and more travel drama! Here’s the third and final post about our summer travels. The last part of the trip was to Devon, England – the country, but not the county, of my birth – to visit family and also to see Dartmoor and the South West Coast Path. We left Finland on a Wednesday, changing planes in Stockholm, arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport and were dealt an instant dose of culture shock. Heathrow airport essentially barely functions. There were three lifts down to the rental car shuttle bus stand, and a huge queue in front of just one of … Continue reading Bars and cars, moors and tors, coast paths and wild swimming

Rain, plumbing, swimming dogs, and saunas Drinking water, fog, and lakes In the last couple of posts, I talked about Vierumäki, Lahti, and the Ironman, covering drinking water, fog, and lakes. But there’s more! Here’s an update from Helsinki and the Turku archipelago. Helsinki and Suomenlinna – plumbing and rain The day after Brenda’s race we drove down to Helsinki for a few days. The big city. We arrived a couple of hours too early to check in to the apartment, so were walking around in the rain for a while until we found refuge at a French Café. A … Continue reading Finland by water

It seems that drinking water stories find me, even on vacation. I’m in Lahti, Finland, where my wife is competing in Ironman 70.3 Worlds. It seems that drinking water stories follow me everywhere. This was in her gear bag, and I couldn’t resist sharing it. It’s great that instead of selling bottled water, they have the local municipally owned water company promote refilling bottles with tap water. The QR code leads to a great video explaining everything from how the aquifer was formed to waste water treatment. It’s impressive! I believe we might have one subscriber who will be able … Continue reading Spring of life

This week’s post is a buffet. A bunch of things are going on, but none of them are quite rising to the level of a full post, at least not just yet. This is a general news round up. I chose this Swedish title for the post, because next week we’re headed off to – well, Finland actually. The title’s OK though because they speak Swedish in part of Finland, and we’re changing planes in Sweden on the way back. We’re going there because my wife is competing in Ironman 70.3 Worlds. You can look forward to a post about … Continue reading Smörgåsbord

A hiking group and a lifeline This newsletter may be called “Mostly Water”, but it’s not all water all the time. This week’s essay is merely water-adjacent. It’s the latest in what has now become a series of essays celebrating community. It was a year or two after coming to the island that a neighbor persuaded me to join the local mens’ hiking group, the Sons of the Beach, or SOBs for short. There’s a story behind the name of course. There had been for a while a group called Ladies of the Beach, who would walk the beaches and … Continue reading SOBs

An exploration of water and community ***Updated on Sunday, July 23 to include the local triathlon and a couple of other things. In the second of what may yet become a series on community and recreation on and in the water, this week’s post is about kayaking. You can read part one, about working to build a community pool, right here. Here’s my first “kayak”, in quotes because in North America that would be a canoe. Here I’m paddling in Kimmeridge Cove, Dorset. To stiffen it, my dad made a wooden floor from the cabinet of an old console TV. … Continue reading From paddling my own canoe to kayaking into community

The first of what may be a series of posts about community and water. After recent posts on drinking water and groundwater, we’re going to focus on recreation in and on the water, and celebrate the communities around it. At a time when civil society and public infrastructure are under threat from the privatization of everything, where we’re pushed to be consumers rather than citizens, it’s important to look for lessons in areas where community is working. Last Saturday I spent a few hours with these amazing volunteers who are trying to get a community swimming pool built for the … Continue reading Putting the community in community pool