We’re back to Arakka an Island and in this chapter Ice Swimmer takes us to see views east. Off we go…
1. Birches and Särkkä, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
From the front yard of Vellamo, we take another look at Särkkä, also seeing a few birches and the tower of the church in Suomenlinna. The church tower has a dual role as a lighthouse.
Fall is coming near and spiders are starting to gather in the house. I do not mind certain amount of spiders in the house, but the webs have to be cleaned up occasionally. So when there is too much webs (that is, when they start to be easily visible – I do not wait for them to hang so low that I have to wade through them) I collect as many spiders as I can into a glass and carry them outside, and then take a broom to the webs.
Bellow the fold you can see why I tolerate spiders in the house to a certain extent.
Little blue butterfly
Little blue butterfly with gossamer wings
For once my timing was good. This morning I was taking photos of our sedum turning pink and just as I had my camera ready, this little purple butterfly fluttered into frame and stayed long enough for me to take its picture. That almost never happens for me, mostly because of the impatient and snorfling dog by my side. Anyway, my photo of flowering sedum got an upgrade. I did quick search and I think it may be a female Eastern-Tailed blue butterfly.
It’s another chapter of Ice Swimmer’s Harakka an Island. We’ve climbed down from the top and we’re ready to go. Lead the way Ice Swimmer.
1. A Birch and Särkkä, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
A bit to the south of the crossroads, there’s birch and we can see the island Särkkä in the southeast. Särkkä is next to the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress and the fortfications in Särkkä were built to support the main sea fortress. Nowadays Särkkä is used by a yacht club as a base and there are two restaurants there.
2. Footprints or Whose Island Part 3, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
Also on the eastern shore, webbed feet are quite numerous.
3. Strawberries ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
Wild strawberry plants were plentiful, but there were very few berries.
4. Stone Ruin and Vellamo Cottage, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
The Vellamo House/Cottage is a nature fairy tale house for kids featuring books and educational play facilities.
5. Entry, Ice Swimmer, ©all rights reserved
This mystery path through the bush starts next to Vellamo.
6. Duckboards or Pitkospuut, ©all rights reserved
The mystery path features duckboards, in Finnish pitkospuut (free translation: lengthwise planks of wood), to walk on. We don’t (or more like, I didn’t) want to get ticks so, we leave the mystery be a mystery.
Next, we’ll go to the front yard of Vellamo to take a look east.
(link to previous post, Harakka an Island: Chapter 7)
Bees and I share a passion for asters
Today’s Wednesday Wings is the other kind of wings, the one on insects. We’re having a wonderful September or a way too hot one, and at least the bees are enjoying it.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Way too light. See the opposite of a black hole in shape of a butterfly
Can’t show you my face, I’m eating
Yes, we’ve got tons of golden rod here as well. The bees seem to like it
No easy picture taking as the wind was gently blowing
Bzzzzzzzzzz
What does the colour look like to a bee?
Nightjar has submitted absolutely gorgeous Bougainvillea pictures with a short story with a question at the end. To which my answer is YES.
I let Nightjar take from here:
Last week as I looked through the window I saw a lady that lives a few streets away from me pointing her phone at my front door, as if taking a picture. I was confused at first, but then I realised what was likely going on. Our Bougainvillea is putting on quite a show this year, hanging from the balcony and almost completely covering our front door in a ridiculous abundance of pink. In fact, there is no way she was taking a photo of anything else, because everything else is under that pink cover. So later that day, I decided to go out and take a few pictures myself. Now let me ask you, if you were passing by my house and saw this, wouldn’t you be tempted to stop for a few shots too?
©Nighjar, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Terracotta Woods, ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s humid and overcast today, but thankfully the temperature is only in the mid twenties. Even so, neither Jack nor I do well when it’s humid so we took a short plod around the woods this morning and are now back home feeling exhausted.
These photos were sent in by Opus and were taken in a bristlecone pine grove near Lone Pine, California. I think they make a brilliant set. Their beauty is stark and tortured and they evoke feelings of tenderness and vulnerability in me. Well captured, Opus. I’m so glad you shared them. Thanks.
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
… that a real sunset looks so cheesy you would think reality has no style whatsoever. I glanced out of the window before going to bed and I had to try and make some pictures, the sky was unreal.
Pictures straight from the camera, no adjustments, only resized.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
September Daisies, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Pink, ©voyager, all rights reserved
I’ve been waiting for these little daisies to bloom for almost 2 weeks and I’d about given up on them. Every day I’d see one or two small flowers open here or there, but not really together and no big show. Imagine my surprise then this morning finding the whole patch blooming at once with their shiny pink faces cheerfully aimed at the sun. Ha! I say to Autumn…not yet, not yet.
When we last left Ice Swimmer’s series Harakka an Island we were at the top of the island. Where to next Ice Swimmer?
1. View East from the Laboratory Front Yard, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
Now we’re back from the top of the island, in the front yard of the Artists’ Building, looking east, the pier is behind the red wooden buildings. We’ll go a bit south and go down the hill back towards the crossroads.
2. Down to the Crossroads, ©Ice Swimmer all rights reserved
We’re going down the same road we got up to the Artists’ Building. The history exhibition building is to the left and the pier from which we came is on the other side of the crossroads. We’ll be going to the right from the crossroads, to the south.
Kestrel was mushroom hunting one of her finds turned out to be quite interesting. I will let her take over from here.
©kestrel, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I went on a foray looking for mushrooms and noticed this. It’s a hump in the duff, right in the middle of the photo.
It’s hard to see what might be in there! I went around to the other side of this shrump (a hump in the duff where a mushroom is emerging).
That looks pretty exciting. I cleared away some of the debris to see better what was in there.
Aha! It’s Hypomyces lactifluorum, also called the Lobster Mushroom. It’s so fascinating: this is a parasitic mold attacking another mushroom. The original mushroom is Russula brevipes (Short Stemmed Russula) which although edible, is rather bland and crumbly. H. lactiflulorum attacks and parasitizes it, causing it to become dense and firm. They are often quite large.
During our holiday we took a boat trip around the harbour, with many jellyfish swimming around.
I can tell you, taking pictures was a “treat”. If they were close to us the boat would move fast and they’d be gone quickly, if the were further away the light broke too much on the surface for my angle.
Still, there were some nice ones.
©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.