270609 New Team on Duty

The new lighthouse crew started their shift today. Our arrival here was smooth in the splendid weather. The new duty manager of ours, Ari, welcomed us with open arms and did not seem scary at all since he trusted us immediatelly. His mood seems to continue since it is evening already and he is still smiling.

Today’s tasks really started when the first group of shippers arrived already before noon and Nina had to take the responsibility of guiding them after just a brief introduction by Tarja.

Since there is a record breaking number of us here this week – twelve altogether – some of us put up their tents. That went smoothly and all seem happy. At least before spending the first night.

The day was spent by getting to know the routines of the lighthouse and then we got a surprise visitor sunbathing on the cliffs: the first seal for the stay.

Guys have been busy making new wooden mattresses, after they made a table to work on. Gals have been kind of enjoying their first day with all the kitchen duties: making salads and some delicious grilled salmon for us to enjoy.

Juha and Ari have been working all day long without any lunch. Yvonne and Mats dropped by with their family and relatives, bringing some delicious pie with them. Juha was sort of starving and ate half the pie alone.

Now we have gathered around the kitchen table after a nice swim in the lagoon on the Swedish side of the island. How swell it is to be able to go from Finland to Sweden just taking a few steps.

Signing out from Märket and sending all our love from the top of the lighthouse to all of you ashore. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

280609 Sunday Activities

Today started around nine with a Sunday breakfast made by Nina and Anna. Since it’s Sunday, we had something extra – namely, all that we could find from the fridge. Yammy, ay… Thera was also a consulting session like there should be on every Sunday on Märket.

The day was was spent working hard. Ari, Jussi, Markku, Juha and Anne did a splendid work scratching the iron windows and painting them, as well as the iron walls of the tower. Juha and Sirkka, our two students, did a huge work with it. Meanwhile the kitchen team relaxed after a busy morning having a couple of hours for swimming and sunbathing. Gosh; Tarja, Nina and Anna really took everything out of it and enjoyed it to the fullest.

There were a couple of boats visiting the island which made the day for Tarja and Nina. Jussi continued making the wooden mattresses and afterwards decided to go and freshen up by the lagoon. Well, it turned out to be something totally different… Jussi heard a splashing voice and found his very own mermaid. A seal wanted to be friends and swim with him!

Today we also had four new people coming to the island, while Juha left us after a brief encounter with his girlfriend Jonna, who was supposed to come here already on Saturday. Our familiar painters from Görans Fasad arrived, with two bran new lighthouse keepers Kristiina and Kaj, all of whom we welcomed with a warm smile.

Sending love from the Märket lighthouse. xoxo

290609 Bright New Colours

This has been a perfect day! The first wall of the lighthouse was painted and the bright red and white stripes look ever so great.

Kaj tore down the sheets of metal roof from the engine room building, which was a huge job. In the meanwhile, the others were trying to avoid the falling parts of the roof. Anne and Kristiina washed the first wall of the same building and took down the old windows. The whole team worked hard the whole day and duties continued until eight o’clock in the evening.

The whole team is pretty tired after a long and strenuous day and will just be getting under the sheets soon.

“Good night, sleep tight, let the good thoughts cover you all night” from Märket lighthouse keepers xo

300609 Painting Continues

Morning started with a delicious breakfast made by Anna and Nina. We had our first tourist group already at ten brought to us by Mats and Yvonne. Two members of the group came all the way from the United States. The wonderful group consisted of Anders and Maureen, Sigbritt, Kent, Åsa and Tage.

Our painters continued their job by plastering the walls and painting those famous stripes.

At noon came a gang of four with a sailing boat from Sweden.

In the late afternoon while our small family was still enjoying a well deserved spare time by the lagoon we got our surprise guest from Sweden. He arrived paddling all on his own and put up his tent to stay for a night. His kayak was tied with ropes.

After having dinner we had some great treats served to us by Tarja, Markku, Kristiina and Jussi. We even watched a magnificient film that was made by Markku. It was a slide show with music about Märket´s last summer.

´Love is in the air, kisses flying everywhere. You don`t know how long I´ve waited for this wonderful moment on Märket… Love is in the air, everybody finds a pair´….

xoxo

010709 Work and Leisure

Staying up a little longer last night everyone had more or less trouble waking up for the eight o’clock breakfast, prepared to us by Anna and Kristiina. Wind had eased down since yesterday so we were greeted by a calm and sunny morning.

