On the fells

I climb the slope of the fell. The evening sun shines obliquely behind me and reddens the gray stone and warms my anorak-clad back. After a turn, my feet find a solid rock under me and gradually I reach the middle of the slope. The peak is not even intended to be reached on this trip.

I come to a shelf-like platform covered with heather and pink brambles. I take off my backpack and sit on the heather. I turn to look at my direction of entry.

The wind that has become cooler at the end of the summer blows on the face and keeps the scalds and bruises away. I listen to the silence. Kotijärvi and the surrounding buildings can be seen far below. At this distance the village might be any peaceful abode; a Lapland village decades ago, whose settlement was built around fishing waters and farmland.

Kuukkeli followed my progress in the forest, whistling softly and fluttering in the shadows of the spruce branches. However, the bird stayed below the tree line and now the shrill, mournful, rarely heard beeping of the kapustarina was heard. I tried to look for the bird with my eyes and soon I saw its head between the stones. That too had settled on the heather and wanted to tell that he was here too.

The atmosphere of this distant fell is as if it has stopped, it is as if it is traveling in a different time. The wind sometimes moves the heather, sometimes it calms down. I become sensitive to listening to the stories of the wind. How centuries ago the wind has traveled on these slopes, moving the heather, and in the winter again carrying the wind and blowing away the snow. Long before the foot of man sought a step in the rock.

I lie down on the heather and close my eyes. I could even stay here for the night, also experience the night side of the fells. However, I was only equipped for a short visit, and maybe it's better that way. Shortly before, when the sun sinks into the hiding of the opposite fell, I start the return journey there to the everyday life that I live in this time.

Right now, everything is fine - just fine.