Tracing St Eskil

Still frosty mornings on the island. My parents arrived yesterday from southern Finland and said Kaskinen was the only place on their way with a snow cover.  The cold sea keeps the island cold in the spring.  But in the autumns, the warmth stays here a bit longer than in the inland, so we a get a little bit back.

Today I cut the berry bushes and apple and cherry trees.  Things you can do even if you don't have your voice.  I'm starting to feel better after the flu, but as often happens in my case, my voice has disappeared.  I went to see the doctor again and was adviced to blow bubbles in a bottle. (?!?) We'll see if that works.

The first harvest can be seen in the photo: some laurel leaves drying in the kitchen.  Even if there still is a lot of snow in the garden, I'm starting to feel really hopeful.  The sun is shining, the snow melting, and the first tulips are coming up from the ground.  Looking forward to picking some nettles and rhubarb next month.

Got some criticism from my daughter when she had finally had the time to read my blog.  She was so disappointed about Cafe Olivia that I decided to keep the old name.  So, even if the place is new, the name will remain Cafe Hilda.

My mobile, for some reason, seems to think we live in St Eskil's Street.  Close, I admit, but not quite. There is one house between.

When we first arrived in Kaskinen, I wondered who St Eskil was.  I had never heard about him before, and yet there was an island and a street named after him here.  I tried to ask the local folks about him, but they didn't have a clue.

Eskil's mystery  haunted us and we started making up stories about him.  There was an old carpet in a plastic bag in our attic and my daughter thought it was the body of Eskil.  My former business partner, today a tourism teacher up in the north, had a vision of a grand tourism event in Kaskinen. His idea was that St Eskil (elected yearly e.g.among local policians who wanted a moment of fame) would walk along St Eskil's Street with all the unmarried maidens of the town following him. Having reached the jetty at the end of the street, he would throw the maidens into the sea one by one.  People from near and far would come to see all this, and we could sell the cheering crowd some beer and sausages. A bit far-fetched as we had a jewellery and boots shop, and had no license to sell beer, anyway.  And why the maidens would have wanted to be thrown into the sea I do not know.

Anyway, only a lot later did I meet in Vaasa by chance a lady named Sirkka Mäki, a historian who has done some research on early pilgrims to Finland in the Middle Ages. The only one of them generally know to us Finns is the unfortunate St Henrik, who suffered an evil and sudden death on the ice of Lake Köyliö, the killer being a farmer, whose wife St Henrik had allegedly seduced.

According to Ms Mäki, St Eskil arrived from Sweden in order to spread the new religion and landed on what we call Eskilsö, the Swedish name meaning Eskil's Island.  He founded a parish and even built a chapel, the ruins of which are still somewhere to be found.  We have been searching but haven't found them yet.  Not surprising, as we don't really know what we are looking for.  After all these centuries probably a fairly modest rock formation.  So I guess there will be a lot of packed lunches for us around Eskil's Island for many summers to come.