winter – Page 8 – Owlnature

The national birdwatch 2017 in Finland – Pihabongaus 2017

I took part in the national birdwatch 2017, Pihabongaus 2017, organized by BirdLife Suomi here in Finland. The event is every year on the last weekend of January. It’s not a competition and anyone can do it – the idea is to get people interested in the nature around them and to collect information about the birds living here in wintertime. We are just identifying birds, counting them and enjoying ourselves. It takes one hour. And it doesn’t matter if one doesn’t see any birds or if one only hears them – that’s interesting, too. Only hearing the birds is delightful – that’s my experience. 🙂 Last winter 18 000 people took part in the event, it’s interesting to hear how many people this winter.

Okay, I was enjoying myself and I was freezing! 😀 The sun was shining but the wind was cold. I was thinking about my cardigan before I went outside, but I didn’t take it with me. But my toes were soon freezing too, and I had woollen socks…

Yes, but, my actual results… I heard a concert! 😀 Birds were singing all around me as they always do in and around our garden, but I didn’t see the singers. I recognized the voices of magpies, great tits and blue tits. There were also some other tiny birds singing, but I didn’t recognize them. But yes, I actually saw a couple of ravens! They flew above me, croaking as they went. 🙂

We have this feeding spot for birds, hanging from a garden lamp post. We’ve seen many great tits and blue tits there, but not today…
And it’s occasionally been so warm lately that the snow’s been melting fast…

“So, you count the birds once a year? Cool! I do it every day.”

And this happened yesterday. The pine trees were steaming. It always looks rather interesting. 🙂 Yeah, with the temperatures going up and down constantly lately it’s good to let some steam off…

-Leena

Amaryllis after the first flowering

A surprise and some doubts. My first ever amaryllis had seven big flowers in December and in early January. And two short but broad leaves that were having a bit more length at the end of the flowering. And then suddenly a new flower stem started to emerge. I wasn’t expecting that.

Whoa, too fast! 😀 – It really was. I’m actually not at all confident with plants that have bulbs – confident with the bulbs – they always become soft (=normal?), no matter how you water the plants. My amaryllis bulb has become a bit soft, of course, too… And… how much can you actually peel the bulb then? 😮

Okay, first I thought I wasn’t giving my plant enough water, because I really was paying attention to the amount of water I gave her during the flowering. And yes, now I’m thinking that perhaps I now have given my plant too much water – when I last gave her water, because the flower stem got so wild. 😮 But I know that I should now fertilize this plant, its bulb, a bit.

Some fertilizer into this original pot with poor potting soil that my amaryllis still is in, or should I now put my plant into a new pot with nutritious potting soil that I bought yesterday…? I think I’ll choose the latter – I should have done it earlier, I know. 🙂

Okay, let’s just see what happens, I really was only hoping that my amaryllis would start to grow her leaves, but then this surprise happened. 😀 But yes, now there’s also a third leaf growing.

-Leena

Waiting for spring…

…aren’t we all…? In my opinion, all the four seasons are amazing and phenomenal. I’m equally excited about them all! That’s how I feel. 🙂 They all come and go… Beautiful, different… power…!

The first four pics I took today.

We’ve had delightful sunny days! But at one point it was a bit too warm… here in the southern part of Finland it was warmer than in many parts in Spain – in wintertime, in the middle of the night! 😮 But we’ve had snow all the time now.

Some days water is dripping… some days birds are singing – spring really is drawing near!

Dreaming of expanding our growing field again…

Okay, it was on January 2nd that I started planning it all… spring… garden… I didn’t do it on purpose on that day, so it was a bit funny to notice what I already was thinking about.

And the strawflowers are still there! Standing, and with their petals. They are so tough. I’ll plant strawflower seeds everywhere in our garden this year! 😀

An ice lantern again, a week ago was this. We’ve had four or five ice lanterns this winter, clear or pink as this, too, again was.

Ice light… And by now the daylight has increased wonderfully! 🙂

-Leena

It’s been winter

When it’s freezing cold, the sun is shining. When the temperature goes up, there will be clouds. It’s -3 degrees Celsius today, and was already yesterday, when I took these pics.

By the frozen lake Pyhäjärvi…

On the ice, there was a cool breeze…

Don’t you worry… it’s only winter here now, like… in Moominvalley…? 🙂

This tiger of ours likes to warm himself up beside a warm radiator in our living room. He sleeps there beside the radiator, or looks out of the window warming up his front paws. His sister doesn’t do that.

