On our walks we could feel how nature was and is changing every day, how plant bodies are preparing to receive the energy of the sun. In particular the bryophytes have been speaking to us. They have an ability to soak all the water that the snow transforms into when the spring comes. The mosses prepare the ground and retain the water in the soil which allows other plants to develop and survive.
The ice melt is creating the streams that transform into the lake which catalyses Kilpisjärvi lake to melt and the algae to bloom. Our interactions with the lakes of the region and the snow have helped to see those changes in this time - video (password: waters).
Signs along Saana were installed during the main snow melt, prohibiting us and visitors to walk on protected areas. We realised then how important the snow cover was, acting as a protection to the grounds underneath.
Through our interactions with the plant bodies and waters in Kilpisjärvi, we began to perceive how they are being together in this environment. This made us reflect on our place in this landscape, seeing that we are not separated from the plants, the snow and the ecosystem but one and the same. A strangely interdependent relationship.
“mountains are mountains and waters are waters, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.” Dōgen
sabrina shado hart & laura kaker