210609 Putting pieces of the puzzle together

 

In the morning Mats brought four new lighthouse keepers: Sirkka, Ari, Juha and another Juha who is now on called Jussi. We were also pleased to get Kaarina back in good health. Jari left us but he will come back after a couple of weeks.

Today we finally got some visitors when the Koskinen family arrived. What a nice and outgoing family! Hope you had a pleasant journey!

The new lighthouse keepers didn’t waste time laying in the sun like seals, they have been working hard since they arrived.

It has been once again a day of building scaffolding. The scaffoldings are getting higher and higher every day and soon we will reach the heaven (even if I am pretty sure Märket IS the heaven). Building the scaffoldings is like building the puzzle. You never know how many pieces are missing and how does the scaffolding seem in the end. After all I think we are managing well.

The painting project is supposed to start on Tuesday and we are trying to build the scaffoldings as much as we can so that the professional painters arriving next week are able start their work with no delay.

It has been T-shirt weather outside so far, but now an amazing fog suddenly surrounded us. Turns of weather are sooo sudden here. And the light is never the same. You might think there is not so much to photograph because it is the same old lighthouse and the same little rocky island all the time. Instead, one needs to carry a camera in the pocket all the time here because the light and the weather conditions keep on changing. Märket in storm, Märket in sunset, Märket in fog… You name it, but it’s never the same. It is a shame how the camera still cannot capture the amazingness of this place. You need to come and experience it on your own!

 

220609 Fog Sirens

 

The fog that surrounded us yesterday has isolated Märket from the other world. We cannot even see the ships passing by, but we can hear their fog sirens. The sound is so great it takes the breath away! The visibility is poor and the humidity of the air is so high we have not been able to continue building the scaffoldings. Actually, it is possible we have to take scaffoldings down because we might have putted some wrong pieces in. We’ll see.

The paintings that a group of German school children made about a year ago were hanged on the kitchen wall. Pupils of the Fritz Strabmann Realschule, which is situated in Mainz, used to read Märket diary regularly last year. They painted some fine pictures of the lighthouses and sent those to us. Now these colourful pieces of art finally ended up to the wall of Märket kitchen. We are sorry about the delay; it shouldn’t be that long way from the German school to the kitchen. People on Märket want to say thank to all those little people behind these pictures – we really appreciate your paintings! Hopefully you still keep reading this diary!

Some little tasks has been made today. Sirkka has been working with the basement stone wall cleaning and filling the seams. Juha has been repairing the backside windows the boat shed and the machine room. Jussi and Kari, they made a new dish washing table. This time it is a real dish washing table, though we are still wondering which would be the best place for it. Ari and Pekka tried to dry a little pond on a corner of the machine room because it started to smell a bit. They needed to dig a little canal to the rock so that the water is able to flow to the sea. Kaarina made a delicious soup for lunch. No more vegetarian food is made on Märket because now there is only one vegetarian against seven beefeaters.

Tomorrow we are waiting some visitors and a couple of painters to arrive. It is going to be a long day! So long!

 

230609 A Hard Day’s Night

 

So much has happened today I dont even know where to start!

We woke up early in the morning once again – sleeping is overestimated -because we were waiting for a guest and the painters to arrive.

First of all we drew up the flag of the Finnish Lighthouse Society to the mast for a first time this year. The flag is a little bit worn in the blustery weather conditions of Märket, but it is still the flag we are proud of.

Soon after nine o’clock Mats came with Henning – the journalist all the way from Austria. Also Mikael and Daniel, the painters from the painting company called Görans Fasad, arrived. A little bit later Bror came his boat full of gasoline and water.

Mikael and Daniel finished the scaffoldings on the north side of the lighthouse and were able to start washing the lighthouse in the evening. The moment so much waited for!

Kari and I, we started hammering the wall of the old storehouse. What a great way to get rid of your frustrations! No that we have any, for that matter.

It’s been a sunny day outside but the wind has been cold. After all the sun our lighthouse family looks more and more like boiled crayfish.

Just a moment before we got some air mail when Petri arrived by plane with a fresh newspaper! He is going to stay for a night. How nice is that! The lighthouse is now full of life. The only problem is that our food which is running out. Should we order a pizza or two to Märket tomorrow?

 

240609 Getting High!

 

Pekka is a little bit depressed after spending most of the sunny day inside taking care of business. Renovating the old lighthouse, it is a rocky path and some difficulties arouse once again. But if there is a will there is a way, and Pekka and all the members of the Finnish Lighthouse Society definitely have a lot of will!

We lacked some little equipment needed in painting process. The most important thing missing right now is the paint itself, I think. It should be on its way though. Mikael and Daniel were working on the northern wall washing and repairing the old plastering. They also built the scaffoldings to the southern side.

In the morning our suprise guest Petri left us after taking us up to the sky. It was a wonderful experience to see Märket from the bird point of view. Thank you Petri once again!

Today at least two seals have been hanging around in our old harbour. The other one let us come quite close and it showed its best swimming moves. I wonder if it dreams about the career of the circus seal. It really seemed to enjoy the performing. Later, when Yvonne and Mats came the seal was trapped between the rubber boat and the rock. It pretended to be dead for a while but soon it noticed we wouldn’t harm it.

Yvonne gave some first aid to Jussi and Daniel who had got some sunburn in their faces. On Märket, you need to be careful with the sun because there is not much shade on our treeless island!

 

250609 A Day of Haste and Crowd

 

Last night we had some technical problems with connections. We were trying to send the diary and the pictures the whole night but nothing happened. The modern technology does not always work on Märket. Sometimes it feels the easiest way to get your message through would be writing the message to the paper, putting it to an empty bottle and throwing it to the sea.

We had a plenty of visitors today. First of all some people from wind power co-operative company of Åland arrived willing to support our work. A group of German and French journalists visited us today. Later arrived a group of twenty people from Åland. It was the committee for fishing and hunting museum in Eckerö. They all seemed to be very interested in this place and the work we are doing.

Our people have been hanging mainly in the roofs today. The others have been preparing the tower of the lighthouse for painting while the rest have been peeling the old roof of the machine room away. These people they are not afraid of high places!

Pekka and Heini are supposed to leave later today as well as Daniel and Mikael, who are going home for the weekend.

 

260609 Looking for Shade

 

The island feels deserted after Heini, the painters Daniel and Mikael, and the human torpedo (aka the slave master) called Pekka, the chairman of the Finnish Lighthouse Society, left us yesterday evening. No more food rationing, no more 14-hour working days, we cheered!

Seriously, another busy day has passed. In the morning a group of 21 representing the Cancer Society of South-Western Finland visited us. Sirkka guided them around the island and the buildings. Our liaison officer, Mats, brought two big salmons from the local waters together with the visitors. Kaarina barbecued a delicious salmon meal for us!

It has been a very hot day today. Everyone was looking for a shady place during the lunch break. Some of us cooled off in the freshing waters of the Modersmage pool.

Sirkka and Juha have been sweating in the tower and managed to finish their scratching business. Not a pleasant task under the burning sun!

Tomorrow a new group of lighthouse keepers will arrive. It`s been a magnificent week for all of us.