outdoors – Page 20

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

For the sun of today

Today it’s like spring and summer at once. 😉 It’s been warm and sunny this spring already before, but now it’s beginning to be like the real deal…

…I can take my coffee pic with green grass in it.

So warm and nice to sit on the warm bench. And the sky is blue…

But what’s up with growing wine grapes in Finland? 🙂

Dazzled by the sun beside the flower bed waiting for summer flowers…

-Leena

Some sun internally and a few delights in the garden right now

Today it was again time to get some sun… internally. 😉

Egypt meets Finland… Navel Oranges are so juicy and delicious, and cheap at this time of the year, even in Finland. 😀 After some heavy rain today I was sitting on the wet garden bench again, devouring my orange and after that I took a short tour with my camera around our garden.

Leopard’s Bane or doronicum has started to grow. Waiting for the yellow flowers, last spring there were so many…

Yesterday I noticed that one part of our chives has started to grow, too. I tasted a bit of one of them – the taste was so good and fresh!

The first yellow bud of the narcissus that was in my previous blog post.

This I’ve been watching the whole winter and even now; the blackberry bush in our garden has a few very strong leaves – they have endured there on the twigs the whole time. All the other bushes and trees have lost all their leaves many months ago. 🙂

-Leena

Early springtime

It sounds better than it looks, the early springtime – it’s all still very brownish, nature and garden both, but oh, the sound of the so many birds chirping, tweeting, chirruping, a woodpecker knocking… everywhere around you, even when the sun is not shining. It’s like some jungle… or just the springtime here in Finland! 🙂

One part of our vegetable garden. Our growing field will be expanded a bit this spring…

I was sitting on a bench, having my coffee and taking some pics.

I love these evergreen pine trees… I like to think them as palm trees here in the north… 😉

What’s your favourite colour?

Narcissus, Tête-à-Tête. Waiting for the yellow delights to spring up…

-Leena

Finding stars – with a planisphere

To begin with, this is actually not my very own planisphere or star chart. This is my Christmas present for my boyfriend who last autumn said that he would like to learn how to navigate by the stars.

Well, I would like to learn something about it, too, now that there’s a planisphere in the house. 🙂 We’re both still on the learning curve with this, but I can say this is a fun and useful hobby, and a cheap hobby, even a free hobby, once you’ve got your planisphere. I ordered this one from the Ursa Astronomical Association in Finland.

Match the date and time.

The planisphere should be held above your head so that it’s like the stars above you. And in the pic there’s the bright moon as it was yesterday at 21:22. 🙂 (The planisphere wasn’t properly positioned as I was taking the pic.) I was standing in the light of our garden lamp post, but they say that the best light to read the planisphere in, is actually red light, because the red light doesn’t interfere with your night vision.

-Leena

Birch twigs – for the promise of spring and vitamin C

Today it was time to get a couple of birch twigs to put into a vase. I think it can be said that this is a very Finnish tradition to get birch twigs inside the house when it’s still snow on the ground in nature and the spring hasn’t come quite yet.

The thing is to make the leaves grow on the twigs inside the house – beside a window in the light and sunlight that so nicely increase all the time in March. It’s all for the promise of the spring and the rejoice of the waiting when it’s so close. 🙂 And yes, some of us also eat those leaves. The young leaves are full of vitamin c.

I went to the other side of the hill in our home woods to fetch the twigs. There are numerous birch trees there. – The place you get your twigs should be far enough from roads and traffic and in some place where there is enough wild birch trees so that you are not harming yourself, anyone’s property or nature itself that much.

I guess it’s more about the feeling than the amount at this point in time. 😉

-Leena

The cold fun Eastern Finland in January

Now the second blog post about our wintry trip to Metsäkartano Youth and Wilderness Centre in the municipality of Rautavaara, in the region of Northern Savonia in the Eastern Finland in mid-January. The first blog post can be found here.

This is a peat hut. It is one of the best places to go and light a campfire when it is about minus 30 degrees Celsius outside. Kind of under earth the peat hut is. We went there skiing one evening. A campfire is so vital at those kind of temperatures.

Outside our holiday apartment again.

The silence is something so special at Metsäkartano, the place is surrounded by wilderness. When you are completely silent and still yourself, you can’t hear absolutely anything. Occasionally just the twinkle of the falling snow on the pine trees and spruces. So peaceful and relaxing. Nature really loves you.

On the frozen lake. On the left can be seen the main building of Metsäkartano, in the middle is our holiday house and on the left another holiday house.

Metsäkartano has the EU Eco-label, it was the first travel resort to get it in Finland. The place is also very international with its both aspects – youth work and nature travel.

This sight made me even happier. A circle of joy made by a peppy dog. 🙂 I can like see the brisk dog coming galloping and making the circle there and continuing his way forward.

Frozen marsh Labrador tea or northern Labrador tea or wild rosemary. It still had the lovely and original scent, I tested.

The best colours through my camera this winter. 🙂

So this was our winter trip. Now still waiting the spring to actually come here in Finland, there’s still quite a lot of snow on the ground here in southwestern Finland, too.

-Leena