I have been busy. I took up sculpture and painting again. Also planning our next trip. So I have not been active taking photos. Fall is here again so one for the road. Monday we are flying to LA and Las Vegas. I’m sure I will post some pictures taken with my mobile phone. 
Tag: finland
Droplets
The autumn 🍂 is here if you take a look at the colors in the garden 
Rain
Helsinki
I have looked at Helsinki with a tourist eye as I have seen my friends in the city. Catching up with friends is so much fun, I should take take time more often than I do. Best thing about good friends is that they remain that even if you don’t see that often. Helsinki has not lost its appeal to me even if I visit it less frequently.
CFFC – Trees
the lungs of the earth. Love them,it is also the totpic on CFFC this week.
Sea fortress 2
I had so many problems with loading the photos into the last post at least 4 attempts to have them in a gallery of my choosing. So I got frustrated and I’ve stayed away for four days. Let’s hope this post is easier. Suomenlinna is a lovely place to visit so I decided to share the joy with you – again .
Sea fortress
Visited on of Helsinki’s most popular tourist attractions today. It has been years since I was here. The place has history Suomenlinna (Finnish; until 1918 Viapori), or Sveaborg , literal translation in Finnish is Castle of Finland inhabited sea fortress built on six islands and which now forms part of the city of Helsinki. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and also it as a picturesque picnic site. Originally named Sveaborg. The Swedish crown commenced the construction of the fortress in 1748 as protection against the Russian expansionism. This particular day it was packed with locals as well as tourist as the day was just lovely. Here is some background on the place.
Beautiful Shore
Flowing water
I certainly hope that some of these shots turned inspiring, I lost a pair of my favorite sunglasses into the rapids. I have found a post from some time back that I forgot to post
Traveling Eastern Finland #3
We drove to Imatra in the afternoon our aim to see the Imatrankoski flow, (“The Imatra Rapid”) is a rapid on the Vuoksi River in Imatra. It has been a famous tourist attraction since the late 1700s. The Vuoksi River and Imatrankoski were born about 5,000 BP as the waters of the Saimaa Lake penetrated the Salpausselkä ridge due to post-glacial rebound, forming a river flowing into the Lake Ladoga.It is also one of the National landscapes of Finland. Since 1929 the rapid has been blocked by a dam . Today, the dam is opened daily between June and August at 6 PM with the music of Sibelius playing in the background. Not that you can hear it down stream where we wnnt to watch it. The raw power of the water is awesome.
Traveling in Eastern Finland #2
Here are few random shots from Lake Saimaa. As I stated in the previous post it was raining so here are some artsy shots from the boat.
Traveling in eastern Finland
We spent a day in Eastern Finland at Lappeenranta and Imatra. In the few next post I will post few photos from those places. I will do them in chronicle order. It happened to be a cloudy and rainy day over there at home it was sunshine all day. Nonetheless we had a a nice day.
These are from lake Saimaa and the Mälkiä lock which is the first one it is the largest one with a drop of 12,4 meters.
The Saimaa Canal is a transportation canal that connects lake Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg, Russia. The canal was built from 1845 to 1856 and opened on 7 September 1856 (Old Style: 26 August 1856). It was overhauled and widened in 1963–1968.
Summer holiday
Out time at summer cottage continues in warm and sunny weather. I love way this view change. These are taken in the afternoon , evening and night time the last on I took just now. The color and atmosphere is captivating at all times.
Sunset
Yesterday driving back to out summer cottage on the last stretch of the way I took photos of the sunset on three different lakes. Iso kukkanen , pikku kukkanen and the last one was Salajärvi. To make the story short, it was a lovely and warm summer night.
In July the different shades of greens in the nature are so evident and beautiful. These are taken moments before sunset.
Bits and pieces
Summer evening
It was a quiet evening at the country side. I took a walk on an deserted road, no one but me and my cameras. These I took with my mobile.
Summer bouquet
I took a walk on the gravel road and picked summer flowers for my deck 
The best of summer
The best strawberries in the world are grown in Finland. So tasty, as they take their time… summers delight
Waterlilies
It is that time of the year that you can spot some waterlilies. We spent few hours at Mustio Castle grounds. It is a place I yearly love to visit, one of the reason is these flowers.
Lake Jänisjärvi
I had great visit to a cottage to see relatives visiting from Australia. 
A path
Midsummer delight
Midsummer
Celebrating midsummer with delicious strawberries 🍓 / hyvää juhannusta !
Apple tree in bloom
The apple tree flowers together with cherry tree flowers together make a lovely pair.
Blue moment
A lovely blue moment 
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 