Maalla - Slowing down

Seitsemän maissa aamulla mittari näyttää reilusti yli kahtakymmentä astetta ja kosteus saa ilman tuntumaan lämpimämmältä. Aurinko paistaa vielä matalalta. Jo harmaantunut kesänaapuri näkyy puuhailevan jotain pihansa koristepensaiden luona. Toinen naapuri kävelee tiellä pitkässä kesämekossa. Nautin lyhyestä pyörälenkistä. Kaikki tuntuu hidastuvan.

Pilviverho tekee lämmöstä lempeän. Minullakin on hihaton kesämekko ylläni. Hetkeksi tuulenvire järveltä voimistuu, pehmeä lämpö ympäröi ihmisen. Jälleen toivon osaavani lentää. :) Täällä päin näkyy muuten perhosia enemmän kuin vuosikausiin ‒ tai -kymmeniin.

Pyykkiä tulee vähän, koska näiden viikkojen vaatteet ovat pieniä ja/tai ohuita. Iltaisin tuoksuu välimerelliseltä. Ja kuitenkin toivon hartaasti viileämpää säätä ja sadetta, ihmisten ja eläinten hyvinvoinnin ja turvallisuuden takia, puutarhojen, maanviljelyksen ja metsien takia.

Kesäkurpitsaa riittäisi syötäväksi melkein joka päivä. Syömme myös kukkia. :)

On tehty jäätelöä, pizzoja ja hampurilaisia.

On juotu nostalgista limpparia.

Hello dear readers, I hope you are well. The 2021 Western North America heatwave has saddened us very much. Also in Finland, we now need to deal with exceptionally high temperatures that are also exceptionally persistent.

As some of you know, I'm a caregiver for an elderly person with multiple morbidities. For a carer, taking care of your own health and wellbeing is very important. :) I have noticed that one of the things that most helps me unwind is browsing photos (printed or digital) of country homes, cottages and their decor.

Country Living is one of my favourite magazines.  They publish also lovely bookazines.

"Bookazines combine all that people find pleasing about magazines

—the glossy pages, beautiful photos and easy-to-read layouts—

with the permanence, niche appeal and price-point of books." :)

(From: Macmillan Dictionary)

The comments section is open for this post, but please notice that it will take time before I manage to visit you back! Stay safe and well!!

Olen huomannut, että arjen keskellä taloista, mökeistä ja niiden sisustuksesta haaveileminen virkistää minua erityisen paljon. Maalla-lehden kesänumero "Mökki" on mukavaa luettavaa ja katseltavaa (vaikkei se 82-sivuisena minusta kyllä mikään "bookazine" ole, vaikka sitä niin kutsutaan). Pidin erityisesti jutusta punaisesta mökistä, josta omistaja oli haaveillut jo pitkään:

Minulla on nyt punaisesta-tuvasta-haaveilu-kausi. Pinterest-kuvakokoelmissani punaisia mökkejä onkin useimmissa kansioissani:

Vuodenaikojen vaihtelu on ihanaa - syksyiset kuvat alkavat taas viehättää...

... ja joulukin on jo mielessä! :)

 

Lopuksi välitän edelleen saamani hauskan Instagram-vinkin: Yhdyssanansaattaja julkaisee viikoittain huumoria suomen kielen oikeinkirjoituksesta. Ilman Instagram-tiliä (tai Facebook-kirjautumista) kuvia ei voi klikata auki, mutta useimmat pystyy lukemaan siitä huolimatta. 

Hyvää vointia kaikille!

"Meanwhile in Finland" and other photos

We had some more snow yesterday...

Birds still appreciate our help.

"Transforming into pure light..." :)

When I was a child, I used to admire the clouds behind "our" lake and wish they were mountains. Well, then I moved to a beautiful area between the Alps and the Apennines.

However, every time I see dark clouds on the horizon, I entertain myself thinking they are mountains.

The pink clouds could be smoke from a volcano... :)

Other dreams: spring, in old photos.

Have a great day!

Tänään avajaiset ja ensimmäiset lyhytohjelmat! :)

29 March - 2 April, www.helsinki2017.com/

From start to success :)

The topic of the first MakroTex challenge of this year is BEGINNING. I decided to choose a gardening theme.

In the beginning, there's a dream, fed by emotions, history and memories... and by books, magazines and catalogues... :)

Then there's much work.

Source: Internet

Knowledge, skills and good luck would be useful as well - and yet success is not guaranteed. :)

MakroTex-haasteen aiheena on tällä viikolla ALKU. Koetin keksiä, miten teemaan voisi yhdistää puutarhakuvia. 

Alussa on ideoita ja haaveita, joita sitten yritetään toteuttaa... 

