Suomi – Page 6 – Owlnature

Snowy

It snowed quite a lot in the evening on Tuesday and at night between Tuesday and yesterday. And it was very windy. The storm had been even record-breaking for a while at the sea. It was windy yesterday, too, but the sun was shining. Well, about the snow… must always say this, but this is quite a lot snow for us here in southern Finland – in eastern Finland and northern Finland, for example, they always have a lot more, that’s only natural. 🙂

The first pictures I took in the morning yesterday:

My dwarf spruce. Hopefully it survives the winter…

Hmm… Our car.

The wind made it look a bit different…

…but beautiful.

By the lake Pyhäjärvi near our home at noon yesterday. There was a chilly wind…

And in our garden in the afternoon.

And today:

composter, temperature — Year-round composter

It’s warm inside the composter in our garden.

It’s -11 degrees Celsius outside now at around 11.30 am. But they say that it “feels like -16 degrees Celsius”. Yes, it does feel a bit like that, but it’s not windy anymore and the sun is shining.

Leena

The next chapter

It’s… next year! Hmm… 🙂

First four pictures that I took in our yard yesterday, on New Year’s Eve:

A deer it was… I noticed these two days ago, and took this pic yesterday, before it started snowing in the evening.

One of yesterday’s many lights… It was snowing and it was windy. But very nice.

A candlelit sauna and from the sauna outside to walk barefoot in snow on the terrace and in the middle of the yard. And then back to sauna, and then do it again. I love how it feels! 🙂

So I watched one more Christmas film; The Polar Express (2004). I’ve tried to watch it, on two occasions, before – some years ago for the first time and again – was it at Christmas a year ago – I can’t remember anymore, but I fell asleep, on both occasions, already in the beginning of the film. – I was interested, but I was also very tired, obviously… So now I was determined to watch the film. And what a nice adventure it was! – And I’ve been just sleeping through it before… ;D

Another film I’ve watched after Christmas is Bird Box (2018 Netflix).

And two pictures that I took today, on New Year’s Day:

Amaryllis. I bought it yesterday, at half price at a local grocery store. I have to find a place for it in our living room, this is not the place, just taking a… hasty picture of two things that’s been happening. – I was watching the New Year’s Concert of The Vienna Philharmonic. I love watching it every year.

It’s been sleeting and water’s been dripping again today, but they say that it will be colder in the evening again and that it will snow. And they say that then it will be cold and sunny. Hmm…

On the broken couch… Happy New Year!

Leena

Holidays, holidays…

…continue, here at home. Now pictures from Thursday and today. Just relaxing…

I love the novel, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens! I read it, in English, for the first time 16 or 17 years ago. I’ve watched the film by Disney from the year 2009 many many times – I love the film as well. But I watched the film from the year 1984 for the first time on Thursday, and, well, I loved that, too. Spirit!

I’ve watched some other films, too, during these holidays, some of them are traditional Christmas films, for example; Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The Snowman (1982), Krampus (2015), The Christmas Chronicles (2018 Netflix), Hocus Pocus (1993) [- was it Christmas or Halloween we just had…? 🙂 ]. And I’ve also watched some nature programmes and Finnish comedy Uuno Turhapuro on tv, for example. 🙂

Harry Potter. – First the book, then the film. 🙂 My next film is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which will be one of my New Year’s films, (I finished reading the book a bit over a week ago), and the next book is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (haven’t started it yet). I’m reading Harry Potter in Finnish now first, because the translation by Jaana Kapari is extraordinary!

This, too, is from where I watch television… The plant, the tree in the pic is weeping fig or ficus tree.

Some sunshine again today, but after Christmas it’s been warmer especially in the daytime. It hasn’t been raining, but the snow has been melting a bit and it’s been a bit… blurry out there.

Water was dripping from a bigger tree on me and on my camera as I took pics of my dwarf spruce and the winter lights…

Leena

Christmas, lights, flowers…

Now just pictures from Sunday, Tuesday and yesterday.

They were giving away these ‘bushes’, autumn plants with different colours, at a store, and I chose these three. The Ibiza lizard is covered in snow a bit.

From where I watch television and eat and drink coffee…

We made two ice lanterns for Christmas. I named this one a ‘Red-letter day’…

I was taking a picture of the sun yesterday. It’s was down there hiding behind the trees…

“Well, move!”, I said to myself. “It’s up to you, you know…” ;D

This year I have a pink poinsettia, not a red one. – It was a plan… 😉 I was waiting for some ‘direct sunlight’ to get the poinsettia look natural in a picture… the colours.

Well, hashtag nofilterneeded… Hyacinth. This year one of my hyacinths is a bit different, too. – It’s dark pink, not light pink.

I planted this dwarf spruce in the autumn. And I already have a picture of it on my Instagram without and with these Christmas or winter lights. Here it is in the dark, with the blue Christmas lights. – Blue winter lights, my dream…

And here’s another video from our trail camera, or animal camera that we had in my boyfriend’s forest. Night-time wanderers, moose! :

Leena

Christmas time

Many things to do… I had some interesting new working experiences – it had something to do with getting some traditional Finnish Christmas food into stores, and now it’s Christmas time… Hmm, we’re cleaning our home now, and so on…

My morning coffee today. So, the house is a bit of a mess. That cloth… back there in the picture, for example, is a curtain from our living room. The curtain has fallen down because its handle got loose. And our couch ‘fell down’, too, so we’re basically sitting on the floor now. And we must clean the tables and take the carpets outside and hoover the house, and… But hey, it’s the shortest day of the year today! 🙂

The next three pictures I took in our garden today:

December echinacea purpurea and peony — **Echinacea purpurea** or **purple coneflower** and **peony**…

We’ve had snow on the ground for many days now. And it’s snowing right now as well, and it’s -8 degrees Celsius, so we’ll have a white Christmas this year, too!

And here’s a video from our trail camera or game camera – I just call it an animal camera. We had the animal camera in my boyfriend’s land in the region of Etelä-Pohjanmaa – South Ostrobothnia. We brought the camera home for the winter. And here at home it was possible to get the videos to computer. We got some interesting and delightful videos. There were night-time wanderers… I’ll have a few videos here in my blog, too, so here’s the first one, a hare. 🙂 :

Leena

Independence Day

Today, on 6th December, is the Independence Day in Finland. – Our Suomi is 101 years old! 🙂

By the lake Pyhäjärvi here in my home village today in the afternoon.

After the snowfall we already had… water, again, but after that it has been snowing again, just a little bit. – Business as usual.

Two pictures that I took in our garden today.

The next four pictures I took in my boyfriend’s land in the region of Etelä-Pohjanmaa – South Ostrobothnia, about 180 kilometres north from our home, on Monday this week.

Ice on the pond in the forest.

And a bit less than an hour later… Darkness falls early this time of year. But it’s actually pretty nice. – It’s beautiful. And nice for a bit adventurous soul. 😉

And it was me who drove all the way back home, it was dark and it was snowing. Well, it’s me who needs the practice, and I love it.

There’s stream flowing, in a ditch, near the pond. The lovely sound in the forest!

What to eat around the campfire? For example Karelian pies and pesto sauce. Karelian pasties or Karelian pies are traditional pasties in Finland – rye flour and rice porridge. The pesto sauce is Italian, with basil. A delicious combo… out there in the cold! And coffee…

-Leena

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. 🙂

Ice and snow… and the sun was shining brightly!

Just ‘hiding behind stuff’… 😀

And I took two pictures in our garden as well:

Afternoon sun.

-Leena