itsenäisyyspäivä

Independence Day

Today, on 6th December, is the Independence Day in Finland. – Our Suomi is 101 years old! 🙂

By the lake Pyhäjärvi here in my home village today in the afternoon.

After the snowfall we already had… water, again, but after that it has been snowing again, just a little bit. – Business as usual.

Two pictures that I took in our garden today.

The next four pictures I took in my boyfriend’s land in the region of Etelä-Pohjanmaa – South Ostrobothnia, about 180 kilometres north from our home, on Monday this week.

Ice on the pond in the forest.

And a bit less than an hour later… Darkness falls early this time of year. But it’s actually pretty nice. – It’s beautiful. And nice for a bit adventurous soul. 😉

And it was me who drove all the way back home, it was dark and it was snowing. Well, it’s me who needs the practice, and I love it.

There’s stream flowing, in a ditch, near the pond. The lovely sound in the forest!

What to eat around the campfire? For example Karelian pies and pesto sauce. Karelian pasties or Karelian pies are traditional pasties in Finland – rye flour and rice porridge. The pesto sauce is Italian, with basil. A delicious combo… out there in the cold! And coffee…

-Leena

A blast from the past IV – Writing about nature

Finland is 100 years old today. And I have another blog post for this Independence Day.

It’s December again, so it’s time to do something crazy… 🙂 A year ago I published here in my blog some of my old writings, three of them. They were all creative writing and poems. Now I publish one more text, the name of the text is just simply “Writing about nature“. – About nature, Finnish nature and my home.

The two pictures in this blog post I took in our garden today. The sun was shining so low and bright, warming my face nicely.

So, this was written by me in spring 2002:

Writing about nature

I am highly grateful that I was born near the countryside even though I must admit that I’m occasionally cursing the fact. In the end, I believe it may be some kind of advantage all the same. Living between wheat and rye fields is a peaceful place for being lost in one’s thoughts, which is an essential thing for me. Nonetheless, too much of anything always is too much, no matter how much I love the sense of mud beside the roads around here.

My words probably are not adequate for describing how much I value the four seasons and Finnish nature. Variation between the weather conditions and the colours of nature are something a human being couldn’t live without, in my point of view. When it comes to religious devotion within nature, in a way, nature truly is divine. I find nature a sacred and splendid thing that is the basis of everything.

I go in for walking out-of-doors every day. Walking in the drizzling darkness of autumn or on a starry, wintry evening in January or on a slightly warm late-summer evening are all equally stimulating and relaxing, by natural turns. Nature is the most ideal place to be when trying to listen to oneself and heal one’s peace of mind. Nature loves a human being if one loves her in return.

-Leena

Finland 100 years old tomorrow, a few December pictures…

Tomorrow, on the 6th of December, is the Independence Day and our Finland, our Suomi is 100 years old. Congratulations Finland and thank you! – Onnea Suomi ja kiitos! 🙂

The December full moon, the supermoon on Sunday. Not a perfect picture, but kind of fascinating. The moon was so bright, magical. It lit up our garden. It was so nice that the sky wasn’t all clouds.

The second part of November was a bit more grey, rainy, dark… the fifth season… But we had a bit of sunshine as well. And some snow, too, for the second time this season, but the snow, of course, melted away again after two days.

Sunshine, viola and her pearls, frozen water droplets, in the garden yesterday. This is a strong plant! It still has several flowers like this one in the picture. Never before have we had fresh flowers in the garden in December…

Today again, some snow on viola… It started to snow a bit last night and it has snowed a bit today, they say that it will snow some more tonight and they say that tomorrow we should have some sunshine again, too, but after that… water again, as one might guess… But the most important thing is that we have snow now. 🙂

Hawthorn berries.

And our strawberry patch.

-Leena

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