About some of the food growing in the garden & more flowers

First about some of the food growing in our garden. We had some strawberries to eat still in August – a bit different summer indeed, usually the strawberry season has ended well before the end of July in our garden. Peas, potatoes, carrots and onions all grow easily. The pea season is at its end now and we’ve been harvesting our potatoes, too, for some time now, but there are still many potatoes underground, that’s for sure.

Homegrown food is always just so delicious, and sweet… 🙂

love carrots

We’ve been harvesting our carrots, too. I took a pic yesterday evening when I was about to make soup.

growing onions

One of the most delicious things you can grow in your garden! This actually is the first time ever that we’re growing onions. – I wonder why we haven’t done it earlier! Here in Finland, in the north, we usually grow onions from onion sets, not from seeds. And onions indeed are easy to grow from sets.

blackcurrant

Come out, come out! This year we have more blackcurrant berries than ever before (-during the three previous summers that we’ve lived here). And it’s so nice! Our redcurrant bushes have been loaded with berries every summer, but our blackcurrant berries have been hiding somewhere. (?) 🙂

common poppy

More common poppy flowers. Other names for common poppy: corn poppy, field poppy, Flanders poppy, red poppy, corn rose.

common poppy

common poppy

common poppy

common poppy

fly honeysuckle berries

Our fly honeysuckle has berries now. Not edible, poisonous.

phlox paniculata, fall phlox

Phlox paniculata or fall phlox ‘early red’, in the middle of our garden. We planted it a bit over a week ago.

phlox paniculata, fall phlox

strawflower

And there is no summer without strawflower flowers… 🙂

-Leena

Summer flowers in August

This year everything is a little late, so also the summer flowers are at their prime only now in August.

peony poppy

Peony poppy. There is no summer without peony poppy flowers…

peony poppy

peony poppy

Dutch iris

Iris hollandica or Dutch iris. Siberian iris and German iris flowers in July… and this year I have also Dutch iris flowers now in August! 🙂 They are grown from bulbs that I planted in spring this year. My first ones ever.

annual mallow

And there is no summer without annual mallow flowers…

viper's bugloss

Viper’s bugloss, a bit wild now – I planted the seeds last summer.

cornflower

More cornflower flowers…

cornflower

cornflower

cornflower

A busy friend.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

And more schizanthus or butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid flowers…

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

Maltese cross, burning love

Maltese cross or burning love, a perennial, flowering this year as well.

tropaeolum majus, garden nasturtium, Indian cress

Tropaeolum majus or garden nasturtium or Indian cress flowering. The taste is good as well – a bit peppery. 🙂

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And my first ever tropaeolum minus or dwarf nasturtium flowering.

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And the Ibiza lizard lurking… 🙂

common poppy

This summer I have common poppy flowers, too! My first ones ever.

common poppy

common poppy

I love all the colours… Another new favourite…

common poppy

common poppy

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine…

common poppy

With the shadow of a peony poppy…

common poppy

A nice skirt…? 🙂

common poppies & peony poppies

-Leena

The last peony flowers, schizanthus & cornflower, bike ride 20 km…

The weather’s been warm lately and it’s been sunny, too, but it’s been really pouring down with rain occasionally, but sometimes the sun’s been trying to shine at the same time as well. Beautiful. 🙂

Now the last peony flowers. This, indeed, has been a bit different summer – we’ve had peony flowers still in August!

peony

peony

I missed some of the flowering of my peonies while I was in Kuusamo, but happily, there’s still been these beauties after my trip, too. 🙂

peony

peony

peony

peony

The very last ones on Thursday.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

Schizanthus, butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid has been flowering lately in our garden as well. They are grown from seeds. One of my favourite summer flowers.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid & daisy

Daisies, too.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid & daisy

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

We have a lot of schizanthus growing this summer, they have been hit by the rain a bit…

lake Pyhäjärvi

On Thursday we took a 20 km bike ride along the lake Pyhäjärvi shoreline. It was nice. I took a picture as I was sitting by the lake for a while. 🙂

cornflower

Cornflower blooming now as well, grown from seeds. Yet another favourite of mine… And hit by the rain a bit…

cornflower

cornflower

-Leena

At the cabin in Kuusamo II

Now the second blog post about my trip to Kuusamo. The first one can be found here. I’ve visited Kuusamo and our cabin there ever since my childhood. This time I travelled with my dad. Cabin or cottage is called mökki in Finnish. Mökki is a highly important thing for many many Finns. Often the mökkis are somewhat modest. We, for example, have no running water there.

The first 22 pictures in this blog post I took at our cabin, the last four pictures I took on the way back home.

blue fleabane

Blue fleabane or bitter fleabane is growing wild beside the cabin. In fact, our cabin yard is the only place where I’ve seen these flowers so far. 🙂

blue fleabane

beard lichen, beard moss

Beard lichen or beard moss again.

red moss

Red moss. I’ve seen red moss in two spots in the cabin woods so far.

red moss

arctic bramble, arctic raspberry

There were some arctic bramble or arctic raspberry flowers in the woods as well.

creek, trees

By the creek again.

