Summer has arrived early in Kuusamo, a small town in Finland’s northeast, close to the Russian border. Here the winters are long and bitterly cold, but the attractions of snow-covered trees, frozen lakes and the Northern Lights make it a popular destination for landscape photographers from the world over.
It’s 20:00 on June 01 when I speak to Eeva Mäkinen, who is sitting outside, listening to the local birdsong near the lakeside where she lives. “It’s a beautiful evening here,” she says, happily. “The summer came around one and a half weeks early. Usually this time of the year we might still have some ice on the lakes, but now as I’m sitting on our own lake shore, the trees have leaves already and it’s really summery, 20 degrees!” (68°F)
