December 2016 – Page 2

A blast from the past II – writing a nature poem

Late-Night Life in the Wild

A courageous vagabond in the silent wilderness of the fabled north,
For what is his smothered cry worth?
Twinkling stars a comfort for the lonely hermit’s soul
Silence suddenly break by the voice of a cheerfully greeting owl.

He accepted the captivating call of the distant wild,
The whispering condemnation not for the fragile
The glimmering full-moon lightens the path never-ending,
An autumnal message the honest glow is sending.

Strong northern-breeze chants kindly in his ear,
Accompanied by the howling of a whining wolf so near
The brave animal dwells in the shelter of an echoing fell
Lone wolf’s tears for the sacred full-moon are not due to farewell.

If a shiny star should shoot in the black sky,
Would the melancholic man wish or tell a white lie?
Is the blaze of the northern lights an omen of the end of his sorrow,
Or awaits there just another hailing tomorrow?

Bare dwarf birches beside a glittering, dark blue, flowing river
A longingly screaming eagle is giving him the shiver
A campfire sparkling nostalgic warmth which will the nighttime last,
Is the softly singing hermit missing something from the past?

-Leena

(Written by me in autumn 2001. :))

Hyacinths – favourite flowers this time of the year & have some glögi

Hyacinths are traditional, popular and well-loved Christmas plants or flowers in Finland. And they have been my favourites ever since my childhood.

It’s the scent! The lovely and nostalgic scent of the Christmastime! The hyacinth in these pics is my first hyacinth for this year. The adorable scent started to appear on Tuesday. 🙂

Naturally the look of hyacinths is charming and lovable, too…

…many tiny flowers, and some colour yellow as well! 🙂

The flowers speak for themselves…

And it’s the time for glögi! :

Glögi is a traditional, hot and spiced drink. It’s mainly a Christmas (and pre-Christmas) drink in Finland. It can be translated as mulled wine. However, not all the glögi drinks are like wine – alcoholic drinks – some are, but, actually, we drink a lot of juice glögi in Finland, so… glögi is… glögi in Finland. As a non-alcoholic drink it’s some fruit or berry juice, hot and spiced. This one that I’m having is grape, blackcurrant and blueberry juice, spiced with cinnamon, bitter orange peel, cloves, cardamom and ginger – all the traditional Christmas or winter spices. Glögi can be bought ready-made – that’s probably why the juice glögi is so popular. 🙂

I think there will be still more glögi and hyacinths in my blog and on my Instagram over the next few weeks… 🙂

-Leena

Calathea or Prayer Plant or…

This plant has many names – which one is the most correct, or common… Calathea, I guess, and this is said to be a Prayer Plant in English, too, as this plant closes or raises its leaves for the night-time and opens or lowers them again in daylight. In the Finnish language we actually understand this to be the act of sleeping – this plant is called nukkumaija in Finnish, meaning like Maija (a Finnish female name), who goes to sleep. 🙂

These tropical friends, Calatheas, originate from South America. They are very strong plants.

As houseplants…? Well, it depends… 🙂 Calatheas like water, but they don’t like drowning. They like some light, but they don’t like full sunlight. Calatheas like a bit of warmth, too, and humidity – they like some misting with a spray of water. (Which I did for the first time before taking these pics. :)) Jungle plants – not too much light, but humidity.

So deep, it’s like black… I saved this plant from a supermarket the other day. For half the normal price. I knew what this plant is called and what it is. I had a different-looking Calathea before, but it got too dry because of my life situation at that time. (I was away from home for too long.)

However, in the supermarket, I was a bit worried about the colour of the leaves of this plant. – They were so purple, so black, also the top sides, and almost all of the leaves (and it has many leaves) – is the plant already at its end…? – Some of its bigger leaves were not in so good shape anymore (-half the price). First I thought I should leave this plant there, but I had already chosen her (or she had already chosen me! 🙂 ), so I just couldn’t leave it behind. And I even tried to google a bit while in the supermarket, but couldn’t find any answer. But yes, at home I had a bit more time and peace to investigate, and I found out that Calatheas come in so many colours, this very deep one as well. And this plant also has many tiny leaves (under the bigger leaves, can be seen in the first pic) – a fairly big flower pot might be necessary.

Now I should buy fresh potting soil for my Calathea and for some of our other houseplants as well – we have many houseplants (and more coming… ;D ) And by the way, I’m planning on taking pics of all of our other houseplants, too, in future.

Some green and pink, too! 🙂

And hopefully some more pics of my Calathea in future as well.

-Leena

A blast from the past – writing a nature poem

The depth of winter where the moon is rising,
The weak daylight dwindles without compromising
Pale glow takes over, the shadows grow dark
Behind the wood a vigorous dog begins to bark.

The winding road between the fields that are gleaming white,
For evening’s walker the frozen landscape is a peaceful sight
Snow flurry covers the footprints on the ground
Cool breeze sighs, the flakes dash gently all around.

Silence captures the falling night, standing bold and wise
The stars stay awake observing with their bright eyes
A door creaks casting light when thrown open wide,
The shivering dog hears a whistle, and rushes swiftly inside.

-Leena

(Written by me in autumn 2001. :))

German nature word – der Schnee

der Schnee – snow

German nature word – der Winter

der Winter – winter

December’s here and today Finland 99 years – thank you!

About the weather lately… 🙂 It’s been rather interesting… On Friday 25th November we had snow the whole day, then at night… water… on Saturday 26th, no snow, but again on Sunday 27th, snow on the ground the whole day. And after that, many snowy days – a little bit of snow, not like heaps of it… Buuut again yesterday, on Monday 5th December, and today as well, no snow. But it’s cold!

This was on Saturday. There’s been many sunny days, too, the last days of November were sunny as well, so bye bye fifth season! 🙂

By the way, I’ve been using our, mine and Owlnature’s, Instagram (owlnatureleena) – my intention is to take more pics to my Instagram – I mean, more often than I’ve taken before. I’ll still have everything important (and less important) here in Owlnature, but some additional fun (? :)), too, on Instagram…

This was yesterday…

Coffee owl… my morning coffee today. Happy Independence Day! – Today, on 6th December, is the Independence Day in Finland. – 99 years! Thank you! 🙂

A sunny day today! When I was taking these four pics, the sun was already on the treetops.

Morning coffee magic…

“Okay, I’ll do it, I’ll do everything, every thing, but, you know… :

…one mustn’t rush these things… or to be more specific; one mustn’t rush a thing… Did you know…?”

🙂

-Leena