Member-only story
The Nature of Nature: How A Siberian Jay Turned the Finnish Wilderness into a Moment of Snow-Kissed Trust
A Siberian story: Tag, you’re it
Snow shimmers in -24 degrees. Trees that usually wear their forest green coats are dusted by frost, looming tall and piercing the pastel coloured sky like sentinels for a citadel of silence. Finland is made of frozen moments, standing so still in between breaths of icy air. It’s serene. It’s like a dream. It’s the most enchanting thing I’ve ever seen.
How can anything possibly survive in this? I wondered.
But amidst all the snow, I pulled a packet of sun out of my pocket and sprinkled sunflower seeds into my palm. I turned to Ben, grinning, white eyelashes fluttering in determination. Extending my arm to the watercolour sky, I whispered, “wouldn’t it be wonderful if — “
Not if, as it happened, but when. And when was the end of that unfinished sentence, as my mouth froze not from the minus temperatures, but from the tiny creature that had landed softly on my outstretched palm.
A Siberian Jay.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if one landed on me, I was going to say.
As light as his own feathers, legs like branches bare of lichen, his black beak streamlined and carved, yet…
