Eyes wide open

Quite often we think that anything we haven't met before is unusual, extraordinary, anomalous and out of this world, but actually we just haven't seen or heard about it. It can be pretty mundane instead :) That's it! So we discover new things every day, for ourselves, and draw a tick next to an item in our discovery list. Awareness is one thing, knowledge yet another. Quite often we're too lazy to find out the truth behind "anomaly", strange and surprising things we encounter, but we still share it with others with a hope that somebody will, might even share the knowledge with others.

The other day I ran into a plant which usually is green, but this little baby was purple as purple can be :) It was growing close to the oldest building in Tuomarniemi.

Some findings are pretty, some scary. But even these scary ones complement the nature and the surrounding. The other day on my way home from work I saw a skeleton of a bird (?). The scull in the middle and the bones of the wings (?) on both sides as if it had stretched out its wings before it died trying to get off, go back to where it belonged -- into the sky. Scary and pretty at the same time.

Having cycled the same road day after day, you eventually remember every inch of it. So when one day something unusual appears by the road then it definitely strikes your eye. I saw a draisine (FIN: resiina) by the railroad the other day on my way to work. It looked really old, hand-made, built of scrap metal and wood. I found it weird as it had appeared there overnight and it had a well-oiled chain despite all the rust on all the metal parts. This kind of manual vehicle was used by railroad maintenance workers until about 1950-ies, so it was more than anomalous to see it in 2013.

The Finnish VR uses the most comfortable passenger trains, yet, as appears, also vehicles that should be in the museum. Their webpage claims that they are "a modern service company". But the key may lie in the following sentence I found on their webpage: "VR Group is an ecofriendly, versatile company with responsible operations, offering transport, logistics and infrastructure engineering services". The draisine is eco-friendly indeed, as it is made of recycled materials and produces no carbon emissions whatsoever :) The draisine was gone by the time I went back home from work. I guess it went back to work :)

In one of my previous blogs about history and architecture I wrote about a mysterious mansion called Pytinki in Inha area of Ähtäri. It is located on the grounds of an old metal factory (called Fiskars) which is still working and making for example aluminium Buster fast boats. The mansion looks magnificent in its new Renaissance style though built as late as 1899. They say it's haunted and many people have seen strange things going on in the mansion. As it's quite close to Tuomarniemi, right by the lake Hankavesi, I decided to see it for myself.

The sun was setting and there was not a gust of wind. I passed the boat factory and then all of a sudden it was there at the end of a forest trail. It was an incredibly pretty red brick building with a nice tower on one end of the building overlooking the lake, but kind of desolate, not a soul (read: living human being) moving around. It was well-kept and well-protected with warning signs everywhere that it was a private territory and anyone trespassing was filmed (and taken away?). I'm sure the security video clips would have the ghosts on them, if they had any in the mansion :) People say curtains move and a girl in white dress visits the tower at nighttime. To tell you the truth, I didn't see any ghosts, neither anyone moving behind the windows nor moving the curtains. Well, I wasn't there at nighttime, was I? :)

The Finnish company Fiskars bought the Inhan metal factory in 1917, but before that it belonged to private persons. In 1841 a lawspeaker (FIN: laamanni) Erik Gustaf Roschier bought the area and established the ironworks factory. The factory has been functioning in the original field since then. However, the ownership of Pytinki mansion is clouded with mystery. Nowhere on the grounds could I see the owner's name. When I asked around, no-one seemed to know exactly. As far as I understand, the mansion is protected by the Museovirasto (Museum Office in Finland), yet it is not open to the public. It could be. No doubt, Ähtäri town would get itself a wonderful pearl, a true treasure to attract tourist.

I came to Ähtäri with eyes wide open and I found quite many "pearls" that still need to be polished and then displayed in full grandeur. The haunted Pytinki and Vääräkosken Kartonkitehdas are definitely among them. Should there be a ghost-tour in Ähtäri? Hmmm...