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.
We all need a lighthouse in our lives to lead us, whatever it is, a person, place or state of mind. This came to my mind as I saw all the news about mourning people for Prince Philip. I myself am not one to mourn for people I do not know.
I sympathise, with the person who has lost a loved one, but for me to get really emotional about some celebrity or public persons passing is unlikely to happen. That is just me.
My first flowers in my garden / backyard have bloomed. These are the only photos I have taken in many days. I have tried to stay of the computer and camera… will just post these and continue to rest my arm. There was few days between the shots with snow around the flowers and when it had melted.
I have tried my best to stay away from the computer these past days. I think I have done pretty well, but just to keep the momentum going here I am again.
I did not take any photos of the food I made. But this is a chicken dish from a previous meal 🙂
Easter came and went, mainly at home. We saw our sons and grandkids. I tried couple new recipes. I am getting rather good at picking them and always slightly altering them. As all the restaurants are only doing take-away food, me trying new things gives our menus some variation. Teriyaki salmon and chicken lasagne tasted so good. I am rather proud of myself as I am not into cooking all that much – I mainly make good tasty homemade food, I have not been a recipe reader, I’ve stuck what I know. That is not to say my food isn’t tasty. It is 😀 LOL. Desperate times has made me an explorer. Making it easy for myself I am posting an old photo of a chicken meal we had.
I also have been working on an art project. I have been asked to do a Triptych to be placed in a master bedroom – not a church as first comes to mind when you hear that term. A trio of contemporary art, that I do. So all three pieces are different but go well together. It is always harder to do something specific to someone’s taste and colors. Even if the origin is one ofmy original art.
April Ist, I should be pulling some prank, but I won’t bother, I will just post few more pastel blue, misty photos. The mist was so thick, that you can touch in in these. These are photos from two years back that I looked at again and well was rather happy about and I just wanted to share them. This is the road that leads us to our summer house, it is well documented in all 26 seasons we have travelled it.
Veikka being a white cat is easy to spot in all other seasons but winter, but then again we don’t let him out at home during winter, only at our summer house as there is not so much traffic and a whole lot less neighbours. Tinka on the other hand being small and a brown cat can disappear so easily into the nature, but then again Tinka is not so brave and stays near the house and our own land.
The nature brings out beautiful colors to fill all our senses, even the bare nature looks lovely in these colors. Mist always adds a magic touch to any photo, then again that is my opinion.
March has gone past so quickly, April is here soon. Easter. I have to mention is, because usually for many years now, we have started our summer house season then. Many times in the recent years easter has been in the middle or end of April, and that has helped regarding the weather. It has looked something like in the pictures here at that time. At the moment there is so much snow there that we won’t be able to drive to our house. So most likely we will just drive there, walk to the house and put the electricity on to warm up the house for our next visit.
In a way it is good as my right arm, shoulder is so so sore that I have trouble doing anything, even using the mouse is a strain. I ordered a roller mouse, it will help with the pain as all the movement is in the middle where the keyboard is. I have done my best to try to stay away from the computer.
The saying; Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans, is true in many cases. And now, in this moment in time nothing happens, no plans can be made, even if you do are you able to do them in this current situation.
Plus as a fact, you cannot plan life really, it happens. I have had this happen to me so many times. You can make all the plans you want for yourself, but life probably has a completely different set of plans. Everyone has been let down at one time or another when their life hasn’t quite gone the way they would like. I know my life is far from what I had planned and I’m sure a lot of people have had that happen to them, too.
Life molds you as time goes on changing your life as it sees fit. This is not to say that I don’t have a good life, but it is totally different to what I planned when I was young.
in this moment in time, I feel sad, kind of helpless and frustrated at the same time. Depression, I have mild one. A self diagnosis for sure. I think lots of people do at this time. Lots of things contribute to it in my case.
The fact, that I am not able to get a job. I have this feeling, that I don’t know anything or a not able to do anything that is required in the jobs I have skills for. I know I have the skill, but I feel that I don’t. You apply to various positions, maybe get an interview, end up being in the best 2 – 5 people, this is no comfort. Also this relates to the main thing, where am I going to get the money to live. The feeling of being worth something, also in this context.
Covid, it has some effect on everyone I am sure, some more, some less. I have taken it mostly OK, it is what it is. Still, that you are not able to do all the things you want to is restrictive. I am in the good situation that all my family is close and we are able to be in contact. But one of the concerns is that it has caused also unemployment in the younger generation including my kids, so you worry about their income.
Also depression has hit some of my close ones hard, not mildly but severely. It is hard to see how it takes hold of the person and how it resonates to the people close to them. The helpless feeling as you do not know how to help. Action more than words are more effective.
Winter is, and never has been, the best of the seasons, and people who have read my post in the past know this. I have complained about enough. But as winter go this was not the worst by all means. And spring is on it’s way, I am so happy about that.
I’ll stop now. Work on my art and photos to put my mind out of this non productive rambling.
Today feels like spring, we on the plus side in temperature, the sky is blue. You can hear the snow melting.
I went to a local flower shop to make a request for a flower bouquet for my uncles funeral.
I want to it to represent a him, I do not wish it to be so traditional more personal. So I requested that it would have materials from the forest on it pine tree branches, tree cones, different greens and season appropriate flowers as he was a outdoor kind of man.
I do not know what it will look like in when done, but something like this is what I have in mind.
Well I could not coe home without buying something to take home so I had this small bouquet made for me with blues and pinks. I rather like it, something different.
Looking at these photos on the monitor they don’t look so great, but I will let that pass. I am just sharing the everyday little joys of life.
The more in harmony you are with the flow of your own existence, the more magical life becomes. ~Adyashanti
Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed. ~Heraclitus
All things change, nothing is extinguished. There is nothing in the whole world which is permanent. Everything flows onward; all things are brought into being with a changing nature; the ages themselves glide by in constant movement.
My son had this Planters Pyrat XO Reserve bottle that he was about to throw away (some side information 🙂 The Pyrat gets its name from the Old English word for pirate. The stout bottle of the XO Reserve is also a tribute to this heritage.) I looked at bottle a little bit closer, I noticed that this would make a nice vase for few flowers. I washed, it took the labels of and I had a prop for my photo add three roses and lets shoot. Pretty.
Three Roses
A Bottle, Rose, greens and a kettle holder. Shadow and light. Color play.
The sky was blue, the shadows long and the wind was so cold. I thought nature shots could look great in monochrome as the light and shadows give the photos nice contrast. Also the trees are leafless so they are more structured and might look better in a way. I my previous post from this same location the photos are in color. The feeling is so different in these.
Few days back we had a lovely spring day, except for the cold wind that was so cold that it went straight to the bones at this lake Humaljärvi as I was taking photos there. The sky was blue, the shadows long and the wind was so cold. I did look nice and you could sense that spring was o its way.
Lake Humaljärvi, Kirkkonummi, Finland
the water flows you can see ripples on the water from the nippy wind
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 