Spring is my absolute favorite time of the year, but fall does have its share of beauty besides the colors. The other day I gathered a few rose hips for a bouquet from some wild rose trimmings.
And just for a little more color and volume, I added one sprig. Understated but nice. 🙂
I’m both amazed and delighted over how long wild flowers blossom around here:
Granted, they’re not terribly flashy like cultivated ones, but they do give bees and other pollinators sustenance long into the fall season and provide splashes of color, too. (We keep our yard purposely toxin-free for the bees.)
Today’s the autumnal equinox here on the northern hemisphere, and it’s starting to show:
This year looks perhaps – it’s a little too early to tell for sure yet – to be especially vibrant.
I just love fall colors; don’t you?
While looking through my photos for the last snowfalls in recent years, I ran into this striking April sunset from a few years ago:
The little pond is just down the street from us. I quite like living in the woods! 🙂
This winter hasn’t been at all bad, weather- and snow-wise. Nevertheless, I notice myself yearning for warmer temperatures and especially AN END TO THE BLASTED SNOW:
The view above is from yesterday. It started snowing in the morning and continued through afternoon. Bleah. Ohwell; I dare say it’ll end soon enough. In fact, don’t you say in English that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?
One recent morning when I was preparing to go upstairs to my workroom, I heard a rustling, scraping sound that was quite loud and really close. I lifted my head to see a young male turkey standing on our back deck rail:
He stood there for a few minutes and then re-joined the little flock down on the ground. We’ve been seeing the three of them around quite a bit this winter.
My guess is he was looking for birdseed. Our next-door neighbor has a birdfeeder that the wild turkeys often visit. He doesn’t have any on his deck, though; perhaps this young fella was just overly curious.
Today is the Finnish Independence Day. We’re 101 years old!
As is our custom, I’m lighting two candles.
(In case you’re interested, here are my thoughts on the 100th anniversary.)
The other day I was looking for something completely different in my Flickr albums, when I ran across this image from last year:
It still makes me smile: I just happened to look out the window at a good time to see a wild rabbit taking a sandbath in a shallow depression. The depressions were dug into our yard by a turtle, we think; we see them digging test holes some years. Other years they must be laying eggs somewhere else.
I guess the sand felt cooler to the rabbit than the grass? What an incredible coincidence nonetheless; I’ve never seen a wild bunny do that. It must’ve felt comfortable to have stretched out its back leg(s) like that. Cute attack! 🙂
As chilly as March can sometimes be here in Massachusetts, it can also be really beautiful.
I love the look of frosty, deep winter, even if my ever-so-slowly-aging body might be happier with the current thaw. 🙂
Today, my native country Finland turns 100 years. I speak of Finland on this blog now and then because it’s a huge part of my identity.
Here, to celebrate our first centennial, are a few aspects of my Finland. All photos by me unless otherwise mentioned.
My Finland is woods and access to nature
Finland is among the most forested countries in the world, and people inhabiting the area have lived off of its forests for millenia. I really love woods. I would feel exposed without woods around me.
In Finland, nature is incorporated into even the largest cities, and not only as manicured lawns or shrubberies. In addition to national parks, we have relatively untouched areas of nature almost within a stone’s throw from anywhere. And lakes – thousands of lakes.
My Finland invests in infrastructure and future-conscious planning
Multiple modes of transportation are an inseparable part of modern community planning. I’ve been biking to get myself from A to B as long as I can remember, and LOVE the bicycle paths. There’s even wintertime maintenance on them! I also love Finland’s clean, safe, up-to-date public transit. To wit: the metro system in the greater Helsinki region was just extended.
J.Elliott on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
My Finland is multilingual and international
For centuries, Finland was stuck in between and fought over by two larger powers. We were first a part of the Swedish realm, then Russia took over. There’s no denying that Finland is a small country, population-wise, and a small market. That doesn’t stop us from connecting; on the contrary.
