Owlnature – Page 5 – nature, gardening, (wild) food, coffee, travel, languages, my own writings, four seasons

Maytime

Everything is growing, everything is green, and there are flowers, too, everywhere! Well, we already had a cold period again, it was a short one, but it was hailing and snowing. Nothing stayed on the ground though, it was just snowing and hailing and the sun was shining as well, at the same time, too, again. – Business as usual.

And now we’ve had warm days again – around 15 degrees Celsius and around 20 degrees Celsius it has been, yesterday it was a bit above 20 degrees Celsius and today it’s already 23 degrees Celsius. Feels like summer for us! 🙂

A pic today. There suddenly was a random tulip bulb in my hands last autumn, and I planted it here thinking that it might be nice to have a single tulip blooming beside my dwarf spruce. Well, it is! And the tulip is taller than my tree. 🙂

May — ~Hiding… someone’s always hiding…? 😀

A ladybug or ladybird was hiding in our pear tree yesterday, I saw her (?) again today, in the pear tree, she had come out from her hiding place…

A dandelion in our garden, it is like… two dandelions in one – a broad stem and two different flowers, hmm…

We went for a walk by the lake Pyhäjärvi here in our home village yesterday.

In the woods there… This doesn’t look bad in pictures, but it looks more impressive in nature, the tree really is bigger in nature, and I always am strangely awed by this big tree that has come down…

Another big tree, a very old birch tree…

We already have the smaller greenhouse in the corner of our terrace. We will have another greenhouse in our garden, a bigger one. This is what we have there now; the ground (foundation not quite ready yet) for the greenhouse and marigold flowers (as a symbol of hope ;D ) – we still have to build, assemble the greenhouse as well…

Leena

The colour green

Everything has started to turn green! 🙂 It has been a sunny week again. And it has been warm – around 20 degrees Celsius and even a bit above 20 degrees it has been, in the daytime. Today it’s around 15 degrees Celsius, and they say that it stays that way now. That’s also more normal for us this time of year…

Now a woodcock has started its regular flights here again: “orr, orr, orr, pist!”

The first four pictures I took today:

My coffee, and they are chives… down there. Chives have been growing fast now – they are perennials – were planted here a year ago. They are so delicious! And after a long winter again…..

Grass is growing…

And nettles are growing. It’s nice to sit on the ground and eat tiny, delicious nettle leaves…

Where’s my snow…? ;D

Tiny birch leaves!

Crocus flowers on Tuesday this week.

A pic from yesterday evening. I mark the spots of our ‘surprise’ crocuses so that we won’t step on them before they grow.

By the way, I’ve been posting on my Instagram (owlnatureleena) as well, so trying to have balance between my blog and my Instagram. Well, I’m not actually trying, it has just been flowing naturally, or something… 😀

And today again:

One of our vegetable patches. Last year we had potatoes here, this year something else… We started planting this patch yesterday, and planted onions and peas now first.

The first daffodil or narcissus flower blooming on the ground in our garden.

Oh, greenery…

Leena

Around the moon… or Easter…

Spring, spring, Easter. It has been a sunny week. And it has been warmer again – a bit over 10 degrees Celsius, and even warmer than that – around 15 degrees Celsius it has been, too. We have seen coltsfoot flowers. And we have seen flies, mosquitoes, bees and butterflies – signs of summer…

The Ibiza lizard, always covered in snow a bit…? 🙂 Well, in wintertime… and this was a bit over a week ago on Friday.

For the moon… The moon, a full moon on Saturday, at around 1.00 am. I was ~mooning around in our garden…

A picture that I took yesterday:

The first flowers on the ground in our garden are crocus flowers. We have those everywhere in the garden. They are lovely surprises also because we can’t remember all the spots where we have planted them. 🙂

The rest of the pictures I took today:

My coffee and friends…

Just a few pictures of crocus flowers now… And also daffodil stems and tulip stems have started to grow on the ground.

‘A walk-in closet’ in the corner of the terrace – that’s the short description of our first ever greenhouse, here. 🙂

Leena

April – Spring!

Okay. 🙂

I have heard the blackbird sing in our garden and swans have been flying and calling – wonderful signs of spring… We have had windy and cold sunny days, and a bit warmer and sunny days, a few warm (around 10 degrees Celsius) sunny days, but naturally some grey (or… brown – no snow on the ground anymore) days, too. But yesterday it was first sleeting and then it was snowing…

A few snapshots:

By the lake Pyhäjärvi here in Satakunta region on Tuesday, a week ago.

