My main influences in life

I want to talk about how one place can influence your life in a BIG way. And I mean a place not people because it's only natural that both my parents have influenced me in a big way especially because they both are artists and the eye for art is heritable.
The place for me is Saaremaa (the biggest island of Estonia) and more specifically Sülla talu, that's the name of our summer home. The house was built in 1898 and my grandparents bought it in 1977. It was in poor condition then because it had been empty for some years. They started fixing the place and soon it looked like an old farmhouse should look. We also built a sauna and used old logs to match the main house. My grandma planted flowers and looked after the vegetable field and she still does even though she is 81 now. But of course I try to help her in every way I can even though she is very stubborn from time to time :)

I have spent my every summer as a child there, left right after the school ended and came back right before it started again. I seriously believe that I would be a totally different person if I didn't have that kind of place to go to every year. As my grandfather always says: it's a paradise! In Saaremaa I learned about wildlife and nature and fell in love with it. There are forests all around us, no houses nearby, thousands of birds and lots of animals, for example roe deer, foxes, elk, badgers, hare, wild boar, raccoon dogs etc. At the other end of Saaremaa there are also wolves, wolverines, red deer and seals. It is a place to escape to, a place where you can be one with the nature and forget about all your troubles.

Almost all of my animal stories that I'm going to post here will come from that special place. Some of them have already happened, some are yet to come. Some are really close to our home, some little bit farther. My favourite place to go is a forest opening about 100m from our home where I have spotted and photographed roe deer, foxes, elk, hare, buzzards, woodpeckers and so on. Sadly though there has been a sale last year and one family will start to build a summer home at the edge of the forest. That is really making me sad because I can't visit that place in peace anymore. But there are other places nearby. Last year I walked almost every evening or morning to the sea, it's about 900 meters from our house. There are thick forests, lovely little roads and fields on the way to the sea. A perfect day for me in the summer is when I wake up before the sun and when there are no clouds but some mist. I get my gear and head to the sea. The smells and the sounds are undescribable.

I feel very lucky to have that kind of place to live and want to share it with all of you.