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.

Around the forest path

Lilies of the valley are starting to put out flowers. The first shy ones are already open, some have only buds, but most none yet. White dead-nettles are in full bloom as are a whole lot of other flowers in the forest, and the buckeyes too. Wild strawberries have flowers, whereas those garden ones in our yard have none yet.

 

Decaying frosty leaves

Another frosty morning today, after a week of rain. Leaves have started to decay, but today they were covered with frost. A couple of oak and buckeye leaves have found their way to the the otherwise birch and maple leaf ridden sidewalk by our house, from trees a little way down the street.

 

Ghost trees

Yesterday we went roller blading, and I saw first hand what the news had been talking about: the River Vantaa bank was full of ghostly trees, covered in that locust web. Today we walked to the store underneath a webbed tree, hanging over the path looking like something from a cemetery in a Halloween movie. With a little bit closer inspection I could see the little worms eating away the leaves of a maple. I guess there wasn't enough buckeye on offer.

Flowers in the neighborhood

Another walk around the neighborhood, new flowers blooming.

Buckeye

White dead-nettle

Locust attack

We encountered some strange looking trees on our walk yesterday: trees covered in web and almost completely already eaten by locust.