And… welcome to the woods:

trees

trees

trees

trees

cup lichen

Cup lichen, right in front of the cabin. Cup lichen is called torvijäkälä in Finnish, literally: horn lichen. So in Finnish we don’t see them as cups, but as horns, the musical instruments. 🙂

an old shed

An old shed.

dwarf cornel, bunchberry, Swedish cornel, Lapland cornel, Eurasian dwarf cornel

Dwarf cornel or bunchberry or Swedish cornel or Lapland cornel or Eurasian dwarf cornel flowering by the creek.

I was attacked by mosquitoes when I took this pic, because it was already late in the evening then. There’s a lot of mosquitoes there in the north in summertime, at our cabin, for example, especially late in the evening and in the woods. Mosquitoes in Finland are not dangerous, just a nuisance. 🙂

tree

A trEEe…

wood cranesbill, woodland geranium

Wood cranesbill or woodland geranium was flowering now there in the north. We have a lot of wood cranesbill beside the cabin road…

wood cranesbill, woodland geranium

…and in different colours as well…

wood cranesbill, woodland geranium

…and by the creek, too.

a throne in the woods

A throne in the woods. You can imagine how delighted I was to find this in the woods some years ago. 😉 This nature’s sculpture endures the northern winters there really well. It must have been there for ages.

trees, lake

At peace.

common blue

A common blue butterfly. We were both regularly there beside the cabin. 🙂 The colour of the butterfly was marvellous…

common blue

The underside of the butterfly wing.

reindeer

Reindeer on the road on our way southward. There was lots of reindeer there on the road in many places, here’s just a couple of pics. One has to be very careful when driving there in the north. – Reindeer live the slow life there. 😉

reindeer

The Silent People

Hiljainen kansa, The Silent People in Suomussalmi, in Kainuu region, about a two-hour drive south from Kuusamo. A nice and atmospheric place to stop by and take a rest. The Silent People is the creation of local artist Reijo Kela. And the clothes are changed twice a year; summer clothes and winter clothes. There’s a Field Café, too. And during the summer months they make there crispy-edged crêpes on open fire and campfire coffee as well.

The Silent People

People often ask what precisely is the idea behind the Silent People. A state of psychological withdrawal? The mute Kainuu soul? A forgotten people? Reijo Kela refuses to provide any answer. Viewers are free to come to their own conclusions. It may, however, be of interest to learn that if the Silent People were to be completely undressed there would remain some one thousand wooden crosses standing in the field.” -The Silent People -leaflet & suomussalmi.fi
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And yes, I’m already longing for the cabin again! 🙂

-Leena

At the cabin in Kuusamo I

I travelled to our (my parents’) cabin last week. The cabin is located in Kuusamo, in Koillismaa region in northern Finland. It is, naturally, one of my favourite places on earth. It took 12 hours and 10 minutes to travel there by car through the western and middle parts of Finland, and 11 hours to travel back home through the eastern and middle parts of Finland. – It’s always a long journey. But truly worth the travel! 🙂

I have pictures for two blog posts. I took all the pictures in this blog post at our cabin, in the woods, by the lake.

chickweed wintergreen, arctic starflower

The stars were still on the ground there in the north! – Chickweed wintergreen flower or arctic starflower flower. These flowered already a month ago in our home woods here in the south. It was so nice to see these flowers again, for the second time this year! 🙂

And lilacs were also flowering there! – It was very nice indeed to travel there in the town and to look out of the car window, and admire the bushes for the second time this summer…

The nights naturally were lighter up there in the north as well. Today, for example, the length of the day is 17 hours and 2 minutes here where I’m living and in Kuusamo it is 18 hours and 33 minutes.

reindeer

Northern Finland. – The land of reindeer, too! Reindeer is a regular visitor in our cabin woods as well. Or actually, the animals live there and I’m the one visiting our cabin. ;D This guy came back many times during the daytime there.

reindeer

Heeere we go!

reindeer

See you!

See you!

by the lake, in the woods

The days were warm up there during my visit, around 20 degrees Celsius and a bit above.

Black-throated diver or arctic loon was calling there on the lake. The voice is just haunting: “Kwee-kow, kwee-kow, kwee-kow…!” – very far-carrying and wonderful! And, like, moving… it makes you feel that you are somewhere special. The voice of the clear lakeland. 🙂

trees

Some of the tall and old trees in the cabin woods… And the scent of labrador tea or wild rosemary was very intense and lovely…

trees

creek, trees

There’s also a creek flowing. In our woods, like here in the picture above, the flowing of the creek is very slow, but the sound of the fast flowing of the creek can actually be heard, and it can be heard really well, in our cabin yard. Two years ago I went and searched the source of the sound with my boyfriend, and we managed to find it – some parts of it – the woods and the land there were really bushy. 🙂

beard lichen, beard moss

Beard lichen or beard moss in the trees means that the air is clean! We, too, have a lot of it everywhere in the cabin woods.

beard lichen, beard moss

cloudberry

A treasure – a cloudberry, still unripe – too bad. 🙂 The gold in the forests – cloudberries – are valuable delicacies. We would have some ripening in our cabin woods right now… buuut I’m here at home now…

The second blog post about my visit to Kuusamo coming a bit later.

-Leena