The day is new and fair with good smells in the air

Colors 1

Colors 2

The photographs were taken on October 18th.

(Posting title is from the poem Spring Day by Amy Lowell.)

The storm in your bright eyes

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View 2

The photographs were taken at Tampere on September 10th.

It rained also today, but in the morning there was a break in the rain when I commuted by bicycle, and in the afternoon even the sun appeared. I need to do some repairs to the bicycle quite soon, but it should last two weeks, until I have some vacation days.

(Posting title is from the song City Lights by Blanche.)

You say, "I understand." You really don't.

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View 2

The photographs were taken in Helsinki on November 19th.

(Posting title is from the poem SCHOOLS by Paula Tatarunis.)

Eyes reach from level earth

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View 2

View 3

View 4

The photographs were taken in Helsinki on October 19th, on the way to Sirkus Finlandia.

(Posting title is from the poem The Screen of Distance by Barbara Guest.)

My point is that the line is fraudulent

Travel 1

Travel 2

Travel 3

Travel 4

Travel 5

Travel 6

The photographs were taken on December 7th, while traveling to Jyväskylä.

This morning I walked for three hours, starting from Oittaa, going first to lake Sorlampi and then circling back through Hakjärvimossen swamp. It was -9 °C when I started, half an hour before sunrise, and -4 °C when I returned. There is 1/2 cm of snow on the ground, lightening the landscape.

(Posting title is from the poem “Nothing Is Really Hard but to Be Real—” by John Ciardi.)

I hold you like a hole holds light

Station 1

Station 2

The flu is bothering a lot, especially the coughing, and the fever. But I guess this will take a couple of days, and then I'll be feeling better once again.

These photographs were taken on December 16th and 17th.

(Posting title is from the poem Station by Maria Hummel.)

How we waited, how we hid

Blue

Red

Yellow

White

Today I traveled to Tampere to attend a seminar. The train was late in the morning, and the timetable was tight, but everything went fine.

These photographs were taken today at the Tikkurila railway station. (Tikkurila is a Finnish company that produces paints and colors.)

(Posting title is from the poem Twelve in Yellow-Weed at the Edge by Cynthia Cruz.)

His heart was all a-flutter

Track 1

Track 2

I'm hungry. It is due to commuting by bicycle each day, 45 minutes both in the morning and in the afternoon. Thus, 4 1/2 hours of exercise so far this week.

It has been rainy. Yesterday I didn't get soaked, and neither today, as the rain (with plenty of thunder) happened conveniently during office hours.

The photographs were taken on July 27th.

(Posting title is from the poem “A peanut sat on a railroad track ...”.)

Wanted to diffuse the immovable core

Train 1

Train 2

Train 3

I commuted by bicycle today. I got soaking wet in the morning and in the afternoon. This was a rainy day.

The photographs were taken in Helsinki on July 27th. It was dry then.

(Posting title is from the poem From Violence to Peace by Jimmy Santiago Baca.)

No, no: you would not be rash

Train 1

Train 2

The leg muscles were a bit sore this morning, after the 2 1/2 walk on a swamp yesterday, so I took magnesium, it should help with the ache. And that is not the only ache. One of the children got a bit of road rash yesterday, falling off a kick scooter. I cleaned the skin wound, and I have been changing the bandage regularly. The wound looked quite bad in the beginning, but now it is much better.

The photographs were taken on the night train from Oulu to Helsinki on July 24th.

(Posting title is from the poem Youth and Art by Robert Browning.)

And we’d be hungry from travel and for being almost home

Tracks

Lamp

I'm keeping to the chronological order with the photographs, making it easier to keep things in order myself. So far I have processed the photographs of traveling to Kilpisjärvi in Lapland by train and by car, and of climbing to the top of two fells, Salmivaara and Saana. The two photographs shown here were taken from the night train P266 from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.

In my Flickr stream there are usually 100-200 daily views of the photographs, but the Lapland photographs generated extra interest, as there have been a couple of thousand views so far today. Using the photographs in postings here at Light Scrape will take quite a few days, but that is good, as I have taken only a couple of photographs since returning back home.

(Posting title is from the poem Night Travel by Esther Belin.)

Wondered if we are writing poetry or all huddling in

Pasila 1

Pasila 2

Pasila 3

Pasila 4

Pasila 5

These photographs were taken at the railway station in Pasila, when we were starting our trip north to Kilpisjärvi in Lapland. It was the first time I used the car carrier on the night train, 800 km to Rovaniemi.

I have been reading Hollywood by Bukowski, and like his writing more than ever. Earlier I thought he just pretended to be writing, but now I know he really worked at it. And it is deeper, much deeper than I thought it is. I don't know why it is so that my favorite writers, such as Thomas Bernhard, all seem to be pessimists. Bukowski fits there.

Bukowski filled up his non-writing time with drinking and gambling, and getting into trouble in various ways. Earlier I thought I'm very different from Bukowski, as I drink very little, and I have never even played the lottery. But now I'm not longer sure there is a difference.

(Posting title is from the poem I Am Visited by an Editor and a Poet by Charles Bukowski.)

Of travel that always feels heavy

Train

We are back home, after traveling 2100 km by car and 1400 km by train in 11 days, to Kilpisjärvi (and Tromsø) and back. I haven't yet looked at the photographs, but there are plenty of them waiting on the memory cards.

The weather is hot, up to +30 °C today; I thought about riding the bicycle, but that remains to be seen. There is some cleaning up to be done, and the washing machine will be busy today...

(Posting title is from the poem Love Train by Tomás Q. Morín.)

The makings of another summer

Tikkurila 1

Tikkurila 2

Seinäjoki

On May 16th I had a meeting in Seinäjoki. I traveled by train from Tikkurila, and it was good.

Today I had sore muscles, and the reason must be the swimming I did on Saturday and Sunday in a lake at Luukki. But the soreness didn't hinder commuting by bicycle, and the weather was excellent, +23 °C and sunny. However, it is now getting to be cooler. Tomorrow the temperature drops to +7 °C, and rain is promised.

(Posting title is from the poem At The River by Diane Fahey .)

The train into the velvet

Espoo

Train

The WeeGee Exhibition Centre in Espoo contains all kinds of interesting things to see.

(Posting title is "computer poetry" generated with Infinite Monkeys N-GRAM Algorithm.)

From something much farther than a distance

Crane

Pipes

Greeen

Lines

Train

On Friday I traveled to the city of Jyväskylä and back by train. It was such a busy day that the only time I took photographs was in the morning while waiting for the train to arrive. There was some fog, which abstracted the landscape.

(Posting title is from the poem The Northeast Corridor by Donald Revell.)

Train is good

Railway

Maple

Flowers

Aspen

It has been a while I have done any longer travels using train here in Finland, but today I went to Lappeenranta and back. It took two hours in each direction, which is not bad for 240 km. By car it would have taken longer, but of course then you can easier select the timetable.

I liked the train. There was electricity by the seat for the laptop, and the wireless network worked well for reading e-mail and editing files. And the travel was smooth and quiet, very nice for a productive two hours of work in the morning.

So far I have avoided the flu, but it is hovering nearby. Temperature outside approached 25 °C today; that would not be so nice running a temperature.