First icycle

Yesterday we had the first real freeze of the autumn, and some icycles were hanging from the edges of drains.

First snow

First snow came down on Friday. November became instantly prettier even though I don't really like snow per se. The snow came down thick and wet, as the temperature was only right there at zero degrees C. It piled on berries and apples that are still hanging on to their tree branches. It was a fluffy 10-15cm that is bound to be gone by Tuesday; the temperature is already on the plus side again and should climb up to +5C or so according to the weather forecast. These November snows rarely stay on the ground for more than a few days.

 

 

 

 

Snow at Nurmijärvi

Last day of November. In Helsinki, some sort of wet sleet is coming down, melting when it hits the ground. But 30km north, at Nurmijärvi, it was snowing.

 

 

Last hour of daylight

We had another beautiful sunny November day. We went out walking around the fields of Haltiala and Vantaa river, saying hi to the cows bathing in the last rays of sun, and watching a bunch of magpies have their meeting in the top of a couple birches.

 

 

 

Windy Sunday

Sunday was really windy here. Actually, as I learned when I got around to reading the news, it was classified as a storm, "Eino". Apparently Eino has caused a lot of havoc (in the Finnish scale, which is really nothing compared to the storms of the "big world", e.g. at the Philippines or the twisters the U.S.), cutting of electricity from a couple hundred thousand households due to fallen trees etc. It was the worst in Eastern Finland; I here only noticed the wind pulling my car and the flags in front of Ikea blowing sideways.

 

November sunrise and full moon

November is mostly rainy and gray, unless we already have snow on the ground. That is, however, quite rare here in southern Finland where the snowy winter time usually begins around Christmas. Sometimes mother nature surprises us, though, and last weekend, and even still yesterday, was fully sunny - those few hours of daylight that we get.

On Saturday I happened to be on the road when the (1 day short of) full moon had just came up, the sun still setting on the opposite side of the skyline.

 

So, yesterday morning I walked down the stairs, at approximately 7:20, to the view of sun rising behind the houses, making the world a bright orange.

 

Ice art

Leaves on the hood and windshield of the Mercedes, frozen into the icy swirls created by the nightly freeze after a rainy day.

 

Barren trees

November has been rainy, if not as cold as most of October was. Gushing winds and pouring rain have pretty much knocked off the rest of the leaves in the birches and other trees around. Mostly overcast and wet, even when it's not raining, the weather is as dreary as November tends to be. Every now and then the sun tries to peek through the clouds a bit.

Sun setting already at 5pm or so

 

Sun climing up at 9am or so