Snowy but less freezing

The temperature has risen some 15 degrees and is closing in on 0C. It's still a couple degrees below, so whatever rain comes down (and today is seriously does) is still snow. Almost perfect snowman snow, but we don't have any snowman makers in the household anymore. Teens couldn't care less.

Yesterday was a nice day for a little bit longer walk outside. Not so cold anymore, only slight wind, no snowfall and the world still pretty with the snow heavy on tree branches. So out we went, to a dog park where the dogs had a jolly good time running and playing around and getting their snouts all snowy and icy, while I was shooting some photos of them and snow and icycles hanging from the house next to the park. 

Oak

The cool of the autumn still hasn't gotten all of the trees to drop their leaves. Like this oak here, mostly green still.

Then again, most of the maples have dropped all of their leaves already.

Pussy willows and sunny days

We've had some wonderfully sunny and unseasonably warm days here lately. I can't remember another March, when I would've been out in the yard in a tee-shirt! Ok, it's not more that 8 degrees C in the shade, but the sun is sweet and warm. Night time temperatures still drop below zero, which is totally normal in March. 

We have been cooking outside every day - this might turn out to be a 7-8 month grilling season! unheard of! - and yesterday we built a trampoline on our yard. Today we installed our new garden hose, I washed my car and then we took the dogs to the dog park, where there was a whole lot more snow still on the ground than in our yard (there's only a small patch) and the pussy willows were all out. 

Frosty morning

This autumn was half of an autumn for quite some time, until last week leaves started to fall, and this week the temperatures dropped, at least temporarily. This morning was the first frosty one.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset and lilacs

When I was a kid, I used to love lilacs. I thought they were very beautiful, and furthermore, I liked to suck the pistil from the flowers. For some reason I later on have started to believe that they are, while still maybe quite nice looking, nothing special because of how common they are here. So I haven't even taken any photos of them this year. Until yesterday. They have been blooming for several weeks already, and the flowers have started falling off now.

 

 

We have reached the weeks of nearly nightless nights, with the sun dipping below the horizon only for a few hours. The evening skies are quite beautiful when the sun hangs low just above the horizon, coloring the clouds and trees with a very special June light spectrum.

 

 

Beans, apple blossoms and other flowers

Spring is rapidly turning into summer. While it is still May, the nature is in full summer mode. We have +26C in the day time, and even during the night the temperature doesn't drop below 15 degrees. Everything is in flower. Apple trees, dandelions (many of them already turned to those white balls already), all sorts of little road side flowers, hedges and vines in peoples yards, and rhododendrons and tulips (many of which are already beyond) et al. And trees are heavy with catkins, though birches seem to be past the worst.

Yesterday I went to the stables at Nurmijärvi with my eldest daughter; there are many apple trees there, starting to bloom, whereas here they are already in full bloom. Today I walked aroud our neighborhood with our dog and my camera.

Also, our beans and last year's rucola (I guess it dropped a whole lot of seeds!) are growing nicely :) Hosta undulatas on our yard are growig fast too, and those flower seeds I planted a week ago are starting to sprout.

 

 

 

 

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.