Saana Hill, Finland

This card is from Merja for the Surprise Me round robin. "Saana hill is the highest one in Finland. We have no mountains," she writes. The summit is 3,376 feet above sea level.

There are a number of similar hills in Finland and in the rest of Scandinavia as well. This story involves the hills Saana, Malla, Big Malla, Pältsä, Paras, and the lake Kilpisjärvi which surrounds Saana.

THE SAGA OF HOW KILPISJÄRVI LAKE CAME TO BE
According to a legend - long ago Kilpisjärvi area was lived by giants. Sullen Saana got had a crush on lovely Malla. On the wedding day Pältsä wanted to have the procession stopped. He was also infatuated with Malla. The wedding ceremony would have been held by Paras, the magician. But Pältsä had called the evil elderly women of Lapland to come to the scene. All of a sudden fierce northern wind wiped all of the celebrants with cold wind. Very soon the whole area became filled with ice. At the last moment, Saana rushed the lovely Malla to her mother, Big Malla. Then the freezing cold took away all life. From the tears of lovely Malla was formed Kilpisjärvi - the lake.

The stamp, from 2009, shows the Pallas-Yllastunturi National Park. It has raised dots on it that appear to be Braille, but I'm not sure.

Kittilä, Finland

It's 81ºF right now, so I need to post a card with snow to combat the weather. This card, FI-656493, is one of the first cards I received. It was kind of mysterious since it had only a short message on the back from the sender and no explanation of the photo on the front.

However, my Google-fu has shed a bit of light on the situation. Kätkänpesä is apparently a lodge at the Levi ski resort in Kittilä, in Finnish Lapland. (By the way, in case you are wondering how to get the "ä", type first option-u, then "a".) According to someone much more knowledgeable about this place than I am, if you ever find yourself at Levi, you should:

• Visit a reindeer farm, husky farm too.
• Discover the many art galleries and museums including the Galleria Raekallio, the art gallery of painter Reijo Raekallio and the Sarestoniemi Museum.
• Marvel at the beauty of the Arctic light by day; wonder at the aurora by night, if you are lucky.
• Venture out on snowshoe and snowmobile safaris near Levi.
• Consider spending Christmas in Levi.
  

The stamp is from a set of four "With Greetings" stamps. This one depicts a cup of coffee and a letter.