I took this pic in the region of Etelä-Pohjanmaa – South Ostrobothnia, about 180 kilometres north from our home, on Saturday. (It was a bit over 10 degrees Celsius outside, yay!) My boyfriend had the chance to buy another forest there – the distance between his first forest and this second forest is about 40 kilometres. And this was the first time we went to see this new place.

There was still ice and snow on the forest road. We already had summer tyres, but luckily there were no bigger surprises…

We found the forest and there was still some snow in the forest as well.

I found beard lichen next to the forest. I love it! Beard lichen – the air is clean. 🙂

And we visited my boyfriends first forest, too, the place from where I have for example the moose videos here in my blog:

There, too, was still snow and it was even impossible to drive the road to our usual spot. (We kinda thought that there wouldn’t be snow anymore… ;p ) There were moose tracks in snow and water was flowing pretty loudly in the ditch and into the pond.

So we had a very nice road trip, charming country roads and all…

The rest of the pictures I took today:

My morning coffee~

So we didn’t have snow anymore… But now:

Already almost 10 centimetres of snow on the ground. But they say that it will be a bit warmer and that the sun will be shining again as well, after Wednesday.

Leena

Spring waving from a distance…

…and spring is ‘throwing it right at you’ – snow, hail and shine, too! And it has been a bit colder again.

The first five pictures I took in our garden on Sunday. Sunday – funday: first the sun was shining, then some dark clouds started to appear in the sky, and then the sun was shining and it was snowing at the same time, and after that it was just cloudy and it was snowing, and then again clouds were going away and the sun was shining again, and after that again; dark clouds were appearing in the sky and the sun was shining and it started to snow at the same time… – This pattern continued all day.

And at one point it was hailing as well. The sun was still shining on the right-hand side when I took the picture above.

Spring says hello…

So there’s that…

I know what triggers you.

Solar power.

Three pictures that I took yesterday:

Coffee pic… Just to tell that the sun wasn’t exactly shining, but the scent of the coffee was wonderful, and that it was snowing yesterday, too.

And a bit later… Nordic walking in the forest. Ravens were croaking there, and it was snowing a bit.

purple coneflower & daisy, March — Echinacea purpurea or purple coneflower (bigger leaves) and daisy.

Purple coneflower and daisy growing in our kitchen…

And pictures that I took today:

Having coffee again today. ;D And the sun is shining.

My dwarf spruce was completely buried under snow, now she’s back. 🙂

I am about to finish reading this book, Sofian maailma – Sophie’s World – A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder. It’s a great book! And a great adventure. And it’s a bit heavy book – there was a week I couldn’t read it, I couldn’t hold the book in my hands, because it was too heavy for my shingles…

Leena

Marching

It’s March! – Well, that was fast… Ready for spring? – Maybe. 🙂

The first pictures in this blog post I took on Thursday. We visited The Botanic Garden of the University of Turku, in the Ruissalo island, in the city of Turku (our former home!). That was so nice. I took only a few pictures, but here’s something green anyway:

The jungle welcomes you.

And something yellow… There were lemons!

And bananas! Okay, bananas were my favourites and I already have a picture of these on my Instagram. You don’t always see bananas there.

This is what I always call a trunk with attitude. 🙂 A kapok tree. And are those… taro leaves…?

And a few pictures that I took today:

..That’s the place to sit, whenever the sun is shining.

Snow, snow… and the composter in our garden ‘exploded’, a bit.

Coffee… and yes, this is what I’m doing right now, and have been doing lately – I’ve been watching cross-country skiing again. 🙂 This time it has been, of course, the Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld in Tirol, Austria.

Leena

Just a short report…

…and a few pictures that I took today.

First we had more snow and then it was snowing, and then it was snowing again… We had around half a metre of snow here where I’m living. And it was cold. And then it was warmer. And then it was raining… a lot! And then snowing again a bit and the sun’s been shining lately as well, and it’s been a bit warmer again, and the days are much longer… And it’s been very slippery. So all this… Well, business as usual. We still have over 20 centimetres of snow on the ground. And I got shingles about a week ago (it’s pain in the back…) – whatever does that predict…? But it’s beginning to feel a bit like spring outside. And I’m not ready for spring yet, yikes! 😮 ( 🙂 )

This is the third stem of my amaryllis. This had four flowers. The stem grew super tall, the four flowers opened and the plant fell down. I had to cut the stem and put it into a vase.

As there is nothing more to report now, let’s have another moose video… Again in my boyfriend’s forest, or this is the field in the video, the camera is in the forest.

Leena