It is midsummer celebration day in Finland, which is normally a time to hang out with friends and family, having a drink in the countryside. However, we haven't done that this year for various reasons, so it was the three of us like normal, seeing what we could get up to.
Not much.
Most things are obviously closed, as the city normally gets pretty deserted during midsummer, though "luckily" this has been changing in the last few years. I think it is partly because more people are giving up owning a cottage in preference of travelling internationally more, which leaves stragglers in the urban areas.
We went and played minigolf, and it was full.
After the round, we had a table booked at a large converted farmhouse in the countryside, about a thirty minute drive from the city. We hadn't been to this place before and it was a pleasant surprise at how nice it was. Again, the stragglers that had nowhere else to go or were too old for the cottage, had booked tables there too, so it was an early dinner for us.
It is also too windy.
The other reason to go out to the country was to enjoy the bonfire tradition, where there is a large fire built that burns through the late night - even though "night" is relative here at the moment, since it doesn't get completely dark. However, because the winds are so high, the bonfire at this place couldn't be lit for fire risk, as it could light up the surrounding forest. So, we walked around in the sun (and the gale winds) for a bit, and then headed on home to play word games and Uno.
Quite different to the midsummers twenty years ago.
But, it is nice to have a long weekend and spend time as a family. The weeks before summer vacation are incredibly busy for me and I still have one week to go to try and kick as many of my tasks forward, so that I can hit my quarterly targets for bonus. thirteen weeks work in eight weeks of extra work isn't exactly the easiest, but I am still going to aim for it.
The rest of this weekend however, we have no plans I think, so we might take Smallsteps to the local amusement park, even though she is still too short to go on most of the rides. She doesn't have tall genes, and most of her friends are able to enjoy the "big kid" rides - though she will have to wait til next year - or perhaps the year after.
I am tall enough, but I get motion sick on the rides now.
Well, from now on, the summer days will start getting shorter again until we are in the pitch black 18 hours of the day around Christmas time again. Which makes me a bit sad - perhaps I should move us to Spain.
There is still something to look forward to tonight though.
A gin and tonic.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I started more and more to prefer a nice cosy day at home, with a hot chocolate than going out. Are we getting old?
Yes. Yes we are....
It seems you made do with what you had, but at least you had fun. Summer in the Philippines is pretty much just everyone going to the beaches, and they easily get full as well. On regular days, most go to the malls for the aircondition. I think minigolf and board games is really fun, and is a good bonding experience.
Would be great to have a nice tropical beach to sit on for a bit - it has been a while.
Most of the shopping centers here aren't airconditioned much, because it is such a short summer. Heating is more important. However, who knows with global climate change for the future.
It must take a bit of getting used to, the seasonal long days and nights. I struggle with daylight savings time changes in Queensland.
!LOL
Does Queensland change now? The weirdest part when I was there was that it wouldn't change, but the rest would, so Adelaide ended up being a half hour ahead, instead of behind.
It isn't bad here though. I quite like the light and the dark days - except when it is dark and there is no snow - because it is very dark.
No Qld changes in our summer, saves the sun fade on the curtains and less confusion for milking of the cows. apparently
!LOL
Don't want to confuse the farm animals.
Feels like a FOMO here, people doing cool stuff, goin to the beach or big parties and I’m anchored at home most times with my little ones… wouldn’t change it.
Somewhat relatable, But we get more sunlight in the winter here.
I think it is part of the winter being so short and unpredictable. There have been years where the temps have got over 25C - and only for a few days :D
You are so much further north. Even on the shortest night of the year we still get about 5 hours of darkness. My midsommar celebration was freshly picked wild blackberries atop vanilla ice cream. Feels like summer!
There is "darkness" where we are - but it isn't actually completely dark at this time of year. We are still five hundred miles below the arctic circle though.
It's nice that you found a new spot to enjoy, even if the bonfire plans went up in smoke. Family time always makes weekends special. Enjoy the weekend brother.
Discord Server.This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens. HP delegators and IUC token holders also get upto 20% additional vote weight.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @steemflow by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited.
It was a season of enjoyment. In whatever form (whether much or not) the good thing is that you had your own share of the summer enjoyment.
I don’t know much about Finland but I heard it is a very silent country. It’s good to hear that people will be using this summer time to enjoy themselves just as you have seen so many people outside when you stepped out with your friend
Enjoy!
It does sound like a pretty great weekend! We went to a special Polish restaurant yesterday and had some really great food. Does the barn you went to have a special menu so smallsteps was able to find something to eat?
I am guessing that summer there isn't that much different to winter, compared to here.