This morning I had four books read halfway through. I started reading one of them, then another, and finally I finished reading three of the four books. At this point I was feeling good, so I went for a walk, two hours in Luukki, but that may not have been a good idea, as the throat soreness got much worse, and I got a headache and pain in the muscles in various parts of the body.
The photographs were taken on February 7th.
(Posting title is from the poem Sore Throat by Katie Peterson.)
These photographs were taken in Helsinki between January 28th and February 9th. Since then snow has disappeared from the center of Helsinki. The length of day is now 10 h 20 min which means that it isn't dark even in the morning when commuting to work.
I'm somehow in a half-finished state. Lots of things are happening, work-in-progress. I have started reading a lot of books, but most are in half-finished state, and I'm not sure whether I'll finish them ever. In fact, I just had a look at the pile of books, and I have read four books almost exactly halfway, and then stopped. I wonder why.
Also, during the night I developed some flu symptoms. I hope this goes away fast.
(Posting title is from the poem Wonder as Wander by Sharon Olds.)
This was an excessively busy week, but so it goes. I hope there is time to go for a long walk during the weekend.
Even though this has been rather warm winter, and there is rather little snow left, in some places the melting snow has created ice formations.
(Posting title is from the poem Lines on the Winter Campaign, 1980 by Joseph Brodsky.)
I commuted by bicycle today, but on the way home I got a tire puncture. It has been some time since that last happened. I took the bicycle to a repair shop, as there are other things to look into as well, and I hope that the bicycle will be repaired before the weekend.
(Posting title is from the poem Perhaps Not For You by Alice Notley.)
The weather continues to be warm, today we had +3 °C, tomorrow +5 °C. Depth of snow is going down, now it is 12 cm at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, and 31 cm in Nuuksio. I'm commuting by bicycle, and in 2015 I have so far got 480 km. But today I also acted as a chauffeur, driving the car for two hours.
(Posting title is from the poem Port-Au-Prince by E. Ethelbert Miller.)
Today was a rainy day, and I commuted by bicycle. In the morning we had some new snow on the ground, but that melted during the day.
The amount of snow varies quite a lot. In central Helsinki there is just some isolated spots of snow, and in the north parts 5-10 of snow. In Vantaa there is 10-20 cm of snow. In Nuuksio in Espoo there is 30 cm of snow, in some places 50 cm. But if the warm weather continues, not much snow will be left next week.
(Posting title is from the poem Helsinki Window by Robert Creeley.)
I didn't commuted by bicycle today, but it would have been good, as the snow has mostly disappeared from Helsinki. These photographs were taken on January 28th and February 2nd, when we got some new snow.
(Posting title is from the poem Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount by Ben Jonson.)
Today I walked for two hours in the north parts of Nuuksio, walking from the parking place at Yli-Takkula west to lake Saarijärvi, then south to lake Urja, then east to lake Vääräjärvi, and north along lake Myllyjärvi.
However, from lake Myllyjärvi there wasn't any path in the snow going back north, and in some places the snow was half a meter deep, soft and wet, so it was heavy going. There were some snowshoe tracks and moose tracks, which helped a bit.
However, at this point I started to be rather tired, so I didn't go to lake Hauklampi. Instead I walked past the lake along the hill on the east side. There were no other cars, and not even fresh tracks of cars at the parking place, and it was quiet indeed.
(Posting title is from the poem Island (#2) by Yang Lian, translated by Arthur Sze.)
The weather continues to be wet. We got a little bit of new snow during the night, and that is melting away, temperature is at +2 °C. Depth of snow is 16 cm, which is 1 cm less than yesterday.
I visited with my daughter Nuuksio National Park yesterday, starting from the parking place by lake Haukkalampi. It seemed to be a long time since last visiting Haukkalampi, and I guess it was, as searching through the postings the previous mention of Haukkalampi was from April 2013.
