Around the longest day of the year

The longest day of the year was a couple days ago. Not that the days are too short plus/minus a month or two from it either. Summer is a bit of a fickle thing in June. Sometimes the weather is great, sometimes the rain is great and sometimes the thunderstorms are great. 

Last weekend I was in mid-Finland at my ex-inlaws' summer place with a bunch of teens. The evening there was absolutely beautiful. Sun had already vanished behind the trees when we got there around nine but it was light outside for three more hours. The darkest point of the night here now is between one and three am. 

It's Midsummer's Eve here today. Our apple trees are growing a lot of apples, we have started a little box garden after my husband built a couple of boxes - we have tomatoes in one and basil, chives, parsley and dill in the other one - and I made some "vihdat" a while ago for the sauna in the evening. Summer is summer even when it's rainy.

Lilacs

In bloom right now!

Those lovely flowers of Midsummer Eve

It's Midsummer's Eve. This year our Midsummer is actually quite close to the insentive of the fest, the longest day of the year. Today, the day is roughly 19 hours, giving us 5 hours of "night", most of it only semi-dark dusk. On June 21st the day si a few minutes longer and then it will start ot get shorter again. Of course, in Lapland they already are and will be for a couple months still, in the nightless nights time of the year.

Here in Finland we tend to joke that our summer is short but not very snowy, that while in bible they called 40 days and 40 nights of rain a disaster we call it summer, that the old snow doesn't even melt before the days start getting shorter again (actually, this is accurate in some parts of Lapland). In Helsinki, we don't have snow, but it has been raining again for days and the temperature is barely 13-15 degrees Celsius. Pretty darned cold. But then, even though we call June Kesäkuu (summer month) in Finnish, it rarely is warm in June.

Nature, however, is beautiful. Lush, green, with flowers blooming everywhere. Berries are said to be late this year, I guess they are, but everything in our yard indicates a good berry and apple year. The other apple tree is full of tiny apple starts and the cloudberry and red currant bushes are heavy with raw berries. Our oninions are growing nicely, as are radishes and broccoli too. Didn't see potato sprouts yet, but then they haven't been in the ground for that long. Dill, parsley and oregano should be planted already. Even basil seems to be finally sprouting.

Flowers are growing like weeds. There's yellow lilies in a flower bed next to a pink rose. The Midsummer's rose on our neighbor's yard is putting out it's white flowers. Their rhododendron is in full bloom too. Daisies, knapweed, lilacs and chives  are making our yard look very Finnish indeed, with the blue and white color theme. Lilies of the valley are a bit over their best days already, but still blooming. Marigolds are growing in their bunny pots.

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.

Lilacs, berries, apple blossoms...

That yard of ours. I went out to take som photos again. The other apple tree is a cloud of flowers, bees busily buzzing from flower to flower. Gooseberry and red currant bushes are heavy with tiny baby berries. Lilacs are not in full bloom yet, but getting there, same goes for lilies in the valley in the forest. There's strawberries growing everywhere, even blueberry bushels in the forest. Rhubarb is tall and some knapweeds are growing here and there. This will also be a huge pine cone year in our yard.

Dandelions

Often times dandelions are already everywhere by mid-May. Often times lilacs are in full bloom by the end of May when schools end. Often times apple trees are blooming all May long. Despite our "heatwave" in March, spring is actually quite late this year, due to the weeks of cold and rainy weather after that first warm spell. Occasional warm days have been quite, well, occasional. Thus, dandelions are taking over our yard only now. Apple trees are only starting to bloom. Lilacs only have small flower buds. Still, summer's knocking on the door.

Apple blossoms and other flowers

I was away for a couple days and when I returned this evening, the apple trees had finally started to bloom, a little bit anyway. The other one is on a sabbatical this year, so there's only a few flowers here and there, but the other one will bear a whole lot of apples!

The lilacs between our and the neighbor's yards have buds, as do some of the lilies of the valley in the forest behind our yard. Next to them grow stellaria holosteas (great stitchworts) with their delicate little flowers.

The last of our tulips are growing in the forest, a group of three and one stray one. They are tall! At least 50cm tall beautiful ones.