Flucking Flourising In Finland

Surviving the Long Dark Winter: A Collaboration with Elina Haverinen

Seven years ago I moved to Finland.

What a flucking Queenager move! It was planned and it was for love. (Insert your “awwwww”s now!)

The thing about moving is that you kind of know what things might be like (I’d lived here before, way back in the 1900s!) but it can tend towards the sepia—the reality is full-blown technicolour!

Fast forward to now: I’ve experienced enough winters here to have developed some coping mechanisms. I’m not going to hide it, I still imagine a future where I can spend the Finnish winters in Australia, but I decided to ask a Finn how they feel about winter: Enter Elina!

Elina Haverinen

is a foster child of Winters. Born in the middle of snow blankets in rural Eastern Finland she knows how to survive in -40 C degrees, and the last thing she did before giving birth to her child was shovelling snow for two hours. During the winter she enjoys gliding down hills, fast, reading slowly, and drinking hot chocolate with a fistful of sugar and a thick layer of whipped cream. Every year, she wishes the winter would be gone much sooner.

Elina is a legend! A true Finnish Winter Queen! She is the writer of All That You Are, a beautiful collection of writing encouraging you to cultivate freedom and creativity. No wonder we found each other!

What you are about to read is a collaborative writing project, an experiment, a meeting of sorts on the digital page (we don’t live close enough to pop around to each other’s house without a long ferry trip and some serious planning). It was an absolute pleasure to share our respective thoughts on (flucking) Winter!

What are your feelings about winter?

Lisa: Since moving to Finland in 2017, a long dark winter has been a part of my life but not necessarily one that I love. There are aspects I love: the cosiness you can create with candles and fluffy rugs, and the light and bright snow when we get it. I really flucking detest the black ice, the continual thawing and freezing of snow and rain to make a dangerous surface that breaks wrists and arms every year.

Coming from Australia, the end of the year is always warm and sunny. We have summer holidays that coincide with Christmas and being a teacher, I loved the long, relaxed weeks I had with my children. I miss these times. The summer here is amazing; the long days and glorious greenery everywhere are a stark contrast to the southern parts of Australia in summer.

Coping with the dark takes a whole lot of flucking practice—I know many people who have lived here their whole lives who struggle. You can buy special lamps and make sure you get direct sun when it’s out, but I once didn’t see the sun for 3 months because it was so grey and cloudy! That was hard. The twinkly fairy lights I have all around my home do help. And leaving for a while—going south to France, Italy, or Greece.

Katherine May

’s book, Wintering has helped me ease into the idea of rest during this period. I sleep longer (even with the ridiculous menopausal middle-of-the-night waking), with a usual tiredness at around 6 pm resulting in the “How will we stay awake?” comments.

I happen to be in a rock band with my husband so a once-a-week rehearsal is a good hobby to keep us out and awake longer. We don’t rehearse in summer really as everyone is out and about all the time.

Elina: As I’ve never been to Australia I can only imagine the contrast, but I certainly believe it must be quite an adjustment..!

Winters are very different in Northern Finland, where I originally came from and still spend lots of time. Days are even shorter, but because there is more snow, it often seems there is more light. I spent my teenage years in the horse stable, and we used to ride in the woods in the moonlight. Darkness, black ice, nasty winds, and horizontal rain are an irritating part of the coastal climate—inland winters are much more pleasant.

On the other hand, winters are dreadfully long in the north and occasionally, they can be very cold. As a child, I recall walking 4 km to home in -40 C degrees at least once in the winter because the school bus had frozen solid and didn't arrive. And every April, you sigh for the one-meter snow just to be gone. I avoid spending time there then. It's a peculiar season with its bright, sunny days and high snow banks.

What does winter allow you to do that isn’t a thing in other seasons?

Lisa: Wintering and deep rest. Cosy gatherings and couch time just never happen in the intense, short summer. It’s a time to embrace the darkness, even if I feel dragged into it, kicking and screaming at the beginning.

Elina: Agreed! For me, as any indoor activity is a waste of time during the summer (read: summer madness, barely sleeping), wintering includes all sorts of indoor joys. I enjoy sitting at a computer, cleaning the closets, staring at the fire, and binge-watching, even. Doing nothing and resetting is essential, and winter creates perfect circumstances.

What has winter taught you? What are your feelings about winter?

Elina: Resilience. Not in the tough, forcing form of “where there is a will, there is a way” or “going through the solid stone” as we say in Finland, but in the form of flexibility. You don’t always need all the comforts to get things done. You can rise above the conditions and circumstances. Let go of the need for a comfort blanket, own your independence, and keep your inner balance even though the blow of the northern wind is holding your breath.

I have a theory. Extreme seasons are at least partially the reason for the general calmness, straightforwardness and deliberateness of Nordic cultures. If you're not steady, the roughness of the winter and the abundance of the summer will overwhelm you. Winters have affected my sense of humour and ability to take things less seriously. You can laugh when your car has turned into a huge snowball during the night. You can smile when frost tingles your face. It's just another day on planet Earth!

