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.

Sunset and pink clouds

Sun sets real early now. I was out with the dogs right when the sun dipped below the horizon, making the clouds and horizon pink and gold.

Aronia (chokeberry)

Aronia (chokeberry) is really beautiful and colorful right now. Sun is setting earlier and earlier each day.

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. 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

Sky on fire

It was a beautiful fire red sunset this evening when we were driving home from shopping. Especially behind the woods behind the neighbor house it looked like the sky was on fire!

 

Beautiful sunset

Today was a rather cold day, especially with the harsh wind again, but we went for a couple longish walks with our dog anyway. By 5pm the clouds had almost all vanished and the sun was shining low right above the treetops, ready to go down. The rays were glistening on the pure white snow that had hardened up due to the colder wearther. Quite beautiful, even if a bit uncalled for (yet not uncommon) in mid-March.

 

Last hour of daylight

We had another beautiful sunny November day. We went out walking around the fields of Haltiala and Vantaa river, saying hi to the cows bathing in the last rays of sun, and watching a bunch of magpies have their meeting in the top of a couple birches.

 

 

 

Barren trees

November has been rainy, if not as cold as most of October was. Gushing winds and pouring rain have pretty much knocked off the rest of the leaves in the birches and other trees around. Mostly overcast and wet, even when it's not raining, the weather is as dreary as November tends to be. Every now and then the sun tries to peek through the clouds a bit.

Sun setting already at 5pm or so

 

Sun climing up at 9am or so

 

Autumn sunsets and sunrises

Autumn and spring are the seasons when I most probably can witness sunrises and sunsets, here in our hemisphere. In winter time, they happen while I'm at work (and except for a few weeks in late January and early February, the sky is mostly cloudy) and in summer time, fast asleep. This September, we have been out several times bicycling, at the time of the most amazing sunsets and sunrises, with the sky partly cloudy and the sun painting the horizon in vivid colors.