Saturday, April 6

I cross back over the bridge from the library and look out over Turunlinnantie towards the bus station. The snow falls heavily and makes a snowy equivalent of fog. Or maybe the fog has arrived with the snowstorm and amounts to a separate thing.

Finland has something called “back winter” (or takatalvi in Finnish). This occurs when winter has gone for a couple of weeks and then, just as everyone has got used to Spring and put away their winter clothes, Winter 2 arrives until, inevitably, it loses to the forces of Spring, and the move towards summer begins.

Taka means “back”. Takka means “fireplace”. Takahuone means “back room”. Takkahuone means “the room with the fireplace”. I can honestly say that, in our case, “Our fireplace is in the back room”. In Finnish this translates as takkamme on takahuoneessa.

I simply cannot pronounce this in a way that makes the difference between taka and takka audible to a native Finnish speaker.

I thought you should know this.