Kimallusta ja koristelua Suomen kulttuuripäivän kunniaksi ... Glitter and decorations in honour of the Finnish Culture Day

Raitoja ... Stripes









Kimallusta ... Glitter







Jääjalokiviä Suomelle ... Ice jewels for my native land





Lopuksi lahja suomen kauneimmalta linnulta ... Finally a gift from the most handsome bird in Finland


Joutsen ... The swan

Ihanaa, uusi tunnustus... Lovely, a new award

Mikäs se onkaan bloginpitäjän paras lahja? No se kun joku ihana ihminen antaa henkilökohtaisen tunnustuksen. Tämän tunnustuksen minulle antoi Today's Blah Filippiineiltä, jolla itselläänkin on aivan ihan blogi. Kiitos kiitos kiitos.

What's the best gift a blogger can get? The best gift is a personal award that some lovely person gives to you. This award was given to me by Today's Blah from the Philippines, who herself keeps a wonderful blog. Thankyou thankyou thankyou.

Itse haluan jakaa tämän eteenpäin seuraaville blogeille (jotka eivät vielä ole tätä saaneet) koska jokaisessa on jotain sellaista josta nautin hyvin paljon:

I want to forward this award to the following blogs (that have not yet received this) as all of them have something that I enjoy very much:

Nousee päivä, laskee päivä
Zilga
The Rocky Mountain Retreat
Senior Moments
Tapsun Tarinat
East Gwillimbury WOW!
Why? What have you heard?
Visual Norway - my way

Elikkä tämä tunnustus pitäisi jakaa eteenpäin kahdeksalle blogille ja tässä on siis ne, jotka minä haluan listata. Toki hyvin moni muukin sen ilman muuta ansaitsisi ja jotkut sen ovat jo saaneetkin.

This award is meant to be forwarded to a further eight blogs, and here are those that I wanted to list. This doesn't mean that there aren't lots of others that would deserve this award and some already have.

Kevättä enteilee nämäkin ... A promise of spring in these too

Kysyt minulta: "Milloin tulee kevät?"
Minä vastaan: "Kun sen aika on."
Ilmojen haltija sen yksin tietää.
Talvea vielä hetken saamme viettää.
Vaan katseeni merkkiä pienintäkin hakee,
joka ilmojen lämpiämisestä antaisi takeet.

You ask: "When does spring arrive?"
I answer: "When the time is right."
The wheather lord alone can tell when it'll be.
Winter still very much is present for me and thee.
Still my eyes eagerly seek for the tiniest sign,
that'll tell about the approaching season so fine.


Ihan on talvi vielä ja kuitenkin...
Very much winter still and yet ...


Kun lumi muuttuu vedeksi se on pienen pieni lupaus.
When snow turns to water it is a tiny promise.


Talvi valuu pisaroina maahan.
The winter falls in water drops to the ground.


Vielä hetki sitten tämä oli lunta puun oksalla.
Just a moment ago this was still snow on the branch.


Yhteen pisaraan on vangittu talvinen metsä.
In one droplet is captured the wintery forest.

Sky Watch Friday N:o 33 - The sun and the moon

To participate in SWF or just to view many wonderful skies pay a visit to the following site:


I took the sun out of the sky and placed it between the treeroots


The moon, I thought, looked nicer up there where it belongs

Yksityiskohtia ... Details

Tässä on muutamia kuvia niistä elementeistä joista luonto koko ihanuudessaan oikeastaan koostuu - yksityiskohdista, joista muodostuu se koko moninainen kokonaisuus.

Here is a few shots of those elements that are the construction components of the entire glorious nature - the details of which the whole rich and varied concept is built out of.


Uskokaa tai älkää mutta muutaman viikon päästä kevät on täällä ... Believe it or not but in just a feew weeks the spring has arrived.


Näinhän meille ihmisillekin käy. Alussa olemme pieniä nuppusia vain ja lopussa ryppyisiä vanhuksia. Vaan hetken verran voimme kuitenkin katsella maailmaa samalta oksalta yhdessä.
This is how it happens to us humans too. First we are but tiny buds and in the end we become wrinkled oldies. Still we can for a while sit on the same branch looking out on the world together.


Kaikista vekeistä tässä kalliossa näkee, että se on ikivanha.
All the nooks and crannies in this rock shows that it is ancient.


Sanonta kuuluu: "On vaikea nähdä metsää puilta". No tässä onkin pieni osa niitä hämääviä puita.
The saying goes: "It's difficult to see the forest for the trees". Well, here we have a few of those obscurring trees.


Puut toimivatkin isäntinä kaikenlaiselle elämälle.
The trees act as hosts to all sorts of lifeforms.


Lahosieniä ... Fungie breaking down dead wood


Käpyjä oksilla ... Furcombes on the branches


Uuden elämän alku ... The start of new life


Lumivaippa suojaa juuria mutta myös vahingoittaa oksistoa ... The snow covering protects the roots but also damages branches.


