Text and photos: Kaisa Sirén
It is calm, the sea is like a greasy lid cover. As you look closely you can see it swinging slowly. How rare this time of the year. It is the 1st of December and the outer archipelago could be engulfed by storms. I have come here to this remote island to stare at the sea. It is calming and somehow meditative. But once in a while I must take one snapshot. The sea does not let you go. Even though it is calm its essence is changing constantly. And when you keep staring you start to observe new things besides the sea itself. Like the fact that the light stays in the horizon line throughout the short day. It is as if you are experiencing dawn and dusk at the same time, lasting 6 hours. The light is the most beautiful I have seen for a long time. It is yellow, orange and red at the same time and does not let you go either. I do not see the sun, but all of the sudden it lights up the houses in the village magically. Then disappears back to the horizon.
I continue to stare the sea and start to see life. Birds, a lot of birds and many species. Those white knobs are mute swans, the smaller black and white are goldeneyes, and there is a lot of them. And then those flying carpets soaring the sky, they are white-tailed eagles. I am mesmerized by their heavy flight which soon turns into hunting. Three eagles are circling around and the suddenly dipping into the ice cold sea. I look very carefully thru my camera and can define a fish with one. When I was a child, the white-tailed eagle was critically endangered. At our summer cottage, in Uusikaupunki archipelago, you never saw them. But now you do and many at one glance. I am so happy for them and grateful to those who worked hard in their protection work.
The light in the horizon is starting to dim down. I take a couple of more photos and start to look for the route back to the cottage. It looks very inviting at the edge of the sea, warm light in the windows. The taxiboat driver has warned me about the long evenings, it is very dark he says. But a miracle happens, it is full moon and moving around outdoors even though the light in the horizon went down. Tomorrow it will return and I can continue staring the sea.
