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Heritage: A Stroll In the Forest

Another Wednesday slipped by and The Daily Post published this week’s topic for their weekly photo challenge: Heritage.

As some of my regular readers might know, I live in Helsinki, Finland. When I think of heritage in a local sense, the first thing that comes to mind is the Finnish forest. To be honest, the forest has never been a part of my personal history or heritage, as an (adult) third culture child.

But to most Finns (and by most I really mean all Finns), the forest has a special meaning, they feel a connection to it. It’s as Finnish as the sauna is. (By the way, Suvi from the blog mrssuvi.com just wrote an excellent piece on Finnish sauna etiquette, if you want to have a look!)

On the rather rare occasion that I do visit a forest, it’ll most probably be one in Helsinki or near Helsinki. It’s nice that we still have green areas in the capital and believe it or not, sometimes you can’t even hear any city sounds, just birds chirping. The air feels fresher and cleaner, and I love the different shades of green everywhere. Visiting a forest can be very relaxing and I love the peace and quiet.

How you can tell that I wasn’t raised spending time in the forest, though, is that I can’t help wondering about the ticks. There are more and more each year, and some of them spread nasty diseases. Most Finns don’t seem to mind, since they feel at home in the forest and know how to act once they’re there. I guess you could compare it to visiting the beach: I love the feel of sand between my toes and don’t mind if a little sand gets carried indoors with me in my clothes and hair after a lovely beach day… but I know several Finns who can’t stand it!

For me, forest outings are great photo opportunities, and I’ve already done several posts with forest photos. Click the “related” posts on my site to discover more forest photography or just click here!

Some photos from a past summer

PS. If you’re not a WordPress blogger, you might be wondering what these photo challenges are. It’s a link-up, where you can go ahead and add your interpretation of the theme and discover other participants’ posts.

I might add that once you start doing these, it quickly becomes addictive – the urge to check out the new theme each week is irresistible. Then your mind starts thinking about what you would post if you participated… before you know it, you’ve added your link, again!

51 replies on “Heritage: A Stroll In the Forest”

Such a great heritage indeed! Norwegians are also quite religious about the forest and spending time in the woods. I like this Nordic affinity for the nature, it is simple, authentic and has so much power to feel the soul. Makes me wish I spent more time in the woods… 🙂

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Lovely forest glimpses. It’s interesting what you say about ticks and sand. Slovenians are more used to the former and less to the latter (since we don’t have a single sandy beach – most people can’t stand sandy beaches). Just the other day, right here in Italy, a tick slid down from somewhere and landed on my shoulder even though I haven’t seen a forest for ages. And yet, the dog barely has any, whereas in Slovenia my first dog was always full of them despite protection. And I had at least 10 in my life, if not 20.

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You have beautiful photos here! And now that you mentioned forest is really important to me but I haven’t visited one (big one!) for a long time. Let’s visit a couple new ones this summer? 🙂

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Good idea! 😊 I always plan to visit more national parks, but we don’t have a car so it just seems too difficult 😉 Hopefully some day though! There’d be a lot to explore in Finland, for sure! Hope it’s a good summer this year! 😊

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Lovely shots and interesting reflections about beaches and sand and forests and ticks. I cannot stand sand and beaches, but I have had some ticks in my days…I cannot say I love them – I am rather like you there. They are really disgusting. But nothing can stop me from hiking in the forest!

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I absolutely love the dreamy glow in these photos. Just like walking through the forest when the sun is low. Oh, and I also live in Finland! In Satakunta, though. And as someone else said, we had stunning weather today. I stepped outside the door to take my dog for a walk and said, “Whoa!” 23 degrees celsius said our metre this afternoon.

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The Finnish forests have their own kind of magic. Especially to an Australian, as they are like the forests you read about in fairytales 🙂 The forests are one of the main reasons I became interested in Finland in the first place. Like you, I don’t enjoy the insects, though!

PS. My Finnish husband hates sand as well 😛

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Hahah! I’m happy to get support for my sand theory 😉 I just wish ticks didn’t exist, that’s all, hehee! Another problem we’ve been having the last 5 years or so is that all the lovely green parks in central Helsinki have been taken over by Canadian geese. They mess the grass up, it stinks, and they are aggressive. So… no more seaside picnics at Kaivopuisto! 😟 It might not sound like much but you need to experience it to fully appreciate how ruined the parks are… Hopefully they don’t have those geese in Oulu! 😊

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I’m a bit afraid of ticks as well, which is funny considering all the terrifying creatures we have here in Australia 😀

The geese sound awful! Definitely takes the enjoyment away when you can’t go barefoot on the grass and have to worry about kids getting pecked.

We are planning on moving to Tampere now so hopefully they haven’t taken over there yet! 😉

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Lovely post! I was interested in your thoughts on the coast versus the countryside. The forest/bush/woods is very special to me and my well-being. New research points to how crucial it is to a child’s development as well.

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I love your forest photos. Makes me long for a long forest walk. Forests are so quintessentially Finnish 🙂 I am very afraid of the ticks especially since we move around on the islands and those ticks often carry disease that can even be life threatening. I try to wear long socks and pants but who wants to do that if it’s finally warm enough for shorts?! Thanks for the mention ❤

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