was great to leap into the lake repeatedly. There are two saunas here, one in the house itself, and the other down by the lakeside, but we have only used the lakeside one so far, as it seems nicer just to leap straight into the water afterwards! Anna's dad and mum went into the woods this evening and collected lots of strawberries for us all.

Oh yes, forgot to mention- we have seen ospreys both yesterday and today on our lake and also circling above another lake between here and the town. Beautiful birds!

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The weirdest place in Finland?

About to enter the park.
There are some seriously weird characters in here..



Sandy gets into the spirit of the place...

Dozens of sculptures up by the house...

An attempt to copy the Water Lily pond of Monet's?
Back home in the afternoon- we splashed about in the lake.

It's been a lovely day here in Parikkala, though it didn't look like it would be early on this morning, as we were preparing to head to the nearby sculpture gardens. As we left, it looked like it was about to rain and it suddenly got windy, so we put jumpers on for the first time this week! Two miles down the road, we came to the sculpture park, created by Veijo Ronkonnen. I took this directly from the web, as it describes the place rather accurately...

“Deep in the forest of Parikkala, in the easternmost part of Finland, lies one of the craziest tourist attractions on the face of the planet – the sculpture park of Veijo Ronkkonen. Regarded by most as the most important ensemble of contemporary folk art in Finland, the sculpture park of Veijo Ronkkonen is a lot to take in, the first time you visit. Finding yourself surrounded by hundreds of creepy statues, grinning at you with their real human teeth, is enough to spook you into turning back as soon as you set foot in the park.

Veijo Ronkkonen, a former paper mill worker, completed his first sculpture in 1961, and now his yard, and the path leading to it, are filled with over 450 statues, 200 of which are self portraits of the artist in Yoga positions he has mastered so far. The statues have loudspeakers hidden inside them, and the sound effects add to the eeriness of this place.

Although he has had the chance to exhibit and even sell his artworks, in auctions, Veijo Ronkkonen has never agreed to showcase his art. Every time he was asked to showcase his work, the near-hermit always replied he needed to discuss it with the statues first. Sadly, they never agreed to travel.

The sculpture park of Veijo Ronkkonen is free to visit, if you dare, but the artist insists every visitor sign his logbook, before they leave.”

Actually, Ronkonnen died in 2010- and the park was bought by a local businessman, who continues to allow thousands of visitors to visit the place annually.
Once we returned, we swam repeatedly in the lake which felt really warm this afternoon. The temperature hovered around 25.5C from about 3pm until 6pm, and even now, the sun is shining and Olivia is swimming in the lake!

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A quiet day of relaxation...

In Parikkala this morning, the whole crew!

Sandy picking wild strawberries

Looking out to the lake- Deadushka.
With the necessary licence now safely obtained, we can set sail in this- but not for Russia!

From the balcony!
It's been cooler today, with the mercury only getting up to around 21c or 22c this afternoon, but we spent the morning in Parikkala itself, which is only about 5 minutes away by car. It is a small town, around the same size as Juva, which we stayed close to last year, and doesn't really have many shops, but Baboushka and Olga still managed to spend around 90 minutes in the biggest shop, a hardware type store that seemed to stock just about everything. I'm sure they found the best bargains there...

This afternoon, we just relaxed close to the house. I got the licence we need to allow us to go in the rowing boat, onto the lake (it's free, but must be obtained to allow safe use of the boat!) and while this was going on, the rest of the family went for a walk to pick strawberries and blueberries close to the house. Once everyone was back, we heated up the lakeside sauna and had several sessions jumping in and out of the water. The water itself feels warmer today, probably because the air temperature has been a bit cooler. There's been a strongish breeze, which has been welcome, as there appear to be more mosquitoes here than we have encountered anytime previously in Finland- so the wind has kept them away.

Tomorrow, we're going to go to a very unusual place, a world-famous sculpture garden that is only around 3kms from here. There are about 500 life-size sculptures, all made by the same man, and having had a look at the website, it all looks decidely spooky! I'll post the link to it tomorrow, with photos!

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