After all, my feelings towards winter are contradictory and I'm perfectly okay with it. There's nothing to fix. I don't mind short days. I enjoy wintery activities and snowy, frosty, ethereal landscapes. My coping skills are integrated and natural, I don't have to manage them in any way. Yet, every winter I wish it would be shorter!

My best advice for surviving the winter is to be seasonal and to go outside, whatever the weather—so nothing new, I’m afraid ;D

The fastest way to winter depression is to stare at the screen all day long, try to keep up with the same routines all year round and exhaust yourself with “what’s wrong with me” questions.

Instead of trying to fix sleepiness and unproductivity with supplements, sleep longer, drink super sweet hot chocolate and glögg with almonds and raisins, improve your lounging skills, and take a nap—or three.

An extra tip: buy flight tickets to somewhere sunny and warm ;)

Lisa: Wintering is important. Allowing the winter to soak into your routines. There’s a reason why animals and plants “winter”—because you need it. Embracing it instead of forcing yourself to live like it’s eternal spring or summer. That is a quick road to burnout. I want to Flucking Flourish, so I am careful with my energy in winter. I say no to things. I stay at home more. I eat nourishing foods and tend to my garden of indoor plants.

I agree that it’s often contradictory, how I feel about winter. I say I don’t love the dark but there are spectacular sunsets that turn the sky burning red and pink.

Elina’s Top 10 Wintery Things

1. Getting covered with wool. From underwear to thick pullovers to leg warmers, I have a woollen version of all possible clothing items. Merino is fine but nothing beats coldness better than a sweater made of untreated Finn sheep wool yarn.

2. Sliding. Simply one of the most fun things you can do with hills and snow. As a side effect of having a 5-year-old under the same roof, we have an eclectic collection of sliding equipment: a Stiga with a steering wheel, a couple of traditional sleds, mini-skis, and several coasters.

3. Ice lanterns with real candles.

4. Crown snow-loaded forests. You can see these quietly standing white-hooded elves in northern and eastern Finland every winter.

5. Silence. You know what silence is when you stand in the middle of crown snow-loaded woods that swallow even the sound of your breath into their shimmering lap.

6. Skating.

7. Christmas lights.

8. Fireplaces. I’m a huge fan of wood heating. In addition to preventing you from turning into an icicle in case of a power cut, they are a pure pleasure to watch.

9. Sauna. Keep saunas near to you during the winter: when you’re fucking frozen, the sauna is your best friend.

10. Dogs sleeping in snow roosts. Seeing a dog sleeping peacefully in a coil under a snow cover always makes me smile :D

Lisa’s List of Flucking Lovely Wintery Things (not ten!)

1. Sauna. I am so grateful to Finland for having such a wonderful ritual! We built a sauna by the water at my husband’s family’s cottage and it is a joy to have a sauna when it’s cold outside—even better when you can roll in the snow!

2. Christmas lights. Although I call them fairy lights and have them up all year round! They’re extra twinkly in the winter and everyone else gets them out. I wish more people would have them up longer because there’s a tradition to take them down in January, which I feel is too early! Elina: Yes, it is too early 😀 We always have them till mid-February. I call the darkest time from November to mid-February a bugbear’s ass (mörönperse in Finnish, not sure if my translation is correct—Lisa: me either! I only speak Swedish!). When it ends, it’s time to take the lights off.

3. Fireplaces & glowing flames. I live in an apartment so it’s Netflix log burning on the telly, I’m afraid!

4. Winter woollies. I like winter clothes, although have never been able to wear wool against my skin—it requires a layer in between. My sister bought me Nordic Socks (a brand) and I wear them almost every day. Love them! I come from the land of Merino wool but I can only have it against my skin for a short time. Elina: Based on my long but not formal research, merino is best in thin clothes, like underwear and cardigans. Untreated Finn sheep wool shows its excellence in top layers, like thick pullovers.

5. Getting Cosy. I have many fluffy rugs and throw cushions on my couch (and bed) and I love snuggling into them to read a book or watch a series or movie. Elina: Yes, they are a must-have!

The dark allows for a certain introspection. Absolutely! I do love watching a series or movie but regularly tuning out by switching the screens off and being still, journaling, and listening to music, is important. The spring and summer come with a flurry of activity and endless light so the winter provides a good balance to this.

To be completely honest, writing this has been a positive experience because I’ve been able to connect to why winter is good. I don’t think I’d survive in a climate with no chance for any kind of “wintering”. I’d probably get used to it, a different rhythm perhaps.

I do love nature. I love getting out in it. I mean, I slept in a tent for about two months of the summer. Winter nature is okay. There’s a small window of time when it’s light and I sometimes make it. When the sky is clear, the sun hangs low in the sky, and the wind isn’t blowing, it's amazing. My fear of the ice and slipping over (even with my spikes on) does hamper my love of nature. Elina: Yeah, fuck the coastal climate. Inland winters are so much more pleasant.

Subscribe to Elina’s beautiful newsletter:

Join me in a wonderful workshop!

(It’s free for FF Queenagers!)

Click the link to save a spot!