This island cottage is Heli and Alexa the dog’s happy place—“I love stormy weather, when you’re indoors and the fire is crackling”
Reading, cooking, pottering, and boat trips—this is what Heli’s summer days are made of. Keeping busy on the island is a relaxing counterbalance to city life and work.
As the weekend approaches, Heli packs the car. Along for the ride comes Alexa the dog, well‑used to both car and boat trips. At the marina, Alexa is buckled into a bright yellow life jacket so she can safely keep watch during the crossing. Alexa is Heli’s steady cottage companion, other more occasional visitors include Heli’s mother and her grown children with their families.
A 1950s island cottage, now with an addition
We Heli, 55, and her French bulldog Alexa.
Cottage A 1952 summer house named Kumpukari, nearly 100 square meters. Also a beach sauna with a small guest room, plus a greenhouse.
Where In Parainen in the Turku archipelago.
It’s only a short trip by boat, but it works wonders: as soon as Heli steps onto the dock, her mind is calm and at ease. Then the pottering begins—and there’s plenty to do. While the island has electricity, it lacks most other modern comforts.
Drinking water and groceries are hauled from the city, chopping firewood is one of the many chores.
Heli and Alexa usually start the cottage season in April, as soon as the sea is free of ice. In summer Heli spends almost her entire vacation here, relaxing with greenhouse projects and thick books.
As a child Heli spent summers with her grandparents at a lakeside cottage. Those sweet memories rekindled her dream of finding her own place. She was just about to buy a lakeside retreat when she joined a sailing trip in the Archipelago Sea.
“After that I turned my search from the Finnish Lakeland region to the archipelago. I fell in love with the scenery, the nature and the sea,” Heli says.
She found her island spot in 2009. The island held an old wooden house and a sauna building that have needed continual small repairs and fresh coats of paint.
“During the pandemic in 2020, I got to experience a March snowfall and the birds’ spring migration.”
In 2019 Heli designed an addition on the sea‑facing side of the main house, which a local carpenter built. It has become one of everyone’s favorite spots, the perfect place to watch autumn rain while the fire crackles in the hearth. The shifting weather and seasons bring endless variety to cottage days.
“During the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, I spent an early season on the island. I got to watch a March snowfall and the birds returning. It was a unique experience to welcome spring on the island for several uninterrupted weeks,” Heli recalls.
“Luckily that year the sea didn’t freeze, so I could launch the boat at the beginning of March.”
It rains less in the archipelago than on the mainland, and in Heli’s mind it’s always a warm summer day on the island—though she admits that isn’t quite the case.
“A storm can rise quickly. Stormy weather is wonderful on the island when you’re indoors with fires roaring in the stove and the range. Even the sauna feels magical in a storm. There’s no electric light there, and in summer you actually long for the darkness while bathing.”
Heli is handy with a saw and tools and loves small carpentry jobs. On the rocky ground around the cottage she built a pergola big enough for a generous dining table and a grill. In summer almost all cooking happens outdoors. Lunch tastes best in the shade of the trees—typically fish, salad and the archipelago’s dark rye bread.
The cottage’s kitchen garden yields plenty for personal use. From the previous owner she inherited currant bushes and apple trees that produce abundant crops. In the greenhouse and raised beds Heli grows cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, as well as Jerusalem artichokes, a plant that thrives in the archipelago.
Not all her time is spent tinkering—Heli also knows how to take it easy. She reads a lot at the cottage, preferably crime novels. There are plenty of cozy reading spots: depending on the weather and mood she’ll curl up with a book in the hammock, a deck chair or a comfy armchair indoors.
Bird‑watching has become one of Heli’s favorite activities.
“I’ve gotten to know the woodpeckers. We even get gray‑headed woodpeckers and black woodpeckers. In spring the birdsong is unbelievable! All that chirping and bubbling makes it sound like a jungle.”
When the weather is fair, Heli takes the boat out into the archipelago—or even all the way to Turku, which has great guest marinas and dog‑friendly restaurants. She had no boating experience beforehand, so she decided to learn everything carefully and bit by bit.
“Now I’m totally hooked on boating and already making longer trips!”
Even though she loves boating, Heli doesn’t crave much socializing with other islanders. She enjoys the solitude on her “deserted island” because it balances out her social everyday life and work.
Heli’s favorite spot is on the terrace where she sips her morning coffee and does the dishes. The sauna building is another place to unwind. Its dark interior has a fairytale feel, which is why she fires it up almost every evening.
Heli keeps learning new cottage skills and is an enthusiastic wood‑splitter.
“Once I managed to get a big log stuck in the splitter. Luckily I slipped my hand out of the glove in time! Mostly, though, I savor the thrill of success when I figure things out and get projects finished.”
