As a biologist, I know, the further north or higher altitude, the less diverse the flora and fauna become. You know these things, but they don't become real until they are contextualized. Until you see it, you don't realize just how strange it is.
I sit here looking at the forest around me. Birch and pine. Pine and birch. Are there really just these two dominant tree species? Yes. I mean there are other trees, but when you look at the whole, you see the dark blackness of the pine highlighted by white streaks of birch bark. There are a handful of birds we hear singing their cheerful calls, there is a chorus of buzzing from the bees and flies, but mostly, these woods are silent. Where is the scurrying on the forest floor? I sit in complete silence admiring the simplicity of the beauty of this place.
There are few butterflies about, largely they are in the tree tops, pale browns and creams, flitting about frantically without stopping. Small shocks of orange flash by, tiny skippers. A cabbage white here and sulfur there. We're near water, so there are the dragonflies and water striders. But overall, there doesn't seem to be much *out* (if that makes sense). It was simply beautiful there and I should leave it at that.
Despite the moose crossing warning signs along the roads approaching where the cabin was, we saw no moose. There were piles of dried scat around the cabin that was too large to just be the roe deer, we hiked up to a hill top and Mark poked at something, "what's this?" he asked (touch touch), "looks like poo to me!" I said. We heard some strange noises coming from the woods and tried to track it down, it turned out to be a large corvid making rather guttural grunting noises.
Another night passes where we just marvel at how light it stays so late, here I am at 10:30 pm where the sun still hasn't dropped below the horizon, although I'm in silhouette you could read outside at midnight, it's a slow setting process and didn't get too much darker than this. At midsummer, the longest day of the year, Helsinki shuts down while everyone heads north and into the woods to celebrate. It's almost the longest day, we're doing as Finns do.