Meet the latest arrivals at the Harriniva Husky farm in Finnish Lapland.

It is a wonderful life at the Harriniva husky farm. These youngsters are the newest members to the 350 strong husky family! The boys above are Avalon, Aragon and Aurin.
Below are a couple of their sisters, Akita and Aura.

The puppies are currently living in the nursery with their mother where they are given lots of love and attention. In a few weeks time they will move onto the kindergarten. It is then that the husky farm staff start to watch them playing, with their expertise they will be picking out which will be the husky team leaders of the future and which will be the muscle.  As they get older they will gradually be introduced to an experienced husky team, working alongside them. Once fully grown they will have lots of opportunities to do what they love most….to run. They will be whisking guests through the forest on sleds for hours or days on end.

Watch this space for more pictures of the Harriniva puppies as they grow-up.

For further details on visiting Harriniva and seeing the puppies in person this December click here.

We try and answer the eternal question………

While sitting by a lake in Lapland, deep in the forest one evening this summer a discussion started between me and some friends about just how old Santa Claus is.
As we sipped cloud berry juice and cooked sausages and fish over the fire the discussion went on long into the night, or is that day, this Finnish midnight sun is so confusing!

We were all lucky enough to have known Santa for many years as we were either locals or had met him while visiting Lapland on many occasions over the years.

Between the eight people present there was a huge variation in what we believed to be his age from a pitiful 183 years to a rather unbelievable 536 years.

Several of us were just guessing but others spoke with great authority.

Mikko, the local reindeer herder, felt certain that Santa was 428 years old. He pointed out that after all he should know as his family had been caring for Santa’s reindeers since his great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a boy!

Ilkka, the chief elf, just laughed and said that every elf knew that Santa is 498, they already had a committee planning his golden golden birthday, just 2 years away. After all wasn’t it the elves that had found Santa, then just a young man of 200 and something, wandering across the isolated fells and helped him build his secret cabin deep in the forest.

The discussion went on and on until Ilkka asked his grandson, Arto,the youngest in our group, to go to Santas house and ask him how old he is. So off the young elf ran.

We fed the passing reindeer, fished, had a sauna and napped by the fire but still the young elf had not returned. As we packed up to leave and were saying our goodbyes the young elf eventually appeared. As we all awaited the answer Arto promised that he had indeed asked Santa Claus the question. As he rocked in his chair by the fire the great man had started to count off the years, telling him of some of the highpoints of each year, smiling at the thought of some good years and weeping at others. We all encouraged him to tell us his final answer but the young elf had to admit that Santa had got as far as 415 and had fallen asleep!

If you want to visit Lapland and ask Santa how old he is click here.

Thai berry-pickers return home after earning year's salary in Lapland.

This year's berry-picking season turned out to be better than expected. The Thai berry-pickers in Savukoski earned from EUR 3,000 to EUR 7,000 by picking and selling wild berries.
Even though the pickers have to pay EUR 1,000 each for a flight ticket, they will have a nice amount of money left to take back home. In his or her home country a Thai earns about EUR 2,000 a year.

     
On Tuesday the pickers were in high spirits, while waiting for their bus to start in the evening. Moreover, a flight home was scheduled for Wednesday. A couple of months' hard work was over.
"I am very pleased", said Sem Kammani, a 35-year-old furniture salesman from Thailand, giving a broad smile. He became the master of lingonberry picking in Savukoski with his harvest of 1,200 kilos, while his blueberry yield of 4,000 kilos was the second largest.

     
"Everybody is glad and happy, wishing to come here even next year", reports Bandit Jansamram, the 41-year-old interpreter of the Thai pickers.
The majority of the 650 Thais invited by Riitan Herkku - a food processing company in Mustasaari - are flying home today, while the others will head for Thailand on Sunday.
"The season has been better than we dared to expect. Our target was to get a total of over a million kilos of wild berries, and we managed to get a lot more. The amount of blueberries alone was 2.5 times more than last year", reports Jari Huttunen from Korvatunturin Marja, a company affiliated with Riitan Herkku.

Even though the berry crop was said to be poor this season?
     
"It all depends on how hard you want to find berries. Our pickers were lucky to be placed in Eastern Lapland, where the the yields were better", Huttunen notes.
Korvatunturin Marja had also recruited some Ukrainian and Mongolian berry-pickers. Huttunen hopes that the problems which some companies had with berry-pickers would not cause trouble next year for those entrepreneurs who had acted properly.
"It is hopeless to invite hundreds of berry-pickers while not putting any cars at their disposal. Buses are not practical for berry-picking purposes. We had more than a hundred cars available for pickers", Huttunen concludes.

