Finland

A wonderfully summery map card from Finland makes me feel I want to travel there, the summer meadows and lakes look so inviting, maybe sailing by the ferry on the calm water.  The Viking Line sails every day from Finland and their advertising line is "Step on board the Red Ships and discover a world without Mondays".  I think that cat must be phoning them now to book a passage.

My sender lives in a small town near Tornio in Lapland on the border with Sweden.  Located on the card near the little red house.

It came with the 2006 stamp by the artist Pirkko Juvonen-Sandbois  of bilberries, (vaccinium myrtillus).

A nice composition of pie, plant and berry. One of my favourite pies. We ate our way round the French Vosges one September tasting a variety of bilberry pies from  the Auberges we passed when walked the hills.

Bilberries grow on poor acidic soil but its rather backbreaking work to pick them.  They grow wild on one of the hillsides near where I live in the Lake District, a hardy little plant that makes a lovely coating of green on the slopes, press on them and they just spring back.

The card travelled 1,232 miles (1982k) and took 23 days.          Thank you Kai.