Birds and flowers

I absolutely love spring. When the first (and only, as far as I know) crocus opens its flower in our yard, when trees start to get their little buds, when an orchestra of birds chirp and wagtails, starlings and blakcbirds hop on our lawn, when rhubarb pushes its wrinkly sprouts through the still cold dirt, when sun feels warm and wonderful on exposed skin. 

Hepatica

Hepaticas have popped up here and there in the forest and next to our garage door.

First flowers of the spring

Over the past couple days snow has melted almost completely in our yard and now it smells like spring, looks like spring, even sounds like spring with the birds chirping way into the late evening. Bunnies are actively looking for mates, invading our yard too, driving our dogs crazy. Tulips are pushing through the barely melted ground and the first scilla sibericas are now blooming. The apple trees have pushed out the tiniest of buds.

Narcissi and crocusi in Brussels

I travelled to Brussels on a business trip last week and though it was colder than usual, not much warmer that it has been in Finland lately, there was no snow and crocusi and narcissi had popped up and were blooming here and there.

Another snowfall

Yesterday and even last night we had a new snowfall. The temperature being above zero, be it ever so slightly, and the sun shining today warming everything its rays touch, even this snow is rapidly turning into a watery mess. I drove past the Vantaa river and stopped to take a couple pics of the river, currently not flooding but the water is pretty high.

Snow melted again

It was a deja vu. We had heavy(ish) snowfall, nice white ground for a week or so and then came the plus degrees and rain. 

Snow's gone

Only a week ago we had a good 40-50cm of snow here after the Sunday blizzard. Then the temperature rose above zero and it started to rain and now the snow is mostly melted away. The sidewalks are treacherously slippery with all that wet ice and it feels like spring.

Snowy but less freezing

The temperature has risen some 15 degrees and is closing in on 0C. It's still a couple degrees below, so whatever rain comes down (and today is seriously does) is still snow. Almost perfect snowman snow, but we don't have any snowman makers in the household anymore. Teens couldn't care less.

Yesterday was a nice day for a little bit longer walk outside. Not so cold anymore, only slight wind, no snowfall and the world still pretty with the snow heavy on tree branches. So out we went, to a dog park where the dogs had a jolly good time running and playing around and getting their snouts all snowy and icy, while I was shooting some photos of them and snow and icycles hanging from the house next to the park. 

Winter wonderland

The Siberian winter hit Fnland. Temperature dipped to -25C even here in Helsinki, and a whole lot lower up north. Our world froze and then it started to snow. Now it's "only" -13C - which felt almost warm after the -25! - and snow has been fluttering down in a slow but steady pace. We have a winter wonderland here now.

Frozen

We still have no snow, but we have a lot of frost and ice. The air has been humid for a long time and now that it froze, the moisture froze into ice art on grass and the roofs of cars and everywhere.