About Winter

2011-07-27T14:37:00.000+10:00

The Sun is out today! I know so many people who are totally sick of the cold and rainy Winter weather we are having at the moment. "Your kind of weather, isn't it?", they say... I don't mind the Winter here in Victoria at all after having had many, many, many Nordic Winters in my life. But I didn't really mind the Winters in Finland either. I actually quite loved them!

I worked for an Incentive House and was lucky enough to spend most of my winters with my overseas clients up North in Lapland enjoying activities like Snowmobile safaris, Husky sleigh rides and watching the ice getting crushed onboard of an icebreaker. And after spending the day out and about in a below zero temperature, it was great to relax in the sauna and enjoy beautiful food by an open fire in one of the log cabins in the Arctic wilderness. Like this one below.

Karhunpesa (the Bear's Den) is situated 30 kilometres from Rovaniemi, on the banks of a lake and surrounded by ancient forest. During the Cold War this was a secret meeting place for statesmen. Beside the magnificent fireplace such well-known names as Lyndon B. Johnson, Golda Meir and Reza Pahlevi have spent the evening as guests of the Finnish President Urho Kekkonen.

And I did spend many 'merry' nights by the same fireplace with my clients from Germany, Spain, France and Italy. All hard working company executives, they really enjoyed the peacefulness and connection with nature that the Arctic wilderness offered. If you got all inspired and would like to experience 'a real Winter' yourself, visit www.laplandsafaris.com and my 'old friends' there will create you your own Arctic Experience! Please, say 'hello' from me, if you do...

The Arctic is also the homeland for the European Union's only indigenous people, the Sami people.
The Sámi Homeland is legally defined and covers in Finland the municipalities of Enontekiö, Inari and Utsjoki as well as the Lappi reindeer-herding district in the municipality of Sodankylä. All this area is located in the Northern part of Finland.

There are about 9 000 Sámi in Finland. More than 60 per cent of them now live outside the Sámi Homeland, which brings new challenges for the provision of education, services and communications in the Sámi language. The total Sámi population is estimated to be over 75,000, with the majority living in Norway.

Shamans were the healers and fortune tellers in the Sami culture.

The design of the pieces of jewellery on the drum are based on the traditional Shaman's drum. Juha Janger is the designer and I am so pleased to be able to sell these beautifully crafted pieces at my shop here in Australia. Customers who have bought them love the idea that the designs have a special meaning and wearing the pieces gives them a feeling of a connection to an ancient culture. I particularly myself like 'the Sun' design (below). So beautiful in its simplicity!

Well, I think it is time to go out and enjoy the sunshine! I hope you are too!

Welcome to my new blog!

2011-05-31T17:53:00.001+10:00

Hello there!

It is Tuesday evening and I am trying to figure out how to make this blog work. I thought this would be a nice way to keep in touch with my customers and share some of my thoughts and ideas about design, Scandinavia and life in general. Just give me some time to get my head around this and hopefully soon I will be posting regular updates.

fine by nature

About Winter

Welcome to my new blog!