This month’s theme is peach, in my FB photography group. I struggled with it for a while since peaches where not available in the stores until recently – it was not their season 🙂 Well, anyways I found some peaches in the end and took photos of them. Feel free to comment, I am still on a constant learning curve.
Nostalgic
I tried to create different moods, time periods (nostalgic) and obviously variations in compositions. I was not all that creative this time in that sense, but you cannot always succeed 🙂
I have done my best to stay away from the computer and social media, I have not posted in days or answered any comments. I will be doing that today. I spent nearly a week at our summer place enjoying a mini summer, we don’t usually have summer temperatures at this time of the year. So I took the advantage of it with all I have. Spent time in the hammock, spent all of the day outside Saw the miracle of spring summer bloom in one day. Amazing green is surrounding us at this moment.
Country road in the mist
As my last post was shared and it featured night shots, I am going to continue that theme. Saturday night we had a rain shower that lasted for about a hour and after that it cleared. At 11pm I went out side with my camera for a short walk, the air was so fresh and the mist on the fields lovely -I started with t the blue hour and watched as the sun was about to set. Here are some shot from my walk…
Franks Night post shared has some of my photos, read his well worded thoughts of night. Fell free to comment here or in his blog. Night can be full of magical beauty, with summers light nights we have here in the north. Winter sky with the beautiful star art. Nights capture the imagination, thoughts can circle in your mind during the night when you are supposed to sleep. Night is time for parties, time to meet friends or rest so you can survive the next day. It can be full of bliss or loneliness.
Special thanks to Ritva for providing the photos. Ritva is in Finland and I encourage readers to visit her blog Ritva Sillanmaki Photography. Please tell her I sent you and feel free to comment on her images here. She was also willing to try something different for me – collages. Any thoughts? Ritva’s work is copyrighted by Ritva Sillanmaki Photography.
Click the video above for 2 minutes of background waves while reading.
I like to walk on the beach. It is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.
Although now is a time of daylight, my thoughts are about night – that period of darkness ending with the arrival of light rising over the horizon.
Night is the time also called evening, nighttime, or even nocturne – the time between sunset and sunrise on the continuum of time. When does night start and…
What a difference a day makes. We got touch of summer today, the joy of it 😊. We took a short walk at Kloppen Marina. You could see the new green taking over the brown.
I am posting this for no other reason than I like this, I might have posted this before in color. This shot says so much about our culture nowadays. Post yourself in all photos, all in glamorous or nice places. I do not do that many selfies, but I do also like to look my best in them.
I also played with the light and contrast in this, how it sets the mood of the photo. I prefer the darker image myself
A new week ahead and we are supposed to get summer temperatures, so looking forward to that.
The weekend went by quickly. Saturday we had -Talkoot- it is a word that english, german or swedish has a equivalent to. We we enjoying sausages, beer, cider and for kids juice by the grill taking after hard work of cleaning the common areas for summer. Raking, cleaning the playground area, washing the flagpole. Sometimes cutting down trees.
Well anyways, I asked our neighbours, a brit, Peter, Harald from germany and a swede if they had a word for this event that we all are participating in at the moment. Talkoo. No. Voluntary work? Dictionary had this to offer: bee, voluntary work, work party . The activities of the association are entirely based on volunteer work. I did find a work for german – Gemeinwerk.
Sunday, Mother’s Day we spent tidying up our own backyard enjoying the rather nice sunny day by being outside. I got a flower bouquet and mudcake with ice cream that we enjoyed with our son and grandkids as they popped by for a quick visit. Nothing fancy, but a nice day.
I obviously took photos of the flowers. I am sharing them with you now.
I looked our travel photos from our trip to Goa, India, this caught my eye this was taken at a local market. I noticed that this photo has rather nice light and contrast going on. I started to edit it because of it, for some reason this has not been a photo that I’ve paid a lot attention to. None to be exact. Well, now I did – I also converted it to black and white. A sepia one to capture an old time feel to it.
Any thoughts on how I spent a hour and some of my time with? Worth the effort?
In Finland, window glass was blown until the 1930s. The thickness of these glass panes was about 1.5 mils. For a long 19th century, glass was made only from domestic raw materials and because of that, the glass was greenish due to impurities in the sand.
Old window In Fiskars
The brinks are also interesting. Fiskars Village, has two two prominent buildings on the riverbank, each with a striking red-and-black brick exterior. The mill and granary, built in 1898 and 1902, respectively, were constructed from a combination of traditional red bricks and unique black bricks. The secret ingredient of these black bricks was slag, a smelting byproduct created by the blast furnaces of the ironworks.
We have had a slight setback in Spring, the forecast is predicting snow to some areas of Finland, here we just have cool temperature and rain to look forward to. Well, it is what it is. When the warm weather returns we can enjoyed it even more. You really learn to appreciate nice weather when you don’t have year round.
Tinka was longingly looking out of the window, for some reason the photo looks like it was a drawing… must be the old glass we have in the windows and that I took the photo at dusk. Veikka was equally disappointed for not being able to be outside during the daytime.
Tinka the cat
If some longing goes unmet, don’t be astonished. We call that life. ~ Anna Freud
Here is a bit of my abstract shots, can you guess what I have been photographing? What do you think, too red? Photographing raw you can bring all kinds of colors out… I don’t know about you, but I had fun taking and editing these.
