Happy Advent!

Today, on the first Sunday of Advent, I want to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Advent time.

Hyvää ja rauhallista adventin aikaa!

Participating in

A month in photos: November

and

Mosaic Monday #70

and

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Ice, snow and timid sunshine

"White, gold and blue."  -  Yesterday was a charming day - sunny and with the temperature some degrees below zero (Celsius). These photos are in the order I took them during the day. I find some of them pretty nice and hope that you will enjoy them too. ♥

Wednesday around the World

Looking for beauty

Ice is starting to cover our lake.

Water on the ice and some reflections:

There is beauty also in this dark season and we know that the light will start to return very soon.

On a cool autumn morning, raindrops glisten like diamonds. This photo was taken a year ago, but I wanted to share it again.

Yesterday it looked for a moment that the clouds were parting and there was a hint of a blue sky visible. It brought to my mind this photo and one of my favourite quotations:

"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? - it is the same the angels breathe." Mark Twain in Roughing It (1872).

Osallistun näillä kuvilla Pieni Lintu -blogin MakroTex-haasteeseen.

Tämän viikon teemana on "harrastus". Aiheen innostamana valitsin ensin urheiluharrastuksen ja otin lähikuvia tennispalloista ja mailan jänteistä, mutta ei se tuntunut hyvältä valinnalta  -  onhan tämä puutarha- ja luontokuvablogi. Sitten tein retkeilyaiheisen postauksen (linkki), mutta en osallistu sillä haasteeseen, koska kuvat eivät ole minun ottamiani.

Nämä kuvat liittyvät siis... valokuvausharrastukseeni! :) Niin usein kuin pystyn, kiertelen ympäristössä telezoomin kanssa ja yritän löytää kaunista ja mielenkiintoista kuvattavaa. Pidän kauko-objektiivilla kuvaamisesta, koska se tuo esiin näkymiä joita ei muuten tulisi huomanneeksi.

Koetan löytää kuviin värejä ja valoa ja tunnelmaa. Kunpa kuviin voisi liittää myös luonnon ääniä ja tuoksuja tai vaikka raikasta ilmaa! Tänä syksynä on ollut ihanaa ulkoilla leudossa säässä ja puhtaassa ilmassa.

Adventtiaika alkaa aivan pian.

There are only few days left till the first Sunday in Advent! Yesterday I went to cut a Christmas tree in the forest and brought it home. We will put it up in front of the entrance and decorate after some days. It will be lovely to stay outside in the darkening evening twilight. One can spend blissful moments there contemplating the stars, or the clouds, or the Christmas lights...

♥

Participating also in

Roses of Inspiration #41

Kuusi kuvaa kesästä - Summer 2015 revisited

Pikkuinen puutarhani -blogin Sametti Hortensia haastoi minut mukaan "Kuusi kuvaa kesästä"           -haasteeseen. Kiitos!

Vaikka alkukesä oli kylmä ja sateinen ja esimerkiksi monet kukkivat pensaat jättivät kukkimisen väliin tänä vuonna, minullakin on satoja kesäkuukausina otettuja kuvia. Lopullisen valinnan tein sillä perusteella, että jokaisessa kuvassa pitäisi näkyä ainakin hieman auringonpaistetta.  Sitähän ei olekaan taas muutamaan viikkoon täällä päin nähty... :)

Olen lähettänyt blogiystävilleni erilaisia haasteita viime aikoina niin monta kertaa, että tällä kerralla en jatka haastetta kenellekään erityisesti. Kesäkuvianne olisi tosi mukavaa katsella. Jos lähdet mukaan, kerro siitä kommentissasi!

I have chosen six photos taken last summer to participate in the photo challenge forwarded to me by the lovely Sametti Hortensia. Regular readers of my blog may remember that spring and summer arrived late to this part of the country and that June and July were cool and rainy. However, there were of course also beautiful, sunny moments. Here you can see some of my favourites.

♥

Ihanaa sunnuntaita!

Have a lovely Sunday!

♥

Hobby: hiking

This post has been inspired by the next weeks's MakroTex challenge. The theme is hobby. Hmm, which one to choose among all those leisure activities I love? After changing my mind several times, I chose hiking and trekking, also to be able to post photos of plants and landscapes, my favourites and what this blog is about.

We love walking in beautiful natural environments, especially hilly and mountainous. The most recent photos haven't been taken by me, but I post them with the kind permission of the family member that took them (in August) in Piedmont, Italy. Thank you, D.!

Recently I read about the Leave No Trace movement, which offers a set of guidelines for low-impact hiking:

"Leave nothing but footprints.

Take nothing but photos.

Kill nothing but time.

Keep nothing but memories".

Have a lovely day!

Five on Friday

Five photos for Amy's Five on Friday: it's snowing and we are enjoying the life indoors.

Breakfast?

Hello! Tuesday is the MakroTex photo challenge day! This week's theme is breakfast.

What you see here is not (all) the truth of my breakfast...  I don't drink my coffee black, but I think in photos a black coffee looks better than a caffè latte.  Secondly, these photos were taken at noon, because it's November and it's still dark outside when we Finns have our breakfast. :)

Not very happy with my breakfast photos, I posted only three of them. To cheer myself up, I add some photos of our "autumn lights". It's not long before we can put up the winter/ Christmas ones. :)

And we already have snow!

♥ Wishing you a serene day. ♥