Thaw us a warm seat to our rest

Colors

Houses

Harbor

Snow

Transport

Car

Here are photographs from earlier this week, but I'm slowly catching up. Today I commuted by bus, reading the first part of the autobiographical books My Struggle (Min kamp) by Karl Ove Knausgård, which I mentioned on Monday. I'm even more impressed as I continue reading.

Today I borrowed two books from the library with the name Ansel Adams in the title: Digital landscape photography - in the footsteps of Ansel Adams and the great masters by Michael Frye, and Ansel Adams - the spirit of wild places by Eric Peter Nash. I'm not yet sure whether they are any good.

A week ago I bought two Ansel Adams books through Amazon, second-hand books and thus very cheap: Ansel Adams' Letters and Images , 1916-1984, and Ansel Adams: A Biography. Both have been shipped and I'm eagerly waiting. However, Pentti Sammallahti's book Here, Far Away which I ordered on January 12th is still waiting for shipping confirmation at Amazon.co.uk, and it may be that it will never become available. A pity.

The latter book is written by Mary Street Alinder, and it is said that this book is really good, showing the complex character that Adams was, "an intimate and provocative portrait of the world's most famous photographer". Of Adams autobiography from 1985 it has been said that it "presented a life almost as neatly cropped and printed as his magnificent pictures". Hmmm...

(Posting title is from the poem The Grasshopper by Richard Lovelace.)

The rock of your rages

Rock

Morning

Houses

Sunrise

Harbor

I commuted by bicycle today, and didn't take any photographs. The gears of the bicycle got stuck at the second lowest gear in the morning, probably because of moisture inside the gear cable, which turned into ice when the bicycle was brought outside. Going up steeper hills was ok, but because I couldn't turn the pedals fast enough, max speed was about 19 km/hour.

Nevertheless, the commute took only 63 minutes, not bad at all. This was due to below 0 °C temperatures at night, which froze the hard-packed snow and ice on the ground. Even surface, good grip.

But it was different when returning home. During the day we had +3 °C, which melted the ice inside the gear cable, and thus the gears worked once again. But also the snow on the ground had partly melted, and in places there was 5-10 cm deep ruts in the snow and ice, and the ruts were not straight, they were curving here and then crazily. So, even though the gears worked all right, it took 77 minutes to get home.

On the way I met a guy walking a bicycle, with a punctured rear tire. He asked whether I had a pump in my bicycle sidebag, and I did have, and he managed to get some pressure in the tire and rode some distance. When I passed him again, I asked whether I should give the pump to him, but he said there was a bicycle shop nearby, and he was planning to buy a new tire there.

These photographs were taken on Monday. The length of day is now 10 hours 17 minutes, which means that sun rises when I commute to work. A great thing!

(Posting title is from the poem What Isn’t Mine by Jill Alexander Essbaum.)

The names of those who in their lives fought for life

Sunset

Moon

Ice

Pine

Haukkalampi

Silhouette

Fog

Here are more photographs from the Nuuksio wilderness area. We returned there on Sunday, again just before sunset, walking a bit different route this time, going around lake Haukkalampi. It was a day of blue skies and sunshine, and when the sun set it got cold, and there was fog on the lake.

It was a great time to be outdoors, and only a couple of other people were out walking. It is not always crowded at Nuuksio...

(Posting title is from the poem The Truly Great by Stephen Spender.)

So calm are we

Cottage

Ice

Mustlampi

Valklampi

Forest

Snow

On Saturday I went with my oldest daughter for a walk in the Nuuksio wilderness. Well, it isn't really wilderness, especially near the parking place and cottages at lake Haukkalampi, where we started from, but the scenery certainly is enjoyable.

We started about one hour before sunset, and returned to the car after sunset when it was getting dark. We walked a couple of the shorter routes, going along lake Haukkalampi, then to lake Mustalampi and returning via lake Valklampi.

There were only a couple of cars at the parking place then, quite a difference from the situation in summer with dozens of cars and several tourist buses.

(Posting title is from the poem Of the Last Verses in the Book by Edmund Waller.)

In an imagery of brewing grenadine riddles

Trees

Lake

Reeds

Snow

I have over 600 photographs waiting for processing, but didn't have time or stamina to go through them today. These photographs are from Friday, it was a snowy day.

I borrowed from library the first part of the autobiographical books My Struggle (Min kamp) by Karl Ove Knausgård, in an Swedish translation, and read some pages from the beginning.

The six books are well over 3500 pages in all, and it is daunting to think about reading even the first book, such a dense thing it is. But maybe I can do it... In any case, this set of books seems to be remarkable, combining essay-type writing with memoir that touches even the smallest details of living.

(Posting title is from the poem On Anti-Biography by Will Alexander.)

Some yards of lumen from the fabrika

Birch

Hillside

Fireplace

View 1

View 2

Forest

Firsherman

Twigs

I returned to lake Kaitalampi in Luukki on Friday with my two oldest daughters, who wanted to have a picnic at a new fireplace we discovered by the lake on Thursday.

The fireplace must have been constructed last Autumn, and we had no idea about it until we stumbled on the place by the lake. It is farther away from the road than the other two fireplace on the east side of the lake, in a nice sheltered spot.

We warmed up by the fire, had picnic, and enjoyed the day, even though it was grey because of the thick cloud cover, and occasionally it was also snowing.

(Posting title is from the poem Dark View by Heather McHugh.)

A rebirth of wonder

Tracks

Kaitalampi

Table

View

Ice

I'm still very much behind in going through my photographs, but here is a sample from Thursday, which was a sunny day, and I went for a walk with my oldest daughter to lake Kaitalampi in Luukki. We discovered something new there, and returned to the same place on Friday.

(Posting title is from the poem I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.)

And in dreaming myself upon the moon

Sunlight

Moon

Lamp

Well, here are photographs from earlier this week. Today I took quite a lot of photographs, and there are photographs to be processed also from yesterday, but I just didn't have the time or energy to go through them.

(Posting title is from the poem The Process of Explication by Dorothea Lasky.)

My identity is this expanse!

Fence

Shore

Blue

Snow

Forest

Red

On Tuesday I went skiing to a nearby lake. There was plenty of wind, and some snow in the air, so that the ski tracks were soon covered under snow. But the wide expanse of snow was bright, despite the rather thick cloud cover above.

(Posting title is from the poem If I Were Another by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah.)