Red Houses and White Snow

The temperature has been dropping to a few degrees below 0 celsius in Finland lately. The chill has the Finns bracing for winter and today the first snow started coating our little red house.

Finland’s country homes and barns have been coated in red since the 18th century. The color punamulta means “red earth” and was traditionaly made from water, rye flour, linseed oil, iron oxides, copper and zinc. You haven’t really seen Finland if you haven’t seen their red houses. The countryside is speckled with these red and white buildings like the rosehip berries on this tree. The fresh, white snow today makes Finland look particularly nice.