     
In the first summer, some of the local residents criticised the berry-pickers who came to Savukoski from overseas. However, the attitudes seem to have relaxed, and this summer the atmosphere was fairly calm.

Thanoom Muunoongsang, a 35-year-old car mechanic, was pleased with his record of 202 kilos of blueberries in one day.
On the other hand, the berry-picking business creates employment also for local people. Close to 30 people were hired to work at the freezing plant of Korvatunturin Marja and to participate in the company's expansion project this summer. Furthermore, other businesses of Korvatunturin Marja in Savukoski include a garage and a vehicle inspection station.
While packing their suitcases and playing checkers, the Thais are all smiles. Most of them are rice farmers at home. "See you next summer", many of them say happily.
Whilst the foreign pickers are very efficient, there is no danger that Finland will be "picked clean": the vast majority of wild berries and mushrooms available in the Finnish forests rot where they grow.

As reported in Helsinki Sanomat.

A unique New Year at Hotel Harriniva, Finnish Lapland.

Hotel Harriniva’s unique location, and the hosts’ Kopi and Maria’s thirst for festivity and fun, mean that guests to the hotel get to see in the New Year not once but twice, first with the Swedes and then with the Finns!

Harriniva is in an idyllic setting on the banks of the Muonio River, which is the natural border between Sweden and Finland, in North western Lapland. 

For many guests the New Year’s Eve celebrations round off a visit crammed with amazing, and for most, once in a lifetime activities. The location is breathtaking with snow encrusted trees, natural ice formations and those carved by local craftsmen, and the highlight for many, if lucky, seeing the Northern Lights.

As well as the warm welcome, upon arrival hotel guests are provided with special clothing that will allow them to make the most of the Arctic conditions; after all, it is over 200km above the Arctic Circle!

During their stay, guests will get to test the clothing and their taste for adventure to the limit, taking part in exhilarating safaris. A full day is spent on snowmobiles exploring the beautiful forests and fells enjoying lunch in an isolated chalet. A particular highlight is a tour of the hotel’s husky farm, home to over 350 dogs, before harnessing up a team and setting off on a husky sled adventure.  There is also time to learn about local culture and the native reindeers who roam the area. In the quieter moments there is an opportunity to don cross country skis or snowshoes and explore the surroundings.  For those still looking for excitement there are always the toboggans.

Accommodation is in warm, cosy rooms, made of local wood and stone. All have private facilities. You will not find a TV in the room, but with so much going on outside and a welcoming bar where everyone meets to share stories of their day’s adventures, you won’t miss it.

The New Year’s Eve celebrations start with a wonderful dinner in the fireside restaurant, later moving outside onto the ice for the countdown and fireworks to see in the Swedish New Year. Afterwards, the brave can stay outside and enjoy drinks from the ice bar, keeping watch for the northern lights, and explore the igloo and carvings. An hour later it all takes place again!  The party then continues inside in the bar with dancing until the early hours.

Harriniva really is the place for New Year, new experiences, new friends………….

To experience New Year at Harriniva for yourself click here.

Image provides by flickr, Scott Robinson

Interview with Dalai Lama during visit to Helsinki.

Tibet's political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says that his successor might come from somewhere other than Tibet.
      "If I would die now, it would be logical for my reincarnation to come from outside Tibet", the Dalai Lama said on Saturday in Helsinki. 

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was speaking to journalists at a press conference in Finlandia Hall before addressing a larger public gathering. The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, says that it will fall to his successor to continue the struggle for the autonomy of Tibet, which is under Chinese rule. He leaves it up to the Tibetans to decide how the next leader is to be chosen. "An election is one option", he says.

 
     
Under prevailing Tibetan tradition, based on reincarnation, the leader is chosen in a ritual in which the right child is found to fill the place of the previous Dalai Lama. 
"My successor could even be found in Finland", joked the cheery 71-year-old Dalai Lama as flash cameras went off. He added that a woman would be quite suitable for the post. 
Talk of a successor from outside Tibet could be seen as a political statement. In 1995 the Dalai Lama chose a six-year-old boy as his second in command, the Panchen Lama, who later disappeared. Chinese officials are refusing to say where he is.
     

