Dirty job – but had to be done

Anemone nemorosa

Marvelous Easter weather, all sunny and warm with some 20 degrees. Time to put on shorts and sandals and watch how the nature is waking up. Beautiful!

However, there was one evil disturbing our long weekend in our paradise – a nest of snakes under our patio. 

On Sunday morning, when I went out to hang some laundry, I heard a rustle of leaves on our patio, and saw an amazing view: two large black and white zigzag-patterned vipers (Vipera berus, a venomous snake), intertwined, raising from the leaves. They were mating. Vow!

I ran inside to get my camera and tell JD. When I came back they were still there, lying, so that I got some pictures. JD came with two spades as weapons. We have not seen vipers in our yard close to the house so far, but our principle is that any snake coming into the house or the patio will be killed. We have four small kids in the family and don’t want any poisonous creatures hanging around!

So JD hit the bigger snake with the spade and nailed it, then I kept the spade steady, so that he could cut the head of the snake with the other spade. We saw one tail disappearing, and thought that the other snake escaped. After the dirty work we buried the snake and went inside. I googled vipers and learned that the female can be up to 80 cm and male 60 cm. The snake we killed (first) was 80 cm and so a female.

I went out again, to hang the laundry, and noticed that the other viper had returned on the patio.  I run quickly inside to tell JD, and pick my camera again. The spades were close by, and we got the male killed as well. This time I had to cut the head while JD was holding it with a spade. It was not nice, I can tell, but I felt that it is better than have 20 young little snakes around next summer from this couple. So, two vipers buried the same day.

We were so exhausted from the sun, garden work and battle with snakes that we didn’t want to cook anything. JD fetched pizzas from Taalintehdas, restaurant Portside. They make the best pizzas on the island.

Next morning, I said as a joke to JD that I go out to see some snakes. That said, I took three steps outside and saw a viper, again, on the patio. My eyes are so used to scanning these creatures that I see them all.

This was smaller than the previous two and brownish. While we were killing this one, I saw a big black snake lying a couple of meters away from us. The smaller one was a male and the big one, again some 80 cm, must have been the female, lying there after mating. We nailed that one, too. It was hissing. Disgusting, yäk!

So, there was a nest of vipers under the patio. We killed four of them, and probably some of them managed to escape, or are still there, enjoying the lizards and mice that also like to stay there. It will be an exciting summer ahead. 

Defending territory against seagulls

We arrived at the island on a sunny Friday evening, there were three of us: JD, my youngest son who is a law student and had a spring break and I. The weather looked nice and warm, the sea was brillant, but the wind was icy.

I didn't have to cook dinner, as JD had brought sushi from Helsinki. And then we had mämmi for dessert. A great combination:)

The sun, lack of snow and some plus-degrees had made the first flowers of spring, anemone hepaticas blossom a couple of weeks earlier than normally. Beautiful blue flowers.

And the early birds – seagulls and Eurasian skylarks had arrived, too. They say that it’s one month left to the summer when you see skylarks.


When I was sitting on the bench on our jetty, a seagull tried to scare me out of its territory. Every year, a seagull builds its nest on our jetty, and that’s not a good idea, we need to destroy the nest. Funny, that they never learn. This time I tried to warn him early enough, waving on the jetty with a red cap on - trying to show him that this is our territory. Let's see next weekend if I succeeded.

As the sunny weather continued on Saturday (with cool wind), it was time for me to start garden work. I am the only one who likes gardening in this family, and I enjoy the physical exercise and being out-of-doors as much as possible. JD stayed inside surfing car models and my son was in the basement playing horror games with virtual friends.

We had hired a local man to cut trees last autumn, and he had burned the smaller branches in the garden. So there was a big pile of wood ash. I’ve heard that ash is good fertilizer. So I shoveled ash under black-currant, red-currant and gooseberry bushes, apple trees and a flower bench. Let’s see how this magic works… I also raked dead leaves, so that after a couple of hours in the garden I felt like having been in a gym. The rest of the day I was lazy, sitting in the sun, and even took a nap inside.

Sunday was rainy, doing good to the garden. I was mostly inside, and made meat-macaroni casserole (lihamakaronilaatikko) in the old style for my boys.