Swamp Route

Friday was phenomenaly warm Autumn day. Almost the highest in recorded history. 22 degree Celcius (71.6F) it was. And all blue sky. That would be a great Summer day too, it was that warm. Me and my mom went for a hike in the woods. Wellcome to Lahti Healt Forrest.

It was new route to me. There´s all these marking along the way. That orange tree/man sign we was following. There´s hundreds of small walk paths and there´s marking at every path crossing so you wouldn´t go the wrong way. 

There´s warnings of slippery and for mountain bikers. At one place it said it´s a demanding path. And oh boy that was just that. Last ice age formed these ridges. Thre´s hills every where you go. At these scenes are world class skiing routes. It really was demanding. Almost 45 degree uphills at places. 

There´s all these small treasures to find in there. I thought this was a mushsroom growing on a tree stump. I got little closer and what? This is really nice find. Tee or coffee anyone?

More watery places there was these nice duckboards for easier access.

We had coffee in thermos and some sandwiches which we had at this small swamp pond. There´s wooden benches to sit and enjoy the Mother Nature. In several places.

The route was supposed to be 3.4km (2.11 miles). We missed some path marking and ended up walking douple that. My mom is notorious to get lost in forrest, this was not the first time. We was beat and barely made it back where we strated. With help from my mobile. I have not much good to say about  mobiles but this time it was really handy.

 

Been there, done that. There´s more than 100 of these small paths in this area. We shall return the area. Next time I´m navigating.  My legs are killing me yet still. Very sore indeed. It was a very hard for me but am pleased we did it. I literaly hugged a tree first time in my life. It felt bit weird and very nice at the same time. 

Maaruska

Pitkospuita pitkin kohti horisontissa siintävää Tiirismaan radio- ja televisiomastoa. Kuva liki päivälleen 3v. vanha. Täytyypi käydä tänä syksynä kuvaamassa paikat uudestaan. Kunhan ruska tästä vähän etenee. Pitänee ostaa lantsut ettei varpaat kastu. Alueella on laavu, voi samaan hikeen grillailla makkaraa ja vetää kahvit perään. Verenpaine tutkitusti laskee kun luonnossa liikkuu. Onneksi se on aika lähellä kun metsänrajassa asuu. Eikä tännekkään ole kuin 10 kilsaa himasta.

Frisbee Golfing

Fantastic weather for Autumn. Sun was shining and it was almost Summery warm. I just had to go outdooring. My Mom lives near Salpakangas Disk Golf Park so we did go there to throw some frisbees. We both suck at it but it´s fun. Short - and successful - put by her pictured here. She did find some shrooms also. Classic two birds, one stone situation.  

I tracked our moves by my mobile. This is how it looks on the map.

Sudoku

My Father is 82 years old. He does Sudokues to prevent dementia. Good for him.

The Weekend in Black n´ White

A Painbrush, a Scythe & a Bear

These chainsaw sculptured animals are back in fame. My cousin used to do them back in a day. He once offered me one but taking one back with a train is a mission impossible. He is also a very good painter, love his work. A painting would travel well in train. Pity I didn´t buy one of his work. Well, maybe next time. Terpat J-P:lle!! 

Honey Bunny

Mountain Hare (lepus timidus). This lil visitor ate every evening in the yard. It didn´t mind me at all. No human never did any harm to it so it didn´t fear people. I watched it every night. Like your own national geography if you will. Nice. It was well fed. Hope it don´t get shot during hunting season.😐 

200mm f4 1/250sec. ISO3200

V-Power

 Weekend Street/Reflections

Back from Wild

I purchased myself a T-shirt to fit my surroundings.

I was deep down in Sotkamo´s backwoods.

I loaded my batteries there, now they´re 110% loaded.

