Frost & fire

It’s been chilly lately. Frost but no snow. Every once in a while the sun’s been shining through some broken patches of the cloud cover during the daytime, and the moon’s been so bright at nighttime. It’s been rather beautiful and magical, it all. 🙂

The first seven pics I took today.

December frost

Decorated in style, naturally…

oil lamp

December

My land. 🙂

December

frosty clover flower

A frosty clover flower.

December

My land, my power trees… my dreams… It’s good to have your own power trees! Everyone can have those; they are free! – You don’t have to like own the trees… but they are yours – on a much deeper level! 🙂

December

The last two pics I took on Sunday, late in the evening. I actually think that I have better pics of these things on my Instagram (owlnatureleena) – you win some, you lose some, when you try to take many pics of living fire with your phone and your camera, both… 🙂

campfire

A garden campfire… with some stars and the moonlight…

campfire pot

And I was heating my glögi, nicely warm to drink out in the cold.

-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…

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…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

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

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

Birch twigs – for the promise of spring and vitamin C

Today it was time to get a couple of birch twigs to put into a vase. I think it can be said that this is a very Finnish tradition to get birch twigs inside the house when it’s still snow on the ground in nature and the spring hasn’t come quite yet.

The thing is to make the leaves grow on the twigs inside the house – beside a window in the light and sunlight that so nicely increase all the time in March. It’s all for the promise of the spring and the rejoice of the waiting when it’s so close. 🙂 And yes, some of us also eat those leaves. The young leaves are full of vitamin c.

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I went to the other side of the hill in our home woods to fetch the twigs. There are numerous birch trees there. – The place you get your twigs should be far enough from roads and traffic and in some place where there is enough wild birch trees so that you are not harming yourself, anyone’s property or nature itself that much.

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I guess it’s more about the feeling than the amount at this point in time. 😉

-Leena

The cold fun Eastern Finland in January

Now the second blog post about our wintry trip to Metsäkartano Youth and Wilderness Centre in the municipality of Rautavaara, in the region of Northern Savonia in the Eastern Finland in mid-January. The first blog post can be found here.

peat hut

This is a peat hut. It is one of the best places to go and light a campfire when it is about minus 30 degrees Celsius outside. Kind of under earth the peat hut is. We went there skiing one evening. A campfire is so vital at those kind of temperatures.

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Outside our holiday apartment again.

The silence is something so special at Metsäkartano, the place is surrounded by wilderness. When you are completely silent and still yourself, you can’t hear absolutely anything. Occasionally just the twinkle of the falling snow on the pine trees and spruces. So peaceful and relaxing. Nature really loves you.

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On the frozen lake. On the left can be seen the main building of Metsäkartano, in the middle is our holiday house and on the left another holiday house.

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Metsäkartano has the EU Eco-label, it was the first travel resort to get it in Finland. The place is also very international with its both aspects – youth work and nature travel.

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This sight made me even happier. A circle of joy made by a peppy dog. 🙂 I can like see the brisk dog coming galloping and making the circle there and continuing his way forward.

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Frozen marsh Labrador tea or northern Labrador tea or wild rosemary. It still had the lovely and original scent, I tested.

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The best colours through my camera this winter. 🙂

So this was our winter trip. Now still waiting the spring to actually come here in Finland, there’s still quite a lot of snow on the ground here in southwestern Finland, too.

-Leena

It was cold, cold ,cold, in the Eastern Finland, in January

With this post we’ll go back to mid-January. We were on holiday at Metsäkartano Youth and Wilderness Centre in the municipality of Rautavaara, in the region of Northern Savonia in the Eastern Finland. We stayed there for a week. I have photo glimpses for two blog posts, so here’s the first one.

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This was my morning coffee view in our holiday apartment. Loved it! 🙂 A view with woods and a frozen lake to be seen behind it. The name of the lake is Ylä-Keyritty.

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This is the same view, but from the terrace of the apartment.

It’s about an eight hour’s drive from our home in Satakunta to Metsäkartano, but it’s really worth the drive. We had been at Metsäkartano once before, two years ago. In fact, we stayed in the same holiday apartment then, too. The municipality of Rautavaara itself we visit every year, especially in the summertime, because my boyfriend’s family has a summer place there.

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This is the house we stayed in. There are three holiday apartments in this house, our apartment was in the middle – you can see smoke coming out of our chimney there. We were the only ones in the house at that time. 🙂

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Here’s the front door of our apartment. The name of the apartment is VadelmaRaspberry in English (by the way metsäforest and kartanoestate or mansion). There are also our skis – we were cross-country skiing there, at the temperatures of minus 25 to minus 30 degrees Celsius. I love skiing! We would have gone skiing even more there, but it really was a bit too cold to enjoy it that much. 😀

The temperatures never rose above minus 25 degrees Celsius In Rautavaara at that time. Mostly it was close to minus 30 degrees Celsius, but even more in the night-time. The record was (it also was a record in Finland at that night) minus 38 degrees Celsius. At that night we went to sauna and came outside to this front door from there to cool down a bit. It was an experience! I had never been in such cold temperatures before. The whole trip was such an experience…

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This is the main building of Metsäkartano seen when standing in front of our holiday home. I love the old-style wooden fence.

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The living room of our apartment.

There’s different kinds of accommodation options at Metsäkartano, we stayed in an apartment which has two floors and at least six beds in total. The apartment is spacious but cosy, with a fully equipped open kitchen and a living room with a heat-storing fireplace.

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The kitchen. I took the photo so that our dishes and rubbish can’t be seen on the other side of the kitchen. :p But there’s also a nice dishwasher in the kitchen!

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This is a part of the ceiling in the sauna in the apartment. A lovely starry ceiling! 🙂 And the sauna has a wood-burning stove. I love wood-heated saunas, they are so atmospheric.

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Our cats were also travelling with us. It’s possible to take your pets into many of the holiday apartments at Metsäkartano, but there’s also an apartment suitable for people who are allergic to furry animals. Our cats already are experienced travellers – they are accustomed to sleeping in the car.

My second blog post about our trip will have more photos and feelings taken outdoors. 🙂

-Leena