At a standstill…?

The weather has been cold all the time for some time now here in Finland. Today they said that the spring has come to a standstill now… Yeah, we’ve noticed that… We’ve had some snowing, sleeting or hailing, cold winds, or even a bit crazy winds, or something like that… every day now, but the sun has been shining for a while, and right after almost every time that it has snowed, sleeted or hailed.

And I’ve seen that in some parts of Europe it has been even worse; so much snow, frost, severe frost, frost damages, frost protection with fire buckets in the vineyards for example. Oh no, sometimes it’s more about survival…

coltsfoot

This was the first coltsfoot of the spring for me this year! 🙂 By the lake Pyhäjärvi here in Satakunta region, on Friday. ‘By the lake’ means really close, this close:

lake Pyhäjärvi

lake Pyhäjärvi

The lake is free of ice! And the waves are there as well! 😀 The wind was pretty strong on that day, too…
But yes, when I first saw, a bit over a week ago, from the car window, the blue lake again after the winter, on a sunny day, it really looked like out of a fairytale… and magic! 🙂

coltsfoot

After a few steps I found more coltsfoot flowers, here’s just two of them…

lake Pyhäjärvi

I haven’t seen coltsfoot flowers anywhere else yet…

April

After hailing yesterday. It hailed and sleeted many times yesterday… I also went outside to see the dancing of the tiny snow balls when they hit the ground and the huge, but a bit wet, snowflakes – how could they be so big…

water falls down

Don’t go chasing waterfalls…? 😉

Don't go chasing waterfalls...?

Peonies in April

My peonies today. Hmm… they are a bit smaller than exactly a year ago…

yellow hyacinth

And my first ever yellow hyacinth… it’s outside now, and oh, the scent! – The scent is a bit different than the scent of the hyacinths at Christmas time. The scent of this yellow hyacinth is… yellow, a bit green… like spring!

yellow hyacinth

And the viola (no pics now) has been outside now, too. It has a bit damaged flowers now, but some flower buds as well.

-Leena

Snow, spring flowers – waiting…

The Easter weather is quite cold here in Finland! I wasn’t paying attention to the weather forecasts on Wednesday, and yesterday morning I had a big surprise waiting for me when I woke up: snow! And so much of it! It was white everywhere.

viola, snow, April

This was our viola yesterday morning… she had come here only the day before…

viola, snow, April

White, white. *Brr…*

Most of the snow melted during the daytime yesterday, but there still is some snow on the ground today.

viola

And now our viola is inside the house, waiting… Hopefully some more pictures of this plant a bit later, outside…

hyacinth

Now I have it! 😉 – My first ever yellow hyacinth, and this also is my first ever springtime hyacinth! – Hyacinths have traditionally been mostly Christmas plants or flowers in Finland, and for me, too. Hopefully more pictures of this plant, too, later…

I took the next five pictures on our regular walk yesterday.

April

It started to snow again.

April walk

sunshine & snowing

It was snowing and the sun tried to shine at the same time. – Spring has definitely arrived in Finland! 🙂

And the snowflakes were huge. It was actually really fun!

April walk

The sunshine disappeared, but after a moment again:

sunshine & snowing

Spring, oh, spring!

But remember to keep your paws (and head? 😉 ) warm!:

Remember to keep your paws warm!

…our tiger has a suggestion how to do it…

Just remember!

-Leena

New Year, amaryllis flowers, freezing cold…

Now some more amaryllis flower pics. The first four pics I took on New Year’s Eve.

amaryllis

The second flower was opening.

And the snow we had, melted, the day before – can be seen through the window…

amaryllis

amaryllis

The scent of the amaryllis flowers is gentle, sophisticated, lovely…

amaryllis

hyacinth

The last pics of Christmas hyacinths, on New Year’s Day.

And yes, it snowed again, on New Year’s Day! It snowed a lot at one point. 🙂 And the snow is still there today.

hyacinth

The scent of my four hyacinths was at its prime – marvellous! I’m dreaming of a yellow hyacinth for the coming spring…

amaryllis

The second amaryllis flower… and the third and the fourth opening.

amaryllis

I heart…

amaryllis

A majestic plant!

The next two pics I took today.

amaryllis

Four flowers. And still one bigger bud and two smaller buds. I honestly thought that there would be three flowers. A fairly nice surprise. 🙂

Okay, we think about (and try out) the growing of amaryllis as a green houseplant, here in Owlnature, a bit later, after this flowering…

amaryllis

It’s freezing cold today. The temperature’s been between -15 degrees Celsius and -20 degrees Celsius – the last mentioned was at night and in the morning. But the sun was shining today as well! The sunlight even felt slightly warm on one’s face. 🙂

I'm sorry I punched you in the face when I was hungry...

The funny black sister to her tiger brother: “I’m sorry I punched you in the face when I was hungry…” (“And, by the way, I’m not as fat as I look in this pic…”)

Yeah well, she’s not, I confirm, but oh… oh my, this really happened on New Year’s Day! – These two were lying side by side on the couch! 😀 Here in my blog you’ve always met these two separately – that’s just the way it is, they don’t normally sleep together anymore – when they were younger, they often did, but nowadays, no no, only, like, two or three times a year at most we see this. Okay, they started off 2017 like this. 🙂

And yes, that princess is in the habit of punching (not scratching) her brother in the face, with her claws, when she’s hungry or bored, or whatever… She just does it – out of the blue and randomly. But our cats do play or fight with each other,too. They have always lived together – really a sister and a brother. 🙂

-Leena

New Year, new flowers

My first ever amaryllis opened her first flower yesterday.

amaryllis

So lovely…

amaryllis

amaryllis

So pretty… A gorgeous plant – I wonder why I haven’t had this before! Yeah well, it’s good to try something new every now and then… 😉

amaryllis

And hopefully I get to take even more pics of this plant… this was just only like ‘into the New Year’ – with amaryllis flower pics, today. 🙂

hyacinth

And more hyacinths… I have actually four hyacinths now! Oh, the scent here now! Some of the tiny flowers haven’t even opened yet.

hyacinth

winter lights

And our new Christmas or winter lights in the living room, they came about two weeks ago. Ice crystals. 🙂

So, all relaxed (but all prepared?)… and taking it easy – into the New Year like:

Into the New Year like...

🙂

-Leena

Hyacinths Рfavourite flowers this time of the year & have some gl̦gi

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

Hyacinth

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. 🙂

Hyacinth

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

Hyacinth

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

Hyacinth

Hyacinth

Hyacinth

The flowers speak for themselves…

Hyacinth

And it’s the time for glögi! :

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