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.

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.

Wild strawberries

We've got a whole lot of wild strawberries growing all around our yard.

Those fabulous tulips

Those red tulips have been floweriing absolutely beautifully on our backyard for some time now. In the sun they open up big like wine goblets. Unfortunately, everything comes to an end at some point, even tulips. Many of them have started to wilt and the rest of them look like they soon will, too. They're still quite fabulous though!

Many of the seeds we planted way back when are groing nicely already, like radishes and sunflowers. Some not at all yet, like basil, eg.

Apple blossoms still have not opened. I'm a bit impatient, I know ;) Oh, and we'll get some strawberries too :)

Cherry blossoms

I would love to have a cherry tree (or two or...) in my yard. For now I need to consent to taking pics of other people's cherry trees. There is a couple lovely ones, in full bloom, just down the road. There I walked, with the dogs and my phone, this time.

The forest behind us is in constant change now. The hepatica are starting to vanish, a whole lot of lilies in the valley are pushing curled up leaves through the ground. Soon we'll have a forest of them lilies of the valley there. I don't mind, I like them!

In our own yard, I find new stuff every day. Today, I noticed some strawberries growing next to the ramp to the garage. Also, som purple and white flowers I don't know the name of are spreading around the tulips.

Down by the sea

With our garden so shriveled up this year, the Seasons Diary has been more quiet this summer than it has ever been. Oh, well. Summer is still searing hot, even though it's nearly mid-August already. Next week should start the rainy cooler season, according to the forecasts. Cooler being day temperatures around 21-23C whereas they have been like 26-30 for weeks now. It is humid - 50-70% or so - making the still-moderate temperatures feel even hotter. Sweaty I would say.

The sea with its never stopping breeze is always a good choice when the going gets hot. A couple weeks ago we spent the weekend at our friends' island, and yesterday we drove down the Porkkala peninsula to enjoy the sunny Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strawberries

We've been eating strawberries from our own garden one here, another there, but today I collected all the ripe ones and there was enough of them for a little pie :)

 

 

Cold cold summer

Our summer so far has really not been a warm one. Rain, and temperatures between +10 and +15C in the day time making our summer only a few degrees warmer than last winter was! Night temperatures have been below +10C constantly for 2-3 weeks already, killing nearly everything in our garden. The only thing prospering despite the cold are the strawberries, native to our stark country.

 

 

Summer at last

It's finally summer, with the night temperatures staying above +10C too. Things in our garden grow nicely: beans, both planted and wild flowers, strawberries and the midsummer night's rose bloom and we already made our first rocket salad out of our own rucola. 

Today we put our zucchinis, cucumbers and tomatoes to the ground (not pots this time), and basil into big garden boxes. We also planted some thyme and oregano and some more salad too.

Besides the rucola and onions growing for the second year unexpectedly, we also have found a couple real surprises in our garden. A little maple is growing in one of last year's pots, and I found a little yellow violet growing in last year's onion bed. I salvaged it to a pot before turning and cleaning the dirt for the zucchinis and cucumbers.

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.

 

Snow coming down

It sure has been coming down today, the sleety snow or something. Very wet, but staying on the ground somewhat. Most of our plants have died in the garden long ago, the last unused peppers rotting in place, everything losing their leaves. But not the strawberries, even when covered with snow. And not the rosemary either, tough thing as it is.

 

Autumn at Loppi

Another weekend, another hike. We walked an about eight kilometer hike at Luutasuo, a trail that goes through some bog and marsh, by a couple ponds, and climbs up some steep hills of taiga - boreal coniferous forest - formed by the ice retreating after the Ice Age.

 

Despite the drought of this year, there were plenty of different kinds of mushrooms, most of them already on the decaying side. I also found some blooming strawberries, confused by the extended warm season.

 

 

From our summer place

Blueberries are ripe, but it's been such a dry summer that they are small and hardly juicy. Strawberry season is almost over. Harebells are blooming.

 

A lone duck lady more or less lives at our summer place. It naps on our peer and comes to the yard to ask for some bread when the algae of the lake isn't enough to take away the hunger.

 

Harvesting

We went to visit my sister for some grilling and such and took with us some zucchinis, eggplants, zucchini flowers (stuffed with feta cheese), the first ripe tomato, basil and and salads - a little bit of harvesting of our garden :)

 

The sugar peas are full of ripe peas, while the beans have just started to produce flowers. Strawberries, every day there's a few new ripe delicious ones!