T Is For Tiili.

Tiili.

Tiili is Finnish for brick. I found this piece of red brick near Ursininkallio in Eiranranta, Helsinki, in November 2017. Waves and ice had worn it down to a shape similar to a pebble or a small, a bit flat potato. I put it back there after having taken the photos, because I felt that I shouldn’t take it. It wasn’t the only one there, but there weren’t that many of them either.

It’s possible that the brick comes from the sea bathing facilities that were at Ursininkallio (Ursin’s rock) until 1934. Nils Abraham af Ursin (1785 – 1851), after whom the rock and the bathing facility were named, was a Finnish physician, Professor of anatomy and physiology and the Rector of University of Helsinki (at the time the Imperial Alexander University in Finland).

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Fun in the Field.

From Kestrel: We are discing a field preparatory to planting it (even though it does not look like a promising year for rain) and one of the horses, Tito, decided to “help”. You can see he’s not scared of tractors, but it’s still fun to run in the field anyway. At least until it’s time to go back to sleep.

Tito’s a beauty, click for full size!

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Jack’s Walk

For a rare change, today Jack and I have not gone for a walk. The weather has been awful. All morning we had high winds and rain which then turned to freezing rain and now the temperature has dropped to minus 2 c and it’s snowing. It’s also still really windy, making it feel like minus 9 c. Poor Jack had to brave the weather to use the yard, but I haven’t left the house all day. I have a few health problems that are affected by weather and on a day like this the old body starts to feel like an old body. So today instead of our daily photo I’ll give you a classic shot. This is Jack at 3 months old.

puppy

Jack as a puppy

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S Is For Sikinsokin.

Sikinsokin.

Sikinsokin is Finnish for “all mixed up”. And the roots of the pine and the birch (see the white bark) seem to be just that and the erosion has revealed it.

This place is in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki and is by the sea, so at high water, waves and ice may have eroded the soil.

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Jack’s Walk

Jack’s been playing in a lot of mud lately and he needed a bath. Giving him one at home can be a bit of an ordeal, though, so instead I took him to the lake for a swim. It washes off most of the dirt and it’s definitely more fun than a bath. We met this friendly couple while we were there and Jack kept us all entertained with his goofy splashing around. He loves to be the center of attention. We had a good time and it was nice to see the water. It’s the only colour I could think to find in this dull, dreary, cold and barren landscape.

Bench at the lake

At the lake

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R Is For RO-RORO-RO.

RO-RORO-RO means roll-on, roll-off. The cruiseferries in these pictures carry passengers as well as cars and trucks to Tallinn and Stockholm. The white ship can carry 3700 passengers and 400 cars or about 60 trucks (tractor-trailer rigs). The red ship can carry 2500 passengers and about 230 cars or 60 trucks. Both are about 30 m wide, the white ship is 200 m long and the red ship 185 m long.

The strait between islands Kustaanmiekka and Vallisaari that the red ship is going through is 81 meters wide. Imagine driving your apartment block through it.

A big part of the business of the cruiseferries has been that they’ve got restaurants and night clubs and people travel in them to get cheap booze, either from Estonia or duty free alcohol and tobacco on the ships to Sweden as they go via Aland (making a quick stop in Mariehamn), which isn’t a part of the EU customs union.

Being the kind of floating hotels and shopping malls with garages that they are, AFAIK, the ships guzzle quite a lot of fuel per passenger kilometer.

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Jack’s Walk

It’s another rainy day here, but the temperature has climbed to 13°c and it actually feels like spring. I was able to shed my scarf and mittens and puffy coat and enjoy the freedom of just a rain jacket. Jack and I went to the park to celebrate and we saw the surest sign there is around here that winter is at an end. The swans have returned. During the winter our swans are kept in an indoor pool and it is always a welcome sign when they return to the pond. We have one bonded pair of swans and last year they had three cygnets. I didn’t see the female this morning, so perhaps they have already nested in the quiet end of the creek.

Swan

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Q Is For Quench.

Quench.

This hooded crow was quenching the thirst, drinking from a puddle in the sidewalk, in Hakaniemi, Helsinki, between the round Ympyrätalo and triangular Arena building. I’m guessing the puddle was less salty than the sea (which isn’t all that salty, about 0.5 % salt) and definitely less salty than the water in the puddles on the lanes for motor vehicles.

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