Miscellaneous – to one’s heart’s content – Page 7

The national birdwatch 2018 in Finland & other things…

The temperatures have temporarily gone up. First we had a pretty heavy snowfall on Wednesday, we had about 10 centimetres of fresh snow on the ground in the evening that day. But after that it’s been even raining, raining like crazy for a while, but it still didn’t melt all the snow, so, here where I’m living, we’ve had snow on the ground for seven weeks now. And they say that the temperatures are going down again and that it will snow again. Today it’s already been sleeting and snowing, and heavily and very big snowflakes, too.

My morning coffee today. I love maps… I take every opportunity to have a map to look at, any map, everywhere… 🙂

And yes, today I took again part in the national birdwatch, the national birdwatch 2018, Pihabongaus 2018, organized by BirdLife Suomi here in Finland. The event is every year on the last weekend of January, it’s not a competition, just one hour of birdwatching, and anyone can participate. The idea is to get people interested in the nature around them and to collect information about the birds living here in wintertime. And even hearing the birds counts.

One of the birds’ hideouts… (I took these last two pictures in this blog post after my birdwatch hour.) So, during my hour I was standing and walking in heavy snowfall and in normal snowfall in our garden. And I heard a concert again! – The voices were many, but, again, I didn’t see that many singers. 🙂

I recognized the voices of crows, magpies, great tits and blue tits and I think I recognized the voice of a some type of sparrow and the voice of a bullfinch – I really was lucky enough to see a few bullfinches here on our bird feeder the other day! 🙂 And I heard a woodpecker knocking somewhere near (I’ve seen two great spotted woodpeckers hear earlier). There always are also some other tiny birds chirping and singing, but I still don’t recognize them…

And the birds I actually saw today: a couple of magpies, one great tit and a flock of small birds – I couldn’t see what birds they were.

So, I was enjoying myself and my hour ended just before my freezing point. 😀

My birdwatching trail…

-Leena

Winter at its peak

Wintry days continue. Lately it’s been even a bit colder. The temperatures have mostly been around -10 degrees Celsius and a bit below – I’ve seen -15 degrees Celsius at night and -14 degrees in the daytime. It’s been snowing, too, and we’ve had snow on the ground for over six weeks now. We have now over 10 centimetres of snow on the ground here where I’m living. The fresh snow has now been that sparkling type of snow, so it’s been very nice to walk out there surrounded by all that glitter. Winter’s been at its magical peak now. 🙂

Today, here where I’m living the sun rose at 9.13 am and the sun sets at 16.13 pm – the length of the day is 7 h 0 min. Seven hours already! – On the shortest day of the year (2017), on 21st December, the day length was 5 h 29 min. 🙂

Blue sky, sunshine, peace and quiet… boooring. ;D

And birds chirping… they really were chirping loudly when I was taking these last two pictures just before publishing this blog post.

It’s already been snowing again today and it’s -10 degrees Celsius right now. It’s just winter now. 🙂

-Leena

Wintry days & oh, deer

Cloudy, cold and frost – three words to describe, in a nutshell, the days lately. So, it’s been a bit colder for some days now, the temperatures have mostly been around -5 degrees Celsius and a bit below. And we’ve had snow on the ground for five weeks now, that’s quite remarkable. 🙂

This happened on Tuesday: I looked out the kitchen window and I saw a deer on the hill. I went outside and there were two deer. Never before have we seen deer here, seen them from our garden. Near our home, yes, many times, but not here.

This is the best pic I have of the event, taken with zoom, and fast. It felt like seeing reindeer in the north. 🙂

The corn plants and… other things…

They have answers…

The cherry tree is patiently waiting for spring…

And a poppy pod… I wonder if there will be flowers here on this spot next summer…

A bit of light yesterday.

And today… My coffee, crepes, apple jam and New York… in Babar’s Yoga for Elephants by Laurent de Brunhoff. I made crepes yesterday, they are oat flour crepes with a bit of barley flour. And the apple jam we made of the apples of our trees in autumn. The word crepe is, by the way, lettu or lätty in Finnish. 🙂

-Leena

The last day of the year, flowers, a book…

Today is the last day of the year 2017. The New Year is here! About the weather again; on Wednesday morning we had again a bit more fresh snow and the sun was shining in the daytime. Thursday and Friday were cloudy days and it was a bit warmer. Yesterday there was a bit more light out there, even some sunlight and it was snowing and the sun was shining by turns in the daytime. Today there was a bit of sunlight again. So, there’s been snow on the ground for three weeks now! 🙂

My hyacinths…

The scent!

