Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Visiting the Finnish nature

The Finnish nature is famous for it's unique fragile beauty. Also Finland as a nation without much written history has it's roots in the old forest dwellers who were mainly farmers and at earlier times hunters. Most modern Finns spend a week or so of their summer holiday on a summer cottage by a lake shore.
Finns have a different attitude toward nature than most foreigners, because the nature here is very different from the nature say in Central Europe, where the nature is mostly farms and gardens and parks too. The Finnish nature is wild, not gardened, and it is praised for it's beauty and peace, and it is scarce: there are not somany trees and not so many dangerous animals. The maybe best way to learn to walk in the forest is to visit a small forest patch in town or some well kept recreation area, and pick some ordinary not-at-all-rare stone, flowers, fallen branch, fallen autumn leaves or the like for home decoration. If you mainly admire the nature for it's beauty, you will walk in the forest much like the Finns do. Then you also notice where you are going, which route you came and the like, so that you do not get lost as easily. Finns value forests for their recreational value and for their connection with the original ages old ways of living of all humans close to the nature. Remember to wear warm clothes, not to let them get wet and have extra clothes in case it gets cold. Take always care that you know how to get away from the forest!

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A quotation from my blog http://einoleinopoems.blogspot.fi . Eino Leino is a very famous old Finnish poet, writing about the beauty of nature and the laws governing life, and about love etc

"About the possibilities of going to the nature in other countries
Finland is sparcely populated and there are lots of forests which one can visit. And since we live in the north and the cool and cold weathers prevent dangerous animals from living here, and since the wolves and bears have been hunted to a small population, visiting forests is safe. In other countires it is not the same in most, since there is more population, less nature, more dangerous animals and no custom of everybody visiting a forest. But if you are intriguided by the idea of the beauty and peace of nature, it would be good to find a way to enjoy them at least somewhat. Gardens, trees, parks, meadows, sea and shores, even flowers on the window offer a touch with the nature. So do scenic spots, views out of a bus window where there is green, farming and nature reserves. In a way it does not matter how big spot of nature you have, you could even enjoy trying an insect's or bird's view of the near environment which is often beautiful and magnifient. On the other hand, the more the environment allows you to drown into enjoying the nature, without sight of build things or human foot-print spoiled things, the more profound your experience of peace, harmony, health and fracturelessness is, the more profound your touch with the ages old healthy natural ways of living on all areas of life, the more refreshing your experience is, the more it gives energy and serves as a holiday.
Another question is safety. Generally there are three types of safe places: ones with so many people that it has been taken care that there is safe, ones with nobody and no dangerous animals either and thirdly places which do not tend to have any danger. Parks have lotrs of people, but odd times may be dangerous Places where people live but where there are trees, for example on the sides of the roads and yards, may have atranquil atmosphere, one of nature's peace and harmony some time (in the summer time?) when it is daytime but a quiet moment or a few quiet moments. Some scenic routes offer harmony and beauty even if there go cars by quite often, if just the views are with a fascination: there a tiny flower by the roadside, there the shelter of trees, there a view over the shore to a lake, there a bench with a view, shelter and a comfortable atrmosphere. One can also visit forest patches that are not so much wandered on, if one goes to different places, in different times, often with company and a car of one's own. By the sides of garden area's roads there is often tall grass with flowers, butterflies etc, a world of it's own, very summer like, kind of an ideal of love. And even in the winter time there is the weather, the feeling of the elements with trees living their ages old way of life.

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5. of July 2016
From th text about the seasons http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2014/11/living-with-seasons.html
"The beauty of nature is partly a question of a way of looking. One should be interested in the multitude and richness of forms and colours, of the atmosphere of plants' growth whne looked among other things along the way they have grown, the magnifient moments of bird's flight, treen looked from near, the nature from the point of view of an insect or bird where even a small branch or grass can be biggest factors of the living environment, the atmosphere of the time of tha day with it's birdsong, light coming through the leaves to a mist, how one always finds new variations slightly different details full of feeling and atmospheric for example in pine's surface and it's thick branches, in the beauty of a forest lanscape viá trees, the different atmosphere of each type of lants etc."

Also safety when one happens to meet people in lonely places is important. One question in it is paying attention to other people's sense of space: what is their home, what near environment, which are the common roads for all to travel, do they enjoy solitude or want to exchange a couple of words about the beauty of nature, etc. Another point in that is allowing people socially room to live in: http://healthilymoral.blogspot.fi/2016/06/finding-safety.html plus links from there."

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Relationship to the nature is not just watching the nature. It has to do with the sense of atmospheres: recognizing the time of the day from how high the sun shines, recognizing the basic features of the nature environment like "This is typical pine forest." or lake shore with splashing waves, stony shore, tree branches by the shore. It also has to do with understanding the basic actions of how animals live and what is the style of the plant life, like an ant running, carrying, meeting other ants, watching, etc. In this sense in these basic things in life the nature offers fine forefigures in such basic skills, but it has to be the nature of your own climate and culture and not some too faraway place, even though one can learn something of such too, like of arctic nature about staying warm. But relationship to the nature also has to do with understanding nature's language: admiring the magnifient beauty of the nature landscapes and other impressive nature views, kind of absorbing what the nature is like, how high it's skill in those basic things in life, what style it lives and how it communicates to humans.

Birds are social and eager to take part in the life in the landscape around them. They may nag or tsirp and their songs are said to be akin to music, kind of original form of music and some birds sing with high skill. But like wild animals at öarge, birds live their separate life from humans, may build a nest, have offspring, live their lives in the affairs of birds, kind of symphatic, kind of beautiful and fierce, a refreshing element also in the town environment. A bird's flight is often magnifient to look at.

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18. August 2018
My quotations from my texts  about contact with the nature, largely the same as inthis blog though: http://talesfromforest.blogspot.com/2018/08/quotations-from-texts-about-contact.html