It’s time for another walk with Ice Swimmer and he has more incredibly beautiful rocks to show us today
It’s time for another walk with Ice Swimmer and he has more incredibly beautiful rocks to show us today
Ice Swimmer’s here and today he has rocks to show us. Be still my heart…..
The rounded forms of the rocks come from the Ice Age. The bottom of the glacier was full of rocks embedded into the ice that was quite flexible under the huge pressure, grinding the rocks into rounded shapes. [Read more…]
Let’s join Ice Swimmer on his walk around the island in the next chapter of his series.
This interlude is about colours, warm and cold, greens, yellows, reds and others.
As I predicted, nothing very much happened for about a month. The only visible change was that the leaves got more and more dark green and opaque, as the tree ramped up its chlorophylls supply. And the stem got a stiff wooden core and thickened again, gaining back the volume it originally had when it was all bloated with water. Subtle changes, they only could be observed up close and if you knew what to look for, but they are vital for the tree.
Last weekend the tree started to grow again and during this week it sprouted a new leaf and at the end of it there already is budding of another one. What will happen next is that the tree will sprout one long(ish) shoot upwards and one long(ish) root downwards. This first year I will leave it grow more or less uninterrupted to get a strong sapling. However the seed was fairly big, and the tree already is nearly as big as some of my current bonsai trees and I expect it in first year grow at least a few decimeters in height.
The growth rate and pattern will later on decide on what kind of bonsai it will be, but it seems that about 50-80 cm height in Chokkan or Hokidachi style will be about right for this species. I have no experience with persimmons (and I choose to not look it up), but plenty with other species. So far it does not look like it would be suitable for the more “dramatic” styles – its growth pattern this first month is very similar to that of sycamore maples and the leaves are fairly big too. The distance between the nodes is very short, and if it stays so, that would be excellent.
It’s another beautiful day on Harakka so let’s join Ice Swimmer on his walk around the island.
A HDR photo is generated using multiple photos with different settings from the same view. It is suited for stationary objects. Or when you want to play with things. [Read more…]
It’s time for another chapter in Ice Swimmer’s series.
What a strange winter we’re having this year. Yesterday we had snow flurries in the morning, freezing rain in the afternoon and then snow flurries again overnight and this morning. It looks pretty, but under that blanket of snow there’s a thick layer of ice that makes walking treacherous. The ice is also still coating the trees and hydro wires which is a bit of a worry. It’s supposed to start warming up tomorrow again with a projected temp of +5 by Friday and after that who knows.
In one underpass of Vilnius, there are walls and walls of artwork – too much to photograph in entirety, but the styles and themes are various, and best of all, nobody shies away from using colour. Here’s a small sample:

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It’s time to take another walk with Ice Swimmer as he tours us around Harakka.
These pictures were taken on the rocks of Harakka, in various places and various times, both on Saturday and on Sunday. The wild/feral violas could be found all over the rocks wherever there was a large and dry enough crack or other place in which there was some soil.
Our journey on the rocks of Harakka will continue in the next post of this series.
It’s time to take a walk again with Ice Swimmer who’s here with the next chapter in his series.
A look back north to the path that goes to the western cliffs. The Artists’ Building is in the right behind the earthworks. [Read more…]
It’s time for the next chapter in Ice Swimmer’s series.
This concrete shed is on the northeastern corner of the island. [Read more…]
Lofty has sent us a few follow-up photos to his post of January 21/19, Mt. Lofty.
Here are some pictures taken from Mt Lofty on the morning of the day after the super Bloody Full Moon Eclipse Thingy. The first shot is of moonset over the city, the second and third are of the sun about to rise over Mt Barker, the next little mountain to the ESE. They only vary in zoom and where the auto exposure is pointed. The building on the right of the picture is Mt Lofty House, nowadays an upmarket hotel. Notice how they are taking fire safety seriously, with a row of large water tanks set below the main entrance.
Beautiful shots, Lofty. Thanks for sharing.
We’re back at Harakka with Ice Swimmer for the next chapter in his series.
Days aren’t siblings. Sunday was a sun day. This is the view from the Ullanlinna jetty towards Kaivopuisto. [Read more…]
