Saturday, December 2

 

 

We got up to discover that the snow had settled and the dark gray sky had more in store for us. After a quick breakfast we got ready, put the cat in Naa’s room, and left.

Outside, waiting for Irma, Naa and I stand looking at the snow covering everything. I notice that Minna’s apple tree still has some bright red apples. I photograph them.

We will drive down the old Porvoo Road to Sundö and wait for the ferry, noticing that Pellinki seems to have had much less snow than Helsinki. When we cross onto the island and stop by our summer house we will notice the land has flooded. It has become a shallow lake with buildings scattered on it. We can see that the nearby fields have the same problem. Mika will tell me later that he has never seen the farm so wet and flooded.

We will spend the afternoon with Mika and Camilla, joined by Johan and Tanya. We will spend several hours slowly eating and drinking and talking. Finally, as darkness approaches, we will leave for Helsinki again.

We will drop Naa at home and then going shopping before going home to watch the final episode of George Gently, in which he gets killed on the beach by an MI5 agent who, he learns shortly before he dies, killed his wife in the very first episode. It will seem a fitting, and fittingly vaguely political, end to a series that toyed with the politics of mid-twentieth century Britain in most episodes.

We will both like it very much indeed.