The Dalai Lama briefly criticised Chinese policy in Tibet. 
He said that a cultural genocide, either deliberate or otherwise, is taking place in Tibet. 
China has stated that it wants to integrate Tibet more closely with the rest of the country. July saw the completion of the long-awaited direct train link from the Chinese capital Beijing to the Tibetan capital Lhasa. 

The Dalai Lama also said that he was concerned for the fate of Tibet's sensitive mountain environment, which he fears could suffer at the hands of China, which is focusing on economic growth. "The world needs to teach the Chinese brothers and sisters. Nature is very important", he said.
     

The Dalai Lama asked a Chinese journalist attending the press conference some tough questions, but clearly preferred to focus on understanding between religions, rather than politics. 
At the public gathering he answered a question about the meaning of life. 
"Live happy and spread happiness around you", was his instruction. 

 The Dalai Lama was originally scheduled to visit Finland already in the summer, but his arrival was postponed for health reasons. 
He was invited to Finland by the Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA), and the Finnish-Tibetan Culture Society. 
Tuula Saarikoski, a member of the executive of the culture society, said that Finnish top political leaders had been offered a chance to meet with the Dalai Lama, but no such meetings could be arranged. 
On Sunday he was scheduled to meet with the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament, Liisa Jaakonsaari (SDP).

As reported in Helsinki Sanomat.

Wonderful image of Northern Lights in Lapland gets the votes.

If there's one lesson to be learned from Max Pickering's winning picture, it is that persistence pays off. The picture was taken by Max earlier this year, while on holiday in Lapland - his seventh visit to within the Arctic Circle.

"I go primarily for the photography," says Max, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. "It's pretty much become an annual holiday because of the aurora, which is at its best around the spring and autumn equinox."

The winning picture was taken on the last night of his week-long visit and owes much to his careful planning.
"In the evening at about 9pm I'd go out to a location and set up the cameras and plant myself there for several hours, just trying to stay warm."
Temperatures at the time were averaging -25C, he says.
With light levels so low, long exposures of 20-30 seconds were required for each shot. But so as not to miss a shot if one camera was in the middle of an exposure, Max took three cameras - all digital SLRs (single lens reflexes) - which snapped in rotation.

Max's mantra
The winning image was taken with a specialist ultra-wide angle lens (an expensive piece of equipment) to capture that broad sweep of sky.

So what are his tips for anyone who might hope to take a picture to rival this winning image? Some pricey kit, perhaps?
"For me photography is 75% anticipation. I'm always looking for a shot that's about to happen, but staying open minded enough to switch at the last minute. You don't need expensive equipment to take good pictures. It's in the eye," says Max, who, since taking the picture, has gone professional.

"This picture is a good example - getting everything ready to be in the right place, at the right time; setting stuff up so you can operate it with boxing gloves on and then just being ready to get the shot."

Did he use any post production to boost the colour?
"Absolutely not. The aurora is amazing. I took it to be printed up and they said they couldn't - the printer couldn't render that amount of green."

To see the winning image click here.

To visit Lapland to take your own images and experience the Northern Lights click here.

Irishman wins world oyster opening championship.

Ireland was the proud winner on Saturday of the 2006 World Oyster Opening Championship, beating off competition from 17 other countries to open 30 oysters in the fastest time.

At 2 minutes 35 seconds, Irish restaurateur Michael Moran was five seconds ahead of Sweden's Hasse Johannesson and 46 seconds faster than Britain's Frederick Lindford.
"It's just great to bring it home for Ireland," said Moran, whose father Willie took the title twice in the 1970s and whose time of 1 minute 31 seconds is unbeaten.
"I put in a big effort and it paid off -- I can't believe it," Moran, 23, told Reuters.
The secret, he said, was a steady hand with the oyster knife.
"It has to be a smooth movement or you risk crunching the shell and then you get points taken off for grit," he said.

It was the first win for Ireland in 10 years but the country's 15th overall in the four-decade history of the competition, which has long been a major feature of the Galway Oyster Festival, now in its 52nd year.
"He was a bold man that first ate an oyster," observed 18th century Irish writer Jonathan Swift, and by that measure there were a lot of bold men -- and women -- gathered in the mediaeval "City of the Tribes" on Ireland's rugged west coast on Saturday

"We reckon there are around 12,000 people here this year and they'll scoff somewhere in the region of 100,000 oysters in the four days of the festival," said organiser John Rabbitt.
The festival draws visitors from around the world, as much for the Irish "craic" -- dancing and drinking -- as for the oysters, which mollusc aficionados say derive a distinctive sweetness from Ireland's Atlantic waters.

