It was glorified by my distance

Butterfly 1

Butterfly 2

The photographs were taken at Tremanskärr swamp on July 9th.

(Posting title is from the poem Fourth of July, 2012 by Robyn Schiff.)

He found himself extremely in the fashion

View 1

View 2

View 3

The photographs were taken on July 16th in Meiko.

This morning I got wet when riding the bicycle, and the clothes were so wet that they didn't get dry during the day, so I had to put wet clothes on when riding home from work.

(Posting title is from the poem Don Juan: Canto 11 by Lord Byron.)

The dry nobbled path, saw many known, and unknown

Red Admiral

The photograph was taken at Suomenlinna Fortress Island on July 6th.

During the summer the photographs have been piling up, and I now have 4,800 photographs waiting for processing. The LX100 camera has dust spots, and thus the photographs require more work than normally. But sometimes I'm just lazy and let them be. I'll be getting a new LX100 next week, and then it will be easier. The problems with the LX100 continue. On Thursday at Särkänniemi Amusement Park the lens got stuck once again, and the camera refused to start because of "zoom error". I fixed the problem by pushing the lens towards the closed position, using quite a bit of force.

(Posting title is from the poem Canto XVI by Ezra Pound.)

To open ourselves, to be

Wet 1

Wet 2

Wet 3

Wet 4

The photographs were taken in Nuuksio on July 4th.

This morning I rode the bicycle for two hours, first south through the central park in Helsinki, then through the center of Helsinki to Lauttasaari island, and then north through Tapiola and Leppävaara. Early in the morning there were only a couple of people in the central park, and half a dozen horses. This year I have got 3537 km riding the bicycle.

(Posting title is from the poem Another Night in the Ruins by Galway Kinnell.)

No longer vegetal, steps into view

Butterfly 1

Butterfly 2

Butterfly 3

Yesterday I planned to rest, but I got restless, and in the evening I rode the bicycle for 1 1/2 hours. Maybe today I'll take it easy.

The photographs were taken on July 14th in Luukki, near lake Väärälampi.

(Posting title is from the poem Language Acquisition by Marie Ponsot.)

So delicately, like a silver fob

Heliconiinae

The photograph was taken in Kajaani on July 23rd. The exact species is unknown because I didn't see the underside of the wings.

(Posting title is from the poem Consecration by Susan Stewart.)

As if sliding down the green, scuffed face

Larvae 1

Larvae 2

There were plenty of these little green things at Kilpisjärvi, eating birches and other green stuff. Some years the Epirrita autumnata moth larvae have defoliated square kilometers of birch forests in the fells of Lapland.

(Posting title is from the poem Möbius by David Gewanter.)

Feathered and ruffled in every part

Ochlodes sylvanus

I walked today for 2 h 15 minutes in Luukki, west and northwest from lake Myllyjärvi. We are having plenty of mosquitoes, thanks to the rainy weather, and I got bitten.

The photograph of Ochlodes sylvanus was taken on June 22th in Tremanskärr.

(Posting title is from the poem Skipper Ireson’s Ride by John Greenleaf Whittier.)

When each of you shall in your nest

Moth 1

Moth 2

Moth 3

Moth 4

The cold weather doesn't seem to bother the Bird-cherry Ermine or the Apple Ermine at all, they are now rather prominent thanks to the weblike nests the caterpillars make. The photographs were taken on June 15th.

Today I went for a walk with my daughter to Seurasaari Open-Air Museum. The island wasn't crowded at all, probably because of the cool weather, but it wasn't raining, and Seurasaari is always a nice place for a walk.

(Posting title is from the poem In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659 by Anne Bradstreet.)

The hay of an arctic summer night?

Butterfly

A somewhat ragged Lomaspilis marginata rests in plain sight, photograph taken on June 14th at Kytäjä.

Yesterday I walked for three hours in Sipoonkorpi National Park, in the north and middle parts. I left the car at the Hindsby parking place near Källängen, walked south past lake Fallträsk and lake Jöusjärv, and past Stormossen swamp to lake Katronträsk, and from there south to Lindamorsmossen swamp. From the middle of Lindamorsmossen I walked west to Viirilä swamp, and then walked north along the swamp.

Viirilä swamp proved to be a great place to explore. This swamp is quite wet, especially as it has rained a lot recently, and even though I avoided the wettest spots, my rubber boots sank 20-30 cm deep into the swamp in some places. Luckily I have tall rubber boots so this was not a problem.

Walking on the wet swamp was somewhat tiring, but it was worth it, the place is really fine, with several different types of swamp. No wonder the Viirilä swamp is part of Sipoonkorpi National Park. I must return there some day.

Today I made reservations for traveling to Lapland in July with the children. We'll go by train to Rovaniemi, and then towards north by car, all the way to see the Arctic Ocean.

(Posting title is from the poem Glazunoviana by John Ashbery.)

Youngest green transfused in silver shining through

Butterfly

Here is a photograph of a butterfly, Gonepteryx rhamni.

I walked today for three hours in Luukki, starting from the parking place near lake Myllyjärvi, walking north three Ketunkorpi, and returning via Hauklampi. It rained a little bit, and I got a little bit wet, but it wasn't too cold.