At Haukkalampi the parking place wasn't empty, but not crowded either, probably because of snow/rain. The paths were mostly in good shape, though the snow had turned to slush in some places, and there was some ice on the path as well. The landscape was less winter-like than in 2013 when we visited Haukkalampi several times, but still not bad, there was a touch of wilderness thanks to the silence and lack of other people.
The photographs were taken on February 2nd, which was a wet day.
(Posting title is from the poem Wet-weather Talk by James Whitcomb Riley.)
The weather forecast for today is somewhat discouraging, rain (and a little bit of snow mixed in) most of the day. The depth of snow is decreasing, yesterday it was 18 cm, today 17 cm, and going down further.
These photographs were taken on February 1st when we got some new snow.
(Posting title is from Sonnet 15 by William Shakespeare.)
I have walked on three consecutive days in Vaakkoi, along the paths in the snow, finding new interesting corners to be explored during the summer.
Today was a wet day, +3 °C and a little bit of rain, and the depth of snow has gone down to 18 cm. In some places only patches or snow remain, but then there are places with 30 cm.
I'm thinking about a longer walk tomorrow, have to see how it goes. Weather forecast promises rain, snow, and a thick cloud cover.
(Posting title is from the poem Wet Casements by John Ashbery.)
In the news today there was an article about people, especially young men, getting too little physical exercise. One hour per day was the recommendation.
I gained some weight during the darkest time of the year, but this week and the previous one have been helping in going down with the weight, getting at least 1 1/2 hours of exercise each day. There is still 2 kg to go until I'm at where I was last summer, but this is not bad, it is over 10 kg less weight than three years ago.
Here are some blurry photographs, taken while walking on January 25th, which was one of the dark days. Exposure was 0.3...0.5 second, f/1.7, ISO 800.
(Posting title is from the poem Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay.)
I walked for two hours in Vaakkoi today, exploring the north part of the area, around the open swamps there. There were lots of paths in the snow, but in some places I had to cross unbroken snow. Snowshoe tracks were also an option, as the snow had compressed and frozen enough to carry a person walking. I found new routes to be explored next summer, or perhaps in the spring at the point when there is only a little snow remaining.
Today we had dinner at a tex-mex restaurant which used to be almost a weekly ritual years ago. The place hadn't changed much. The vegetarian fajitas was excellent. Children liked their choices as well. Afterwards, it was a bit difficult to get up and start walking, but we managed.
The photograph was taken on January 25th.
(Posting title is from the poem My Pain by Roddy Lumsden.)
The 7 1/2 year old iMac is finally at the end of its life. The screen turns black after using the computer for a while, and nothing else helps than a restart. There have been symptoms of problems for a while already, not to speak of the relative slowness of the computer. In fact, the iMac has had the longest life span of any computer that I have ever had, being in active daily use until now. And even the newest OS runs well on this system.
Yesterday I ordered a new 27-inch iMac, but it will probably take over a week for it to arrive, as I did some customisation to the standard configuration (3 TB fusion drive and 16 GB of memory). I hope the new iMac proves to be as durable as the old one. According to the specs the new one should be quite a lot faster, but given 7 1/2 years between these machines that is to be expected. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that the difference isn't much greater.
The photographs were taken on February 1st, which was a snowy day.
(Posting title is from the poem the library of t-shirts by Joanne Burns.)
Today I went for a walk in Vaakkoi, following the paths in the snow. Vaakkoi seems to be a favorite of dog-owners, and plenty of paths go across the area. I found some new routes, which I could explore next time I go there.
These photographs were taken in Luukki on January 24th. I'm much behind in processing the photographs I have taken, but that is mostly due to the long walks which generate a lot of photographs.
There are some places I visit during certain time of the year. Luukki is an all-year favorite, because it is so close. And then there are places which I may visit quite often, but then there are long breaks in between. Vaakkoi is mostly early spring and late summer. Tremanskärr is autumn.
(Posting title is from the poem Digging by Seamus Heaney.)
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