Colors of Autumn

Our autumn this year has been a rather warm one so far. Still, the dropping night temperatures have slowly but surely started to turn nature into autumny colors. On Sunday we went outing in Nuuksio National Park, where there were still some blueberries (bilberries, really) in the bushes. Streets and trails are covered in fallen leaves - even though the trees still look pretty green. Aronia (chokeberry) is of the most beautiful autumn sights, with its leaves turning bright red and mauve, in contrast with the near black berries.

Rainy December

Snow came and went. December has (so far) mostly been relatively warm and rainy. Today the sun came out though, like it did maybe once last week too. We have all of six hours of daylight currently, so the sun rises around 9AM and sets around 3PM. 

From the countryside

We spent the weekend a bit over an hour's drive up north from Helsinki, in the countryside, by a lake. The days were a bit windy, but we got to enjoy a lovely light late evening when the wind died by ten. The night up there is shorter than down here, even though the distance is a mere 120km or so. There was a whole lot of flowers in bloom and the red currants were ripe,or even beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pollen and pretty skies

Yesterday I was sitting on our deck in the sun with my laptop, and noticed something green falling down like light rain. Birch pollen! I believe this to be a pretty bad birch pollen year... But birches are not the only trees blooming. This big maple in the neighbor's yard, right next to our driveway turned green overnight and is full of green flowers now!

 

It is almost May and the days here are long. The sun rose today at 5:23 and has been below the horizon only for about twenty minutes now, as it set at 21:16. It is still light outside. We were coming home from grocery stores at approximately eight pm and the sun was low but above the tree line, shining through some cool clouds.

 

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.

 

January sun

November and December are usually the rainy, cloudy winter (or late autumn) months, whereas January brings the sunny winter days. Days like today. No clouds in the sky, the sun rose from behind the horizon like a fireball. The days are getting longer in leaps and bounds; the length of our day is almost eight hours again. Moving toward the spring and summer again <3

 

Chirping birds, leaves on bushes

Today I woke up to birds chirping when my husband opened the bedroom window. It sounded like spring! The sun came out for just a little bit, but enough to encourage all the birds to go chirping in a full blown spring concert as long as we had daylight (which currently is all of 6h and 7min in here in Helsinki).

I was listening to this concert as we went for a longish walk with the dog in the early afternoon. On our walk, I noticed a bush, that actually is pushing out new leaves! I mean, not only buds, but they are turning into actual leaves! And this ditch is growing new weeds of sorts. The ground is just green all around again. And it's only January. How strange!