autumn – Page 4 – Owlnature

Two and a half weeks in Eastern Finland

I spent two and a half weeks in Eastern Finland, in the municipality of Rautavaara in the region of Northern Savonia, in August and in September. It’s my boyfriend’s home region and I was travelling with him and our two cats. His family has an old house there in Rautavaara, no one lives in the house anymore, it’s just for summertime visits nowadays, and that’s the place we stayed as well. It’s always about an eight hour’s drive from our home to Rautavaara, and the same back of course. – Always worth the travel.

I didn’t take pictures of, like, everything, but naturally I did ‘get caught up in some things’, and the result is this blog post here now. 🙂 I also took some pictures for our, mine and Owlnature‘s, Instagram (owlnatureleena), and the real Instagram widget has, by the way, (finally :p ) been on the sidebar of my blog for some time now as well.

By the lake Keyritty, just outside the centre of Rautavaara. It was a summery day. So calm, beautiful… just stunning! And it was completely silent here and everywhere we went. 🙂

There were many dragonflies flying and enjoying the sunshine by the house on many days. Here’s two of them.

By another lake on some other day. This is called Tiilikanselkä.

There are actual creeks in the forest, I’m not sure if this is one of them, or is this just some ditch…? Beautiful water areas in the forests, too, anyway.

I went mushroom hunting and all I could find was poisonous monkshood. ;p In this one forest I found monkshood in the wild for the first time.

But we did find a lot of mushrooms, too, during our trip. Here’s one penny bun mushroom or cep or porcino/porcini or boletus edulis mushroom…

And here’s our biggest amount of yellowfoot mushrooms or winter mushrooms or funnel chanterelles or cantharellus/craterellus tubaeformis mushrooms…

In addition to cooking with mushrooms we enjoyed bilberries (or blueberries), lingonberries and crowberries in the forests.

Another lake again. I was on a ridge. There are lakes on either side of the ridge. And there are many ridges in Rautavaara area, fairly small, beautiful… with lakes, forests and swamps.

A creek in the forest, so clear you can see the bottom.

By Tiilikanselkä again, we went there actually three times during our trip. 🙂

And river flows…

…and flows. Until next time. 🙂

-Leena

A blast from the past II – writing a nature poem

Late-Night Life in the Wild

A courageous vagabond in the silent wilderness of the fabled north,
For what is his smothered cry worth?
Twinkling stars a comfort for the lonely hermit’s soul
Silence suddenly break by the voice of a cheerfully greeting owl.

He accepted the captivating call of the distant wild,
The whispering condemnation not for the fragile
The glimmering full-moon lightens the path never-ending,
An autumnal message the honest glow is sending.

Strong northern-breeze chants kindly in his ear,
Accompanied by the howling of a whining wolf so near
The brave animal dwells in the shelter of an echoing fell
Lone wolf’s tears for the sacred full-moon are not due to farewell.

If a shiny star should shoot in the black sky,
Would the melancholic man wish or tell a white lie?
Is the blaze of the northern lights an omen of the end of his sorrow,
Or awaits there just another hailing tomorrow?

Bare dwarf birches beside a glittering, dark blue, flowing river
A longingly screaming eagle is giving him the shiver
A campfire sparkling nostalgic warmth which will the nighttime last,
Is the softly singing hermit missing something from the past?

-Leena

(Written by me in autumn 2001. :))

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.

Going down… loving the spruce trees and all.

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!

This pic I took before the walk. I was sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling some rye bread.

Some bright November moss in our garden. Moss. Magic.

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…

“Eeevery little hamster…”

“…knows that it’s what’s inside…”

“…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.

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…

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…

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

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. 🙂

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…”:

-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.

A garden bunny – a happy bunny.

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… 🙂

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

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

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

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

The last pot marigold or calendula flowers today… 🙂

-Leena

Take it spooky or take it easy…

October is turning into November… it’s spooky time! I love spooky. I love horror films, and so on, and I love the darkness and silence here in the countryside… in the dead of night – it can feel creepy when you are alone out there… 🙂

Time to scare your own ghosts… 😉 I came across these kind of tissue ghosts on We Heart It and thought that they would be just perfect ones to make for this time of the year, for Halloween time. Just string, tissues and a pen – everything readily available at home. These ghosts are now hanging on our kitchen window.

We have had a couple of delightful, sunny days lately, on Saturday and today. The following pics I took on Saturday.

The white viola flower still there. 🙂

It’s still warm in the sunshine. I took this pic as I was sitting on the garden bench… first I had my morning coffee there, then, a bit later, my breakfast, and again, a bit later, I had my camera with me there.