Spring!

I most definitely is spring now! We have started the grilling season. Birds are chirping. Sun is shining brightly, warming up the world. Some trees have got their first buds. Flowers are popping out. Tulips and crocusi and some other stuff is growing in our yard too. So lovely!

Signs of spring

Spring is early this year. Our yard is mostly snow and ice free already and it's not even March yet! Not that I wouldn't know that a new batch of snow can attack any day until April or so... Flowers are coming up here and there, practically through the last bits of ice and snow.

Spring-like

These past days have been like March rather than February, with temperatures above zero, sun and rain altrenating, ice and snow melting fast. Some mystery bulbs next to the southern wall of our house have sprouted already, pushing out through the sun-warmed ground.

Fickle February

February this year has been going bakc and forth, some days a few degrees below zero and snowing, some days a few degrees above zero and raining. Sun hasn't shown itself to us too often at all this winter, and the gloom creeps on. Today, however, has been a sunny day for a change, and it immediatelly shows in my mood and energy to do things.

 

Ice and water

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.

 

From winter wonderland to frost

Our winter wonderland gave way to plus degrees and wet ice. The ground was treacherously slippery for several days until everything froze again and new snow covered the world. Not as much snow, only a few centimeters dry frosty snow that squeaks under your shoes. No fluff on the trees either, but tiny ice crystals that glisten in the January sun.

Ice art in the mud room windows

Snowy rotten apples

Our apple trees have been snow crusted for days now. Yesterday I noticed there were still some rotten apples hanging tightly from a branch there, apples with snow caps.

Sunny Christmas Day

Clear skies means colder days. Temperature dropped nearly 10 degrees C in one night, but as a result, we have had a beautifully sunny Christmas Day here. Now, at 2pm, the sun is slowly setting, after staying just above the horizon for some four to five hours or so. It will be dark in less than two hours.

Winter wonderland

This year we here in Finland don't need to dream of a white Christmas. We have one. Truly, like something our of a Disney movie, just see for yourself:

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.