Mid-Summer I: Summer is here!

Our blog has been rather silent.  Apologies, but there wasn’t much to blog about except snow and ice and of course, ehhrrm, snow and ice of course, oh and don’t forget some more snow and ice.  But our surroundings have undergone an astonishing change of metamorphosis!  We have just past what is called “Mid-Summer” where Finland experiences its longest day of approximately 21 hours of sunlight.  It’s been rather difficult to adjust to this as one’s biological clock is thrown into complete turmoil.  During the three hours of twilight darkness during the night one can still go outside and comfortably do some gardening without the need of a flashlight.  We haven’t seen any stars or complete darkness for about two months now.

Spring came crawling slowly as winter would just not budge.  The following two photos are of the frozen see water melting during the spring season.

 

 

As the snow started to melt in the back yard we actually could do some exploring and notice things that we could not see before.  In the photo below one can see that we discovered a small paved area under the big trees which is probably meant for summer braais. 

 

 

To indicate to you the immensity of the contrast between summer and winter, see the following photos.  Do you remember Dirkie’s shovelling heap, “Table Mountain”?  Here’s a photo just to remind you.

 

This is what it looks like now after Dirkie did some cleaning up.

 

And then there was the big heap of snow which collected next to the driveway.  This is what it looked like during winter.

 

This is what it looks like now after Dirkie did some serious gardening.

 

The see and the forests across from our backyard have also undergone a huge transformation.  The large Birch trees are now lavishly green, the water is filled with small fish and ducks and swans frequently graze among the reed plants and the small swamps on the island across from us.  Here is a panoramic image of the see view.

 

Our garden is now a green paradise filled with all sorts of plants and animal life.  This is a panoramic image of our backyard just as we entered summer.

 

Off course Alex and Dirkie now spend more time in the garden to enjoy the sunshine as seen below.

 

 

Many of the plants in the garden make the most beautiful flowers.  It’s astonishing to think that these plants and their seeds survived the winter temperatures of -25 °C!  Here are some photos.

 

 

 

 

The loveliest thing is to be able to now have some flowers in the house taken from the garden.

 

It’s not only in our backyard that we discovered a few things now that the snow and ice are gone.  On the road one can now, for the first time, notice walkways, sidewalks, fences etc.  This is what the street outside our house looks like now.  Hmm, nice tarmac for a change…and no slipping and sliding with the car!

 

 

Central Helsinki is now buzzing with tourists, sidewalk coffee shops and street performers.  The following photo is of the famous White Church, completely thawed.

 

One thing that the Fins like to do during summer is to make use of bicycles for transport as seen below.  Sidewalks have lanes reserved only for bicycles.

 

The following photo is of a coffee shop just next to Esplanadin Park.  What’s odd about the photo is that most people at the coffee shop are drinking beer…

 

Stalls and small shops can now be found on almost every street corner in central Helsinki.  The selling of flowers and plants on the street is very particular to summer as seen below.

Street performers can be very entertaining.  Some people pose as characters from action movies, others do dancing, some play musical instruments etc.  This group stood out from the rest as it was a bit odd finding Indians in Helsinki.

 

The Finns make most of the short summer season and the younger crowd tend to go to night clubs etc. over week-ends.  Some of them put in a lot of effort to dress up as the lady in the following photo.  And no, she is not a street performer; she was actually on her way to a party.  Alex was brave enough to ask her to pose for this photo.  Good luck to her apartment’s draining system after she washes off all that make-up.

 

As Helsinki is known for being the Design Capital of the World, odd forms of creative art are popping up all over the place.  These two statues are the newest addition near Kamppi.

 

 

The Fins themselves undergo a transformation during the summer season as well.  They seem to be more alive, talkative and active.  One unfortunate thing is the display of public drunkenness, something which keeps Dirkie out of central Helsinki over week-ends.  This poor fellow took an ice-hockey game against Sweden mixed with his alcohol a bit too seriously.

 

Well, we hope this blog gives you a taste of what summer is like in Helsinki!  The maximum temperature that we have experienced so far was 26 °C but temperatures are mostly in the high ten’s and low twenties.

See you in the next blog!