 

Mother Nature provied me many nice moments. Of which Gods of Photography gave me few decent shots. I´m a city-slicker and I do Street Photography but I had a chance to be Nature Photographer for a chance. This was most un-pleasant one to take. I was walking this grass covered path with my Dad. I had my camera with me so I was paying extra attention to my surroundings. Gadly so because of this little creature. Yikes! Adder (vipera berus). He asked me if we should kill it. Well, they´re protected by Law I answered. So we let it slide. After that I was bit uncomfortable with my shorts and sandals. 🙄

Vacation

 I´m going on a vacation, am going to Sotkamo. My father has House and Summer Cabin there. Cabin is situated by the small lake and that´s where I´m gonna stay. Nearest neighbour is 1km away (as crow flies). In between there´s a thick forrest. So I´ll be pretty much alone in the Nature for next 2 weeks. From 24.7 to 5.8.2023 I´ll be offline but I shall return. The Cabin looks like so.

Turning around I see this.

With any luck I´ll be watching this in the evenings.

Happy Holidays to all readers! 😎

Loma

Tällä viikolla Saturday Classic; Litku Klementti - Juna Kainuuseen. Kaksi koronakesää ja viime kesän työt estivät perinteisen mökkireissun. Nyt pääsen - ja lähden - lomalle Sotkamoon faijan tykö. Olen pois blogista 24.7-5.8.2023. Latailen akkuja ja palaan virkeämpänä taas läppärin ääreen.

Faija asuu 10km päässä Litkun faijasta (eli samalla kylällä sikäläisittäin). Mökki on 2 hehtaarin pikku lammen rannalla, ainoa mökki. Aivan mahtava luonnon rauha. Viimex polttelin rapulla tupakkaa aamuyöllä ja ihmettelin että nyt on jotain outoa. Sitten tajusin ettei kuulu mitään. Aivan tyyni joten lehdet ei pitäny ääntä. Järvikin oli tyyni eli ei edes vedenliplatusta kuulunut. Linnutkin oli hiljaa, kai ne nukkui. Aika outo kokemus näin kaupunkilaiselle. Oletko ikinä "kuullut" täydellistä hiljaisuutta?

  

Nyt helvetin iso pato murtuu
Ja kaikki jotka horjuu, ne hukkuu
Jos et usko rakkauteen etkä edes Jeesukseen
Niin voit minun puolestani lähteä vaikka Lahteen

The Devil´s Nest @ Hollola, Finland

Yesterday I went to visit a relative in Hollola. We went to this place called The Devil´s Nest. There are nice little trails that are several tens of kilometers long combined. We took the one which lead in the place mantioned. It´s market as visible in da f1rst pic.

This is introduction sign of the place. This is a Wikipedia page of it.

Place itself looked like da. I only had my long lens (70-200mm) so I couldn´t take proper pic of it. Next time I have to remembed to take my wide angle zoom (16-35mm) with me to take better pic of it. It´s in the middle of woods and I couldn´t back up any more. This photo doesn´t do justice to it. Quit the opposit actually. And Fuck Me. I forgot that I have a 27mm (in full frame terms) wide angle camera in my mobile. Damn Bastard, how stupid can one be.

We did grill some meaty sausages in open fire. That and weathers like this goes hand in hand.

As a dessert we had coffee. Coffee never tastes as good indoors as it does outdoors.

Dunno why that is but it´s a scientific fact not an opinion. ☕👍

Note the photographer on my left lens (right in da pic, dah).

In My Dreams

 Four days ago I took a nap and had this crazy dream. My good blog friend Luisella was on it. She was former special force officer now working for some intelligence agency. The dream was like an action movie. When I woke up somebody had call me from Italy where Luisella is from. What are the odds? Astronomical I´d say. Of cource I didn´t call back, it was probably some scam anyways. Where does these dreams come from? 

White-tailed deers

 I walked the outdoor area behind my building with my dear childhood friend. We walked some 3+km i.e. 5600 steps recording to my mobile. I noticed these two creatures. One was mooning me i.e. showing it´s arse to me (lower left). Other one was looking strait to my camera (upper right). I´ve seen few of these while on the car but never seen one before in person in da Nature. They was faaar away and in shadows so they´re not easiest to see in da pic or in Nature. You can barely see them. Very well camouflaged like Nature ment them to be.

Bicyclers

In summertime I ride bicycle. I´m mainly hunting for photographs. But also visiting a relative in Hollola, Finland. We both like to cycling, walking and playing Frisbee Golf. Walking we do both winter and summer. Other 2 activities is summer only. 

