Wild strawberries

We've got a whole lot of wild strawberries growing all around our yard.

Those lovely flowers of Midsummer Eve

It's Midsummer's Eve. This year our Midsummer is actually quite close to the insentive of the fest, the longest day of the year. Today, the day is roughly 19 hours, giving us 5 hours of "night", most of it only semi-dark dusk. On June 21st the day si a few minutes longer and then it will start ot get shorter again. Of course, in Lapland they already are and will be for a couple months still, in the nightless nights time of the year.

Here in Finland we tend to joke that our summer is short but not very snowy, that while in bible they called 40 days and 40 nights of rain a disaster we call it summer, that the old snow doesn't even melt before the days start getting shorter again (actually, this is accurate in some parts of Lapland). In Helsinki, we don't have snow, but it has been raining again for days and the temperature is barely 13-15 degrees Celsius. Pretty darned cold. But then, even though we call June Kesäkuu (summer month) in Finnish, it rarely is warm in June.

Nature, however, is beautiful. Lush, green, with flowers blooming everywhere. Berries are said to be late this year, I guess they are, but everything in our yard indicates a good berry and apple year. The other apple tree is full of tiny apple starts and the cloudberry and red currant bushes are heavy with raw berries. Our oninions are growing nicely, as are radishes and broccoli too. Didn't see potato sprouts yet, but then they haven't been in the ground for that long. Dill, parsley and oregano should be planted already. Even basil seems to be finally sprouting.

Flowers are growing like weeds. There's yellow lilies in a flower bed next to a pink rose. The Midsummer's rose on our neighbor's yard is putting out it's white flowers. Their rhododendron is in full bloom too. Daisies, knapweed, lilacs and chives  are making our yard look very Finnish indeed, with the blue and white color theme. Lilies of the valley are a bit over their best days already, but still blooming. Marigolds are growing in their bunny pots.

Flower additions to our garden

Yesterday was a fine summer day. Sun was shining, it was nicely warm until late evening - for the first time this year we stayed out in the yard enjoying the summer evening until midnight, I think. The wind was real strong though, which has been quite typical this spring and early summer. It was my birthday yesterday, and more often than not, my birthday has seen some quite good weather. Today it is raining again.

I got a couple of roses, a flaiming Katy and some busy Lizzies for birthday and having seen the weather forecast I immediately put them the roses the ground and the other flowers to some pots. Last week I also planted some potatoes.

Little baby birdie

Some little birdies have their nest inside of a rock wall next to our garage. We have watched the mama and papa birds fly relentlessly back and forth, bringing food to their baby birdies for some weeks. Then, one day, the baby birdies were ready to start flying themselves too. One little one flew to our window and sat there confused for a long time, chirping an sos message, it sounded to me. It did not fly away even when our dogs were going on a frenzy over the bird. I got the feeling that it did not know how to get off of the sill. 

I put the dogs into a different room and pulled my garden gloves on, opened the window more ever so carefully, to get my hand outside so I could help the bird down, but then it took off. A bit wobbly it flew to the nearby lilacs where mama and papa birds were, too.

Rototilling

The previous owner of our house used to have a garden, used to grow poatoes. The plot has been uncultivated for the past five years. We wanted to have a proper garden there again, so last weekend we started a rented rototiller and began to turn the ground. It was hard work with the almost 10cm of hard grass roots and the soil heavily clay. My husband worked real hard and I helped as much as I could, and after eight hours of work, the job was done. 32m2 of  lawn turned into a garden patch. A couple of little birds were keeping us company, enjoying the little creatures that surfaced as we turned the ground over.

We immediately ploughed it too, and planted the first plants there too: radishes, broccoli and onions. Some potatoes will go into the ground soon too, and hopefully our zucchinis, cucumbers etc. will start soon - or we might just go and get some plants from the store.

Next to our garden patch, the rhubarbs have grown flowers, knapweeds have opened most of theirs, whereas the bergenias have dropped theirs. Lilacs are plenty in our yard and full of sweet smelling flowers now.

There's daisies growing next to our house where tulips used to grow, and chives in the box have flowers. And lilies of the valley have opened their flowers in the forest.

Bleeding heart

Such a beautiful bush flower, in a neighbor's yard. 

Buckeye on a stormy day

In the morning it was raining. Then the stormy winds blew the clouds away. The day turned out rather warm, but the wind stayed strong all day.

Lilacs, berries, apple blossoms...

That yard of ours. I went out to take som photos again. The other apple tree is a cloud of flowers, bees busily buzzing from flower to flower. Gooseberry and red currant bushes are heavy with tiny baby berries. Lilacs are not in full bloom yet, but getting there, same goes for lilies in the valley in the forest. There's strawberries growing everywhere, even blueberry bushels in the forest. Rhubarb is tall and some knapweeds are growing here and there. This will also be a huge pine cone year in our yard.