Titled - Confirmed

Rock 1

Rock 2

Rock 3

The photographs were taken at Kakarsberget on May 30th.

(Posting title is from the poem Mine - by the Right of the White Election! by Emily Dickinson.)

Before my face it lays down my despairs

Rock 1

Rock 2

The photographs were taken on May 13th at Kytäjä-Usmi.

Today was a rainy day. In the morning I got soaking wet while commuting by bicycle. The clothes were still wet in the afternoon when I started riding back home. And I got soaking wet once again.

The Finnish government fell today, after the "Finns Party" elected an openly racist leader yesterday. Now the Finns Party is out of government, and negotiations about a new coalition have started. I hope human rights are remembered.

Yesterday, after the Finns Party election result was announced, I was quite shocked. As therapy I made a donation to the Disaster Relief Fund of the Finnish Red Cross. That helped a bit.

(Posting title is from the poem Idea 20: An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still by Michael Drayton.)

My fingers fidget like ten idle brats

Rock

The photograph was taken on May 13th at Kytäjä-Usmi.

The economy in Finland is doing fine, after a long hiatus, since the end of 2010. There are quite a lot of companies making initial public offerings in the stock market, and most of them are succeeding. I have taken part in several IPOs, in companies such as DNA (telecommunications), Fondia (law), Tokmanni (retail), Lehto (construction), Remedy (games), and Silmäasema (health).

Most of the IPOs have been quite popular, and the amount of shares allocated to each of the buyers has been rather small. In any case, it has been interesting to study these companies and to speculate how well they will succeed in the IPO. My strategy in the IPOs has been "buy and hold", except that I sold Tokmanni shares the first day the company was listed, which wasn't such a great idea in retrospect.

The appearance of new companies has reminded me of the past, how it was those days when the stock market was really hot. Quite a lot of the investments I made years ago were not so great when the market started to turn. Luckily, I kept the shares, enjoying the dividends, and sometimes bought more shares at a low price, and things turned out fine in the longer term.

During the years I have also owned shares in about a dozen companies which have disappeared from the stock market, many of them having been bought out, such as Novo Group, Hartwall, Janton, Pohjola, Talentum, and PKC.

Currently I hold shares in about 40 companies, of which two are Swedish and the rest are Finnish. Because my background is in ICT and engineering, most of the companies are in these fields, and many are such that I use their products and services, for example car tires and mobile broadband.

The economy seems to be picking up speed, but there are quite a lot of uncertainties. Perhaps it would be sensible to sell some of the investments, but as I said, I'm a "buy and hold" type of investor, and I can wait and see what happens.

(Posting title is from the poem A Terre by Wilfred Owen.)

But only in my mind

Salmi 1

Salmi 2

Salmi 3

The photographs were taken at Salmi on December 21st. I have still quite a lot of photographs taken before it started to get colder.

The landscape looks quite different now, as there is snow, ice and frost, and temperature is at -25 °C. Today I commuted by car. I did see one person riding a bicycle in Helsinki.

(Posting title is from the poem Cuba, 1962 by Ai.)

Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel

Rock

The photograph was taken on November 14th at Sipoonkorpi, part of a formation of giant's kettles.

The length of day is today 5 h 57 min, and still going down, towards 5 h 47 min. Well, at least today I didn't get wet when commuting by bicycle.

The new bicycle light has still 1/3 of the first charge left, after nine days of commuting, which means that one charge might last three weeks. Usually the lowest or the second lowest brightness setting is enough, but there have been several rainy days when I have needed to power the light up to the second brightest setting. In normal winter conditions the charge might thus last even longer.

(Posting title is from the poem Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs) by Algernon Charles Swinburne.)

Looking into eyes

Kettle 1

Kettle 2

There are some giant's kettles near Pirttimäki, photographs taken on October 11th.

Today I bought half a kilogram of tea, mostly oolong, but also a little bit of pu-erh. This should last for several months.

(Posting title is from the poem everyone’s dying... by kari edwards.)

For survival, it’s the little things that count

Nuuksio 1

Nuuksio 2

Nuuksio 3

Nuuksio 4

Nuuksio 5

Nuuksio 6

Nuuksio 7

Nuuksio 8

I have been using poetry as the source for posting titles here for some time. Yesterday I was too lazy and invented the title myself. However, it has been a nice thing to read a few lines of poetry each day, searching for a collection of words that would fit as the title, and provide some additional content to the images. You could say that I have been trying to use poems as frames for the photographs.

The photographs were taken at lake Pöksynhaara in Nuuksio on August 2nd.

(Posting title is from the poem Darwin’s Bestiary by Philip Appleman.)