These smiling fellas drove by me day before yesterday. Smile, smile, happy, happy. 😎

Ice Cream

Today I visited a relative in Hollola, Finland. It was freezing cold wind and temp was just above freezing point. i.e. Very Cold for the tme of year. This happy couple was ebjoying ice cream. Who in their right mind would even think about it. Not me that´s for sure. I was eager to get indoors asap. Well, what ever floats one´s boat I guess.

Walk this way

I was walking with a very good friend of mine. He was to my left. I was looking at him and we talked. I glanced her with corner of my eye and shot from hip. That´s why I get so many eye contacts while photographing. Like here they don´t look at me, they´re looking strait at my camera. It´s hanging in my neck, camera being on my beer belly. Very sneaky I reacon. I don´t know what´s so interesting with my camera. Camera is a very old invention after all.

Last 9 days I´ve walked some 41 813 steps recording to my mobile. That´s more than I walk in a month at winter time. Without exaggerating a bit. After 5 days my legs was very sore so I had to take 2 days of resting. i.e. I only went to local grocery which is whopping 350m. away from where I live. Some streching and rest my legs wasn´t sore any more. So I walked some more. I´m so glad that spring is finaly here. All thou there´s still below freezing point temps at nights. And there´s ground frost which glows very cold. Especially in the morning. I go walking after noon when temps has rised so one can survive this shit.                   

This is my Hood. In the midlle of forrest. There´s plenty of Mother Nature to enjoy where ever you look. There´s plenty of those apartment buildings in my hood. There´s only few row houses and rest are these. Can´t tell you how many but there´s around 5000 residents. How many people fit in one of those I don´t know. Maybe 100 to 200 people per building. You do the math.                                     My Corner of the World 

Rock Climbing

As I was walking around my hood I spotted these teen boys. Apparently some was rock climbing. This is kinda small and not so high rock formation. My hole Hood is on this very big bed rock formation. It´s visible in many places around in our Hood.

Place where we was hanging on in our youth was way higher. As small kids we used to play Indians vs. Cowboys there. We always was on the side of Indians, didn´t like Cowboys. And still don´t. Bit later we went there to shoot our air rifles. In our teens we used to take our girl friends there and drunk beer. Those were the days.

As adults we did go there few times in spring to drink couple beers and shoot with a hand gun. BB gun mind you. We did drink only two beers to avoid any mishaps. You don´t wanna fuck up even with BB gun. Very powerful they are. This spring has been kinda cold and we haven´t go there yet. I gave up beer drinking but we probably will go there this spring also. I let my friend do the beer part and concentrate to target practicing myself.

I voted

 Today Finland has/had an parlament election. We are/where choosing who will lead our politics for next 4 years. The weather couldn´t be better. Sunshine and (relative) warm temps. I´ll call it to be Spring atlast. We have fresh and pure white snow. There´s  some 29cm of it yet still. 

I went there with my childhood friend who lives the neighbouring building. We enjoyed the great weather and company of eatch other. And we are celebrating our democracy and our freedom. It´s exciting to see who wins. 3 biggest party are within 1% from eatch other. So we have to wait for official results to come to see what´s what. Sorry about the blur, didn´t dare to use flash. I don´t even know if you´re allowed to take a photo in the first place. Well, it´s done. Sue me.

Polkkaa tai kuole

Ystävän 5v. tytär fanitti tätä älyluurista. Jäi korvamatoilemaan se. Astetta rankempi versio tämä. Eri versioita löytyy ihan pirusti Juu Tuubista. Vanha suomalainen kansanlaulu, s'il vous plaît.

Korpiklaani - Ievan Polkka                     Saturday Classic

p.s. Lahtelainen Folk Metal yhtye tämä.

Jos heidän oma tuotanto kiinnostaa niin

iso ostosuositus Wooden Pints biisille.

Kaljaa kuksasta? 😁 Ja taikatattia samaan hikeen. 🙃

Independence Day

It´s 105th Independence Day of Finland. This special day I´m remembering my grandfathers who both defended Finland against the Russians in WW2. I hope WW3 doesn´t even begin but it might already begun for all we know. I hope for quick Peace in Ukraine. 💙🌻💛                          My Corner of the World