Bats here again, lilac flowers & other flowers, light summer nights, lovely scents all around…

We had one really rainy day, it was, like, more than 24 hours of rain here where we are living between Monday and Tuesday this week. Everything is so green and colourful out there now. And the scent of the summer is charming and fresh…

And the bats have been here again. – We have seen them here already three times now! 🙂 In the woods next to our garden and in our garden, and flying close above our heads. They were here for the third time last night. And we heard the cuckoo calling at the same time as well, the cuckoo’s been calling somewhere near here every day now, really around the clock. 😀

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley flowers now everywhere, in our garden as well. The scent of the flowers is one of my favourite scents in nature.

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley is the national flower of Finland. Lily of the Valley is called kielo in Finnish.

lilac & apple flowers

A week ago the lilac flowers were starting to open and the apple trees were still flowering…

starry forest ground

Starry forest ground in the woods beside our garden after 23.45 PM a week ago. Chickweed wintergreen flowers or arctic starflower flowers. – The stars are not in the sky in Finland now, they are in forests, on the ground level, because of the light summer nights.

Today, here where I’m living, the sun rose at 3.53 AM, and the sun sets at 23.11 PM, the length of the day is 19 hours 18 minutes, and the darkest hours of the day are not that dark either… the special weeks up here… 🙂

fly honeysuckle & friend

I met this very busy friend at the fly honeysuckle tree in the back of our garden…

fly honeysuckle

Our fly honeysuckle looks old, we’ve thought…

lilac

Lilac flowers! My darlings! 😀 Oh, the scent in the garden now… Okay, I’d better go outside, soon…

lilac

I took these pictures on Wednesday.

raven feather

On our regular walk – in the raven forest near our home. A raven feather, one of them – there are always many of them there on the ground in the summertime. And the noble and funny ravens are croaking there… 🙂

And after the walk, more lilac flowers, in the evening light:

lilac

lilac

Under the lilac flowers, in the pictures above and below.

lilac

lilac

Lilac and the big Norway maple in our driveway.

red campion, red catchfly

Red campion or red catchfly flowers in the garden now as well.

garden nasturtium, Indian cress

These feet, duck feet, or what are they… Hmm, that’s tropaeolum majus or garden nasturtium or Indian cress growing. Something to admire and eat…

We’ve planted numerous seeds… flowers, food, everything. I’ll take pictures and write about everything here, when it’s the time… And if something doesn’t grow, I’ll think about it here as well. 🙂

-Leena

Snowy, snowy – a wintry month…

It’s already March next week! But, there’s still some time to enjoy snow and… ahem, some winter pics. 🙂

The first five pics I took yesterday.

February

It’s been a nice winter week. First we had one night of raining… WATER, but it didn’t melt all the snow, and after that night it started to snow, and now it’s been snowing with the temperatures being moderate and nice winter temperatures; between 0 and about -10 degrees Celsius, and some days the sun has been shining delightfully as well. And the sun is warming a bit, loving us…

But no, we haven’t had, like, heaps of snow this winter – we’ve just had freaking cold weather at times. So, in these pics here now is to be seen our snow record for this winter… Yeah well, it’s been snowing a bit today as well, but… you get the picture, I believe. 🙂

February coffee

Okay, still some time to take winter coffee pics…

February clarkias and coffee

The sturdy clarkia or godetia flowers, too, still standing. I’ll plant clarkia seeds this spring as well, but this time, in many places in the garden.

February

Blue sky, love…

February

The next two pics I took on the day before yesterday.

February

One of those snowfalls it was. And this was at 17:45 PM – a huge increase in the number of daylight hours: on the 16th of December I wrote that the sunset was at 15:12 PM here where I’m living, and the length of the day was 5 hours 31 minutes. Today the sun sets at 17:47 PM and the length of the day is 10 hours 5 minutes – twice the energy already! 🙂

February

And the rest of the pics are again from yesterday.

Taller than the trees...?

Taller than the trees…? 😉

February strawflowers

At the strawflowers again…

February field on a car ride

And this pic I took through a car window as we were travelling to Turku. This was at about 16:30 PM – not long ago it was completely dark at that hour! 🙂

-Leena

Snow light

It started to snow on Tuesday, rather late in the evening. We went for a drive – that’s what we often do when it really starts to snow. 🙂 And we’ve noticed many times that some wild animals become very active when it’s snowing. – We usually see at least hares and deers – yeah, one has to be careful driving out there! On Tuesday evening we saw a hare and a fox.

These pics I took yesterday and today.

December

Yesterday’s light…

December

lake Pyhäjärvi

By the frozen lake Pyhäjärvi yesterday, the sun was already almost gone for the day. The days are at their shortest now. Here where I’m living, the sun rose today at 9:41 AM and it sets at 15:12 PM – the length of the day is 5 hours 31 minutes.

The rest of the pics I took today.

lilac in December

Lilac bush in December, on our front yard, Christmas or winter lights around her.

December

They say that this snow might still be on the ground on Christmas – I surely hope so, but let’s see what happens… Not heaps of snow, but enough for the spirit. 🙂

December

peony in December

Our backyard peony in December. 🙂

-Leena