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!

December

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…

December

This was yesterday…

coffee owl

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

pine trees

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

morning coffee owl

Morning coffee magic…

pine trees

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

Princess Cat

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

🙂

-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

Frozen lake, winter lights, …

All these pictures are from yesterday. The first three pics I took as we were taking our regular walk.

November walk

I came from there… just turning around to take a pic… I don’t have much time for taking pics on our regular walks – trying to keep up with my boyfriend’s pace… he is taller and faster, and perhaps in a bit better shape than me… my personal trainer…? 😀 Oh dear, oh dear…

frozen lake Pyhäjärvi

By the frozen lake Pyhäjärvi. It has been so cold that the lake froze fast. But it is not yet safe to walk too far on the ice…

frozen lake Pyhäjärvi

On the ice anyway, have to try it a bit…

winter lights

Later in the evening I had the inspiration to put up the first Christmas lights, or winter lights, outside. Outside our kitchen window – it’s nice to see the lights when sitting at the kitchen table and the lights also shine in a pleasant way to the kitchen, when it’s dark in there. 🙂

winter lights

One part of the lights are on our bikes, for practical reasons. My bike is the right one, I’ve had it since the year 1998. 🙂

“Okay, this is all very interesting, but…”:

kitty catty cat

-Leena

Sunshine and snow

The first snow has fallen. Snow – it feels soft to the touch and under one’s feet, but also makes the whole atmosphere everywhere soft, and magical. 🙂

The first three pics I took yesterday.

garden bunny

A garden bunny – a happy bunny.

persimmon

And yet another wonderful thing about November; it’s the season of Spanish persimmons! Persimmons are one of my favourite fruits. They are so delicious, sweet, juicy, quite big… 🙂

strawflower

The strawflowers meet snow now! 😀 They have closed their rustling petals…

half moon

Last Sunday, late in the evening, by the lake Pyhäjärvi. The fairly red half moon and the moon glade were just beautiful…

Follow the spiders?

Still following the spiders…? Yes… I am… 😉

Follow the spiders?

cat paw print

A cat paw print… whether it’s summer or winter, our cats enjoy getting outside.

marigold, calendula

The last pot marigold or calendula flowers today… 🙂

-Leena

More October

Just some more October pics, from last weekend and past few days, in our garden…

October

In the backyard again…

strawberry

October strawberry… In a pot. We thought this plant already died in the summer, but it started to grow again… but still ripe strawberries for this year…? – Not gonna happen. 🙂

cornflower

One tough cornflower. I’ve been visiting this flower regularly during this autumn – and it’s just always there! It’s been facing downwards already for a while. But it’s still there. 🙂

October

October

Backyard trees again – more pine trees, two apple trees, a birch tree, a bigger rowan and one other yellow Norway Maple…

annual mallow

And one sturdy annual mallow! This flower hasn’t fully opened up, and it, too, has already been facing downwards, but it’s been there for ages. 😀

October

Some lovely yellow tiny flowers spotted in our carrot field…

October

Under our bigger oak tree

October

October

Our smaller oak tree. 🙂

October

Dill, too, was still growing nicely in the ground, despite the cold at nights. Now I’ve picked most of them, some we ate, the rest are drying.

October

Still some tiny single viola flowers in the pots… Two of them in the pics here, symbols of boldness and strength – in the beginning, these plants were here and here. – Oh dear… 🙂

October

October

Some October fern

October

My next blog post will be about growing tomatoes. 🙂

-Leena

October, October, October

I was eagerly waiting for October already at the beginning of September this autumn. – I was just so ready for everything autumnal; for colourful leaves, and… no leaves at all, dark evenings, campfires, cold nights, (campfires), the cool, crisp air on a sunny autumn day, raking, steaming hot coffee, tea, hot chocolate, glögi… outside in the crisp air, gloves, scarves and knit hats or pipos as we call knit hats in Finnish, I love the Finnish word pipo – it’s just perfect for the item. 🙂 And I was ready to start creating our dream home, here, in our home. – About this project more later, and some pics, too, when anything is ready… ;D

october

October 1st. I tried to make a flower crown with the natural spring and summer flowers that still were blooming in our garden, there were not that many of them anymore… 🙂 After taking this pic 12 swans flew over me, honking as they went.

Norway Maple

October 2nd, pic above and pic below. A foggy morning. In the pic above our big Norway Maple.