Work continued straight after breakfast. Anne and Kristiina continued tearing off the old plaster from the warehouse while the men were busy with the lighthouse. Kaj painted the iron windows again and the scaffoldings were moved to new walls. Now the painters are able to start working on the last sections of the walls.

Anna, Nina and Tarja just had time to have their daily meeting after morning`s kitchen duties before the first and the last boat arrived, bringing in a family from Uusikaupunki. Our first Finnish speaking guests.

Everyone had their possibility to relax between the duties. Some just threw themselves on the cliffs for a while, others went swimming in the lagoon or in the sea.

The speciality of the evening were pancakes made with love by Anne. Splendid, aye…

“Nights in the lighthouse, are special to us. Wind in the corners, seals singing outside. Ships they are passing, sea has calmed down. Everyone in their sleeping bags, dreaming alone. Resting and sleeping, `till the new morning light…“ xoxo

020709 A New Friend

Yesterday`s great natural show took place by the lagoon in the evening when Anna and Nina were enjoying a nice and refreshing swim. A young seal first tried to join them for a swim but ended up resting on the cliffs. Everyone came to take photos and Markku decided to get to know the seal a bit better. Slowly he crawled ckoser and closer. Markku and the seal were finally laying a meter and a half away from each other. Such a amazing moment it was, indeed.

Our first visitors arrived from Rauma with a sailing boat. These three men stayed a while on the island before continuing to Mariehamn. At 10:40 arrived a journalist from the newspaper Nya Aland to make a coverage about the renovation of Märket lighthouse. Photos were taken and us volunteers interviewed. Everyone of us will be getting a copy of the newspaper to our home adresses.

Jussi finished the engine room windows and continued working with the tower windows. Eastern wall of the lighthouse was also finished and scaffoldings were moved to the Southern wall. New building material was also brought to the island and trash was taken out. Anne and Kristiina did a huge job carrying all that to the boat.

Weather has continued showing it´s best by giving us plenty of sunshine and warmth combined with a slight wind.

In the evening we had to say goodbye to the painters who are bound to be back on Monday. We won´t be seeing them since the eight of us are going home on Saturday, leaving only the host Ari here for the next week.

After a delicious grilled salmon and some quality time with our new friend the seal, everyone is going to sleep. Our newly found friend sleeps soundly on the cliffs.

´´Somewhere over the Märket seals are singing to us. Up there the light shines bright. New white and red stripes are glowing in the setting sun. While we all are living this wonderful Märket time“

ILY XOXO

030709 Melancholy of the Last Day

A bit of a cloudy and windy weather greeted us in the morning. After the breakfast made for us by Anne and Kristina everyone scattered around to their duties. Kaj continued painting the lighthouse tower with Ari, while Anne and Kristina started to plaster the warehouse. Jussi continued making the wooden bases for beds. Tarja and Markku decided to move their beds inside the lighthouse after sleeping the whole week outside in a tent.

We had no visitors on Märket today so it was possible for the kitchen team Anna, Nina and Tarja, to concentrate on taking care of our construction team.

At noon weather turned just splendid, the wind died out and the sun shined from the clear blue sky giving us a great chance to go for a swim in the lagoon or in the sea. Afterwards the wind started to blow again just in time to dry our towels.

A bit of a sad feeling as we have to leave this magnificent island tomorrow. On the other hand, such a small lighthouse island holds a lot of feelings and emotions of which are mostly connected to the mainland.

We finished our adventurous time with a small get-together. Having some delicious pork steaks together with some wonderful salad and a glass of red wine.

Thank you Märket for a wonderful time and a great team. Gosh, it has been lots of fun as well as hard work.

Märket,

We can feel your warm winds, ever close to our skins

And the waves on cliffs are a sight to be seen.

We can close our eyes and we`re back here. We can see the stripes that we love so dear

And we know you will still be here for us

turning into a memory when we´ll go home

When we hold you close to our hearts and we can see your shine still,

Softly whispering I love You

Our team signing out from Märket. With love xoxo ILYSVVM