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Narcissus flowers, small grape hyacinth, Norway Maple in flower…

One positively overwhelmed nature and garden blogger here again, hi! 🙂

Yesterday we stopped by the lake Pyhäjärvi…

And yesterday the first narcissus or daffodil flowers opened. The narcissus blooming with pure yellow flowers is lovely, but these different shades are so welcomed… The previous owners of this house have planted these next to the woods.

Deep. 🙂

I somehow find these guys a bit difficult to take pics of…

One tamed, two.

And all these guys… But they kind of form the shape of a heart, though, when you look at it. 😉

On the same spot today, yet another group photo – more narcissus flowers opened today.

The first Leopard’s Bane or doronicum flower close up…

Our big Norway Maple tree is in flower beside the driveway.

And beside the driveway, on the other side, stands a birch, too. 🙂

-Leena

Campfires and delicacies

So, the campfire people, too, were celebrating vappu on Saturday…

In our garden late in the evening. We had a campfire also on Sunday night. I love it how every campfire is different and the fire itself is constantly changing. Staring at fire is one of the most relaxing things I know… and the warmth at cooling night-time is nice, too.

And the food… Just a pic of campfire marshmallows I had.

Some more delicacies… this is the second chili pepper that we have eaten now, this was yesterday night just before dinner – I was so hungry that I wasn’t able to take a better pic… just needed to have my potatoes… 🙂

Our chili peppers are a bit burning, but delicious. Eating just half the pepper is enough, which is quite good – one pepper for two people… and our chilies are not even that hot types of chili peppers. But they burn nicely. 🙂

And… today I took pics of the real traditional homemade vappu delicacies; this is munkki – like a doughnut ball, simply a ball (mine is a kind of a ball 🙂 ) of wheat flour spiced with ground cardamom and deep-fried in oil and then rolled in sugar. A sin. 😉

And here’s some traditional homemade sima. Sima is a Finnish slightly fermented lemon drink, sweet and sparkling. There’s water, white sugar, brown sugar, the flesh of a lemon, the rind of a lemon, a very tiny piece of yeast and raisins.
To be honest, our sima is still kind of fermenting, but this already tastes like the real deal. And sima is a fresh and good drink for the whole summer as well. And it’s not supposed to be an alcoholic beverage, sima is suitable for children, too. 🙂

-Leena

Celebrating spring

This weekend is something like the sun kind of in the coffee glass…

It’s Vappu in Finland. 🙂 – Vappu, May Day, First of May, May 1st…

The main thing with the Vappu celebration for many people, including myself, is celebrating spring. But how we celebrate tends to vary. We here at our home we’re just at home taking it easy. Maybe going for a car ride as well. And having some traditional homemade Vappu delicacies – a couple of pics here in my blog later on, hopefully. 🙂

A narcissus flower is kind of in the coffee glass, too. 😀

This year the weather is quite OK as well…

Some more violas…

There can’t be too much of the colour yellow in spring. 🙂

This was yesterday evening when we stopped by the lake Pyhäjärvi.

-Leena

Hailing, snowing, grounding…

It started to snow last night. Some very big snowflakes – snowflakes weren’t that big in the winter… and today there was snow on the ground:

But now it has already started to melt and the sun’s been shining, too, buuut… some more snow is falling right now again, too. Anyway. 🙂

Well, this was on Saturday, it hailed one more time on that day. The tiny snow balls were quite beautiful on the growing field in our garden. It’s actually nice to stand in the hail fall – the bouncing tiny snow balls are fun.

Yesterday ended with snowfall, but earlier it was sunny and warm. As I took this pic, I was sitting on the ground, half in our garden, half in the woods. 🙂 I had to put a cap on my head because the sun felt so hot on my head, and after coffee I felt the need to get some fresh tap water with cucumber. I like very much making these kind of tasty waters; with veggies, herbs, berries, fruits…

Just wait for it… Is it going to hail or sleet or…? – A bit later I was sitting on the ground on an other spot in our garden, watching the clouds approaching…

This was actually the first time I took my slippers off outdoors this spring. And the sunshine was dazzling. It felt so nice!

