Dear rea­ders. Howe­ver strong this cur­rent Covid rol­ler­coas­ter ride is going, we still think we could share some beau­ti­ful thoughts and up-to-date fee­lings to you from Lapland. What else could we do than to daydream for now and tra­vel later when we can!

It is spring in Lapland – oh yes, only now in the midd­le of May! — and what else could be a bet­ter time to obser­ve around you than this sea­son of rapid chan­ges. For Lap­pish peop­le one of the first signs of spring is that the roads appe­ar from under­ne­ath the snow. A tiny but a pro­mi­sing sign of war­ming days! For anyo­ne tra­ve­ling around with a car, this means easier dri­ving but mind you, qui­te soon after this the rein­de­er appe­ar along the roads; They’ve been at the farms for the long win­ter and now it is time to start roa­ming around the wild­life for food.
Spring has sprung. A vivid and poin­ting way to descri­be this sea­son and how rapidly it pro­ceeds. Perhaps spring feels like a fast-for­ward track of some­thing, as we have had win­ter sin­ce Octo­ber. To remind you, the lon­gest recor­ded win­ter in Lapland was in 1968, when snow cover could be mea­su­red from 230 days!

As we have writ­ten befo­re, spring brings ever­ything ali­ve. Sud­den­ly tens of dif­fe­rent spe­ci­es of birds, insects and ani­mals appe­ar out of nowhe­re. If you live by any water, sud­den­ly the ice cover starts to dis­sol­ve or move, and swans, ducks and many other sum­mer­ti­me wild­life appe­ar. In the evenings you will hear beau­ti­ful sin­ging of swans during their mating ritu­als or defen­ding ter­ri­to­ri­al dominance.

Befo­re electri­ci­ty, spring was dif­fi­cult time for Lap­pish peop­le to pre­ser­ve food. It was not cold enough any­mo­re to keep food fro­zen, but not­hing would grow, as the ground was still fro­zen. For many Lap­pish peop­le spring meant har­ve­s­ting in one defi­ni­ti­on: the rein­de­er. During spring, the rein­de­er will be gathe­red and some of them but­che­red, as in the old days. Spring wea­ther could give one opti­mal opti­on for food pre­ser­va­ti­on, and that is air-dry­ing the meat. When the days are warm whilst night tem­pe­ra­tures are below zero, strips of meat dry out­side in two weeks. This Lap­pish deli­cacy is still done in many homes and sold – for examp­le – as a per­fect snack for long hikes.

What’s more, spring is on and this can be noti­ced by pro­lon­ged day­ti­me. We are alrea­dy past the point whe­re in the nort­hern­most part of Lapland the sun doesn’t set any­mo­re befo­re the end of sum­mer. Spring nights are full of light, as the late snow coverage reflects the incre­a­sing amount of sun­light. If you tra­vel to Lapland during this time and haven’t used to night­less nights, remem­ber to take a sleep mask along with you!

Mid­ni­ght sun during spring

Later during the spring, natu­re starts to pro­vi­de you with still edi­ble and fro­zen cran­ber­ries from swamps and deli­cious morels. Many sprouts are now deli­cious and edi­ble strai­ght from the ground; have you tried Fin­nish fire­weed or nett­le as a side to your meal?

Spring is stun­ning and full of chan­ges, pro­mi­ses of upco­m­ing sum­mer and time for rene­wal. Perhaps it is a clear sign that even the­se worry­ing times are chan­ging, now that ever­ything in natu­re is tur­ning into some­thing else.