The deep immortal human wish

Snow

Rock

Melted

I have walked for seven hours this week, maybe a bit more, which is less than I intended, but there has been quite a lot of other stuff to do. Walking as exercise may not be such a big thing, but if you do enough of it, it should be enough to keep in condition. Especially as some of the walking was done in knee-deep snow, going up and down hills.

Here are three more photographs from yesterday, walking with my oldest daughter at Meiko. These photographs were taken at lake Immerlampi while having picnic on the rocks facing south at the northeast corner of the lake.

(Posting title is from the poem Middle Passage by Robert Hayden.)

But the shepherd never dies at all

Rock

Forest

Pines

Twigs

I went yesterday with my daughter for a walk in the forests at Meiko, intending to walk around four lakes there: Kotolampi, Kakarlampi, Immerlampi and Korsolampi. We decided to try going anticlockwise this time, up the hill from the parking place, following the path northeast towards Kotolampi.

However the path in the snow ended halfway to Kotolampi, and only some old snowshoe tracks were left to follow. In places the snow had got soft enough so that the snowshoe marks didn't hold and then we dropped knee-deep in snow. It was heavy going. But south of lake Kakarlampi we met another path, going towards lake Kotolampi from the north. We followed this path towards lake Immerlampi, and even though the snow didn't always hold here either, it was easier going.

We had picnic on the sunny rocks north of lake Immerlampi, and from here it was easy to go back, around lake Korsolampi, as quite a lot of people had walked this far. Here are photographs from the first leg of our walk, towards lake Kakarlampi.

(Posting title is from the poem Sheep by Judy Grahn.)

To rouse some massive sleeper out of winter dreams

Rock

Snow

Timber

Väärälampi

Hill

I took these photographs yesterday in Luukki, where I went for a walk with my daughter. The weather stays the same: blue sky, temperature +2 °C during afternoon and -10 °C at night. It is rather bright when the sunlight is reflected from snow, but that is good, it makes one feel that spring is approaching even though there are few signs of spring so far visible.

(Posting title is from the poem Snow Signs by Charles Tomlinson.)

Is it only the sun that shines once for the mind

Pond

Lamp

Street

Tunnel

I took these photographs on Thursday, when going for a walk after sunset. Now that the length of day is over 13 hours and we still have a lot of snow, the amount of light is enjoyable indeed. Tomorrow we'll go into daylight saving time (aka summer time), which somewhat changes how morning and evening feel like. But days are lengthening rapidly so that change isn't such a big deal.

(Posting title is from the poem Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg.)

No, they won’t let me out of winter

Snow

Red

Houses

Slope

These are photographs from Thursday. Snow is disappearing from places when sun warms the ground, such as street sides, but in fields and forests it doesn't disappear so fast, maybe 1 cm per day, due to evaporation and compression. Anyway, sunshine is rather welcome after the long clouded periods we had earlier this winter.

(Posting title is from the poem Snowmen by Agha Shahid Ali.)

I had been living like someone

Red

White

Window

Fence

Wall

Yellow

I took these photographs on Wednesday in Helsinki while commuting by car. I haven't commuted by bicycle for some time, because of the flu which still lingers. I hope to get back in condition next week, it would be great to be able to commute by bicycle once again. The roads are slippery because of ice, but I do have studded tires so that shouldn't be a big problem.

I have done 2 1/2 hours of walking so far this week, and today I plan to go for a long walk somewhere nice, perhaps Nuuksio or Luukki. It is sunny, and in daytime the temperature rises up to +3 °C, and at night we have -8...-10 °C. This means that snow and ice melt during the day, and during night we get frost and ice. And this seems to be the situation for the next five days as well.

(Posting title is from the poem Proportion Surviving by Renee Gladman.)

As she walked beside me gazing into the distance

Pine

Snow

Road

Field

Lines

This was a heavy week indeed, but finally there is time to relax a bit. I'm planning to do some walking in forests during the next four days, and this may mean something longer (in hours and kilometers) than usually. But that is up to the flu symptoms, I hope this starts to be over finally.

I borrowed new books from the library to be read during Easter. I have been more lax than usually as regards reading books, haven't been able to hold my attention properly on reading. It could have been due to reading wrong books, but I think it is due to be more tired than normally.

I took these photographs on Tuesday, and somehow I think there is a kind of Easter feeling in them.

(Posting title is from the poem The Last Day by George Seferis, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.)

No tears, but tenderness to answer mine

Red

Wall

Street

Crossing

Window

Melting

Here are photographs from Monday and Tuesday, taken in Helsinki. It has been sunny, temperature staying well below 0 °C at night and rising a couple of degrees above during afternoon.

I have been drinking a lot of tea recently, it helps with the remaining flu symptoms. Seems to be of the sticky kind of sickness.

(Posting title is from the poem Epistle to Augusta by Lord Byron.)

To make fun of my way of doing things

Melting

Ice

Snow

Shadows

Path

Haukkalampi

On Sunday I went with my oldest daughter for a walk in the Nuuksio wilderness, going most of the way to Kattila, and returning via another route, past lake Iso-Holma. There were nice paths in the snow, making it quite easy to enjoy the sunny day, but very few people were still at Nuuksio at the time we were there, late evening. And of course the paths in the snow make it very hard to get seriously lost.

I had a look at the photographs a year ago, and in a posting titled "13 h" I wrote as follows: "We have had it warm, and snow is now disappearing fast. The official depth of snow figure at the Vantaa airport is 28 cm, but in many places there is almost no snow on the ground left."

It is quite different now, temperature goes to -10 °C at night, and rises to +1...+3 °C in daytime. We have 79 cm of snow on the ground, and it isn't melting away rapidly. It would be nice for the spring to proceed, and some rain would help a lot, but there is nothing like that in the weather forecast for the next five days.

(Posting title is from the poem The Star-splitter by Robert Frost.)

Will amorously to thee swim

Colors

Reflect

Water

Swim

View

Here are photographs I took on Saturday inside Sea Life Helsinki, while waiting for my daughter. There is an aquarium near the entrance to Sea Life, with various fish in it, doing their thing in the water. I could have spent a long time taking photographs there.

(Posting title is from the poem The Bait by John Donne.)

And the buildings were like faces

Grid

Bicycles

Reflect

Stalls

Tree

Sibelius-Akatemia

View

Here are some more photographs from Saturday, when I was walking in the center of Helsinki with my daughter. The glass-covered exteriors of the buildings provide a lot of opportunities for photography, at least on sunny days.

I did a bit of shopping on the net on Sunday. I have an HP multifunction inkjet, and it eats ink cartridges at a rapid clip. I ordered a 4-pack of the cartridges, and debated some time whether I should invest in the 364XL cartridges or not. But the best price for the normal cartridges was less than half of the XL versions.

And then I ordered some green tea. My last order was on January 10th, and I have less than 100 g of tea remaining. It goes surprisingly fast when you drink 1-2 liters of tea daily.

I ordered four types of green tea, altogether 400 g, and that should last until summer at least. I ordered once again Yunnan Bi Luo Chun, aka Green Snail Spring Tea, which is my all-time favorite. In addition I ordered Wu Liang Mountain "Mao Feng" and "Zhen Mei", and Ruay Sui tea from Taiwan which I haven't tried earlier.

(Posting title is from the poem I Love You More Than All the Windows in New York City by Jessica Greenbaum.)