Summer in Finland

Summers in Finland are short but sweet. For three brief months, from mid-June to mid-September, temperatures soar as high as 30C and the Nordic forests bask under baby blue skies for up to 24 hours a day. After icebox conditions and perpetual darkness through the long months of winter, Finns embrace the summer with gusto. Lakes echo with the splash of swimmers and kayak paddles, and whole cities decamp to the countryside for lavish family feasts, fuelled by seasonal treats like crayfish, lingonberries and wild mushrooms.

Recharging your vitamin D levels is one reason to join the summer celebrations; Juhannus (midsummer) is another. Held each June on the closest weekend to the longest day of the year (this  year from 22 to 24 June), midsummer is Finland's most enthusiastic party -- an excuse for lakeshore bonfires, midnight airshows, drinking games, skinny dipping, saunas and all-you-can-eat banquets of grillimakkara (grilled sausages) served with mustard and the season's first new potatoes. Cheese is another midsummer staple, a legacy of the upsurge in milk production that followed the cows’ migration to summer pastures, and at family picnics you may encounter the curious Juhannusjuusto, cooked cheese curds served cold, sprinkled with sugar.

For dessert, nature provides. From Åland to Lapland, wild berries paint the pine forests in Pointillist polka dots throughout the summer. City dwellers flock to the forests in July to harvest bilberries, wild raspberries, tart red lingonberries, wild cranberries and cloudberries – little clusters of orange bobbles that do indeed resemble tiny clouds.

Juhannus may be the biggest feast, but Finland's love affair with wild food lasts all summer long. From June to September, you will be bombarded by tantalizing seasonal delicacies – wild mushrooms, nettle pancakes, bilberry pies, kiisseli (wild berry soup) -- and menus that change almost daily as new ingredients appear on the forest floor.

Vocabulary:
bask [bɑ:sk, bæsk]  vi. 晒太阳；取暖；愉快或舒适 vt. 使...晒太阳
baby blue  浅蓝色 very pale blue
perpetual [pə'petʃuəl, -tju-]  adj. 永久的；不断的
gusto ['kaiæk] n. 由衷的高兴；嗜好  with gusto 满怀热情；饶有兴趣地
kayak ['kaiæk] n. 皮船；爱斯基摩小艇
lavish ['læviʃ] adj. 丰富的；大方的；浪费的
bonfire ['bɔn,faiə] n. 篝火，营火
airshow ['εəʃəu] n. 飞行特技表演
sauna ['sɔ:nə, 'sau-, -nɑ:] n. 桑拿浴  vi. 洗桑拿浴
flock to 蜂拥至，成群地走向
bombard [bɔm'bɑ:d, 'bɔmbɑ:d] vt. 轰炸；炮击 be bombarded by 被炮轰，沉浸在
tantalizing ['tæntəlaiziŋ] a. 诱人的