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.

All sorts of flowers

Spring is turning to summer. Apple trees were at their best last week and now have dropped their petals. Lilies of the valley have filled the forest behind our house. Lilacs are in full bloom. Daisies are already in second generation, first one having sent it's seeds flying. Nature is at its best.

Still just about to bloom, a week ago

Friends' crab apple tree, still looking good

From blossoms to blooming

Apple trees, naturally, I still don't have that cherry tree I've been dreaming of since I was 12 and visited Japan. Apple trees in our yard are the next best thing, though. Extremely pretty when blooming. Those little pink blossoms have not all opened yet, but they're getting there. 

Wilds strawberries are im flower too. And butterflies and bees are buzzing around in the dandelions and other flowers.

Apple blossoms

I was away on a business trip for a few days and when I came back home, our apple trees were full of green little leaves and pink little blossoms. The red currant and ghostberry bushes have leaves and little flowers too. This morning I saw a lonely bumblebee doing his job pollinating the red currant.

Green stuff

Our nature does not seaze to amaze me with its flexibility when it comes to the temperatures in spring. It has been real cold these past days, but the rain then and sun now have caused another burst in the green. Bushes and the earliest trees are pushing out leaves and flowers keep popping up everywhere.

Wood anemonies

Wood anemonies have started to pop out now too. Spring seems to be pretty late and slow this year, but the flowers are pushing out anyway. That's the way it goes here in the northern hemisphere. The plants are probably way better adjusted to the unrelenting cold than most of us people. 

More flowers in the yard

It's the time of the year, when the yard changes every day. Today I noticed that our narcissi have started to bloom. There's also some blue flowers here and there. This bush at the edge of the hedge next to our driveway is in bloom too.

Flowers, mushrooms and colorful leaves

During this past week, the birches have turned all yellow. Yesterday was a very beautiful, very warm autumn day, today was a bit cooler, though mostly sunny. Yesterday we went hiking through some forests for a few hours, today our dogs were tired, so we only went walking around here a few times. Despite the autumn pushing, there's still flowers blooming here and there - yesterday we walked past a meadow full of flowers - with bees and other insects buzzing around. Mushrooms are popping up and climbing ivy on the balcony railing of our neighbor looks fantastic in its magentas and purples.

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Garden and flowers

On Sunday I finally got around to doing some bigger pot planting. The summer having been so poor, the motivation for gardening is real low. On Sunday, anyway, I planted some basil, parsley cucumber, pepper, aubergine and courgettes into slightly bigger pots. The size of pots that can be taken inside, come autumn. None of those will be producing anything during this summer. 

The potatoes and onions are doing quite ok, radishes not so much even though they have grown huge leaves; the ground is too tough for them to grow properly with all the clay. We'll get a lot of apples, despite the locusts in the trees, I'm sure, and wild strawberries are growing wildly.

Despite the weather, flowers in our yard seem to be doing quite well.

Yesterday I visited my grandma at our summerplace. It was a rainy day, but I enjoyed being there. The huge rhododendron there is at the end of its blooming, most flowers have wilted already, some are still looking nice.