A Winter Day On Ice

March 2013

For the time being, this is my last blog post from Helsinki. In few days will be moving to San Diego in Southern California.

Wanted to do something easy outdoors and especially something which I like very much. Walking on a frozen sea served it well.

Though winter has been extremely cloudy, last few days been opposite, beautiful sun shine every day. This morning temperature was clearly colder, about -15C in the morning.

Walked on ice around Merisatama, aka Havshamnen, in the southmost part of Helsinki. The area contained few small islands as Harakka, Uunisaari and Sirpalesaari (aka Stora Räntan, Ungsholmen and Flisholmen).  At summertime, all these tiny islands can be reached by small shuttle boats.

The day was nice.   Farewell Helsinki, you're the best.

Cross country skiing, dog walking and swimming on ice.   Unique

A Suomenlinna ferry tries to beat a monster. Go Go Go!!!

A Room With A View.  Frost guaranteed

A puzzle by nature

A small forest

Can you call this a forest?

Homemade ski tracks

Surface's been broken

Snow Barrels

A common hobby in Finland, cross country skiing

Waiting for summer

Uunisaari island has been my favorite for years

Brrrr ....

Connecting to main land

Uunisaari island, the sea and the sky

What else can you do while talking to your mobile phone?

Walking to Suomenlinna island? Unfortunately not possible anymore

A winter day at Kaivopuisto

Visit on Harakka island

August 2012

Harakka island, aka Stora Räntan, lies in front of Helsinki. For years it was occupied for military purposes, but nowadays it is open for public. It is a great place for visiting, scenery and nature are unique.

A boat from Kaivopuisto carries you there in less than 5 mins and costs few Euros.  There's a Nature Center and Nature Reserve area on the island. The Center is great place for visiting. However, perhaps the best things are the surrounding sea and archipelago. There's never too much people there and therefore is a nice place for relaxing.

The old army building, now called an art house, is full of artists, organised by Harakka ry.

Some photos

Welcome!

A permission to travel

Read all these if you visit there

Nature and the sea

Sometimes you come across guided tours

Formation

A ferry to Estonia, and a bee

Variety of nature

A view towards south-east

Wind power

A Northern Wheatear

Do rocks grow beard?

All sweet's gone

Nature Center

A curious perch

An old ammunition warehouse

Some boats look better than others

Harmaja lighthouse island

A classy building

If only La Gioconda would know ...

Yesterday's Army building, today's Art House

Naval Academy on Suomenlinna island

A couple of mins and you're on/off

A view towards Harakka island from Kaivopuisto

Black & White Walk in a Forest

November 2012

Did a walk in Pirttimaki Recreation Area a week ago. Hadn't been there a while, even my last orienteering event there was a couple of years ago.

The area is a typical Nordic one,  deep forest with mostly spruce, pine and birch trees with some spots of ponds here and there. Terrain there is also very rough, having steep rocky hills. You really feel it quite well while you run there e.g. in an orienteering event at spring/summer/autumn time.

It's been raining in Southern Finland quite a lot. Was wearing again tall rubberboots. However, even they didn't help as after a minute of walking jumped off from the path and stepped into some soft and wet place. Left leg drowned over the knee and soon after the right one. Bad luck. And wet it was. Decided to continue straight without thinking damage too much. Pride was gone but what the heck.

Had a DSLR with me. Carried also a small tripod (a Gorilla Pod).

It was cloudy, actually quite a miserable weather. As a crown for the day, weather forecast had predicted light rain. It did rain but only at end of my walk.

Walked via small and narrow paths, which had been made by random users, including wild animals. Near there were small ponds. Walked via five of them, starting from the biggest one, Sorlampi pond. All the other ones were quite small though all of them were very nice.

It was a good idea to carry a small tripod. Without it one couldn't take any photos as it was quite dark in the forest (and I only had a kit lens).

GPS recorded route, some 10km altogether (view in a larger map):

Some photos, B&W at this time

Sorlampi pond

One of many creeks

Spruce forest

One of my favourite logos

Branches

Some spots of snow

An island

A view

Ice formation on pond

A tiny ice cube

An arc

Cliffs at Hynkanlampi pond

Slow motion

A waterlily in motion

Water, lots of water everywhere

Buried branches

A 4 inch tall waterfall

Millions of needle-like leaves from Larch trees