October

This was at around 10 AM and after a moment it started to clear up… and all of a sudden the sun was shining in the clear blue sky!

rubber boots

Oh my… Oh, my new rubber boots! And the old ones, too! 😀 I took this pic as I was wearing my new rubber boots for the first time on Thursday last week. I just finally had to buy new rubber boots as my old ones had been leaking, both of them, already for over a year, now they are almost completely cracked – I’ve been storing them with care, but I’ve been wearing them A LOT here in countryside, even in sunny weather, because they are so comfortable. 🙂

The next eight pics are from Friday last week.

Norway Maple

Our Norway Maple in sunshine.

October

sunflower

Whatever happened to our sunflowers? Well, our biggest sunflower for this year is in the pic above… and I love it! 😀 And the tiny spider was feeling the same way! Okay, this year we know that the pre-growing of sunflowers has to be started earlier. 🙂

unknown flower

And these… I still don’t remember what these flowers are called. They are summer flowers grown from seed in summer. Very tough flowers – they are still there in our garden today – cosmos flowers already got frostbitten, badly. EDIT: This flower is clarkia or godetia, silkkikukka in Finnish. Thanks for the answer, A! 🙂

marigold, calendula

Pot marigolds or calendulas are sturdy autumn flowers as well. Still there.

October

In our backyard, a smaller Norway Maple and its friends: three pine trees, a rowan and two junipers.

Kauttuankoski

On a bridge above the Kauttuankoski rapids, going for a walk, at around 7 PM, it was about to get dark soon.

October

The bridge down there, in the pic above. The lamp posts were already lit. And the lovely scent of dry leaves around everywhere…

October

In our front yard today. Who’s raking? – Me! When the time is right. 😉

strawflower

And the strawflowers are still standing there with their rustling petals today!

-Leena

Mushrooms

I absolutely love mushrooms! And mushroom hunting. Self-picked mushrooms and self-prepared food with them are something totally different from the canned mushrooms that we meet on pizzas, for example… – No wonder many people believe that they don’t like mushrooms at all… 🙂

And probably we all know how dangerous mushrooms can be – that is a fact indeed! We, me and my boyfriend, got our first facts on mushroom hunting, and bolete mushrooms or porcini mushrooms in particular, when we were mushroom hunting for the first time, with my boyfriend’s father in Eastern Finland. After that we have used a mushroom guide book and the internet, both. 🙂

This blog post of mine is not a proper guide to these two types of mushrooms that I have in the pics below, so don’t eat mushrooms based only on knowledge you get from here! – I’m just having a bit of fun with mushrooms here in this blog post, with a little bit of information! 🙂

The first five pics I took on our front yard on Friday.

shaggy ink cap

We have numerous shaggy ink caps on our front yard every year. They have their own special place there. 🙂 Shaggy ink caps are quite charming and funny mushrooms; they have many phases when it comes to their appearance.

shaggy ink cap

First they are just white, short and chubby ‘trunks’. Then they grow to be tall and thin mushrooms with a proper cap, which then starts to melt away, to dissolve, to drip down, as black liquid or ‘ink’.

shaggy ink cap

These mushrooms are edible when they are very young and white, that mushroom in the pic above is already too old. We have never eaten these, but they say, these are quite good edible mushrooms when they are young.

shaggy ink cap

This ‘ink’ of shaggy ink caps actually was used as ink in days of old. 🙂

shaggy ink cap

Ink dried up?

woolly milkcap

The rest of the pics I took on Saturday night, after a walk in the forest. – We came out of the forest with our hands full of woolly milkcaps.

woolly milkcap

Fluffy mushrooms! Cute and delightful! 🙂

Woolly milkcaps are fully edible, but they must be boiled, and they must be boiled longer than some other mushrooms. Woolly milkcaps must be boiled about 20-30 minutes. The taste of raw woolly milkcaps is strongly bitter and raw woolly milkcaps don’t agree with one’s stomach, at all. Cooking, boiling and rinsing the mushrooms removes the poison from them. The taste of woolly milkcaps after boiling them is very delicious! We cooked a creamy sauce with these.

woolly milkcap

Mushrooms always have funny and cunning names. In Finnish, for example, this woolly milkcap has two names – other one of them is karvalaukkufur bag, literally. 🙂

woolly milkcap

-Leena