"I've had more oysters than I've eaten in my life," said first-time British visitor Michael Codrington.
"At least 50 -- all washed down with a lot of Guinness."

The festival, dreamt up by a Galway hotelier to mark the start of the oyster season -- and drum up post-summer business.

As reported by By Kevin Smith on Reuters uk online

The Two Faces of Mexico opens at the Helsinki Design Museum 29 September 2006 - 14 January 2007.

Mexican culture is a fascinating mix of different influences, combining the way of life and art of the European conquistadors with the millennia-old heritage of the indigenous peoples. It has produced an artistically magnificent, versatile and unique tradition of craftsmanship and applied art that is without parallel. The Two Faces of Mexico, Design Museum’s main exhibition for the autumn 2006, is a colour-drenched journey into the heart of Mexico, areas such as Oaxaca, Chihuahua and Chiapas, famous for their heritage of applied arts.

The exhibition features the collections of two famous Mexican collectors. On show for the first time outside Mexico is the anthropologist and photographer Ruth D. Lechuga’s unique collection of the country’s indigenous cultures. Ruth D. Lechuga was an Austrian physician who fled the Second World War to Mexico in 1939. She soon ceased to practise medicine and concentrated on collecting the culture of the Indians. For over fifty years, Lechuga travelled around the country, accumulating a collection of Indian crafts and applied art. This material includes the world’s largest collection of skilfully made masks used in different religious rituals and celebrations and reflecting the variety, richness and colourful nature of Mexican culture. Selected for the Design Museum exhibition are 500 masks in addition to hand-woven sarape cloths, embroidered textiles, fine lacquerwork, ceramics, items for celebrating the Day of the Dead, etc. The photographs taken by Lechuga of Indian rituals and traditions during her fieldwork are valuable additions to the image of Mexican culture.

Another aspect of Mexican culture is provided by the collection of Franz Mayer 1882-1975). Mayer was a German businessman, who moved to Mexico in 1905 and made his fortune there as a stockbroker. His collection presents the traditions of art and craftsmanship introduced and maintained by the Spanish in Mexico. In these traditions, features from the indigenous peoples merged with European artefact forms and techniques. The Mayer collection contains artefacts from the period of Spanish rule (1521-1821), including work in silver, gold, mother-of-pearl, leather and lacquer.  

The Two Faces of Mexico will include a published book and a series of lectures presenting the art and culture of Mexico in broader perspective. The museum shop will offer a wide range of Mexican applied art products.

For further details about the design museum click here.

For information about visiting Helsinki click here.

Breakfast view from restaurant at Hotel Iso-Syote!

We took the above photo while we were sat enjoying a leisurely breakfast on our final morning at Hotel Iso-Syote in northern Finland last December.

After 4 crazy and wonderful days of snowmobiling, husky sledging and of course meeting Santa we were all quietly sat reflecting on our trip when the cloud settled and this amazing view opened up before us.

It just summed up our breathtaking location and unforgettable Santa holiday.

Alec.

Nokia hopes to lead the market with slimmer and more powerful phones.

Finland's Nokia , the world's top cell phone maker, on Tuesday unveiled a pair of media phones and a music service in a bid to increase revenue and win back popularity lost to rivals.
Nokia hopes to regain ground lost to phones such as Motorola Inc.'s fast-selling Razr with sleeker devices equipped with music players and powerful cameras in what it sees as the fastest-growing cell phone market segment.

Nokia unveiled the N95, a high powered camera phone, and a slimmer model called the N75, which has dedicated music player buttons and is aimed at U.S. consumers. It also plans to boost demand with a service for sampling new music.

"We have left nothing out," said Nokia general manager of multimedia Anssi Vanjoki at a launch in New York.

Nokia said the N95, its first phone with location mapping and a 5 megapixel camera, will sell in volume in the first quarter via a number of European and Asian providers. It is priced at about 550 euros ($700), before subsidies and taxes.

It expects the N75, a folding model slimmer than most of its N-Series phone line, to be "widely available" in the United States in the fourth quarter of this year, Vanjoki said.

Nokia did not reveal deals with U.S. carriers on Tuesday, but the phone is based on a high-speed wireless technology only used in the United States by market leader Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp.

"This phone could sell well. Nokia users have been looking for a slimmer model," said eQ analyst Jari Honko.
Nokia's N-series, which it first launched last year, represented a push toward more stylish and lighter phone models. Critics have said previous phones in the lineup fell short of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd's and Motorola's thin models.

For the full story from Reuters click here