Snow

It snowed last night here where I’m living. And it was a surprise – there was no forecast for snow earlier.

The first five pictures I took in our yard.

October snow

This was last night.

The next two pictures I took at around 9 am today:

October snow

The snow had melted a bit, but there still was snow cover on the ground and on rooftops everywhere.

October snow rose

Sudden winter came for the rose.

But this snow will melt.

October snow

…But at around 13.30 pm, still…

October snow viola

October snow came for the viola flowers, too.

The last two pictures I took last Friday, in Etelä-PohjanmaaSouth Ostrobothnia, on the land, on my boyfriend’s new land, about which I wrote earlier, here.

red moss

I found red moss in the forest. Red moss is one of my favourites…

campfire coffee

And I love campfire coffee. 🙂

-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

It is coming! – Spring is almost here…

It’s March… quite nice, almost incredible! Lately we’ve had snow and sunshine, grey days, temperatures below freezing and wet snow… everything. And we just may have been hit by the biggest snowfall for this winter earlier this week as well – here in southern Finland we sometimes have this too-much-snow-too-late-it-should-have-been-at-Christmas -thing… But yes, this week’s snow, too, has already been melting. No one’s stopping spring! 🙂

The first 13 pictures I took today, the last two are from last night.

March moss

Moss magic at the summer flower bed…

March moss

backyard pine trees

Backyard pine trees.

March clover flower

A clover flower…

March strawflower

A strawflower flower… power. 😉

March

March annual mallow flower

An annual mallow flower…

March annual mallow flower

…and another…

March annual mallow flowers

…a few more…

March annual mallow flower

Perhaps I should plant annual mallow seeds, too, in many places in the garden this spring – then there would be some lace all around the garden in wintertime, how nice would that be? 😀

double sun

Double sun… 😉

March orange

An Egyptian friend…

March potato field

At the potato field…

Even though the days may be warm, the nights can be a bit cold:

it will be warmer

“I adjusted the thermostat so that it will be a bit warmer in here… is that okay…?”

purr...

“Purr… nice! I’m telling you…”
Our radiator tiger. 🙂

-Leena

No-snow November – it’s what’s inside…

There’s no snow out there anymore. All melted… came as no surprise. It’s the fifth season now – November.

The first two pics I took on our regular walk on Tuesday this week.

November walk

Going down… loving the spruce trees and all.

lake Pyhäjärvi

By the lake Pyhäjärvi… the lake is not that frozen anymore. It was already getting a bit dark as I took this pic, and it was so foggy that one was not able to quite see…

…yeah, that’s November – sometimes one just can’t see… or what one sees, is all the shades of grey or brown… This is the season in which one needs all the candles and campfires, and Christmas or winter lights that one possibly can have. But what’s the most crucial thing; one has to have the light within oneself… what truly matters is one’s heart, soul, mind… The mind is everything!

November

This pic I took before the walk. I was sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling some rye bread.

November moss

Some bright November moss in our garden. Moss. Magic.

November

What is that? – Some natural light and blue sky in sight? Today. That was fast. But it happened. 😀

Yes, some natural light outside is very nice indeed, but… you know…

Every little hamster...

“Eeevery little hamster…”

...knows that it's what's inside...

“…knows that it’s what’s inside…”

...that counts.

“…that counts.”

? 🙂

-Leena

By the home rapids, a couple of peony buds & a petunia flower

I took some pics again by our home rapids, the Kauttuankoski rapids, yesterday evening when we visited it. Here is my previous blog post about the rapids.

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The Kauttuankoski rapids and so many faces… In the previous blog post I was mostly on the other side of the rapids, in this post I’m on the opposite side, and a bit further, too.

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Some evening light already in these pics, but the nights are so light now, too, this time of the year in Finland – in southern Finland as well, but it’s a whole different story in northern Finland these days – it’s so much lighter there at night, and in the northernmost point of the country, the sun doesn’t set at all… Magicall… 😉

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The ruins of an old mill on the right.

