When I was a little girl I often visited my grandparents. The radio was always on and my grandmother carefully listened to the news and weather reports, and gladly hummed to her favourite music.

There was a deep feeling of peace and safety, as there usually is in every grandmother’s home. Three, four times a day there was a weather report for the sea areas. I listened to it fascinated by the exotic names of beautiful faraway places like Kylmäpihlaja, Jussarö and Bogaskär.

I had no idea what the magic names and numbers like "Nyhamn 11 South-South-West 5, 30" meant, but surely something secret and important since it was read at the radio very carefully and with a very serious voice several times a day.

Later, when life brought me to live by the sea with a man who thought me how to sail, I learned more about these magic places and got to visit some of them. Märket, that doesn’t sound like the most exiting of them all, has proved to be more magic than I deared to dream of.

Once one gets settled on this rocky reef and has time to feel and look around, one finds out that the peace and harmony is like in the grandmother’s kitchen. The light varies in amazing colours and the shapes and directions of the waves changes for every time they hit the reef, or softly strokes the rocky beaches.

The weather reports on the radio get as important as ever, and one gets this very special feeling of importance, when the voice in the radio says "Märket, 14, West-North-West 3".

After wondering about the weather and winds for a couple of days, it was decided today that the change of crew will happen this afternoon. Knowing this, we all prepared us the best we could. We did the dishes, cleaned the stairs, counted the amount of supplies to be needed, and packed our bags.


Pirjo even did the laundry!

The lighthouse dog seemed to know more than we did, since he wouldn't let himself to be fooled to take too much effort


Brando knows best.

And right he was, since it very soon was announced that the swap will not take place until September. Happy, since we had already finished the packing and done all the hard work like carrying the dinghy out from the boathouse, we decided to spent the rest of the day just enjoyng ourselves, watching our new friends seals playing in the water and counting the boats passing by.

While we were doing the dishes, we found another friend sadly sitting in a pond of water on the yard.


Poor little thing feels a bit dizzy.

Her feathers were wet and it seemed that her first flying rehearsals didn't turn out all that well. We placed her up on the roof of the warehouse, and after a couple of hours she was gone. I can't tell if she is one of the ones flying above me right now, but I do hope so.

As the evening approaches, so does the clouds from the West. It soon is time for the evening supper, and even the last weather reports for the day.

We salute all the old lighthouse keepers and send our regards to the guards that have spent time on Märket this summer. You all know the mixed feeling of happiness, respect, peace and longing that easily gets you on your, for now, last night in the lighthouse. Luckily you know that you are welcome back - there is still a lot of work to be done.

Until next time: Märket over and out.


Someone is at home.