Day 7 - Saturday 12th July

Selfie from about 30 m out from the jetty :-)

"Make hay while the sun shines," goes the expression. In this context, it means swim in the lake and sunbathe while the weather remains hot, as it did once again today, with the temperature easily climbing above the designated 25C limit in Finland to signify a hot day. In fact, it meant that we spent a very long time today in and around the water, with Sandy, Olivia and myself finally climbing out at 10.40pm! Keith had been first in the lake this morning, and he was keen to get started, but this did mean that by dinner time, he was tiring, and he elected to miss out on the final swimming sessions this evening, heading off to bed at 10pm, after much swimming earlier. 

Sandy and Olivia at the far side of the lake, zoomed in 40x.

Arnold's confidence is rising by the day!

Liv dives in from the jetty.

And here she dive-bombs!

In between all of this, we also had perhaps the best sauna sessions of the week too, due to the fact that we were adding some nice vapours to the water that you throw on the stones once the sauna is hot.

I have been trying to think how to describe the whole experience of the sauna to those who just don't know what it's like. Today, as usual, I collected the birchwood from the shed, added it to the large basket outside the sauna and then made and lit the stove inside, gently persuading the sauna to take light, and tending it for a few minutes until I was satisfied that all was coming along satisfactorily. After about 25 minutes, with the temperature at about 60C, it was time to start things off, heading in and sitting for a few minutes until the sweat began to collect and run down and start to drip off me. This is the point where you want to be throwing the water from the bucket (with vapour added- in this case both birchwood and eucalyptus) onto the now very hot stones, using the ladle and this produces bursts of really intense heat, which come over you in waves for a few moments, before the heat settles down again. I need to say that after doing this many times each day now for a week, my body feels truly cleansed, it's almost as if all the grime and stress from the past year has been brought out of me in great swathes of sweat. The best thing of all is this though: When you really are sweating and feeling hot, you simply get up and walk out of the sauna, then either jump or dive into the lake, or if you feel the need, you can sit on the benches on the jetty for a few minutes, cooling off gradually, before you get into the water. Either way, it's refreshing beyond your wildest imagination! After a swim, you're ready to restart the process once again in the sauna!

 Keith relaxes in the hot sunshine.

 Meanwhile, our pals the ducks are back for more food!

 The house from the lake, with Olivia clearly having fun!

 Tomorrow, Anna's folks need to be taken back down the road to Lahti to catch their mid=afternoon train back to St Petersburg. It's about 100 miles from here to the train station, so it'll be about a 4 hour round-trip for us. Guess what we'll be doing when we get back here? Well, as I said, "Make hay while the sun shines!"