About seal puppies and other small creatures

(Baltic Sea, the Finnish Gulf, 2007)


On May 6th I was on one of my early paddling trips, which I do in the beginning of the season. Tens of thousands of migrating birds, and almost non-existing boat traffic give you a special mixture of solitude and joy. The days are hot and full of sunshine, but nights chilly.

I did find this seal puppy from the other side of the island, where I was camping. Unfortunately –this time, really– I was without my camera! He/she looked very charming, though the nasty yellow poo he/she left to the cliffs was not exactly very fascinating to watch. I was against the setting sun, and unvisible higher on the cliffs, so I had about three hours to draw some scetches into my log book. I did even get back to my camp to make some coffee and return: things were good and we two all the time in the world for ourselves. At closest we had only 10 metres between us.

We decided at home that this was a good omen. So, the nick-name of our new-comer is now 'Kuutti' –which means a young seal puppy in Finnish.