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Water flows under the ruins, too

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There are some very old trees. I tried to take pics of the massive trunks, but these pics can’t exactly tell how big these lovely trees really are. And they are mossy from the other side. Like in a fairytale. 🙂

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From the bridge.

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The wind is still blowing like crazy, but I managed to take a pic of our petunia. I love this colour combination! (More pics of this later, hopefully.)

I tried to take pics of our mountain cornflowers, too, for this blog post, but the wind was too much. 😀

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And a couple of peony buds. On our front yard in the pic above and on the back yard in the pic below.

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-Leena

By the home river… rapids

I took some pics when we visited our home river, the river Eurajoki and its rapids, the Kauttuankoski rapids in the municipality of Eura today. The best thing is that this spectacular rapids area is our home rapids. 🙂

The Kauttuankoski rapids has so many faces. I could only capture some of them during the moments we were there…

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There’s an old stone bridge.

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The source of the river Eurajoki is the lake Pyhäjärvi and it ends into the Bothnian Sea.

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The sound of the wide rapids is very powerful. And the air is nicely fresh rapids air there. 🙂

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There are ruins of an old mill. You can actually go inside the ruins – we didn’t know that before. I have one pic from there at the end of this blog post.

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There are many rocks you can climb to, I took this pic on the top of one.

And mossy stones are always so lovely… fairy-tale like. 🙂

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A couple of pics I took on the bridge.

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Inside the ruins of the mill, it doesn’t have any roof.

The rapids area is a nice and charming place to visit in all the four seasons…

-Leena

Hailing, snowing, grounding…

It started to snow last night. Some very big snowflakes – snowflakes weren’t that big in the winter… and today there was snow on the ground:

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But now it has already started to melt and the sun’s been shining, too, buuut… some more snow is falling right now again, too. Anyway. 🙂

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Well, this was on Saturday, it hailed one more time on that day. The tiny snow balls were quite beautiful on the growing field in our garden. It’s actually nice to stand in the hail fall – the bouncing tiny snow balls are fun.

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Yesterday ended with snowfall, but earlier it was sunny and warm. As I took this pic, I was sitting on the ground, half in our garden, half in the woods. 🙂 I had to put a cap on my head because the sun felt so hot on my head, and after coffee I felt the need to get some fresh tap water with cucumber. I like very much making these kind of tasty waters; with veggies, herbs, berries, fruits…

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Just wait for it… Is it going to hail or sleet or…? – A bit later I was sitting on the ground on an other spot in our garden, watching the clouds approaching…

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This was actually the first time I took my slippers off outdoors this spring. And the sunshine was dazzling. It felt so nice!

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A person in Finland takes off the slippers and feels some dry earth beneath the woolen socks… feels heavenly. 😉 I love sitting on the ground and getting some good energy from the earth. 🙂

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Did I say we don’t have crocuses in our garden…? Well, the thing is, last spring, which was our first spring in this house, we had this one in the pic. 😀 The previous owners of this house have planted something… It wasn’t and it’s not like a whole crocus flower, it’s just… half the crocus flower. I was so sure this won’t spring up anymore, but what do you know… all of a sudden it’s just there. The funny thing is that I’ve been watching this spot, checking it almost every day for this flower, but haven’t been able to see anything, but just suddenly – there it is again! 😀 Well, if this now opens up to be a whole flower…

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And yesterday I dug up the remains of the summer flowers from last year and worked the soil barehanded – I love it! Black-tipped fingernails are in again. 😉 The previous owners of this house have made this flower bed. And I am grateful for it! This has a beautiful shape and the mossy edges are lovely.

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Ok, being outside in the garden and in nature is wonderful, but sometimes you just need to be an inseparable part of the couch… and that’s completely fine, too! You don’t always have to be outdoors… 🙂

-Leena