By the lake

It has been snowing a bit more since yesterday. I went for a walk by the lake Pyhäjärvi here in our home village today, and took some pictures. We must enjoy this weather now. 🙂

November

Ice and snow… and the sun was shining brightly!

November

November

November

Just ‘hiding behind stuff’… 😀

And I took two pictures in our garden as well:

November

Afternoon sun.

November

-Leena

Pictures yesterday & today

The first two pictures I took in our garden yesterday.

November

In the November sunshine…

November

The Finnish autumn came for the bougainvillea – for my ‘mini Spain’ long ago…

The next five pictures I took in our garden today.

November

It has been snowing a bit, just a little bit.

November

A common poppy pod.

November

So this is ‘the second snow’ for this season…

November

Leaves of a rose bush.

It’s -3 degrees Celsius right now, at around 14.15 pm.

November

November

And these last two pictures I took today as well. I’ve been watching cross-country skiing again. The Cross Country World Cup has began in Ruka, Kuusamo, here in Finland this weekend.

November

And I’ve been watching this competition and making this blog post at the same time – combining two hobbies. 🙂

-Leena

Collecting stuff

We collected acorns in October.

acorns

First these…

acorns

…and then these – about 300 acorns in total. Some of the acorns were already sprouting, lovely. 🙂 We collected them from the ground, under big oak trees, here in our home village.

The first two pictures I took in October, the rest of the pictures in this blog post I took today.

acorns planted

So, we planted the acorns in our garden, here…

acorns planted

…and here.

And we also collected some acorns for the land that my boyfriend now has in the region of Etelä-PohjanmaaSouth Ostrobothnia, about 180 kilometres north from our home, that is to say, we already planted the acorns there, into the forest ground. There’s a certain spot or place, an island actually, where broad-leaved trees are growing in the forest, but there are no oak trees, not yet…

So, this is all an experiment, with these acorns, just nice and interesting.

spruce cones

I collected spruce cones, too. These were on the ground in our yard, on the driveway. We don’t have big spruce trees, but there are spruces just outside our yard. I started to collect these just because I think that they are lovely, but my boyfriend said that we could try to get seeds from these as well. Well, that’s a good idea, an interesting experiment, too. The cones have been drying inside the house now.

emptying a compost bin

And I was shoveling compost, emptying a compost bin a bit today. We have this year-round composter for kitchen (and garden) waste.

emptying a compost bin

We shovel the compost into this container, where the process continues, and in the end, it all goes back to nature again. 🙂

-Leena

Snow

It snowed last night here where I’m living. And it was a surprise – there was no forecast for snow earlier.

The first five pictures I took in our yard.

October snow

This was last night.

The next two pictures I took at around 9 am today:

October snow

The snow had melted a bit, but there still was snow cover on the ground and on rooftops everywhere.

October snow rose

Sudden winter came for the rose.

But this snow will melt.

October snow

…But at around 13.30 pm, still…

October snow viola

October snow came for the viola flowers, too.

The last two pictures I took last Friday, in Etelä-PohjanmaaSouth Ostrobothnia, on the land, on my boyfriend’s new land, about which I wrote earlier, here.

red moss

I found red moss in the forest. Red moss is one of my favourites…

campfire coffee

And I love campfire coffee. 🙂

-Leena

Autumn colours, by the lake, parsnips…

The first six pictures I took in our garden yesterday.

red oak

Our red oak is red, strikingly red, this autumn. 🙂

red oak

red oak

red oak

October

Birch tree & maple tree, again… I got a bit carried away with these two, they are both fabulously yellow, golden, this autumn.

October

Two pictures that I took by the lake today:

by the lake Pyhäjärvi

By the lake Pyhäjärvi here in our home village.

by the lake Pyhäjärvi

And I already wrote earlier that we are growing parsnips, too, for the first time ever, this year. I’ve made roasted parsnips twice, this was last night:

roasted parsnips

I used only salt and pepper and olive oil. And I don’t peel the parsnips.

Parsnip has a lovely nutty and aromatic flavour, it’s one of my favourite vegetables, best from the oven. 🙂

-Leena

Autumn leaves, new grounds, beetroot…

The autumn colours are particularly abundant and vibrant this year. We have our own word for the autumn leaf colour here in Finlandautumn leaf colour is called ruska in Finnish.

It’s exceptionally warm for October in many parts of Finland this weekend – over 15 degrees Celsius.

First just a few pictures that I took in our garden today:

October

October

October rose

We still have rose blooming in the garden, in front of the porch. We planted the plant in the summer this year.

October rose

October rose…

Okay, and what else am I doing…? 🙂 Hmm, for example, working by my computer for a bit again. And we, my boyfriend and I, we’ve been familiarizing ourselves with new grounds and exploring a new land – thanks to my boyfriend who had the chance to buy some land – forest and field, in the region of Etelä-PohjanmaaSouth Ostrobothnia, about 180 kilometres north from our home. So, that’s my boyfriend’s project, but there’s plenty of space also for me to learn new things and to help out, and in fact, we both already attended our first day-long course on how to take care of forest.

I already wrote earlier that we are growing beetroot for the first time ever, this year. Here’s now our pickled beetroot that we made yesterday:

pickled beetroot

I used water, vinegar, sugar, whole white peppercorns, cloves, a cinnamon stick and salt when I was cooking the pickling liquid. And I put also cloves of garlic into the jar. Should be nice. 🙂

-Leena

Flowers in the garden

I took all the pictures in this blog post in our garden today. I already have a couple of recent flower pictures on my Instagram, here’s now a few more.

viola

There’s still viola flowers, red viola flowers…

echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower

A bunch of pictures of the echinacea purpurea or purple coneflower flowers, the most long-lasting flowers I’ve ever had! – Some of the flowers have been there for over a month now. 🙂

echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower

echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower

echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower

Still new flowers, too.

clarkia amoena/godetia, calendula, marigold

Clarkia amoena or godetia flowers and calendula or pot marigold flowers again. 😉

clarkia amoena or godetia

calendula or marigold

“Psst…!”

-Leena