Saturday, June 29

We are up for the market. The sky is overcast and the sea is far from blue. In a few moments it will start raining.

The morning will be a trial run for the advantages of the hut over the table. The rain will come and go and there will be very few people around. None of the stallholders will make a profit today but we, like they, will not get wet while not doing it.

After the market there will be a meeting about one stallholder’s transgressions, which will strike me as a fascinating example of justice in a small community. Pellinki is a people-sized community in which direct democracy works, and I am happy to experience it and, tangentially, to be part of it.

We will sped the afternoon having a nap to recover from the excesses of yesterday, and we will spend the evening with Mikael and Camilla eating strawberries from their garden and playing with the dogs. Just before I fall asleep I will realise that, in many ways, I feel more at home here than I do in Helsinki.