The Rite and Vaari (my maternal grandfather, “Vaari” means grandpa in Finnish) wearing a traditional summer flower garland and wreath, c. 1990, Nurmes, Eastern Finland. Extended caption: My Vaari Toivo Timonen was a man who lived for a century and farmed the same land for nearly 80 years. He also fought in two wars. Vaari kept daily notes of rains and temperatures; worked with the lunar cycles, and cultivated a deep knowledge of plants, flowers, different natural energies and the way of the forest. In this picture Vaari is wearing a traditonal summer wreath and a garland, made by my sisters and I, sitting on the old steps of the farmhouse on a summer’s afternoon.