Mild is the parting year

Pole

Road

View

Sun

Parking

Glass

Here are photographs from the stretch between Joensuu and Vuokatti, where we stayed at Katinkulta spa. The length of day was less than 4 1/2 hours, but there was a long time after sunset when it was still possible to see the landscape.

These photographs got corrupted on the memory card, and I had to use a disk recovery utility to get them back, a lot of extra effort, but maybe it was worthwhile.

Katinkulta was a nice place to stay, we enjoyed the spa on three days, best thing being the outdoor pool: outside temperature about -18 °C and two dozen plus-degrees in the water, steam rising up from the water.

(Posting title is from the poem Mild is the Parting Year by Walter Savage Landor.)

This river points the way north

Bridge

River

Fence

Birch

Street

Display

These photographs were taken last Friday in Joensuu when we went for a walk in the city center. There was a smudge in the camera lens on the left side, generating some visual artifacts, but they seem to fit the subject. The temperature was going downwards at this point, and the length of day was about five hours, Joensuu being farther north than Vantaa.

Today the length of day is 6 hours, which is a kind of milestone towards spring, even though there will be a lot of short winter days still ahead. The change in the length of day, coming back south from the north, feels quite drastic, even though in the difference is only about 1 1/2 hours.

(Posting title is from the poem The River Now by Richard Hugo.)

When you sent me to the universe

Varkaus

Blur

Blue

Lamp

Lights

I drove the car almost 1500 km in five days, in temperatures ranging from -18 °C to +4 °C, while it was snowing and raining. Traveling with children such a long distance was surprisingly pleasant, and I heard the question "Are we there yet?" only half a dozen times.

I took over 1000 photographs, and managed to corrupt a memory card, but fortunately the photographs (except for two) were salvageable with a disk recovery utility. I have gone through so far only the first photographs taken during the trip. Here is a collection of photographs from the first leg of the travel, between cities of Vantaa and Joensuu, which is about 450 km and took (with a break) about six hours.

(Posting title is from the poem At the Altar by Eleanor Ross Taylor.)