nature – Page 2 – Owlnature

The first butterflies and a ladybird in March (and other stories)

You just never hear the end of it.

So what it´s been for many weeks now: First everything was normal, and then… The shit and the fan and toilet paper, don´t-wanna-go-to-the-library, washing the skin off your hands, social distancing, self-isolation, sleet and hail, too much news, anxiety, sunshine and pretty warm weather, coltsfoot flowers, snow and sleet, too much news, plants growing, cold weather, snow, anxiety and fear, flies, must-go-to-the-grocery-store-anxiety, washing the skin off your hands, stress, butterflies, a ladybug and bumble bees, hope, snow and too much news, sleet, wind, hail, sunshine, hope, Very windy weather every day, pretty warm weather for two days, sunshine, hailing like crazy (every day), sunshine, The fear of False Hope…

So the crocus leaves, daffodil leaves and tulip leaves started to emerge in March, usually we see them later in April and in May. We did not have permanent snow cover this year…..

Crocus flower buds in April. By the way, I haven´t been taking too many pictures lately, but there´s at least some snapshots in this blog post now anyway.

And so, just for the record: I saw the first butterflies, brimstone butterflies, on March 25th, the first coltsfoot flowers on April 6th, the first hepatica flowers on April 17th and the first wood anemone flowers on April 28th.

April snows…

The first ladybird here this year, outside our greenhouse in late March when we had some warmer days. We usually see the first butterflies and bumble bees here later in April and ladybirds maybe in May.

A squirrel it was in April. We have seen the busy guy here many times. 🙂

´Gaining ground´… We both did this, and I couldn´t raise my hands for a while after using this machine. Those muscles. 😀 (And those solar panels work for the garden shed.)

I had sunglasses on me, it was nice and warm, it was not windy, it was pretty silent, only birds were singing, butterflies were flying in the woods – it looked like a fairy tale, I was sitting on the garden bench and I was leaning against the wall of our house, I felt like I was in another planet… And then it occurred to me: “This must be the feeling… So many people go to a foreign country… to feel this…” …

I started washing the greenhouse. It was great fun!

Well, lots of things to do at home, Everything in the house and outside, in the garden, in the greenhouse, the yard, the garden shed… By the way, the last time I posted something on my Instagram was on December 6th, I think. – Just saying this to myself…

The greenest guy in the house, the green huntsman spider again, this was in our living room in late March. We saw him often!

Pics today:

We have and have had pretty many crocus flowers this year, a bit hear and there in the garden, it was so cold that these were not open yet at the time of my morning coffee in the middle of the day. It was sleeting a bit again yesterday.

Okay, my boyfriend just said: “It just sleeted again, but now the sun is shining.” So it sleeted today again, I didn´t notice, I don´t have time for everything. 😀 Wait… now I see it… or something – it´s hailing, and the sun is shining at the same time. Springy!

The first daffodil flowers…

by the woods… 🙂

And of course we have these glory of the snow… flowers.

Leena

A nature story / poem

Okay, should I call this now `quarantine poetry´, or what…? Anyway, I came up with this story / poem on Wednesday, and wrote it on Wednesday and yesterday.

Sunshine in the early spring, a peaceful serene day
How peppy, you´ll see, a hare is hopping amidst the dry hay
Time to rest, for a wanderer, by a pond 
the scenery´s mellow
A little stream, the sound you seek, when you do not 
miss the snow.

A campfire feels like home, she looks up at the tall trees
Evening falls. The forest, the stories... Write now, 
no one sees!
- A cheerful greeting - Then a quiet leaving. She says 
smiling "That was an owl."
What you do not see is there to be sought, playing 
a meaningful role.

Moss all around, the campfire, the scents, out there 
is no light
Flames dance in the air, the words, expect nothing, then 
feel the might
At night, stand guard, the fire, pen and paper, oh, 
how the day is old
Be curious. The hoot - ask yourself what it told.