I observed a pair of Gavia stellata at lake Hepolampi. They made some wailing sounds, and then they rested, floating on the water near a little island in the lake. This time I think I identified the species right, and in any case this lake should be too small for Gavia arctica to get airborne. But the birds were a bit too far away to be absolutely sure of the throat color.

Today I uploaded to Flickr photographs taken in Vaakkoi, and here is the photograph in which a pair of Gavia stellata is to be seen. I made a crop in which the throat color is clearly visible.

(Posting title is from the poem Love in the Valley by George Meredith.)

And seeing it asleep, so fled away

Plebeius argus 1

Plebeius argus 2

Plebeius argus 3

There are a lot of blue beauties this summer, and they are perfect subjects for photographs. These were found in Vaakkoi on July 10th.

At Salla in Lapland I climbed on Sunday to the top of the bigger of the Salla hills with my daughters. We took it slow, had picnic up on top of the hill, and looked at the scenery and at the plants that grow up on the rocky hilltop.

There were more people than on Saturday visiting the hill, about ten people in all, which isn't that much when you consider how beautiful this place is. But Salla isn't quite so well-known, or so much advertised, as many other villages and resorts in Lapland.

I have taken about 2200 photographs so far during the trip, but I don't have tools to prepare postings with the photographs, so they have to wait until I'm back home.

(Posting title is from the poem On a Dream by John Keats.)

And we store up pleasure in our bodies

Field

Daisy

Drops

Melampyrum sylvaticum

Aphantopus hyperantus

Yesterday I went with the children to Linnanmäki amusement park, for seven hours in all. I had to go twice back to the car to put coins in the parking meter, as I underestimated how much stamina and endurance the children have. Today muscles in the feet and in the back are a bit sore, and I got a slight sunburn in the nose, but it isn't so bad.

There were a lot of photographs, but they are still waiting for processing. Instead, here are some photographs taken a week ago in the north parts of Nuuksio, where I explored the region south of lake Saarijärvi and north of lake Myllyjärvi. This time I used the compass regularly and didn't get lost, even though some paths marked on the map had changed, due to forest cuts and dense undergrowth there.

(Posting title is from the poem Summer in a Small Town by Tony Hoagland.)

You can say the broken word but cannot speak

Forest

Cut

Trientalis europaea

Dactylorhiza maculata

Polyommatus icarus

A month ago six spokes were broken in the rear wheel of my bicycle, and I had the wheel repaired in a bicycle repair shop. Today I had a look at the bicycle and noticed that two spokes were broken, and I need to have the rear wheel repaired once again.

Or maybe I should start doing the repairs myself... Not really an option, as I'm not too good in anything that needs more advanced repair skills.

In any case, there will be once again a pause in commuting by bicycle. Since the beginning of May I have 1160 km on the bicycle, not too bad.

These photographs were taken on Saturday nine (ten?) days ago near lake Vaakkoi, where there is a cut in the forest, growing fireweed and other early species.

(Posting title is from the poem Wheel by Michael Palmer.)

There's machinery in the butterfly

Butterfly

Apple

Here are two photographs from last Saturday, which was a sunny and warm day. And so it has been since then, hot and dry weather. There is some rain in the forecast for Friday, but than can change. It would be good to get a little bit of rain to clean up the air.

(Posting title is from the poem The Horrid Voice of Science by Vachel Lindsay.)

The butterfly's the happy ending

Tränuhals

Dry

Moss

Gonepteryx rhamni

Thicket

Meiko

Rock

Reflect

I took these photographs on Monday in Meiko, while returning from my walk. The first photograph shows lake Tränuhals in the middle of the wet swamp, this was the farthest point to where I walked on Monday. I was faster than planned, so I made a detour via lake Meiko when returning to the parking lot.

(Posting title is from the poem It includes the butterfly and the rat, the shit by Marianne Boruch.)

It is like the reverberation of a bell rung three times

Bug

Calopteryx virgo

Argynnis adippe

Fallen

Blueberry

Cloudberry

Mustlampi

Clouds

This morning I went with my daughter to see a dentist, and then I read for a while. When there was a break in the rain I walked for over two hours in the Luukki forests, going around lake Väärälampi and visiting lakes Mustlampi and Halkolampi.

There were a lot of blueberries to be eaten, and some wild strawberries as well. Of the blueberry there are two visually distinct versions, the other light blue, and the other almost black, which is due to a difference in the genes which make the black berries lack the wax cover which the blue ones have. The black is more rare, but they taste the same.

There were a few cloudberries also, though they are not ripe yet. - Except for two berries which I found in a sunny spot on an open swamp, and they tasted good.

My diet today was dominated by berries, not only because I picked some in the forest, but also because I bought a box of strawberries at the shopping mall near the dentist's office. I prepared them for freezing, to be eaten during the winter, and of course I had to taste them (and good they were).

And because my daughter likes highbush blueberries, I bought some of them also, and we had a nice evening snack eating berries.

Occasionally I think about a vegetarian diet, but I haven't really seriously thought about trying it out myself. But I have experimented with eating more environmentally friendly, meaning more vegetables and less red meat, and that isn't so difficult. But going totally vegetarian, I don't think that is for me.

(Posting title is from the poem Orange Berries Dark Green Leaves by John Taggart.)