Finland is officially bilingual (Finnish and Swedish), and the Sami languages, Karelian, Romani and Finnish sign language have been legally recognized as minority languages. Apart from the newer minority languages, there are also older communities speaking Russian and Tatar, for example. Today, pupils learn the basics of a minimum of three languages besides their native one before they leave elementary school.
I also happen to LOVE the Finnish language. It’s an agglutinative one, which means we can build massive words like mustaviinimarjamehutiivistepullonkorkissanikin (‘also in the cap of my bottle of black currant juice concentrate’), typically spelled as one despite the length. Finnish also employs vowel harmony, which means that for instance the back vowel a cannot appear in the same word as the front vowel ä – but because of agglutination, we can build a compound where both do appear. For example, there’s a (theoretical) word with only one consonant and seven vowels: hääyöaie (‘intention on wedding night’ – can’t really see anyone ever using that in everyday life).
My Finland Reads
Finns love reading, whether it’s newsprint, websites or physical books. Or Donald Duck!
Several Finnish authors have achieved international fame.
My Finland designs beautiful things
Modern Finnish design has made a name for itself. Brands like Marimekko or Iittala and names like Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen are known internationally. I’m partial to jugend (art nouveau / national romanticism) and wood.
My Finland is playful
Finns don’t do just high design, we also allow our humor to blossom – check out, for instance, the huge Posankka statue in Turku that is a hybrid between a marzipan pig and a rubber duck.
We also love games and playing. Recent Finnish game franchise hits include Max Payne and Angry Birds. I sometimes wonder if the speculative genre Finnish weird might have arisen from our tendency to play around with ideas and color outside the lines. Not to mention to innovate!
My Finland invests in technology
Almost as long as there’s been an administrative unit called Finland, it’s been poor. Only after the World Wars did we really start trying to improve our lot, and by and large have succeeded. From Fiskars (which started as a forge in 1649) to Nokia and Linux, to mention but a few examples, for a tiny country we’re doing darn well.
The ruisleipä line in a bakery in Kotka from 1998. Photo by Lauri Sorvoja / JOKA via Museovirasto (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
My Finland is unabashedly geeky and nerdy
Since reading is a big pasttime in Finland and since we love our technology, it’s probably no surprise that we have an active SF/F / larp / anime community. Thanks to the efforts of the Finnish fan community plus supporters all around the world, we hosted Worldcon 75 in Helsinki this past August.
My Finland Loves Music
From traditional to tango, from classical to heavy metal – even the combination of the two! – music is everywhere in Finland. I’m not a terribly big fan of classical music, but Jean Sibelius is special. Here’s a version of his Finlandia Hymn by Cantus Vocal Emsemble, with lyrics (I believe) from a Unitarian Universalist hymn book:
The Finlandia Hymn by cantussings
The Eurovision Song Contest is popular, and various folk styles are making a comeback.
Pernilla Karlsson – “När Jag Blundar” (Finland) via escDjpo2012
Ulla Pirttijärvi is one of my favorite Sami vocalists. I’ve also grown to like the combination of traditional yoiks and contemporary music quite a lot.
Ulla Pirttijärvi ~ Lullaby via FamilyOfLightMember
My Finland sauna bathes
Sauna is the only truly wide-spread Finnish word. We have sauna often, sometimes multiple times a week, and many people still make their own sauna whisks.
My Finland cares
Finland is not perfect, but by and large we take care of each other. Finland’s women gained the right to vote first in Europe, in 1906. In the first elections where women were allowed to vote they were also allowed ro run for office; we elected 19 female members of parliament that year. We’ve already had one female President. (High time for another!)
This year we legalized same-sex marriage and are experimenting with universal basic income. There’s still plenty to do, for instance abolishing the mandatory sterilization of trans people, reversing the trend of cutting from the care of the disabled and the old, trying to reduce domestic abuse and making sure the social security nets already in place hold.
In my Finland, there’s space to be who you are.
