O S M A F Frankenhaeuser

When I woke up early in the mornings in July it was very quiet. Strangely quiet, I felt. No birds, no wind, nothing. It felt as if someone had put a halt to everything, stopped the world. And it was warm. Usually already +25-+26 in the morning, equally warm in the water.

The days turned even warmer, and we all spent a huge part of our days in the water, swmming and playing with the children. This was one of the pure joys of this summer, to be able to swim all the time, and to swim long distances without getting cold.

Somehow the long hot and dry periods also made me anxious. Particularly in May, when we had no rain at all for five weeks, nature visibly suffered. Here in the north, unlike for instance in Provence, nature is not used to long periods of drought. In May some trees, bushes and flowers started blooming far too early, as if they had to get it all over and done with now, in a great hurry. Others waited and bloomed approximately when they usually do, but often with smaller flowers than normally. Everything was strange and felt out of place.

And it continued over the summer. Except for a short period at the end of June, it has been unusually hot. The Baltic sea has been covered in algae, forest fires have raged particularly in Sweden, where more than 250 hectares of forest has been destroyed. Harvests are low everywhere and animals will have to be slaugthered as there is a shortage of hay and animal feed. Is there, I wonder, still someone who doubts that climate change is here?

This summer I have read Kerstin Ekman´s new book “Gubbas hage”. In the middle of all worrying about climate change and how we humans destroy our one and only planet, it is a comforting book to read. Strange in a way, because it also feels very oldfashioned and in a way “out of place”. Why should anyone care about a small spot of land somewhere in Sweden, a meadow Kerstin and her husband have decided to “restore”, that is to bring back some of the old flowers that once grew everywhere in Sweden? And in parts of Finland, for that matter. Well, maybe not many people care, but to me this book speaks directly. I also go on long walks with the dog, I love exploring the traces people before me have left in nature, I like looking for the flowers I saw last year and to find new ones. I´m not as knowledgeable as Kerstin when it comes to names in Latin, but like her I collected and dried flowers in school, and like her I had to learn their names not only in Swedish, but also in Latin. Which has helped me a lot later in life.

A book like this is not published to try to catch the interest of the internet generation. It is there simply for the same reason nature and birds and flowers are important – because they bring us joy. And that is enough.

A quick visit to the Luberon end of June, surprising everyone. We have been looking at possible houses to buy, and enjoying the green, lush landscape. The constant raining this spring has brought one good thing with it – everything is greener than I’ve ever seen it.

But it is just slightly too early for the lavender. Another week, and I can only imagine what the landscape around Sault (lavender capital in the area) looks like when not just a few, but all the fields are in full bloom.

It is quite beautiful enough as it is, fortunately. And the smell is lovely.

This is also the best season for fresh fruit and vegetables. Such a shame we are not staying to enjoy them all.

Back in Finland since the beginning of May, and it has truly been as if we jumped directly from a quite cold and wet Spring in provence directly into sumnmer here. More or less at least. Sure, no leaves on the trees when we arrived, but after that nature has been exploding! Virtually all plants and trees and bushes have already bloomed, so one wonders what will be left for July and August?

And no rain for five weeks.

Around the house it is still green, but then we live in a spot where there is a lot of groud water. So there is still humidity left. But the forest is really really dry, and there are fires every day.

Nature here is not used to long periods of drought, unlike Provence. Here five weeks without rain is as bad as five months down there.

Fortunately we got 6 mm the other day, not nearly enough, but at least something. I notice the drought makes me anxious, and I check the weather reports constantly, hoping for a change. Not that it isn´t lovely with warm and nice weather, it absolutely is, but couldn´t it just rain a little? At night?

Another consequence is that the water levels in the sea are record low. The Baltic has not tide, but the water levels do change. Up north the water level has been 70 cms lower than normally, here in the south we have had 30-40cms lower levels. But even that is a lot, and people suddenly have discovered stones under water in places where they have “always” passed over with their boats before. And now- bang!

The shoreline is many meters further out than ususally. Not-so-long-beach is quite long at the moment.

And all this will continue. And there are still people who do not believe that the climate is changing?!