That good wood kept calling my name

Forest 1

Forest 2

Forest 3

Forest 4

In the morning I still had some muscle ache from the garden work during the weekend, but now it has disappeared. Today was a good day for commuting by bicycle, but for tomorrow the forecast promises a lot of rain.

These photographs were taken on April 11th in Meiko. I haven't been taking much photographs recently, due to various activities taking place elsewhere than in forests and swamps.

(Posting title is from the poem All My Activities Are Feeding Activities by Alli Warren.)

Folding into the rocks

Mushroom

Box

Rock

In Kytäjä, east of lake Piilolammi, there is a hill where black granite (gabbro) has been mined, and signs of that activity are still visible.

Today is a rainy day. But maybe I'll go for a walk anyway.

(Posting title is from the poem Firefly Under the Tongue by Coral Bracho, translated by Forrest Gander.)

The sky rolls in and out on its journey

Sea

I'm not sure whether this photograph is worth posting. It is of course technically flawed, shot towards the sun, with glare wiping out a lot of the detail. And as the click wheel on the LX5 is stuck I was unable to change aperture from f/2.0 which resulted in overexposure.

I should switch from aperture priority to program mode (it isn't a good idea to use aperture priority if one isn't able to change the aperture, yes?), but I'm just too lazy to change any of the settings on the LX5.

However, I feel good when I look at this photograph.

(Posting title is from the poem Lauderdale by Laura Newbern.)

Open, upturned, outstretched, uplifting him

Sea

Boats

Tree

Here are more photographs taken at Porkkala peninsula. I feel the call of the peninsula, but maybe I can resist for a while. But there is so much to be explored further...

I still have feelings of sore throat, and I have been somewhat tired during the last few days. But that may be due to lack of sleep. In any case, commuting by bicycle feels good; I wouldn't like to sit in a car or a bus when the weather is sunny like this.

(Posting title is from the poem Argyle on Knocknagaroon by Thomas P. Lynch.)

There's a certain sadness to this body of water

Rock 1

Rock 2

Rock 3

Rock 4

Rock 5

Rock 6

I visited Porkkala peninsula on Saturday, and on Sunday I wrote that I need to resist the call of the peninsula. Well, the call became irresistible, and today I went to Porkkala peninsula once again, with my youngest daughter. We saw a lot of interesting things, and enjoyed the visit greatly.

These photographs were taken on Saturday at Porkkala peninsula.

(Posting title is from the poem The End of Landscape by Randall Mann.)

Ah stay, my heart, the weight

Dry 1

Dry 2

Dry 3

Dry 4

Yesterday I wrote about being overwhelmed by the landscape at Porkkala peninsula, and one aspect of it was the difficulty of knowing how to capture the landscape in a photograph. There was just too much to take in at once, an impressive amount of small-scale details and the grand vista of the sea.

Anyway, here are four photographs taken at Pampskatan, which is the south end of the peninsula, almost like an island, sea all around. It was dry, and the effects of drought were visible in the landscape.

I'm still remembering the impressions of the peninsula, and it is calling, calling, but I must resist the call, I must, resist.

(Posting title is from the poem Sea-Heroes by H. D.)

From half across the world, from snow and rock

Rock

Originally I wasn't going to make a posting with this photograph, but then I looked at it again, and it seems to have some redeeming qualities, even though I have difficulties to say what exactly. But posted it is.

(Posting title is from the poem Abandoned Ranch, Big Bend by Hayden Carruth.)

No mood to appreciate the clever

Rock 1

Rock 2

Rock 3

The weather is great, about +8 °C in daytime, and so I'm planning to commute by bicycle. The muscle soreness is easing, and it only bothers if I spend too much time in the same position, so a little bit of exercise shouldn't be a bad thing.

I had the car serviced on Tuesday, and fortunately it was a relatively cheap one; owning a 14-year old car provides occasional surprises. Years ago I remember wondering at my father who had an old, old car. Now I'm driving a similarly old car...

(Posting title is from the poem G-9 by Tim Dlugos.)

And I decided that Russia was too far away

Ice 1

Ice 2

On February 21st I went for a walking in Nuuksio, starting from roadside west of lake Saarijärvi. South of the lake there are some rocky hills where water flows on the rock, forming icicles.

(Posting title is from the poem Hello, Willie Shoemaker by Charles Bukowski.)

I remember the great sails of its branches

Rock

Stump

White

We got 2 cm of snow on Monday, but it melted away almost straight away.

These photographs were taken on February 20th in Nuuksio.

(Posting title is from the poem Stump by Donald Hall.)