What do you know about Finland

Continuing on with the 'summer postcard pal' theme... I've been doing it for years but it hasn't seemed so popular this year. I was only able to find one postcard pal for this summer which is a shame, although the cards from Henriikka have been real treats so I could say it's also quality over quantity.. ;) She helped send back this card from Finland - I've started collecting this series but it has been difficult to arrange swaps. ....and I think this series is so much prettier than, say, 'World Travel', and even 'Greetings from' cards now all seem to look the same... :/

I rather like the fact that Finland has more heavy metal bands per capita than any other country in the world. It has always seemed pretty obvious to me, and most local bands in my old hometown, Lappeenranta, seemed to be metal bands when I was young and I think they still are. Henriikka told me that a while back there was a competition to find the 'heavy metal capital' of Finland, and that Lemi, a small municipality next to Lappeenranta, won. Yay!

This set of food stamps was issued earlier this year. I think they are awesome, there's also rye bread, salmiakki... and this one with 'bread cheese'. It's gorgeous and one of the things I miss from Finland. ..cloudberries, also seen on this stamp, are also very tasty.