The view from across my road on Friday 29th August..already a difference to the last photo.
A little bit further down the road...
The top of one tree beginning its vivid yellow stage...
And closer in...
I had a little wander around, to see what other plants I could show you.. and I found some Tupasvilla..aka Hares tail cottongrass, which actually came out a long time back, lives in marshy wetland and will die away again very soon. Its also found in the very far north of the UK apparently..but being from the South, I'd not seen this until I moved to Finland.
On long spindly stalks, these are picked and dried to make arrangements in many Finnish homes and are a popular plant. They look like little cotton wool tuffs and are really cute!
There are three trees that proliferate this area; Birch, Pine and Rowan.
The Rowan are interesting right now.
In the beginning, the Rowan berries look almost 'dead' - like last years left overs.. they start from a brown rather yucky colour, go orange and then red. Later on they will serve lots of birds, especially Waxwings.
These are lovely and ripe already...
They are fun because the are all in various stages of colour...
Like this row of Rowans...
And these upclose beauties..
I also had a mooch around in the forest directly surrounding my home.
I was delighted to find more toadstools..especially this lovely red and white spotted one.. You will note that 'something' has already had a nibble from one!
Hopefully..it's not dead from it's lunch!
One of many anthills..
I also found some more berries.. this time Juniper
Today in fact...the FIRST day of September, we had a period of SNOW! Yes, already.. but thankfully it did not last long, nor settle. T'was a bit of a shock though. Probably not just to us living here - but also to the plant life!
Overnight frosts will not to do the berries any good whatsoever..so locals can only hope that this was just a brief interlude. At this rate the berry season will be ruined... and thats a major income for many foreigners who fly over to Finland in search of the big dividends that it can bring! I certainly hope this is not the case..but I guess whatever they do pick will be worth more. I think Puolukka berries are more hardy than the others, but they still need to fully ripen. So, its now Berry-Watch time!
Oh and GREAT news.. well - to ME anyway!
Saturday night/morning at 3am, I was able to greet the Plough and Cassiopea constellations, amongst other stars! Hooray! I have so missed the stars.. They disappear for so long during the summer. It was only for a short while, as the sun was already coming up on the other side of the nights sky.. but I was so happy to see them! Roll on the next full Moon - I cant wait to see the Moon again!
