Yes, laughed the server

Sunset 1

Sunset 2

The photographs were taken in Turku on January 2nd.

(Posting title is from the poem Metaphysics by Kate Farrell.)

Put on your decent bonnet, and come out!

Sunset 1

Sunset 2

Sunset 3

The photographs were taken in Petikko on December 24th, walking with my daughter after sunset.

(Posting title is from the poem A Friendly Address by Thomas Hood.)

Lifting the senses, burning into sight

Evening 1

Evening 2

Evening 3

I reserved from the local library a book by Yrjö Teeriaho titled The Princess of Eastern Wilderness (in Finnish, Itä-Kairan prinsessa). The book tells of a legend of Lapland, a woman who walks alone across the forests and swamps of Lapland. She is in fact a real person, now over 70 years old, and still going for long walks alone.

If you make a Google image search with the phrase "Itäkairan prinsessa" you get lots of hits, due to articles about her published in Finnish newspapers. She hasn't taken photographs during the walks, but she has kept diaries, documenting how it feels to be alone in the wilderness, for several weeks at a time.

The idea of going for a two week long walk through wilderness, carrying everything needed with you was something that occasionally tempted me when I was younger, but these days I'm too fond of sleeping in a warm bed each night. And reading books and other such pleasures. However, going for long walks alone, that is something I understand very well, in reasonable dozes.

These photographs were taken late in the evening on August 8th.

(Posting title is from the poem The Stars and the Moon by Grace Schulman.)

I do not suffer for my art, I just suffer

Ditch

Sunset

Lights

I walked for three hours today, enjoying the sunshine. It was cold, but that was all right.

The photographs were taken on December 31st, 2014, when I was still suffering from the effects of the flu.

(Posting title is from the poem My Pain by Roddy Lumsden.)

I was of three minds

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

These photographs were taken after sunset in Luukki on December 21st. Luckily I have a lot of photographs waiting for postings, as for several days I haven't been able to take any. Last night was especially bad with the flu, I couldn't sleep because of various aches and coughing.

(Posting title is from the poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens.)

What kinds of things, feelings, or ideas inspire you

Sunset

I didn't manage to go for a walk today during daylight hours. Maybe in the evening, though. This photograph was taken on December 14th in Luukki, using the 16:9 aspect ratio, which I have used very rarely, but here it suits the subject.

(Posting title is from the poem Beautiful Poetry by Camille Guthrie.)

Next day is no way of knowing

Evening

I finally managed to start processing the photographs I had waiting on the computer. The above photograph was taken on March 28th, walking with my daughter in a nearby park. Days are long enough now, 14 h 24 min, so there is plenty of time to go for a walk after the work day before the sun sets.

I commuted by bicycle today, and it felt good. I'm getting into shape. On the other, there is flu going around in the family, and I'm waiting for my turn.

(Posting title is from the poem My Trip by Donald Revell.)

And that for ten long years he wooed

Ice

I had quite a lot of things to do today, spring cleaning etc. I wasn't sure I would have any energy left to go for a walk, but then I thought that at least I could try.

And so I walked for 2 1/2 hours, which felt good. I walked very slowly, and this may be the reason I met animals that usually don't let come close. I was only 20 meters away from two white-tailed deer when they ran away. And a moose let me approach to 30 meters when it ran away. Of course, I only noticed the animals when they started running, they are so good in hiding. But the best thing was when near lake Tränuhals I listened to a pair of whooper swan telling everyone that the lake is theirs.

The above photograph was taken at lake Kurkijärvi in Tremanskärr on March 21st.

(Posting title is from the poem Love by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)

Desires for permanence and display

Blue

Red

These photographs were taken in Tremanskärr on March 15th, after sunset.

(Posting title is from the poem Wall, Cave, and Pillar Statements, after Asôka by Alan Dugan.)

To make dreams truths, and fables histories

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

Lake 4

This was an excessively busy week, and the next one promises to be more of the same. But in any case, here are photographs taken at lake Kurkijärvi near Tremanskärr swamp on March 9th.

(Posting title is from the poem The Dream by John Donne.)

I saw the sky in the windshield of another city

Sky

I'm traveling tomorrow, which generates additional pressure to a busy week, but so it goes. However, there is only three work days until the vacation starts. I'm looking forward to it: lots of walking, maybe visiting museums and art galleries, and other stuff which the children might be interested in.