A person in Finland takes off the slippers and feels some dry earth beneath the woolen socks… feels heavenly. 😉 I love sitting on the ground and getting some good energy from the earth. 🙂

Did I say we don’t have crocuses in our garden…? Well, the thing is, last spring, which was our first spring in this house, we had this one in the pic. 😀 The previous owners of this house have planted something… It wasn’t and it’s not like a whole crocus flower, it’s just… half the crocus flower. I was so sure this won’t spring up anymore, but what do you know… all of a sudden it’s just there. The funny thing is that I’ve been watching this spot, checking it almost every day for this flower, but haven’t been able to see anything, but just suddenly – there it is again! 😀 Well, if this now opens up to be a whole flower…

And yesterday I dug up the remains of the summer flowers from last year and worked the soil barehanded – I love it! Black-tipped fingernails are in again. 😉 The previous owners of this house have made this flower bed. And I am grateful for it! This has a beautiful shape and the mossy edges are lovely.

Ok, being outside in the garden and in nature is wonderful, but sometimes you just need to be an inseparable part of the couch… and that’s completely fine, too! You don’t always have to be outdoors… 🙂

-Leena

Hail, sleet, sunshine… and these growing in the garden right now

But first one pic from Thursday… we had like ‘forgotten’ all about our Nordic walking poles, but on Thursday we felt the need…

…the need for speed. 😉 In the forests here at home. Hopefully there will be some more pics and stories about my Nordic walking here in my blog later on. I mean, that I will now continue this hobby of mine…

So the weather has been a bit on the weird side lately; it’s been hailing and sleeting, but there’s been a lot of sunshine, too – even at the same instant – for example yesterday, it was hailing heavily and the sun was shining at the same time, I even ate one of the tiny snow balls yesterday, but today, is it summer yet…? No, today it’s been sleeting, again, but the sun’s been shining, too. Clearly, the summer is coming to Finland. 😉

Dandelion greens – food! (Not weed… 🙂 ) I already started the nettle tasting season. Yummies, let us eat more nettles and dandelions – the buds and flowers, too, later on, here in my blog…

A garden bunny is a happy bunny.

Just one pic of the whole narcissus plant we have in the flower pot…

In our garden there’s narcissus growing from the ground, too. Here’s some of them. They have bigger flowers and also some different colours in the flowers. The previous owners of this house have planted them. Thank you!

Rhubarb, coming through! We’re used to having a rhubarb overflow, had to cut some of them down last summer. The previous owners of this house have planted these, too. Thanks! 🙂

The peonies! Here’s some of my growing darlings. Aand, the previous owners of this house have planted these as well. And I am so thankful! 🙂 Peonies are my great favourites.

-Leena

Some things to one’s heart’s content

I visited the city of Turku last week, and visited the garden store Plantagen in the town of Raisio on Friday, too. I met this wonderful plant there… just had to take a couple of pics of it. I like very much going to Plantagen – there are so many flowers, plants, bushes, trees… everywhere around there. It’s actually one of my favourite places in the Turku region. 🙂

A garden croton or variegated croton are the names I could find in English, in Finnish this plant is literally a wonder bush – ihmepensas. 🙂

Just for the colours…

On Saturday here in the region of Satakunta, my home region.

In the evening we stopped by the lake Pyhäjärvi, the lake that is our great pride and joy here in Satakunta. A lake large in size, a bit sealike. It was windy and the sound of the waves was so powerful and lovely. I like very much visiting the lake in any kind of weather.

On Saturday, a bit later, a campfire in our garden. We, me and my boyfriend, are real campfire people. 🙂 We build campfires here and there, all year round, and in our garden, too. I love the scent, the sound, the atmosphere…

The food… We have a wok pan for the campfire. We like campfire cooking very much, too – on a wok pan, on a grill grate, on a stick… all year round.

The first fully opened flower of the narcissus in our garden yesterday. It was a rainy day again. But this beauty dazzles!

And yesterday in our garden, nettles – food! Nettles have started to grow nicely, let us eat nettles and speak of them later on. 🙂

-Leena

First red chili pepper and about pollinating the plants

We have our first red chili pepper. The pepper changed colour from green to red very quickly once it had started to do it. My first blog post about growing chilies can be found here.

Just nice. And underneath the pepper can be seen our growing lettuces.

We pollinate the plants ourselves to, perhaps, get more fruits. And we do it with the help of this monster here. Gently rolling a cotton stick in the fully opened flowers, every flower after the other and crisscross… It has done the trick nicely.

After the flower is successfully pollinated, the fruit starts to appear. And finally the fruit has this kind of a hula hula skirt made of the petals of the flower. 😉

Our simple growing lamp can be seen in this pic… and some of our houseplants are here, too. 🙂

-Leena