Embers, morning´s cold, thoughts are fresh on paper, 
the day´s birdsong, fair
She steps out of the woods, it´s so bright in a field, now 
into the woods hops the hare
Nature has its rhythm, wisdom in the moment, the best 
now is the spring
The road goes on, she stops "On second thoughts...", 
back to the woods she heads and starts to sing.

- Leena, March 18-19, 2020

Heard the blackbird sing

It is a sign of spring! – We heard the blackbird sing for the first time this year here on Monday evening this week. It sounded like magic. 🙂

Swans, too, have been loud, by the lake, lately. We usually hear them in the evening and/or at night. Yesterday for example they were quiet in the evening, but at around 2 am then, they were very loud again.

The first five pics on Thursday:

Morning! It had been snowing / sleeting just a bit again…

That did not last long, it was +5 degrees Celsius again in the afternoon:

The little oak tree still has some of its leaves.

Yesterday, on Friday:

No snow good morning!

But it was windy again in the daytime.

Garden campfire in the evening. We have had campfires in the garden lately as we have been building the garden shed…

And late in the evening it suddenly started to snow when I was standing by the fire. It was Real cold winter snow, and for a while it came down like here in the pic above.

Today:

It´s still -1 degrees Celsius, and it´s (enough) windy again as well.

The shed. Plank by plank… We have been building this garden shed, now there´s the roof and the walls. This has been a lot of work and fun. 🙂

Snow, eww… 😉

Little birds are singing loud everywhere…

Leena

´Snowflash´ and stuff

March came and so did snow. So let´s feast our eyes on that white for a bit again (or still?)… :p (Too many pictures in this blog post, but this is ´for the record´and spring is already in the air…)

Well, this was on Friday a week ago… The greenest guy in the house! A green huntsman spider.

And by the lake Pyhäjärvi here in our home village, a week ago as well…

In the woods travelling away from the lake…

One of the campfires that we have had in our garden lately.

And then came March, the first four pictures on Sunday:

G`morning!

We still have the upper part of our Christmas tree on the terrace…

The next eight pictures on Wednesday:

I still found a cone in the Christmas tree. 🙂 (I found 41 cones when it was time to take the tree to pieces in January.)

Hmm… Christmas? No…..

It was windy, as it has been many a time this winter, no permanent snow cover here in the southernmost part of Finland, but windy Yes…

On Thursday:

The amount of snow varies, the snow melted a bit again…

The next nine pictures I took yesterday, on Friday:

Mooorning! It had been snowing a bit again…

It´s very nice that there has still been snow, because ´the spring in the air´feels more like a real spring when there´s some snow melting. 😀

Small rose flowers in our living room.

Sunshine & blue…

Solar power.

Hmm… And in the sky, the moon…

Garden campfire yesterday. The sky was clear at night, the moon, stars…

But this morning:

Well, grey morning!

My morning coffee ideas in the living room…

In the afternoon, just for the record…

Leena

A nature story / poem

I have wanted to do this since Christmas – to write a story or a poem (necessarily needs to rhyme :p ), the kind that I could immediately publish here in my blog. Yesterday I finally had the time and everything to both come up with a story and to write it.

Late-winter night, wise and bold,
The secrets it might hold...
Two moose are wandering in a field, the moon is 
bright tonight
The scenery is pale in white, still, a meaningful sight.

Three deer are standing in the field, listening side by side
A hare is leaping in the forest, there is no need to hide
Snow starts falling from the trees, the deer flee, the hare 
looks up and stops,
Frozen moss beneath his paws, more snow falls down, he hops.

A fox is running in the snow, now swiftly past the trees
A black figure is watching from the shadows, everything 
he sees,
A swish, then a croak, oh look, it is a raven
The pine forest for the bird is a sublime haven.

Sunshine in the morning about the spring us tells
Birds are chirping around a frozen pond, the scene is like 
softly ringing bells
A long road between the fields, it is daytime, a light and 
an easy pace,
A wanderer humming to herself, a happy and thoughtful face.

