And I know it’s not really life

Summer 1

Summer 2

Summer 2

Summer 2

Summer 2

I'm a bit tired, due to lack of sleep. I have been commuting by bicycle, and the weather has been dry, +12 °C in the morning and +20...+22 °C in the afternoon.

I had a look at the statistics for this blog between May 2010 and June 2015, and there is a clear decreasing trend in the number of pageviews. In 2010 and 2011 I was quite interested in digital cameras, and that brought visitors to this blog, but these days I'm not keen on hardware, and thus there is little to attract visitors, except perhaps the photographs.

(Posting title is from the poem Baseball by Gail Mazur.)

Not ungrateful like

Water 1

Water 2

There has been over one million views of my photographs at Flickr, of which 2/3 since getting the Panasonic LX100 camera. I have taken over 426,000 photographs with digital cameras, so the view count is approximately two views per each photograph taken. However, only about 1/10 of the photographs I take survive the selection process all the way to Flickr.

Also, I checked the view counts to see which photographs had most views. 9 of the top 10 were taken with the LX100; 18 of the top 20 were taken with the LX100. It seems that the LX100 has generated quite a lot of interest, not the content of the photographs. Personally I think the best photographs I have taken so far were taken with the LX5, but I'm slowly learning to use the LX100, and I may catch up some day.

These photographs were taken on June 6th at a nearby lake.

(Posting title is from the poem coping skills lost in the flood by CAConrad.)

Or far into the woods and I wanted to go

Flower 1

Flower 2

Flower 3

Flower 4

Flower 5

Flower 6

Flower 7

Flower 8

These photographs were taken in Sipoonkorpi on June 6th.

(Posting title is from Poem about My Rights by June Jordan.)

PS. I just noticed that my Flickr photographs have got 999,850 views so far, and thus a million views will probably be reached at some point today.

We watch the field

Field 1

Field 2

Field 3

Field 4

Today I walked for over three hours in Kytäjä-Usmi forests and swamps. This was the second time I went there, and the first was a year ago on June 14th. It was a little bit warmer this time. In the dense forests and swamps there were plenty of mosquitoes. I didn't have repellent with me, so I got several dozen bites. I left the car at the parking place near lake Piilolammi, which was a good choice, as the most interesting terrain starts there. I did some orienteering, taking shortcuts across the forests, as the paths didn't go where I wanted to go.

These photographs were taken in Petikko and Sipoonkorpi on June 2nd and 6th.

(Posting title is from the poem What Is the Field? by Leila Wilson.)

Looking, something is

Fallen 1

Fallen 2

Fallen 3

Fallen 4

This week I got 160 km on the bicycle. Since the beginning of May I have got 928 km, and since the beginning of the year 2142 km.

These photographs were taken in Sipoonkorpi on June 6th. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to a place which I visited a year ago, and haven't been there since, but have been thinking about several times.

(Posting title is from the poem Hidden by Keith Waldrop.)

One must imagine love

Horses 1

Horses 2

Yesterday cows, today horses. I'm much less familiar with horses than cows, even though I have done some forestry work in winter with a horse-driven sleigh for pulling loads of wood.

(Posting title is from the poem Inventing a Horse by Meghan O'Rourke.)

PS. I didn't remember using this title (and the same poem) in an earlier posting, but so it is.

We won’t forget what you failed to see

Cow 1

Cow 2

Cow 3

On June 6th I visited Sipoonkorpi National Park. There were some cows grazing by the roadside.

(Posting title is from the poem The Elements of San Joaquin by Gary Soto.)

And the line of love

Flower 1

Flower 2

Flower 3

Flower 4

Flower 5

Today was a good day for commuting by bicycle, but on Monday there was some heavy rain in the morning, making it not so pleasant. For tomorrow thunder and intense rain showers are in the forecast. I hope that won't happen when I'm on the way back home.

These photographs were taken on June 3rd.

(Posting title is from the poem Along with Youth by Ernest M. Hemingway.)

Hack at it however you like, is nothing more

Street 1

Street 2

Street 3

Street 4

Street 5

These photographs were taken on June 5th in Helsinki, except for one that was taken in Espoo, near the border of Helsinki.

(Posting title is from the poem Hands Are Wood by Seth Abramson.)

And in the darker days to come

Lake 1

Lake 2

I walked yesterday for 2 1/2 hours with the children. In six days I have got 13 hours of exercise.

It is a small world. I got a twitter reply about the first photograph posted here yesterday, from a person in it, even though the people in the photograph were mostly facing away from the camera, watching the bonfire. But who knows, maybe some day trees and plants are also going to tweet in reply, not to speak of the birds.

(Posting title is from the poem Summer at North Farm by Stephen Kuusisto.)

In front of the fire trying to make me think

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

Lake 4

Lake 5

Lake 6

Lake 7

These photographs were taken yesterday on Midsummer's Eve in Espoo, at lake Pitkäjärvi, watching a bonfire being set up. This has become a tradition. The weather was great, much better than last year. The children enjoyed themselves, and even the mosquitoes didn't matter much.

Five years ago I made a photo book about midsummer, available at Scribd and Blurb.

(Posting title is from the poem The Chichimecas by Richard Garcia.)

Like pink thimbles

Apple 1

Apple 2

I got four hours of walking yesterday, 2 1/2 hours in the morning and 1 1/2 hours in the evening. In four days, 10 1/2 hours of exercise. I think I'll take it easy today.

These photographs were taken on June 2nd in Petikko.

(Posting title is from the poem Apple Blossoms by Susan Kelly-Dewitt.)