Kauniisti se kuitenkin koristaa ... It does make for a nice decoration.


Varsinkin havupuissa ... Especially on fur trees


Tosin nättejä ovat kuolleet kasvitkin talvitakeissaan ... Also dead plants look quite neat in their winter coats.

Watery Wednesday N:o 24

Seems there's been quite a few weeks when I haven't participated in this meme now. Not for lack of pictures so much as for lack of time.
Anyway I thought of making it this week and the theme here is water birds. Some within reach of streaming water and others forced to live on the ice, allthough even they had a bit of open water to use. It just isn't showing in the pictures that are taken from different parts of the nearby Mankki river.

First we have a little Dipper (Cinclus Cinclus) that I came across the other day. The Dipper is a very arctic bird emigrating to middle and southern Finland's rivers and settling where ever the water is streaming enough not to freeze for the winter. In summer it nests in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. It can take temperatures up to -25 centigrades and when cold it dips into the streaming water to get warm. The water being always just above zero.


This is the closest I could get to it




As the pictures are cropped quite heavily the actual quality is not that good.

Then we have more familiar urban birds, the Mallard ducks (anas platyrhynchos). They were doing a lot flying around at that time due to a lady further up the bank feeding them bread.










This last photo has no birds in it as the cygnet that had been there just swam out of the picture so don't go and polish your specticles. It is yet another part of the river though and I thought the little house there was cute.

Now for those of you who really would like to see many other forms of water in all its glory, why not get aquinted with a meme that will fulfill your wishes. Just click on the below button and take it from there:

Esittelyssä Hvitträsk ... Presenting Hvitträsk

suomeksi:
Hvitträskin rakennuttivat vuosina 1901-1903 arkkitehdit Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren ja Eliel Saarinen. Hirsistä ja luonnonkivistä kansallisromanttiseen tyyliin rakennetussa päärakennuksessa oli sekä yhteinen arkkitehtitoimisto että Saarisen ja Lindgrenin perheiden kodit. Hvitträskissä Geselliuksen alkuperäinen asunto oli 'Lilla Villan' eli erillinen piharakennus, josta hän muutti myöhemmin päärakennuksen pohjoispäätyyn.
Saarisen koti on nykyisin museona ja pienessä huvilassa toimii ravintola. Museossa on tehty kolmivaiheinen peruskorjaus vuosina 1992-2000. Korjauksessa kunnostettiin rakennukset, piha ja puutarha sekä saatettiin sisätilat vastaamaan aikaisempaa paremmin alkuperäistä interiööriä.

Hvitträskiä ja sen englantilaistyylistä puistopihaa ympäröivät kalliot, metsä ja Vitträsk-järvi.

Kuvatessani myös ympäröivää luontoa tuli mieleeni kuinka paljon se on mahtanut antaa inspiraatiota Hvitträskin eri rakennusten suunnitteluun.



in english:
Hvitträsk was built between 1901–1903 by architects Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen. The main building, designed in National Romantic style, built of logs and natural stone, was both a common studio and a home for Eliel Saarinen and Armas Lindgren for some years after it was completed. During that time, Gesellius lived in the courtyard building and later moved into the north-wing of the main building after Lindgren relocated in Helsinki.

During the early decades, the main building served as both an architectural office and as a cultural home. It was visited by such esteemed figures as Jean Sibelius, Axeli Gallen-Kallela and Maksim Gorki. The office's staff also lived at Hvitträsk, and this is where the plans were drawn up for the Helsinki Railway Station, the National Museum of Finland and the monumental Munkkiniemi-Haaga project, among other grand works. Hvitträsk is also the boyhood home for world famous architect Eero Saarinen, who made his reputation primarily in the United States designing buildings and monuments such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Saarinen home is a museum today, and within the courtyard building are a restaurant and a café. Hvitträsk and its lovely English style garden are surrounded by beautiful nature near the shore of Lake Vitträsk.

While I was also taking pictures of the surrounding nature I was wondering how much inspiration for the plans of the different buildings it had provided.

As a curiosity can be mentioned, that Michael Palin, that wonderful actor and active globe trotter, stayd in Hvitträsk during his travels for the series 'Pole to Pole'. That episode was filmed in the logcabin down by the lake, which is the sauna of Hvitträsk. You'll se a picture of it too further down.






























































TV:stä tuttu ... Seen on TV

suomeksi:
Sitten ympäröivään luontoon

in english:
Then to the surrounding nature























suomeksi:
Alla kuvattu näyttely siellä on meneillään mutta valitettavasti museo on kiinni maanantaisin ja tiistaisin.

in english:
There is an exhibition like the one pictured below going on but unfortunately the museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.



suomeksi:
Toivottavasti kiertokävely Hvitträskissä oli mielenkiintoinen.

in english:
I hope you enjoyed the sightseeing tour around Hvitträsk.

I enter this post for the meme My World Tuesday