You need not only silence but an entirely new life

Private

Wood

I managed to do what I have been planning to do for some time: I walked for 4 1/2 hours in the swamps and forests in Nuuksio.

I started from the parking lot at Siikaranta, and walked to the east end of Soidinsuo swamp, the biggest swamp in Nuuksio. I explored Soidinsuo from east to west, and started then to walk north, to lake Iso-Holmajärvi, visiting lakes Poro-Kolmoislampi, Ympyrkäinenlampi and Pitkä Saarijärvi on the way. I returned via another route, circling via lakes Ahvenisto, Mustalampi, Vähä-Romlampi, Kolmoislammit and Siikajärvi. All in all I walked about 20 km, maybe a bit more, going slow in the beginning, and faster when returning to Siikaranta.

It was great to be outdoors, and the weather was perfect for walking, about +1 °C in the morning, and +6 °C around noon. During the night the temperature had dropped below freezing, and there were frozen cranberries at Soidinsuo swamp. However, almost all of the frost had disappeared by the time I was walking there.

The photographs were taken a week ago in Vaakkoi.

(Posting title is from the poem The Atrophy of Private Life by Jennifer Moxley.)

To gain desire of every splayed leaf

Colors 1

Colors 2

Here are two photographs showing some autumn colors. We haven't yet got a real show of colors, and it may be that doesn't happen this year, but one can always hope. I have a craving to do some walking in forests and swamps, hours of it, but it remains to be seen if I manage to arrange that to happen.

(Posting title is from the poem to crave what the light does crave by Kevin Goodan.)

I was by then so practiced in this chore

Field 1

Field 2

Today I'm planning to go for a long walk, but haven't yet decided where. There are plenty of chores to do before I have time to look at maps. Anyway, here are two photographs taken two weeks ago in Velskola.

(Posting title is from the poem The Lie by Don Paterson.)

Why do you walk with your face turned from me?

Fern

Yet another photograph taken at Revonkorpi a week ago. I should start processing the newer photographs, but I have been keen on reading books, hours each day. Nothing very challenging, mostly light reading, but that suits the autumn feeling.

(Posting title is from the poem The Waste Land by John Beer.)

Swinging a credit card like a scythe

Swamp 1

Swamp 2

Moss

Today the two youngest children went to the movies with their friend. Originally I was planning to see the movie as well, but then my oldest daughter wanted to go shopping, so that was what I did as well.

Mainly this meant walking in the center of Helsinki, from one shop to another. I got quite tired; for some reason walking for two hours in the city is more exhausting than two hours in a forest.

The above photographs were taken a week ago at the Revonkorpi swamp in Luukki.

(Posting title is from the poem At the Galleria Shopping Mall by Tony Hoagland.)

Living the briefest hues on the skin

Mushroom 1

Mushroom 2

Mushroom 3

Mushroom 4

It is autumn, and there are plenty of mushrooms in the forest. I pick them with my camera, safer that way.

(Posting title is from the poem Before Completion by Arthur Sze.)

With mittened hands, and caps drawn low

Lake 1

Lake 2

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the movies with the children. It has been several months since I last saw a movie. And about two months since I watched tv.

This week I commuted by bicycle on four days. It was already quite cold, one morning the temperature was -1 °C, otherwise 2...5 °C. And when returning home is was only slightly warmer, 5...8 °C. I realized my gloves are no longer warm enough, as the fabric has worn rather thin, and there are holes in the finger parts.

Today I shopped on the net for new gloves, and finally bought skiing gloves, which probably are quite all right for riding the bicycle. I also bought lobster-style bicycle mittens for colder weather, to be used when the temperature is -5...-10 °C. For even colder weather I have thick mittens, but they are a bit too warm when the temperature is above -10 °C.

Also, I have been hungry most of the time. I wonder whether this is due to commuting by bicycle and other exercise, or is autumn causing it?

The photographs were taken a week ago at lake Myllyjärvi in Luukki.

(Posting title is from the poem Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl by John Greenleaf Whittier.)

But in the path we mortals tread

Fern

Signs of autumn in the Revonkorpi swamp in Luukki.

(Posting title is from the poem Consolation by Robert Louis Stevenson.)

You have dragged me on through the wild wood ways

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Autumn 3

Autumn 4

I upgraded today the iPad to iOS 7, and I must say it isn't so easy to get used to the new system. Things look different, and there are enough differences in using the iPad to cause all kinds of confusion and mistakes. On the other hand, the upgrade itself happened without problems, all data and software were preserved, so nothing bad to report there.

The photographs shown here were taken in the forests and swamps at Revonkorpi, in Luukki, on September 21. I walked for the first time all the way up north, almost to the houses near the road. Two hours of walking, just about perfect.

However, I'm planning to make a longer walk next week, on an open swamp. One possibility would be Torronsuo swamp, about 100 km west of here, but the car drive there is just too long. I didn't know of this swamp until a friend pointed it out. Torronsuo is the biggest open swamp in southern Finland, and the national park seems to be worth visiting at some point.

(Posting title is from the poem The Body to the Soul by Eva Gore-Booth.)

Consciousness observes and is appeased

Fallen 1

Fallen 2

Orienteering

These photographs were taken on September 15th in the forests at Velskola, in Nuuksio.

(Posting title is from the poem Imaginary Number by Vijay Seshadri.)

