Finland

Memma and Juni in the cabin on the ferry
Juni enjoying the evening sun by the lake

Juni looking cute!!

Jean Sibelius´house from the side

A museum close to the hotel who has a gate designed as a cobweb!!

Juni looking at some people fishing

Tuusulanjärvi

Pedro - the father to be (hopefully!!)

Memma with Pedro's owner Suvi

The boats to take us to the mainland.

Memma was looking for fish....

On this little island in a lake is Pedro staying this summer

Back home again, this time from”an outing” to Finland to mate Juni (Ch Play A While Late Red Autumnhop Ale). She came in to season months before expected so I had to make a decision if I should mate her or not but finally decided to use this older dog in Finland that goes back to some of my older breeding. Along with Juni I brought Memma as a companion and we set out for Stockholm, a car drive of about 4 hours and then we “jumped on” the Viking Line ferry to Helsinki. We arrived Saturday, late morning, and we directly headed for Tuusula, a small distance north of Helsinki as an all breed show was held Saturday. An English lady judged and I was not impressed, but we dog people always have our own opinion, don’t we?? When whippets had been judged I went to the hotel to check in and leave my luggage before setting of north in to the “deep forest of Finland”!!

The hotel turned out to be run by the blind peoples association of Finland, so the group of persons staying at the hotel was mainly elderly and for once I lowered the average age…… The hotel is situated at the Järvenpää lake and it is a beautiful spot that both the dogs and I liked!! What I appriciated about the hotel was that it was so quiet and sleeping long in the morning was no problem!!

Well, we drove north for nearly two hours to meet Juni’s “date” Pedro. When we arrived we were greeted by Pedro’s owner Suvi , that to our surprise pointed us in the direction of a small rowing boat. Suvi’s family has rented a summer house on a small island in a lake, so the only way to access the house was by boat!! Soon after we arrived, Juni and Pedro were tied so apparently we had chosen good days to mate.

After we came back to the hotel, Tuija Elomma picked me up and we went for a lovely dinner. I thought we should wait at least one day before mating again so Sunday was spent going for long walks and I checked out the local cultural scene, including famous composer Jean Sibelius´ wonderful home Ainola. I also went to see the small cottage were another of Finland’s great cultural personalities had stayed the last part of his life - Alexis Kivi. Monday we went back to Pedro and Suvi, and again had a successful mating. Slowly we drove down to Helsinki to the ferry back to Stockholm. The ferry was full of families with small children that seemed to occupy most parts of the ferry… I decided “to kill some time” by going to see the movie Angels & Demons, but I was not impressed…. Monday we drove directly home and arrived safely in Västergötland Monday afternoon.

So now we are keeping our fingers crossed that Juni will have some beautiful kids, both fawns and brindles!!