Augustin Seagul and the winter at the Lighthouse island

Pia Staff 1999: Augustin Lokki ja majakkasaaren talvi

Augustin and his friends are planning a skiing trip to the near by lighthouse.  On their way they see trawlers waiting for spring. They have some picnic and they stop for a short break before they have to climb a hill.

Suddely a blizzard surprises them and Augustin is worried. Can they find their way? Pultti, his friend sees a small house and they take shelter, where they stay for the night.

Next moring they see a baby seal. The seaguls cannot leave it alone. At the same time Eevertti from the Lighthouse comes to look for them with a sail sled.  They take the baby seal with them. Finally they arrive at the lighthouse.

They all climb up the lighthouse to see the sights and with a telescope they see seals. They baby stays in the lighthouse, where it is fed and Augustin and his friends leave.
A good story about what to do, if you get caugh in a blizzard. (Which to the modern human happens very seldom.)

But winter is finally here. Let's enjoy it!

Fabulous Light houses

The cover demonstrates the diversity
of the lighthouses

Mika Myllyneva 2012: Mainiot majakat

I have never visited any of the lighthouses in this book. I have seen the Suomenlinna Chuch, which is used as a lighthouse. But the names of the light houses I have heard many times in the radio, where they tell the marine weather. 

A few summers back, my parents spend a night at the Bengtskär lighthouse. It looks nice, but my father was complaining that there was nothing to do.

 In the map (the picture below), you can see that Märket is really close to Sweden. It is actually divided by the boarder between Sweden and Finland.

 The beginning of the book confused me a little, when they talked about valomajakka (literal translation light-lighthouse). I was thinking can there be a light house without a light. Actually there can, the early lighthouses were ID lighthouses without light.  I learned something new again by reading a "kids book".

The lighthouses on a map

The content of the book:

Early lighthouses
Finnish lighthouses
Bogaskär hard luck light house
Jussarö wreck cemetary
Many turns of Tiiskeri
Valassaaret
Tankar the light house of oddities
Gustavsvärn from fortress ruins into a lighthouse
Bengtskär the mother of all light houses
Isokari almost got blown up
The light houses of Helsinki
Utö the first  light lighthouse
Märket between two countries
Sälskär

Bengtskär the mother of all lighthouses

Pekka Väisänen also wrote about the Finnish lighthouses for the Finnish Embassy in London.