Jukajärvellä

This is a fairly rough representation of my grandparents' summer cottage by Jukajärvi (Juka-lake) in Finland. This is the place where, almost without fail, my family congregates every summer to spend a week or two away from the world and in each other's company. When we arrive, the car is parked uphill of the cottage and we come down to it by a small path through the trees on the hillside which obscure the view almost completely. At the end of the path is the front door of the cottage as well as an outdoor terrace with a table and benches where we eat most of our meals. Turning to the left of the cottage and following the grey paving slabs will bring you to the outhouse and after that to more trees; it's essentially a forest. If instead you follow the paving slabs leading towards the lake, you will end up on the dock. It's wooden planks have greyed with age and are stained every summer when seagulls who have eaten too many blueberries release their loads right above it. There is another dock farther down the shore where we store our row boat. Jukajärvi is such a small lake that you can row across it and my cousins, sister, and I make a habit of rowing to the opposite shore and playing in the small rapids that feed into the lake. If, instead of going straight past the cottage, you turn right, you will be faced with a very similar (albeit smaller) building. This is our sauna cabin, it houses an extra sleeping room and, of course, the all important sauna. No place in Finland is complete until it can boast a working sauna, my grandparents summer cottage is no exception. Our sauna is fairly old and so still has a wood burning stove to heat up the 'kiuas' (rocks which disperse heat to the sauna). We use the sauna for a variety of things; we burn our paper trash in its stove, we heat up water for washing, we take "showers", and we 'sauna'. To do this we heat the sauna to about 80-100°C (176-212°F) and relax in the heat until we can't take it any more and have to rush out for a quick swim in the lake. It is one of the most refreshing and most relaxing pass times I have ever come across.

Every time I arrive at the summer cottage, reach the end of the path down the hill (bottom right in the picture) and am practically on the doorstep, I get a strong sense of homecoming. This is a place where I truly feel at home, mainly because I can move around both outside and inside - I can walk along the paths farther inland or I can row across the lake to the rapids - and never feel as though I am in a public place. There is a freedom that comes with having your own private outdoors that is unlike any other, it is almost as if the walls of my bedroom have expanded to include all of the land attached to the cottage as well as the lake, the rapids, and some of the dirt roads and paths leading to the cottage.