The snow situation isn't yet decided one way or another. We got 2-3 cm of new snow last night, but in all there is only 8-10 cm of snow, which isn't quite enough for skiing except in places where snow has been gathered to make ski tracks.

(Posting title is from the poem February Sky by Bruce Smith.)

I did not feel so distant from this time and place

Sky

Street

Crossing

Sunset

Taking a long walk through forests and swamps is something which I look forward to during the workdays, and during the weekend I try to arrange time for this. Now the length of day is almost seven hours, and the sun is not so low on the horizon any more.

On Saturday I walked for 2 1/2 hours, which didn't feel like a long walk at all, I felt that I could have continued for several hours more. But at home I realized I was in fact tired. But maybe I can manage to take another long walk today.

(Posting title is from the poem Fortune by Charlie Smith.)

Made stranger still by what I have seen

Street

Cars

Crossing

Harbor

These photographs were taken on January 13th in Helsinki. The length of day is increasing rapidly, and now it can happen that it isn't yet dark when I commute home from work. The cold weather seems to hold until next week, which is fine indeed.

I think I'll look at my collection of maps this evening and make plans for going for a long walk during the weekend.

During this the week there have appeared several news items about strange snow and ice formations - see here, here and here, text is in Finnish but you can just look at the photographs. Thus I have an urge to explore forests, swamps and lakes.

(Posting title is from the poem Winter Journal: The Sky Is the Lost Orpheum by Emily Wilson.)

To chart my growth without pictures

Sunrise

Sunset

Today is independence day in Finland, and we have 1 cm of snow on the ground. It seems that the snow will remain for a while, as the weather forecast promises below 0 °C temperatures.

It was good to sleep late, but there are all kinds of things to do. Maybe I have time to go through the remaining photographs, there are about 700 of them waiting on the computer. The two photographs shown here were taken on November 25th, just before sunrise and just after sunset. Length of day is now 6 h 7 min.

I have been shopping on the net recently, buying clothes for commuting by bicycle during winter. I bought waist-high unpadded tights, and neoprene overshoes, both of which should be warm enough for winter conditions. My old bicycle clothes are starting to come apart, and the fabric has worn in some places thin enough to see through. And my bicycle overshoes have big holes in them, ripped at the seams.

The most important thing I bought already, warm lobster-style bicycle gloves, which have proved to be very warm at -7 °C. It remains to be seen how well they cope at -15 °C, which I have usually kept as the lowest temperature for commuting by bicycle. I really loathe hands getting cold when riding the bicycle.

(Posting title is from the poem Gloves by Jose Angel Araguz.)

To mysteries you’re anxious about

Sunset 1

Sunset 2

Sunset 3

Here is the last set of photographs from Midsummer's Eve, sunset time.

(Posting title is from the poem Time as Memory as Story by Simon J. Ortiz.)

If I had not forever, if there were time

Blue

Red

Path

Boat

I finally managed to go through the photographs taken on Midsummer's Eve a week ago. Here is a kind of prologue, walking with the children to lake Pitkäjärvi in Espoo to watch a fire being set up. It was rather quiet on this side of the lake, although evidence of generous consumption of alcohol was of course visible and audible.

(Posting title is from the poem Midsummer by Robert Fitzgerald.)

Each of them thought far more than he uttered

Stream

Tracks

Silhouette

Sunset

Fence

Here are photographs taken on Tuesday, when I went for a walk just before sunset. It was quite like winter still. Now the temperature stays above 0 °C during the night, and rises up to +5 °C in daytime. I'm very tired.

(Posting title is from the poem Two Old Crows by Vachel Lindsay.)

As she walked beside me gazing into the distance

Pine

Snow

Road

Field

Lines

This was a heavy week indeed, but finally there is time to relax a bit. I'm planning to do some walking in forests during the next four days, and this may mean something longer (in hours and kilometers) than usually. But that is up to the flu symptoms, I hope this starts to be over finally.

I borrowed new books from the library to be read during Easter. I have been more lax than usually as regards reading books, haven't been able to hold my attention properly on reading. It could have been due to reading wrong books, but I think it is due to be more tired than normally.

I took these photographs on Tuesday, and somehow I think there is a kind of Easter feeling in them.

(Posting title is from the poem The Last Day by George Seferis, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.)