First flowers of the spring

Over the past couple days snow has melted almost completely in our yard and now it smells like spring, looks like spring, even sounds like spring with the birds chirping way into the late evening. Bunnies are actively looking for mates, invading our yard too, driving our dogs crazy. Tulips are pushing through the barely melted ground and the first scilla sibericas are now blooming. The apple trees have pushed out the tiniest of buds.

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.

Squirrel in the blooming maple

All them squirrels in the trees next to our backyard are driving our dogs absolutely crazy. Mostly the squirrels seem to stay in the huge fir trees, but today a couple of them were scurrying up and down the blooming maple right at the edge of our yard.

Our apple trees are getting ready to blossom. Every day I wonder if maybe today... 

Birches and our garden

Birches are turning green. The ultimate sign of spring for me! Some are already very green, other types of birches are only getting there, some aren't even remotely green yet. The birches in our neighbor's yard are of the first type, those two latter ones can be found in our yard. 

In our yard, the flowers continue to bloom, tulips are the size of tea cups, and the apple trees are pushing out green and the surprise-berry-bushes have leaves. I found a ladybug snuggled in the nook of a twig on the other tree. A couple of pheasants came for a visit.

Our little starts of a garden have started to sprout, at least some of the stuff we planted. Broccoli, sunflowers, radishes, a cucumber or two, marigolds, chives at least. The nights have still been too cold for basil, parsley, dill, peppers et al.

We live inside the city limits of Helsinki, but we really don't live IN the CITY. I'm loving it!

Down by the sea

With our garden so shriveled up this year, the Seasons Diary has been more quiet this summer than it has ever been. Oh, well. Summer is still searing hot, even though it's nearly mid-August already. Next week should start the rainy cooler season, according to the forecasts. Cooler being day temperatures around 21-23C whereas they have been like 26-30 for weeks now. It is humid - 50-70% or so - making the still-moderate temperatures feel even hotter. Sweaty I would say.

The sea with its never stopping breeze is always a good choice when the going gets hot. A couple weeks ago we spent the weekend at our friends' island, and yesterday we drove down the Porkkala peninsula to enjoy the sunny Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunny day by the sea

Oh ok, did not spend there more than an hour or so, walking around in Seurasaari, this little island right here in Helsinki. It's got white bridges and old houses, an outdoors museum area as it is, criss-crossing paths and a lot of birds an squirrels. I used to live close by as a kid and teen, and went ther for outing every now and then. Love the place :)

 

 

 

 

First snow

First snow fell down tonight here in Helsinki too. Our new family member Meggie didn't mind it at all. Kinda nice in my opinion too, makes the world slightly less dark.

 

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.

 

 

 

The geese again

I thought the geese went south after flocking these fields the last time in August. But either they came back, or this is a new bigger flock, or, well something, but anyhow, there were hundreds and hundreds of geese on the fields today.

 

From the zoo

We went to the zoo today. Most animals were just sleeping in the shade.