In the evening, in the forest - Hush -

The sound of a campfire and a stream somewhere near
Dusk. She closes her eyes and listens, thinking 
"That´s an animal, I can hear..."
A rustle and the sound of a creature hopping, the campfire 
is so nice and warming
All this is beautiful, familiar and wild, curious, forever 
charming.

- Leena, February 26, 2020

Pics yesterday and today

I´m not gonna talk about that white stuff (snow) now.

It was wonderfully sunny on Thursday and yesterday…

In our garden yesterday:

Morning coffee…

Blue!

In the greenhouse:

This was flowering black-eyed Susan vine last summer.

Ivy plants green in the greenhouse!

And pics today:

Morning coffee…

By the way, this mug and that mug in the beginning of this blog post, and a cup or two more… I found them all on Thursday in two different second hand shops, again, on the spots where they give their remaining stuff for free, and the mugs are like new. Always funny… 🙂

Outside it was sleeting into my coffee mug…

Birds were chirping loudly…

`A lot on the plate´again… Well, don´t we all have. About just reading… I have been reading some Japanese which is interesting and I have also been reading some professional literature in order to ´get my level up´ and by that I mean that I´m of course (?) on the lowest level, so to speak, so there´s only one way to go from here and therefore I ought to be quite excited about things, I guess… :p

And now it´s raining… “Okay, bye!”

And sleeting again a bit later… It´s been sleeting many different times today.

Leena

Bad winter, baaad…

No permanent snow cover here in the southernmost part of Finland this winter – I guess it´s safe to say this now, at this point in time. Umm… so we already had ´the seventh snow´, ´the eighth snow´and ´the ninth snow´for this season here where I´m living. (At least these we´ve had, I may have forgotten ´one more snow´, but I can´t even count these anymore.) So a bit snow for a few days, a few centimetres of snow for two or three days, and so on… As it has been this winter. And then, again, fricking warm weather, temperatures above zero degrees Celsius, Rain… I am so fed up with this. And hey yes, it started to snow on Wednesday this week and now we have `the tenth snow´for this winter. A few centimetres of snow we Had. – It lasted until today, it´s Sunday today, and the snow is already melting.

The amount of snow in centimetres in Finland yesterday. Oh, the northern part of the country and Lapland…

The next four pics I took here in our home village on Friday evening when we were coming back from grocery store 🙂 :

By the lake Pyhäjärvi. Lit by our car, hmm… Some ice… an ice cover and snow on the lake for that time…

On the same spot, looking up… The moon was bright again!

Travelling in the woods… A bumpy road.

Ended up in an ice rink…

Yesterday, my morning coffee, snowman in the middle of the oak trees…

This was a week ago. We have not seen this before! The leaf buds have already begun to open in the bush, in late January!

And our small common hazel shrub has already begun to open its leaf buds….. This Picture I took yesterday.

Oh yes… This was on Wednesday late in the evening. This was my third time on skis this winter. Well, it took me a while, but I finally learned :-p that, this winter, whenever there´s enough snow, I gotta go cross-country skiing, immediately, in our yard. Just go!

Whoa! A eucalyptus sauna whisk, we had this for the first time last week. Usually we have Finnish birch sauna whisks, but now we wanted to try this eucalyptus (from Ukraine) whisk, because we found it for half the price in a local grocery store. And we loved it! The whisk was thick, the leaves were wonderfully long and they didn´t fall off. It was very good to hit yourself with it. And the scent when you split the leaves a bit and crush them in your hands is lovely. A nice and a rather exotic experience. 🙂

In these pictures… I believe this was our ´seventh´snow, in January this was. Well, this winter it does not matter what day it was or is now…

The last three pics I took today:

I started watching cross-country skiing again… Either watching cross-country skiing or dreaming of doing it…? :p

Green edibles growing in the kitchen.

Leena