Weekend came and went so quickly, Saturday as cool so I spent most of the day in side by the fireplace with a magazine or watching tv. I was so brave that I left my laptop home 🙂
Saturday was warmer, the most significant change was that we had less wind. I walked on our plot, looking for something to take photos of as the green nature is still keeping us waiting. But it can be found in the details. Here are my small finds.
We are of to celebrate May 1st to our summer house. It is supposed to be sunny, but cold, well colder than usual at this time of the year. At least it won’t be raining. Wishing all a great weekend and the the beginning of May…
Today I am getting my first covid shot, they are being done like clockwork, the times were 5 minutes apart and then you stay there for 15 minutes so it can be monitored if you get some compilations.
My husband had his a week ago, only thing he experienced was a slightly sore arm. All good.
Good news all around. I got an interview for a HR job for monday – it would last 6 months. My oldest son got a new job yesterday with a nice raise. Middle on got a new job today and starts on Monday. Now I hope that the restaurants will be able to open soon so my youngest boy would also be able to return to work. So lots of positives fibes going on at the moment.
It has been cold, it still is but I did spot some spring flowers. Here they are for your joy too.
If you had not already guessed this was a theme in my FB photography group in April. Topic was Vintage rose, here are some of my efforts to capture the theme.
Yesterday I had a appointment with a neurologist. I felt rather frustrated after it, doctors and their manners, how they talk to patients. He was not rude, but he did not come across as sincere, compassionate person or as he cared about me and my ailments. He seemed very blaséd.
It felt so good to tell your symptoms to a person who seems not to really care. Not. I think one of the most helpful things to do would be is add training to the doctors on bedside manners and basic listening skills. A doctor might be skilled very knowledgeable, but to get the most information from your patient you need to show interest and care – maybe have some follow up questions. I don’t know. I did not feel all that good after that visit. Nothing had changed from year ago, I did not learn anything new, get explanations…
He sent me to have couple blood tests, I was lucky I got in even if I did not have a appointment in 25 minutes. The lab technician seemed unsure about my test, even went to check if it was the right tube, apparently it was not frequently done test in this hospital. Happy that it was done I drove home only to receive a phone call from the lab that the lab technician has not taken all the tests. Well, mistakes happen so I need to go back today to have the rest.
On Thursday I am going to have my first Covid jab… that is good news.
Now I am trying to figure what photo to add, as I did not take any at the hospital. I cannot have a post without a photo. You know, Ritva Sillanmäki Photography being the title 🙂 So these have no relevance to my text. Swans just happen to be beautiful, graceful birds.
Once again thanks for reading this far about my today’s grievance.
Small joy is this too, my office has a new paint and I placed the furniture differently and my space looks different which’s nice. Veikka has moved in with me, taken over the armchair I got for myself. I am rather pleased with the result. The only thing new is the paint and the new area rug. There he lays sleeping and snoring while I write this post. I notice the photos ain’t that great as I just quickly took them with my mobile. I am just lazy.
the weather has sent us backwards, the lovely spring days are gone and we are back to less nice temperatures and cloudy skies with rain, slush and winds. Still the early spring flowers pop up and bring color and joy to the brown tones of spring.
This was good in away, my husband painted my office and I arranged the furniture slightly differently. Looks nice and clean. Now I have to figure what to hang on the wall and where? I don’t’ have a clear vision as yet. One thing has come with growing older, I do not need to have everything ready right away as I did when younger.
Kumian mills are located on the shore of Lake Salajärvi, the place where the landing river splits the narrow isthmus between the lake Salajärvi and lake Isokukkanen. The older, log mill building of the rubber mill dates from the 1890s and the tall wheat mill building from the 1930s.
I stopped to see how the mill has changed. It looks a bit different now than last year.
Kumiankoski is being restored to its natural state. Removing unnecessary dams is one of the easiest ways to protect and restore biodiversity. The aim is to create a breeding ground and a hiking trail for endangered trout, among other things. “The goal is an inherently rapids that allow fish to migrate. Planting of trout fry will begin immediately in the spring after rehabilitation. ”
At the same time, the length of Kumiankoski doubles from about 50 meters to one hundred meters.
We have had a long weekend at the summer house, five days of sunshine and joys of spring. Rest for the arm and also to the mind. I can tell you, that I have been outside most of the time. Joy of the new season! I had my son with his family with us there so it was very lively as small boys and big boys enjoyed the barbecue and soccer and walks in the nature. Laugh, screams, fights, all emotions were to be seen and heard.
Here are few shots from this visit. Nature is not at its best at the moment, but the beginning of nature’s bloom to the beauty of spring can be sensed in the singing of the birds, the open waters and the croaks or is the work ribbiting of frogs. The water in the lakes and rivers is very high
I was not going to post this, but it just by mistake double click uploaded to my media file and I thought, why not. I loved looked at these snow covered mountains during my stay in Vancouver area.
I took this few years back when I visited my sister in Fort Langley, B.C. my nephew took me on trip to Vancouver island, I took this photo of Mount Baker on the ferry on our way back to Vancouver. The snow covered mountains look so lovely with the clouds hanging over the top.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 