On the news here in Finland is some speculation that this long dry period might diminish the mosquito population so much that we would have much less of these bloodsuckers than usually. But for that to happen there should be a couple of weeks more dry weather, which remains to be seen.
Well, I don't wish for a lot of mosquitoes, but wet weather is usually great news for taking photographs. Well, sometimes there are exceptions.
(Posting title is from Deaf Republic: 16 by Ilya Kaminsky.)
On Saturday I went with the two oldest daughters for a walk at Meiko. We started east of lake Mustjärvi, circled around the lake from the north end, and explored the rocky hills west of the lake, returning via the south end of the lake. We had picnic on the rocky hills in an open place where the cool wind blew pleasantly.
Originally I had planned to go walking on the swamps, but the daughters wanted to use sneakers for walking, so we selected a dry route, and even though there were some wet spots, it was possible to circle around them.
Mosquito season is now upon us. My oldest daughter says that she never gets bitten, and that seems to be true, but the younger one got bitten, and the bite mark itched quite a lot. I didn't get bites even though I usually do. For me mosquito bites aren't such a problem, as later in the summer one gets used to them and they don't itch so much any more.
Later on Saturday I went for a walk second time, to Luukki with my youngest daughter, who wanted to see how the lake there looks like now.
(Posting title is from the poem The Wild Common by D. H. Lawrence.)
After commuting by bicycle I was quite tired. But then the daughters persuaded me to go for a walk - they have a lot of energy after recovering from the fever - and I took some photographs.
There were some mosquitoes, but not too many. I recently heard a Finnish entomologist who was rather enthusiastic about this summer. According to him, only a little bit of more rain is needed and then we will get a good or even an excellent mosquito summer. Currently the amount of mosquitoes is still modest. But apparently the biting behaviour of the mosquitoes that we now have is good or even excellent. Shudder...
I read the wikipedia article on mosquitoes and found this hint: "Such blood-sucking by females in support of their reproduction, is at the risk of their lives, so not surprisingly, they tend to be adept at dodging direct attack. However, if mosquitoes were to take alarm at every movement nearby, they would get little rest in breezy weather with leaves oscillating in the wind. Accordingly, they are adapted to ignore side-to-side movement, so a resting female permits a finger to approach slowly if the finger moves several centimetres from side to side about once a second. With practice one can use this stratagem to squash resting mosquitoes with high frequency."
(Posting title is from the song Sweetest love, I do not go by John Donne.)
Today I was busy at home, in the garden, and with the children, going for a ride with them on bicycles. I took some photographs, but none were any good, so here are three more photographs from yesterday, one from my walk in the forests at Luukki, and two taken later when I went for a walk with my daughter.
By the way, the mosquito season is upon us, and it is an inconvenience when taking photographs. Of course the photographer gets bitten, and one gets used to it, but there is also the problem of catching unwanted mosquitoes in a photograph. At first I thought there was a drop of water or dirt on the lens, but then I realized that several photographs from yesterday were spoiled by the smudge of a mosquito flying in front of the lens.
(Posting title is from the poem The Mosquito by D. H. Lawrence.)
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