This blog is about following my dream to build a small natural cottage in a forest in South of Finland, by using only my bare hands, some friends' help, as little money as possible and only natural materials from the surrounding environment (strawbale, wood and cob). The main building work was carried out over three months in the Summer of 2012 but there is still more work to be done, and here is the story.
Summer rain is falling on the Finnish woods, sometimes accompanied by sunshine, at other times a bit of thunder and lightning. I don’t remember such a wet August for several years, although it pales in comparison to what I am used to in wetness, i.e. English Summers… I made an…
I can’t quite believe it has been so long since I last updated this blog – it’s not like I have been asleep for two years, far from that – I suppose the opposite is true; so much has happened that I haven’t had the clarity of mind to collect,…
The rain has ceased for the moment, but it has been battering these grounds for days on end now. After weeks of intense heatwave, the Finnish skies are finally pouring down on these lands, properly, almost restlessly. What it means to me is that I have something to listen to…
I landed in Finland on Tuesday night, during a heat-wave. This beautiful Northern landscape which enjoys long daylight hours in any case, is now a hot, sunny haven. Well, not a haven for everyone (are we ever totally happy about the weather?) but I personally would choose hot sun over…
I thought I was going to write about my cottage building journey while in Finland, but life had other plans. Being a mother to a newborn baby and trying to finish my cottage was harder than…
A half a year has passed and seasons have changed. Truly. Majestically. At the moment it feels like a half of life-time has been squeezed into these short months of my life and what has emerged reminds very little of what was there before. In April we packed up our…
Time to think. There is much of that in the Winter time, when the days are short and the darkness is such a frequent visitor. It is easy to lose hope of ever seeing the sun again, when the clouds have gathered and rain is pouring down outside and filling…
Whilst November rain is licking the windowpanes of my chilly London flat, I think about my little cottage by the edge of woods, wondering how the Autumn winds and freezing Finnish nights are treating my earthen baby. Even though the Fall in UK has been busy for me, making all…
Approaching the last few days of my stay in Finland, a loud, annoying clock started ticking in my head, making me realise just how surreal this build and in fact the whole Summer had been. When I started, I had NO idea how long it would take to build a…
The rain is pouring down, then eases into drizzle, then picks up strength again – and I listen to the drops hitting the roof of my parents’ house, making nature’s music. There hasn’t been many days this summer I have heard that song, fortunately, the clouds have often parted or…
