Even if there was no grief

View

The photograph was taken on March 15th.

(Posting title is from the poem Ways of Talking by Ha Jin.)

With alternate species

House 1

House 2

The photographs were taken on June 28th while visiting Vallisaari island in Helsinki.

(Posting title is from the poem Medusa on Sansome and Pine by Tiffany Higgins.)

Through summer weather!

House

The photograph was taken on May 16th.

(Posting title is from the poem Habit and Custom and I by Elfrida De Renne Barrow.)

I’ve got an eye for beauty and another for cash

View

The photograph was taken on March 10th.

(Posting title is from the poem Chicago’s Congo by Frank Marshall Davis.)

And mounted upon the orange dot

Blue

The photograph was taken on January 26th.

(Posting title is from the poem Night Fighter Kill by Arvid Shulenberger.)

Just to hold her

Red

The photograph was taken on November 26th.

This morning I walked for over two hours in the forests and swamps between Odilampi and Tremanskärr. The temperature was at -4 °C, and there was some snow and ice, but it didn't carry a man walking. I followed horse and deer trails, and other such tracks when possible.

(Posting title is from the poem Industrial Teflon Comes into Domestic Use by Fleda Brown Jackson.)

Peel your own image from the mirror

House

The photograph was taken on February 25th in Meiko.

I commuted by bicycle and went through the central park in Helsinki both in the morning and in the afternoon. In the morning the path was frozen, but in the afternoon the path had started to melt and was quite soft in some places, which meant heavier going.

(Posting title is from the poem Love After Love Poem by Derek Walcott.)

They're going to make the opposition pay

House 1

House 2

The photographs were taken on February 18th.

Why do some people support Trump despite the lies and misdemeanors? One explanation put forward says that people like that he "fights" despite the serious mental handicaps. But is that a thing to be admired in a person who is in such a situation?

(Posting title is from the poem Solstice by Tracy K. Smith.)

He shrugs and offers up his empty hands

View 1

View 2

View 3

View 4

The photographs were taken at Suomenlinna Fortress Island on July 6th.

Yesterday I and the children visited Särkänniemi Amusement Park in Tampere. Between 12 AM and 3 PM it rained quite a lot, but then the weather got better, and there was even some sunshine. We spent over seven hours at Särkänniemi, and we had a lot of things to do, especially as the queues to the rides were short or even non-existent.

(Posting title is from the poem A Ride in the Rain by Blas Falconer.)

The hard snow held me, save where now and then

Winter 1

Winter 2

Winter 3

Winter 4

Winter 5

I got eleven hours of exercise this week, eight hours riding the bicycle and three hours walking in forests and swamps. The walking was heavy, as the snow is in some places rather deep, 30-50 cm, and it is frozen on top but doesn't carry a person. I'm exhausted, but that is good.

(Posting title is from the poem The Wood-Pile by Robert Frost.)

Of what had else been seen

Snow 1

Snow 2

Snow 3

Snow 4

These photographs were taken on January 13, after sunset. I have been extremely busy recently.

(Posting title is from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)

You see numbers in your head

Red 1

Red 2

Red 3

Red 4

Red 5

Are you getting tired with the blue tones? I'm not, so here are some more photographs taken at Pirttimäki, this time of more cultured subjects. And there is even some red in the photographs.

We got some more snow during the night, but then snow changed into rain. The temperature is +3 °C, so snow is melting and streets are flooded. I have an urge to go for a long walk during the weekend, but there is some car driving in the program, so I may not have time for walking.

(Posting title is from the song Into The Red by The Bluetones.)

Look at those big eyes

House 1

House 2

I commuted by bicycle today, and I'm feeling reasonably good, the throat soreness has eased. But I need to take care so that the flu doesn't hit back again.

Also, Dpreview has published their LX100 review, and they consider it “the best photographers' cameras on the market and probably the best zoom compact ever made”.

(Posting title is from the poem Delusion Angel by David Jewell.)

And a couple of opposing green

Blur

House

I didn't go for a walk during the weekend, but I got a lot of exercise otherwise, so much that I was sore this morning.

I commuted by bicycle today. It wasn't raining, which felt good. In the morning the temperature was +6 °C. It starts to feel like autumn.

The photographs were taken on July 31st in Helsinki.

(Posting title is from the poem House: Some Instructions by Grace Paley.)

Oh! my house is far away

House

There are some fine-looking houses in the center of Helsinki.

I commuted by bicycle today, and the gear hub stuck in position 5 when I was returning home, thanks to the temperature dropping below zero. However, after some time the gear hub started working again, probably a case of some moisture inside the cable or the gear switch, forming into ice and then breaking up in pieces.

(Posting title is from the poem The House of Rest by Julia Ward Howe.)

It must be a home in your mind

House

I'm still posting photographs taken over a week ago at Salmi, north-west corner of Nuuksio National Park. Schools are starting, and there is all kinds of extra busyness because of it.

(Posting title is from the poem House: Some Instructions by Grace Paley.)

A roof for when the slow dark hours begin

Up

Some days are such that there isn't much else than try to keep going, one thing after another happening, so that at some point the pile of things to do seems miles high. I hope tomorrow is a bit less tense, but I suspect otherwise.

(Posting title is from the poem Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti.)

If you find yourself lost, dig

Dig

Construct

Reflect

Glass

Museum

Fence

While commuting by bus I once again read a book, and most of the time I was not even aware where the bus was going. Luckily I noticed time passing and managed to get off the bus at the right stop. The danger of too good a book...

Near University of Helsinki main building there was a small boy posing on top of a concrete pole, urging his grandmother (?) to take a photo. "But I don't have a camera with me..." "Use your phone!" "It doesn't have a camera..."

What a disappointment! ... It is interesting how used we are becoming to having a camera with us always.

(Posting title is from the poem Elsewhere, Mon Amour by Nick Flynn.)

Hurried

Stripes, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Stripes 2, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Colors, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I was yesterday and today in a seminar discussing the future of the public sector in Finland, and this has caused a bit of hurry in doing other stuff. I guess that is appropriate given the amount of reduction in public sector resources during the last few years. (And more reductions are to come.)

I couldn't decide which of the "stripe" photographs was better, or even any good, so I decided to include both. How you feet about them?

And as a bonus, a photograph which is much more calm - taken late evening at about sunset.

Colors / colorless

Blue wall, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Roadside, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today was another above freezing and clouded day. Snow continued to melt, but we also got a little bit of new snow. Feeling tired all the time.