Waiting

This November follows the typical pattern of the seasonal variations in this part of Finland. Only rarely do we have anything else, like snow or ice. It's mostly just rain and grey weather. And this year the November rains fall upon a ground that already has experienced unusually rainy weather since the beginning of September.

For a few days we did have snow in October, which was incredibly nice.

Due to the rain I haven't done much biking in the forests, since I simply don't think one should do it currently. In my mind there is no doubt that riding on the trails in these very wet conditions is a major cause of trail deterioration locally, and I think it's quite selfish to continue riding in these conditions. Some Facebook discussion topics on the matter have been rather depressing, though, and I think it is possible that this kind of behaviour will lead to restrictions in the future. Finland is one of a small number of countries where mountain biking is part of the Everyman's Right and personally I would like it to continue that way. We very seldom ride on purpose-built trails here and just use the trails that spontaneously have been made by dog walkers, animals and people just walking in the forest. These trail networks are really vast around bigger cities, and Turku with around 180000 inhabitants is a big city by Finnish measures.

November also is generally also a month with too much to do at work, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. With no daylight savings in place it is too dark to do anything outside without extra lights in the evening anyway, so it's no real harm in putting in more hours at work.

What one can do, though, is to continue kayaking in the weekends. With lucky timing it is even possible to enjoy rare moments of sun, and I've actually managed to do just that a few times.

sdf

Still, the dominant state of November is waiting. Waiting for the winter to arrive with snow and ice, and in a broader sense even waiting for the light to return.