I know it’s uncharacteristic of me to have two posts on snow, but it’s such a rare phenomenon in Southern Finland nowadays that it’s warranted. You can click all the photos here to get a bigger version – my apologies for the lousy quality though, I only had my cellphone with me last night.
First, as much as the energy company Fortum is disparaged for their executive pay and price hikes, there’s one nice thing they do: bring some light.
As most people know, light is in extreme short supply in Finland during the winter months. Hence, I was glad to see Fortum once again installing their bright light lamps on selected bus stops. On the right is what the sign says, roughly translated as “Bright Light 3500 lux – recharge some energy from here in the midst of the darkness”. The bright light lamps have actually been proven to help in the seasonal affective disorder which most people suffer from to some extent.
The relative brightness of the light is better represented in the photo below:
Snowfall of 30cm or more during a 24-hour period is, perhaps surprisingly, quite rare in Finland. This situation on the streets and the cars hiding under piles of snow – see below – reminded me more of Boston than it did of Finland. From where I’m now looking at this, it’s so unfair that both summers AND winters were better (i.e. more sunlight and warmth during the summer, more snow in the winter) in Boston.
But that shouldn’t detract us from the beauty of the current situation. Last night Helsinki looked like a winter wonderland, which it rarely does anymore. Even though the melt has already started, it was nice to see this anyway:
Isn’t that pretty? Yes it is. And it’s also enough to fulfill my winter quota for a year, so bring on the summer!
Huh? What do you mean “maybe in six months”?
*sigh*..