As charming as ever…

I bought this amaryllis after Christmas, for half the price. This is my second ever amaryllis plant. The first amaryllis plant I had… exists no more. – The trouble with the bulb plants inside the house… (?) 😮 So, now I’m expecting this plant to just flower for me. 🙂 A bud has begun to open.

And the viola plant is still there in our garden. And it still has fresh flowers! – A few fresh flowers like this one in the pic. This must be sorcery! ;D

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. I have started reading this book now, in Finnish. I am finally reading this book. – I have been interested in this book ever since I first read about it somewhere. A fascinating theme, fascinating nature. “What They Feel, How They Communicate. Discoveries from a Secret World.” – From the English book cover.

A bit of sunlight today, on the last day of the year 2017. Happy New Year! 🙂

-Leena

Christmas

Now something about Christmas and some pictures I have taken over the past few days. So, the snow is still on the ground. We’ve had snow on the ground for over two weeks now. – I haven’t stopped believing in magic. 😉 We had sunshine and temperatures below zero degrees Celsius on Sunday and yesterday, on Monday. On Sunday we also had bright stars in the sky at night, but last night, at night, it was a bit warmer again and some water was dripping, but it didn’t melt the snow, not yet. And now, in the daytime, it’s a bit colder again and we even have a tiny, a very tiny bit of fresh snow.

In our living room… from where I watch television. 🙂 Yesterday, for example, I watched two films, both of them for the first time; Beauty and the Beast from this year and The Revenant from the year 2015. Two different films, both to my liking.

So, in short, having good food (or more like feasting…), eating chocolate, watching television, going to a candlelit sauna – some of the nice Christmas traditions…

And having coffee… This was my morning coffee yesterday.

Our little drummer this Christmas has been a woodpecker who’s been drumming somewhere near in the daytime every day now.

The sky was changing fast for some minutes there yesterday, it had some interesting features… I was trying to capture at least something…

And having some more glögi… This, too, was yesterday. I was waiting for my hyacinths to open their flowers. 🙂

Happening today, some of the flowers have begun to open…

-Leena

Over 20 centimetres of snow & sunshine

This is what happened today: we had temperatures below zero degrees Celsius, sunshine, over 20 centimetres of snow (and still have it) and I took the carpets outside and hoovered the house. – Never stop believing in fairy tales. 😉

Now I just publish these three pictures that I took today while cleaning up the house…..

That shameless sun…

Low…

An efficient day. 🙂

-Leena

Snow, garden birds, swans calling in the darkness, the shortness of the day…

It started to snow here where I’m living late in the evening on Saturday, and on Sunday we had many separate snowfalls. It was a surprise, a very pleasant one, because the snow that we had on Independence Day had already melted away earlier. But it wasn’t that cold – around 0 degrees Celsius and -1 degrees Celsius at the lowest. Yesterday, on Monday, we had eight centimetres of snow and it was a bit colder. Today it has been as cold as yesterday and we have pretty heavy snowfall, as promised. 🙂 It has been snowing all day.

The first four pictures I took yesterday.

A snow cat it was.

One of our rose bushes still had some leaves yesterday. The sun was shining low…

About the length of the day… or about the shortness… Today, here where I’m living, the sun rose at 9.35 AM and the sun sets at 15.14 PM – the length of the day is 5 h 39 min. It starts to get lighter again on Friday next week. 🙂

Now we have two feeding spots for wild birds in our garden. This is the new one. We’ve had great tits, blue tits, sparrows, a couple of blackbirds and a great spotted woodpecker.

I’ve heard swans calling many times lately – I’ve been standing in our garden, in the darkness, and I’ve heard the sounds of swans – they’ve been flying somewhere near and some swans have been honking by/on the lake, I think.

It’s the glögi season again! My glögi last night in the pic above. I’ve already drunk some litres of it this season. It’s delicious and nicely warming.

What is glögi? – I wrote this a year ago: 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.

The rest of the pictures I took today.

Just love, lovely. A wish for Christmas.

This is some wintry December now, but we do have these changing weather conditions here in the southern part of Finland, so, let’s just enjoy this, for now, for a while… 🙂

At the moment we have almost 20 centimetres of snow on the ground, it definitely is the snow record for this season here where I’m living. And last winter, no, no, we didn’t have this much snow, no… So, “go, go… go outside!”, I must say to myself today. Still more snow coming down all the time now.

-Leena