St John's night

Those of you with a musical inclination will know Mussorgsky's 'Night on a bare mountain' or more correctly 'St. John's night on a bare mountain'. St John's night is actually the 23rd/24th June, but in Finland (where else) Juhannus is celebrated sometime between the 20th and 26th - this year being the 20th (saturday). It unfortunately has a dark side, with many Finn's drinking themselves to the far side of intoxication as much as possible. Since I was playing for a service on Juhannus in Vehmersalmi, I had gone into our practice rooms on the friday afternoon, coming back around 6 pm. About halfway home I came over the crest of a hill, and realised that there was something black on the road about 150 metres ahead of me. Initially I thought it was a dead cat or badger, but as I came closer I realised it was a body... I pulled up short, and as I got out the car, a security guard from the factory opposite pulled up. It turned out to be a woman in her late 50s, wearing 'tramp' smart clothing, and totally unconcious. I had no idea whether she was crossing the road (it's not a particularly populated stretch) and just passed out, or whether she had been side swiped by a car. I guess the security guard had seen a bit more of what was going on, as he picked her up bodily and dragged her to the side of the road. He then started slapping her cheek to try to get a response, at which she groaned and rolled her eyes around a bit. Basically this continued for a few more minutes, with her muttering incoherently, and waving her arms around, until the police arrived, and I was deemed surplus to requirements. So much for that - no idea what happened next, but the ambulance can't have been far behind.

Then the next day I headed to Vehmersalmi. As the crow flies, Vehmersalmi is only about 10 km from Kuopio, but as there's a great big lake in between, the only way there (without the personal yacht) is a big U shaped north - east- south drive of 50km or so. On the way back it started to rain as I left, and heading north, absolutely poured down. The wipers were on double speed,but still couldnt see much, and the road was more like a river. So much so, in fact, that I saw a frog crossing the road. No doubt he was thinking, last time I was here there wasn't a river.... Once I returned to the top leg of the U, about 5 km later, the road westwards was bone dry. Very strange. I think Vehmersalmi has its own weather system, as this was the area that had a mini cyclone a year ago.

So, strange thing happen: one additional well known fact is that there is a sharp rise in births in March, about 9 months after Juhannus....