Tämän postauksen kuvat eivät ole uusia. Mukana on jopa kaksi paperikuvasta skannattua kuvaa ja allaolevista "unelmakuvista" osa on Italiasta.

Wisteria floribunda 'Longissima Alba'

Robinia pseudoacacia

Laburnum anagyroides

"If the plan doesn't work,

change the plan, not the goal."

Happy New Year!

Onnellista uutta vuotta!

A wish, a dream, and a promise

A good title, isn't it? (It brings to my mind The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.)  The title and this post have been inspired by the lovely post Toive, unelma ja lupaus vuodelle 2016 (and the related challenge) on the wonderful Ruusunmekko Garden blog. Many Finnish garden bloggers have already written posts about their wishes for the new gardening year... posts accompanied by truly enchanting photos.

I have been posting almost every day recently. I still wanted to publish this post, because it has been waiting for some time already. Now I'll slow down and concentrate on visiting and commenting...

Dreams are pink (and rosy), aren't they?

At the moment, I wish especially that the plants (mine and yours) would survive this harsh and capricious winter. The temperatures have been around -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) for quite a while and and in the beginning there was very little snow. We are lucky to live near a lake, however; there was a layer of snow (very light and fluffy) on the ice, and armed with a snow shovel, a large plastic tub and a pink plastic sled, I collected some to protect the most delicate plants. I had tried to protect them using dry leaves, burlap etc., but the weather conditions have been more challenging than expected. Fortunately, we finally received some more snow.

We'll see. Gardeningwise, last spring and summer weren't very successful  and one was hoping for a better year. Otherwise,  I will need to start to recycle old photos from the previous years (oh no!).

I'm dreaming of my present/future garden looking a little bit like my previous garden, lush and vigorous, but also something more... magical. A garden with climbing roses, hidden meadows with wildflowers, and secret paths out to the woodland beyond. A garden where fairies come at light summer nights and plant seeds picked from distant enchanted forests and where in moonlit winter nights wood sprites and hares dance in a circle. :)

I promise to try to choose the right plants to the right place, considering our climate, the soil, light requirements, the cold and wind tolerance... and I  promise to ignore this promise if, in my pursuit of beauty, I meet something completely irresistible, like honeysuckles. I promise, however, to try to make all my plants happier.

♥

Even though the new year is already well on its way, it's good to pause and reflect on the goals to set for the next months.

Many of you already know Donna's inspiring blog Living From Happiness. Just before the New Year, Donna chooses a word to guide her through the coming year. Her word for this year is "Innovate". You can read her thoughts about inspiration, change, and creativity for example in these interesting posts: Innovation in 2016 and My Manifesto: An Innovative Life in 2016.

"For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." (T.S. Eliot)

♥

Wishing you bright and cheerful winter days...

as well as beautiful but not too hot days

to the friends on the southern side of the globe!

Dreaming

Photo: Disney

One of my all time favourite films was shown on TV today. "Ice Princess" is a 2005 American figure-skating film directed by Tim Fywell and starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall and Hayden Panettiere.

I'm not dreaming of becoming an ice princess, but like every country girl born and raised in a cold country, I love ice skating, especially on a lake. :)

With these collages, I participate in Mosaic Monday, one of my favourite link parties.

What I'm dreaming of is the crystal clear ice that makes it possible to skate everywhere on the lakes. I have experienced it only few times in my life. The ice is strong enough to carry a person and clear enough that you can see the water beneath, some aquatic plants and perhaps even fishes swimming around. 

Planning this post today, I learned a new term, 'congelation ice'. Over to you, Wikipedia:

"On the surface of lakes, or other bodies of still freshwater, congelation ice is often called black ice. This ice has frozen without many air bubbles trapped inside, making it transparent. Its transparency reveals the colour, usually black, of the water beneath it, hence the name. This is in contrast to snow ice, sometimes called slush ice, which is formed when slush (water saturated snow) refreezes. Snow ice is white due to the presence of air bubbles.

Black ice grows downward from the bottom of the existing ice surface. The growth rate of the ice is proportional to the rate that heat is transferred from the water below the ice surface to the air above the ice surface. The total ice thickness can be approximated from Stefan's equation.

Black ice is very hard, strong and smooth, which makes it ideal for ice skating, skate sailing, ice yachting and some other ice sports. Thin, clear ice also has acoustic properties which are useful to tour skaters. Skating on clear ice radiates a tone whose frequency depends on the thickness of the ice."

This photo was taken in March, the ice wasn't good for skating but it was just lovely for walking:

♥

In these days, it looks like this outside...

... but it also looks like this:

Have a lovely week ahead!

Fallen leaves of Rosa pimpinellifolia/Rosa spinosissima 'Plena'