With all that move me, under the water

View 1

View 2

The photographs were taken at Oittaa on June 29th.

(Posting title is from the poem The Ball Poem by John Berryman.)

I look up when I walk

Spring 1

Spring 2

Spring 3

The photographs were taken at Oittaa near lake Sorlampi on April 15th. Today I'll be out and walking. There might even be Gavia stellata.

(Posting title is from the song Ue o Muite Arukō by Kyu Sakamoto.)

You’ll see soon

Blue 1

Blue 2

Blue 3

The photographs were taken at Oittaa on December 31st.

I have got 272 km riding the bicycle this year. Last year I got over 6,500 km of riding, which now feels quite a feat, perhaps because in winter riding the bicycle is much heavier and slower than during summer.

But at least the days are getting longer. This morning I saw a little bit lighter sky in the east while commuting by bicycle, even though it was over an hour before sunrise.

(Posting title is from the song Springtime for Twittler by Irwin Collier.)

How do you recognize a lovely place?

Snow 1

Snow 2

Snow 3

Snow 4

Snow 5

Snow 6

The photographs were taken at Oittaa on January 17th.

There is 8 cm of snow at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, and 0 cm at Kaisaniemi park in the center of Helsinki. This is less than I thought that there would be. But the flooding isn't much eased, as a lot of the snow melted away, and in any case it was very wet snow. I'm thinking about how to explore the flooding during the weekend, without taking too much risks of sinking into a swamp or getting soaked otherwise.

I had today the possibility to see what has happened with the restoration of the National Library building in the center of Helsinki. What I regretted is that I didn't have my camera with me. But in any case I could enjoy the building instead of focusing on taking photographs.

Addendum: This evening I spent some time in Terminal on the MacBook, doing a little big of housekeeping at the Unix shell level. I thought I would have forgotten it all, but it went surprisingly well.

(Posting title is from the poem National Account by Joel Craig.)

And his watch showed years, not hours

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

Lake 4

Lake 5

On January 5th I visited Pirttimäki. It was cold. There were plenty of tracks in the snow, but I was there well before sunrise, and few people were out that early.

The warm weather continued today. Yesterday we had 18 cm of snow, now 10 cm. But it will be colder tomorrow, -2 °C in the morning. The length of day is now 7 hours 34 minutes, so it isn't so dark even though the landscape isn't so white any more.

(Posting title is from the poem Balakirev's Dream (1905) by Tomas Tranströmer.)

But never had explored in true detail

Lake 1

Lake 2

Lake 3

Lake 4

The photographs were taken at lake Sorlampi on December 28th.

Today I walked for two hours in the north parts of Nuuksio, visiting three lakes: Iso-Antias, Levo-Antias and Suolikas. It was -18 °C, and there was 10-20 cm of snow, so walking was a bit heavier than usually. I didn't see anyone, but there were a lot of moose tracks in the snow. Some ravens made a racket, but otherwise it was very quiet.

(Posting title is from the poem Bel Canto by Kenneth Koch.)

And you shall see the beautiful things

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Autumn 3

Autumn 4

Autumn 5

It is 10 °C warmer than usually. Normally the temperature is +5 °C in November in Finland, but today we got a new record: +14.3 °C. The previous record was +13.0 °C, from the year 1999. It feels as if it would be September instead of November.

On the other hand, the length of day is now 8 h 31 min, which means that I need to use the bicycle lamp both on the way to work and when returning home. I'm using eneloop and eneloop pro batteries, and they are excellent, providing bright light for 5-6 hours. But the batteries run out fast, in 20 minutes, without giving any advance warning, so I need to carry a spare set with me. I'm charging the batteries once or twice each week, which isn't too bad.

The photographs were taken at Pirttimäki on October 11th.

(Posting title is from the poem Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field.)

And rise in a light

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Autumn 3

Autumn 4

Autumn 5

This morning I went once again to Luukki, but it was a short walk, 1 h 20 min, as I had quite a lot of other things to do. I visited three lakes - Väärälampi, Mustalampi and Halkolampi - and enjoyed the warm weather, +10 °C.

These photographs were taken at Pirttimäki on October 11th. On October 10th I got somewhat lost in the south parts of Pirttimäki, and thus I returned there on the 11th to explore the landscape once again. However, this time I didn't get lost. It was cold, and there was frost.

(Posting title is from the poem November for Beginners by Rita Dove.)

A lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain

Giant's kettle 1

Giant's kettle 2

These photographs were taken on August 18th at Nuuksio near Sorlampi where there is a place with half a dozen Giant's kettles carved into the rock during the time when glaciers covered Finland.

(Posting title is from the poem Lepanto by G. K. Chesterton.)

The rocks do not so cruelly

Waterlily

Nuphar lutea

Rock

On Sunday I went for a walk with my daughter to Nuuksio, walking along Sorlampi nature trail, looking at the Giant's kettles there, eating some blueberries, and having picnic. It was a nice day to be outdoors, sunny, +23 °C, and a little bit of wind. And even though part of the trail is rather wet, home to mosquitoes and other flying things, they didn't bother us at all.

The photographs were taken a week ago at Nuuksio.

(Posting title is from the poem My Lute Awake by Sir Thomas Wyatt.)