Today has been a sunny day but the wind has been rather brisk. 12-15 meters in second according to the radio's weather report. The wind has been so brisk that it has been hard to stand up and hard even to take photos. We could work only on one side of the building and did some plastering again.

Inside we have organized the storage space at the first floor. There are construction materials, tools and equipment mixed with empty water tanks and recyclable waste of various kinds. Recycling - as important as it is - is not easy on an island. The boats that bring people here are neither good nor willing to take large amounts of waste to the mainland. Thus more and more waste piles up in the storage space. Finding tools and materials becomes harder and harder. We tried today to organize the space and sincerely hope that during the winter there will be some larger boat to collect all the recyclables.

Birdwise we have seen today more common sandpiper and also a few wagtails. And we also saw one sailing boat struggling in the wind - with one sail.

Struggling with nature's powers is our passion too. We have paddled for ages - Raimo for at least 50 years and Ari a little shorter time. We paddle with all kinds of canoes and in all kinds of waters. Raimo owns several canoes and the canoeing society owns even more which we can borrow anytime. Last year we went to paddle on Lake Ladoga in Russia. It is a large lake - rather a sea. But very few boats or canoes. We paddled for one week, sleeping in tents are preparing our food on open fire. It was quite an experience and the scenery is gorgeous especially near the former Finnish city of Sortavala.

Lapland is our second madness. There we go every year trekking, paddling in the summer and skiing in the winter. Usually we stay some time in Kuusamo in the Paper worker's cottage and make shorter paddling trips in the rivers and lakes around. Our winter destination is Kilpisjärvi region, where we go skiing at the beginning of May - there is still lots of snow at that time. The region with fells and lakes is a very beautiful part of Lapland and becomes even more impressive when passing the border to Norway and to the Ice Sea.

This deserted lighthouse island and Lapland have something in common: peace, nature and large views.

Ari and Raimo