Sunday, August 9

By now I know some things by their English name and other things by their Finnish or Swedish names. Some things, though, I know only by a literal English translation of their Finnish names: pike-perch for example. I should properly call ths a zander, but since I have never heard anyone use this I continue to call it a pike-perch.

Sea-hay counts as another example: a literal translation of the finnish term meri heinää that I have come to use without thinking about it. I expect I should really use terms like rushes, or bullrushes, but I never do.

Driving back from Benita’s we stop to look out at the sea. I look down and notice the dead and dried sea hay all around. If I look up and into the distance I cannot, in fact, see the sea because this year’s sea hay is about two metres tall and blocking the view.

I point my camera downwards and look into the past.