First week of summer

Come summer (according to the calendar) and the weather turns cold again. Our first week of summer saw strong winds, even a storm in central and northern parts of Finland and day temperatures of 8 and 10 degrees C. Still, due to the warm May a whole lot of plants are ahead of their schedule. Like the strawberries in our yard. I picked the first ones already last weekend. 

For a while I was a bit worried about our apple crop this year, since I myself didn't really notice too many bees buzzing around, but to me it looks like most of the flowers are turning into apples after all. Today I planted a new black currant bush to our yard but otherwise our garden stuff is hopelessly late. My husband is planning on building some garden boxes that stand high enough that the rabbits don't get to our plants. 

Anyway, our yard looks nice with the roses and yellow lilies and daisies etc. beautifully blooming. And we have a regular guest in our yard: a pheasant that thinks it's a rooster.

Birds and flowers

I absolutely love spring. When the first (and only, as far as I know) crocus opens its flower in our yard, when trees start to get their little buds, when an orchestra of birds chirp and wagtails, starlings and blakcbirds hop on our lawn, when rhubarb pushes its wrinkly sprouts through the still cold dirt, when sun feels warm and wonderful on exposed skin. 

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.

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!

Spring and sun are here again

Sun came back bringing the warmth of spring here again. Crocusi are blooming, tulips are pushing out buds, first trees and bushes are getting leaves, our apple tree has small red buds and the blackbirds have returned. The nature is waking up and our yard is full of surprises!

Spring in Seurasaari

We went for another outing in Seurasaari today. It was a beautiful sunny day, but quite windy. Seagulls were plenty, and we saw some swans too. Some trees already have buds, leaves ready to pop out any time now.

 

 

 

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 :)

 

 

 

 

Snowfall again

Our weather system just can't make up it's mind this year. Every few days it flips from winter to spring and to winter again. So, we have snow coming down again. It's mostly melting, though, as soon as it hits the ground, but the obviusly cold night has done it's deeds and the little brookes are frozen again, and the snow does stay on the grassy areas and on top of the ice of course.

Even the snowfall cannot undo the part of spring where buds are already on some bushes and birds are chirping and hopping around trying to find food after returning from their winter stay in some warmer place. Once they're back, they don't leave again until next autumn.

 

Blackbird has spoken

The sun keeps trying to penetrate the veil of clouds and mist evaporating from the melting ground. Dirt roads are muddy, grassy lawns and parks are wet, water is floating everywhere as the little bit of snow and ice we had this winter is melting away. The daily temperature has risen to +5C and it 's supposed to be getting even warmer today or tomorrow, at least for some days.

First blackbirds have returned from their winter excursion and are keeping their springly concert as they're hopping around under the bushes and at the edges of yards and parks. Our day is 10 hours long already again. In a week it'll be officially spring time.