My Herd of Reindeer

My husband went to Helsinki and all I got was this lousy reindeer.

He went on a business trip last week, for a couple of days. This made Emily hopping mad with envy as Finland is her desired destination of choice: but, as Stephen pointed out, almost all the time he was there it was dark, and for the short time it wasn't dark he was in meetings, so he didn't see any of it at all really.

The people were very friendly, however, and, on learning that Emily was interested in Finland one of the people at the meeting went and bought her two books and a Finnish calendar, which was really kind.

I did ask Stephen if he could bring me back a little herd of reindeer, which I've always thought are very appealing animals, and I thought they'd look good on the lawn ("Or on the grill," suggested Silverback helpfully). I know that they migrate, but hey! my mother's got a lawn too, at the bottom of our garden, so they could have gone from one lawn to the next. I'm sure they would have liked it.

"Great migration this year, Rudolf, don't you think? Really quick."
"You bet. No wolves either. Great."

But no, sadly all Stephen could find on the reindeer front was this stuffed one at the airport, which had been given the undignified job of modelling reindeerskin rugs.

There were plenty of Moomin products too (hurrah for Moomins) and some Sibelius cds. Finland has lots of forests and lakes, and an excellent education system, and in the summer it gets warm. Well, warmish.

I'd like to visit one day. In the summer. In the light.