We have had some roller coaster weather here this winter. The Christmas time winter wonderland melted away, giving way to frost, that turned into a snow world again overnight. We had 30cm of new snow within a few days and then the "heatwave" hit us again, melting everything away, leaving the world a wet icy mess.
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.
The warm spring days <3 We went to this dog park at Pitkäkoski today, and the day before too. There's a whole lot of hepaticas blooming in the forests there, and coltsfoot too. Trees are opening their leaves, though I'm still waiting on the birches... Catkins and pussy willows are seriously flowering. Today, I saw the first butterfly of the spring too - a bright yellow one.
In our little garden, the chives are growing. And the first bumble bee here on our own yard, too.
The Vantaa river is flowing free, has been for quite some time and througout the winter at the rapids. But there is still some icy banks left in the shady areas.
Today, we had the first cery summery rain shower of the year. There didn't even seem to be clouds on top of us, but all of a sudden a windless rain shower hit our yard, in the middle of some grilling. It was over by the time we had eaten our dinner, and we went for a walk with the dog in the evening sun, that was making shining through some scattered clouds just above the treeline.
On my lunch break today, before the rains came, I went for a walk with the dog. The sky was overcast, the ground was soddy from previous rains and melted snow and ice, but we went walking around the footpaths. Many trees are pushing out their leaves now - rain and a bit warmer again does that - and these little blue flowers I don't recognize are popping up everywhere in the neighborhood [edit. they are scilla sibericas].
Oh ok, did not spend there more than an hour or so, walking around in Seurasaari, this little island right here in Helsinki. It's got white bridges and old houses, an outdoors museum area as it is, criss-crossing paths and a lot of birds an squirrels. I used to live close by as a kid and teen, and went ther for outing every now and then. Love the place :)
The sun has melted a whole lot of the snow and ice everywhere and the rivers and streams are running mostly free again. Yesterday we walked in beatuiful sunlight down to the Vantaa river and the Myllykoski rapids, where the river banks were still covered in ice and snow, but the rapids were bouncing happily.
Yesterday morning the ground was covered with sleet again. It had been snowing in the night time, but by 9am the temperature had risen few degrees above zero and the sun was sending its rays through the clouds, warming up the ground and trees and all, melting the snow away, turning sleet into plain water. Snow on trees and bushes had already melted into droplets of water hanging heavy until they finally fell on the ground. The rest of the day was sunny but windy, until late afternoon when the clouds rolled in again.
I haven't ventured all the way to the Vantaa river since my surgery, but today we drove past it and I asked my husband to stop the car so I could snap a photo of the river while it's still frozen on our side of the bridge. On the other side of the furthermost bridge in the lower picture, the river is already flowing free, at least right there next to the road.
March snow, perfect paw print snow. Wet and heavy, slushy sleet. Last night we had some heavyish snowfall with trees all white in the morning - but by the time I was out the door with the dog, it had already turned to sleet. The snow on the trees had melted into water drops that wrer falling off the trees like rain, punching holes in the remaining sleet on the ground. Stark weather...
The little stream by the fields is running free again. Not that it was frozen for too long this winter anyway. Willows on the edges of the stream are already pushing out pussy willows. I wonder if there'll be any in the trees at Easter time, when they traditionally are picked and used in these "vitsat" that the easter trolls give away and get an easter egg or some other candy in exchenge. Kinda like trick-or-treating without tricks.
We had already started to think that winter was canceled this year for good, but yesterday the temperature went below zero and some snow came down. Not much, only a couple sentimeters and a couple degrees, but enough to make a lot of the ground white and frost the puddles and edges of the litlle ponds on the glof course. Streams have snowy levees, but it's not cold enough to freeze them yet.
The best ski tracks in town are in Paloheinä, but obviously so far this winter there's been no tracks anywhere. Yesterday, with the freeze coming in finally, they started helping the nature with snowing machines, to get the ski tracks done as soon as possible.
Today I woke up to birds chirping when my husband opened the bedroom window. It sounded like spring! The sun came out for just a little bit, but enough to encourage all the birds to go chirping in a full blown spring concert as long as we had daylight (which currently is all of 6h and 7min in here in Helsinki).
I was listening to this concert as we went for a longish walk with the dog in the early afternoon. On our walk, I noticed a bush, that actually is pushing out new leaves! I mean, not only buds, but they are turning into actual leaves! And this ditch is growing new weeds of sorts. The ground is just green all around again. And it's only January. How strange!
The trees have finally turned all colors of foliage, and the first proper rain in weeks has set in. Our neighborhood is looking like autumn.
Last week we went island-hopping in the Turku archipelago. They are islands with forests and fields, apple trees and flowers and raspberries and all sorts of other growth.