“I’ll just have my ass on it… If anyone tries to turn down the thermostat, I’ll have the time to have my say…”

Making magic, when it’s freezing cold – an ice lantern! – Below freezing temperatures, a bucket and water. And, for example, some beetroot water (from a beetroot jar), too, if you wish to have a pink ice lantern, like this one in our garden now. 🙂

-Leena

New Year, amaryllis flowers, freezing cold…

Now some more amaryllis flower pics. The first four pics I took on New Year’s Eve.

The second flower was opening.

And the snow we had, melted, the day before – can be seen through the window…

The scent of the amaryllis flowers is gentle, sophisticated, lovely…

The last pics of Christmas hyacinths, on New Year’s Day.

And yes, it snowed again, on New Year’s Day! It snowed a lot at one point. 🙂 And the snow is still there today.

The scent of my four hyacinths was at its prime – marvellous! I’m dreaming of a yellow hyacinth for the coming spring…

The second amaryllis flower… and the third and the fourth opening.

I heart…

A majestic plant!

The next two pics I took today.

Four flowers. And still one bigger bud and two smaller buds. I honestly thought that there would be three flowers. A fairly nice surprise. 🙂

Okay, we think about (and try out) the growing of amaryllis as a green houseplant, here in Owlnature, a bit later, after this flowering…

It’s freezing cold today. The temperature’s been between -15 degrees Celsius and -20 degrees Celsius – the last mentioned was at night and in the morning. But the sun was shining today as well! The sunlight even felt slightly warm on one’s face. 🙂

The funny black sister to her tiger brother: “I’m sorry I punched you in the face when I was hungry…” (“And, by the way, I’m not as fat as I look in this pic…”)

Yeah well, she’s not, I confirm, but oh… oh my, this really happened on New Year’s Day! – These two were lying side by side on the couch! 😀 Here in my blog you’ve always met these two separately – that’s just the way it is, they don’t normally sleep together anymore – when they were younger, they often did, but nowadays, no no, only, like, two or three times a year at most we see this. Okay, they started off 2017 like this. 🙂

And yes, that princess is in the habit of punching (not scratching) her brother in the face, with her claws, when she’s hungry or bored, or whatever… She just does it – out of the blue and randomly. But our cats do play or fight with each other,too. They have always lived together – really a sister and a brother. 🙂

-Leena

New Year, new flowers

My first ever amaryllis opened her first flower yesterday.

So lovely…

So pretty… A gorgeous plant – I wonder why I haven’t had this before! Yeah well, it’s good to try something new every now and then… 😉

And hopefully I get to take even more pics of this plant… this was just only like ‘into the New Year’ – with amaryllis flower pics, today. 🙂

And more hyacinths… I have actually four hyacinths now! Oh, the scent here now! Some of the tiny flowers haven’t even opened yet.

And our new Christmas or winter lights in the living room, they came about two weeks ago. Ice crystals. 🙂

So, all relaxed (but all prepared?)… and taking it easy – into the New Year like:

🙂

-Leena

Nice days

There was no snow at Christmas – it was raining! – Water! Christmas Eve really was the only day that’s been a rainy day lately, but… yeah, well, there’s nothing unusual about that – we are actually accustomed to exactly that kind of a situation in southern Finland and on the west coast… In the central parts of the country, and naturally, in Lapland, they usually have snow at Christmas, and this year was no exception. Okay, in northern Finland and in Lapland they always have snow at Christmas and in winter. 🙂 Yeah, but, the weather here didn’t affect the Christmas spirit! I must admit that I actually stayed inside the whole Christmas Eve… because it’s what’s inside that counts… 😉

Okay, this was today, this is actually already the second day that we have snow here now – it started to snow right after the Boxing Day – how convenient! (Yes, that’s happened before as well…) But okay, we’ve had some sunshine lately, before today, too. It’s warming nicely, a bit. And the days are getting longer all the time now!

Aaand now some flower power! – There’s no Christmas without it!

We, too, have a poinsettia – the traditional and well-loved Christmas flower or plant.

My favourite colour of poinsettias is red – the traditional and Christmassy red… cosy – the favourite colour of these flowers has always been red in my family. 🙂

And even more Christmas flowers…

…my first ever Amaryllis is opening her bud! Hopefully I get to take more pics of this plant…

—

“I don’t think I’m able to, and I don’t believe I’m, like, ready, to do it now, right now… But… if you just bear with me for a moment…” :

“…it will happen… soon… any minute now… wait for it, juuust wait for it…!”

“Okay, the ball’s in your court now. Noticed?”

🙂

-Leena