korpun

A winter day

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:08:58 GMT

Just an ordinary winter day. A lot of snow everywhere, temperature between 18-24 minus degrees. I did a tour around countryside looking for Otters beforehand for a special purpose on Friday. Hopeless - all the places I know were frozen. Well, I saw Smew, White-tailed Eagle, Dippers, Bohemian Waxwings, Eurasian Tree Sparrows etc.

Smew

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:48:53 GMT

Usually Smews live in the northern parts of Finland in the summer time and they migrate to south when winter comes. Unlike his fellows, this male decided to stay here in the middle of Tampere. It's easy to spot from Hämeensilta bridge where it lives with Mallards.

Cold...

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:08:59 GMT

BRRRR....

Happened 2009

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:02:52 GMT

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:25:48 GMT

Lazy days are over. It's time to return back to work...

Christmas Eve

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:54:16 GMT

Late in the Christmas Eve I went to cemeteries as quite many other Finns too. I lighted candles on my grandparent tombs. Some more pictures from here

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:38:52 GMT

Christmas flowers

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:45:15 GMT

Tallinn part two

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:16:40 GMT

Some more pictures from Tallinn. Unlike most people on the cruiser I was able to visit the old town in the morning before we had to return to the ship and cruise back to Finland...

I hadn't seen this cross before, it's a new one. It's the memorial of independence war 1918-1920.

The wall of the old city

I've visited this sightseeing place many times before...

The cruisers... I think the middle one was mine

Independence Day

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:25:25 GMT

Tallinn Christmas Market

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:53:26 GMT

Mmmmm, delicious hot wine... only one thing was missing - snow!

Digiscoping the moon

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:13:48 GMT

Siikaneva

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:05:42 GMT

Today I walked the 10 kilometres path in Siikaneva swamp area...

Heat wave

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:45:18 GMT

On Saturday we had a warm day, +8 degrees of Celsius. That's something else we have used to have at this time of the year. On Sunday, I rowed to the island with a big sack of sunflower seeds. My little friends were waiting for me. The lake was free of ice. Daylight is so short. At 3 pm it was almost dark when I rowed back to the mainland. The temperature had lowered close to zero and waters close to the shores started to freeze again...

Something else...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:34:51 GMT

I found one of my old paintings...

...it made me smile

The lake

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:07:53 GMT

It's time to start feeding birds. I took some grease bars and rowed to the island. The weather was quite chilly, -5 degrees and windy. The lake is already half frozen. Straits, bays and shores are covered with ice. This autumn has been colder than last year. I was still rowing here on Christmas Eve 2008. Now it looks like the lake will be fully frozen much earlier.

The frozen shore.

The path of an icebreaker.

1.00 am. The landscape is grey and hazy.

Autumn colours have disappeared. The frozen strait didn't let me use the short cut.

There is the cottage. In the summer time only the red sauna building can be seen from the lake. Leaves have fallen which makes the landscape more open.

The rowboat.

Some snow on the ground, not much but anyway. I fed the birds, checked that everything was okay and rowed back to the mainland. I'm thinking about trying to spend the Christmas over there...

Vuorten "kuninkaat"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:00:36 GMT

"Ellei vuorilla ole suuria puita, leikkivät rikkaruohot kuningasta."

Valokuvatorstai

A postcard

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:14:30 GMT

A while ago I received a postcard from Indonesia. At first, I didn't realise who sent it because the handwriting was somewhat artistic and as far as I understood, it was written in Swedish. Finally, I remembered a Swedish photographer. I met him somewhere in the middle of Siberia in a train while I was travelling to China. He was going to Australia by train (and by boat I think). Obviously, his adventure still continues...

The Monastery of New Valamo

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:22:50 GMT

I spent the weekend in the eastern Finland with my niece and her father. My niece started studying in the University of Joensuu this autumn. On Saturday, we decided to visit the Monastery of New Valamo. On Friday when we arrived to Joensuu, the ground was snowless but when we woke up (quite late) on Saturday, we had snow on the ground. Not much but anyway. The monastery's graveyard pictures posted on here.

Vuorenpeikkojen luolassa

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:39:56 GMT

Valokuvatorstai

Beijing scenes

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:49:01 GMT

The rest of my Beijing pictures...

Chairman Mao's portrait seen from Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City

Forbidden City seen from Jingshan Park hill

Drum&Bell Tower

Beihai Park (north)

Feeding carps

Nine Dragon Screen

Dragons

Beihai Lake

A bridge to Qionghua Island in the Beihai Park

White Pagoda (Beihai Park)

Military Museum

Chinese fighters

A moon rocket - nope, just a missle

Forbidden City

A question?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:53:11 GMT

If you had four days time to be a tourist in New York (in February), what would you do and which places would you visit?

Beijing Zoo

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:33:55 GMT

Some Beijing Zoo photos...

Kangaroos :)

and real ones...

ZZZZZZZ....

Who's the tallest?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?

Friends

The swimmer

Little panda

Well camouflaged!

High five!

Lizards

Tie ulos

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:52:48 GMT

Valokuvatorstai

Panda show

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:03:44 GMT