Still there will be your desire, and hers

Lake

Fallen

Silhouette

This morning the temperature was at +1 °C, and for the night the forecast promises -1 °C. I commuted by bicycle, and should have had a little bit warmer clothing in the morning, but otherwise it was ok. Autumn is now proceeding rapidly.

The photographs were taken on September 15th at lake Vääräjärvi in Nuuksio. A fine day for a walk outdoors.

(Posting title is from the poem X Minus X by Kenneth Fearing.)

Impressions in exchange for this

Reflect

I haven't been able to sleep properly recently, and so I'm rather tired. They say that tiredness may be good for creativity, but on the other hand it is very bad for careful rational thinking. Oh well.

(Posting title is from the poem Trying to see the proportional relation by Ariana Reines.)

I can hear little clicks inside my dream

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

These photographs were taken at Velskola in Nuuksio on September 15th. Since then it has been getting colder, and for the next night the forecast promises +2 °C, and for the day +6 °C. This will have an effect on autumn colors appearing in the landscape.

Today I commuted by car, which I haven't done since early August. Tomorrow I'm planning to use the bicycle once again.

(Posting title is from the poem The Glass Essay by Anne Carson.)

Of eyes and smiles, of eyes and affection

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Autumn 3

Here are three photographs taken on September 19th. Not much difference between them, but still, somehow each has a different feeling in it.

I browsed the book Here far away - photographs from the years 1964-2011 by Pentti Sammallahti, once again catching a glimpse of something wordless, timeless, uniquely human. Earlier I borrowed the book from the local library, but now that I own it I look forward to returning to this book again and again. For me there is only one another photographer that means so much: Sam Abell.

Also, I got today a book of photographs by Antero Takala, depicting scenes taken during the polar night when sun is below horizon all day: Kaamos - Hämärän maisemat - Landscapes of Darkness. I was impressed. But this is a book which needs time to digest, not an easy one.

(Posting title is from the poem Vincent, Homesick for the Land of Pictures by Peter Gizzi.)

I would cross any path, or trek through swamps

Velskola 1

Velskola 2

Ve3lskola

These photographs were taken a week ago in Velskola, while walking there with my daughter. This Sunday we went for a walk in Vaakkoi, walking from the parking place to Kuikunlääni along the rocky path which goes between lakes Vaakkoi, Saaren Musta and Iso Lehmälampi, and returning via the gravel road. Two hours of walking, that felt good.

(Posting title is from the poem The Flight by Grace Schulman.)

As we slip into our new light

Urja

Shadows 1

Shadows 2

It is equinox time once again, and it isn't long until it will be dark in the morning when I leave for work, and dark when I get back home. That is not a favorite time of the year.

But there is still time to enjoy sunshine in the morning and afternoon. The photographs were taken a week ago at Velskola, showing lake Urja and some views from lake Vääräjärvi nearby.

I was browsing the net looking for information about the Revonkorpi area in Luukki when I found the blog of Janne Pyykkö, who is dedicated to paddling around all lakes in Nuuksio with a canoe. He is using GPS tracking to show his progress. One weekend (see here, in Finnish) he visited a lot of lakes in northern Nuuksio, paddling 15 km, and walking 35 km towing the canoe and 4 km of other walking. This is really something. My plan of visiting lakes in Nuuksio by walking is rather modest in comparison.

(Posting title is from the poem Zacuanpapalotls by Brenda Cárdenas.)

I hear the thoughts I think

Colors 1

Colors 2

Colors 3

Colors 4

On Saturday I went for a long walk in Revonkorpi forests and swamps in Luukki. I walked all the way up north in Revonkorpi, until I saw the first house, and then I returned via another route south. It started to get dark when I returned home, and I brought a deer fly with me. Quite a tough critter it was.

These photographs were taken a week ago at Velskola. Autumn colors are starting to become more common, but not yet is the brightest season.

(Posting title is from the poem The Telegraph Operator by Robert W. Service.)

A map folds and unfolds, does not bunch or wrinkle

Mushroom 2

Mushroom 1

Two photographs of mushrooms, taken the same day, not far from each other by lake Vääräjärvi in Nuuksio, but quite different feeling.

I have been looking at a map of Halti-Kilpisjärvi area in north Finland, where there are big fells and very rugged terrain. In fact, I got so taken with the map that I wrote (in Finnish) a book review of the map, for a lark, relying on dual meanings of words such as "reading".

It remains to be seen if a reader of the book review takes it at face value, looks for the work in a library or a shop, and is surprised that instead of a book you get a map and need rather different reading skills.

(Posting title is from the poem A Poem That Starts Out Wrong by Landis Everson.)

And it slithered through my fingers

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

Here are three views over lake Vääräjärvi in Nuuksio. The lake has a rather odd shape (maybe the name "wrong lake" refers to this), and walking around it took 2 1/2 hours, especially as I got confused about the way at one point. There are several other lakes nearby, just a narrow neck of land between them.

(Posting title is from the poem I knew something was wrong by Dorothea Grossman.)

Any Martian could see it

Canoes 1

Canoes 2

Last weekend we saw a group of canoes on lake Vääräjärvi. Apparently they had spent the night at the fireplace on the east shore of Vääräjärvi, and here they were returning. Some time later they were carrying the canoes accross the 150 meter neck of land between lake Vääräjärvi and lake Kattilajärvi.

(Posting title is from the poem One Canoe by Maureen N. McLane.)