Light Scrape

When one isn’t enough and two can’t do

2013-05-21T07:30:00.000+03:00

Here are more photographs taken earlier last week, the first one on Monday a week ago. During the weekend I went twice walking with the two older daughters, on Saturday to Nuuksio, and on Sunday to Vaakkoi. Rain and thunder was promised, but none happened. It was been dry and often rather warm, and summer has progressed rapidly.

(Posting title is from the poem The Progression by Omar Pérez, translated by Kristin Dykstra.)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate

2013-05-20T20:31:00.000+03:00

I commuted by bicycle today, and the total distance for May is now 259 km. It took 40 minutes to get to work, and 48 minutes to get back home, despite having headwind in the morning and tailwind in the afternoon. I guess one is more tired after work.

Here are photographs taken last week on a hill nearby home. It was late in the evening and the sun was low on the horizon. Blueberry flowers are fascinating, or how do you feel?

A camera store here in Finland is selling older Olympus micro 4/3 cameras on discount this week, for example Olympus Pen E-PM1 + 14-42 II R Kit sells for 199 euro. But still, after thinking about this for a while I feel that I have grown into using the Panasonic LX3/LX5 family of cameras, and nothing really compares.

(Posting title is from Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare.)

I am too certain of the measure of these days

2013-05-19T10:00:00.000+03:00

Wood anemone

Saaren-Musta 1

Saaren-Musta 2

Here are some more photographs from last weekend. I haven't had time to process any of the newer photographs. Spring has advanced quite a lot within this week.

Yesterday I went with the two older daughters to Nuuksio, to the north part, east of lake Saarijärvi. There is a parking place at Yli-Takkula, and from there one can walk via paths to the south shore of Saarijärvi.

Near the south corner of Saarijärvi are two places listed as worth seeing in the Espoo guide to nature. (In Finnish, "Saarijärven silokallio" and "Espoon korkein kohta".)

We visited both places. The smooth rock at the lake shore was nothing really remarkable, and the highest point of Nuuksio wilderness area wasn't that remarkable either at 114,5 meters above sea level. By the way, the height is usually given as 114,2 meters, but there has been new measurement since 1.12.2012, and the height is now 30 cm higher than it used to be.

(Posting title is from the poem The Measure by Jay Wright.)

That I might know the knowing

2013-05-18T16:00:00.000+03:00

Pine

Saaren-Musta

Reflect

Birch

Flowers

Ant

Ditch

I'm still posting photographs from last weekend. Sunday evening I went with the two older daughters for a walk in the forests at Vaakkoi, visiting three lakes there: Vaakkoi, Saaren-Musta and Väärä-Musta. The ground is no longer as wet as it was, so it was possible to use sneakers for walking instead of rubber boots.

(Posting title is from the poem Of What is Real by Richard Tagett.)

And cheep and twitter twenty million loves

2013-05-18T10:38:00.000+03:00

Rock

Wood anemone

Flowers

Did I tell that my Twitter account was restored from suspension? No explanation was given for the suspension, but my requests for restoring access had some effect, after over three days of no access to the Twitter account. I'm not too happy with how Twitter handled the situation, it seems that this is a company that doesn't have much resources in terms of customer support.

And apparently I'm not the only one with similar problems. Funnily enough, Twitter sent me a weekly message "Here's what's trending on Twitter this week", and one of the trending topics was suspension of Twitter accounts. But it seems that here the reason was too frequent use of period (.) in the start of Twitter messages, which I never do, as I haven't used the reply function, only occasional retweets. For me, no explanation was given for the suspension.

I have been a user since 2007 or so, with 2,296 tweets, 67 followers and 62 users to follow. I would say I'm rather modest user, selective in what I do with Twitter.

After the case of the account suspension I'm not sure how much I'll be using Twitter in the future. It has some good points, being much less "social" than Facebook or Google+, both of which I find offensive in their urging to enlarge networks and follow people. Twitter seems to be opposite - after the account suspension it felt as if they don't want users at all.

(Posting title is from the poem The Princess: O Swallow by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.)

The long land rests against our feet

2013-05-17T17:30:00.000+03:00

Field 1

Field 2

Shadows 1

Shadows 2

Well, here I'm escaping from the number three topic of previous postings, having four photographs to appear this time. But what is the theme of these photographs? A field, waiting the get green? Shadows, generated by evening sun? Or something else?

(Posting title is from the poem Four Postulates by Michael Anania.)

She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer

2013-05-17T07:30:00.000+03:00

Spring 1

Spring 2

Spring 3

It seems that photographs are now coming in threefolds, cf. two previous postings.

And now that this is the third posting with three photographs of the same subject, I wonder what comes next.

I have commuted by bicycle each time this week. And it seems that the hills are getting smaller, and the wind is more and more often blowing from behind.

(Posting title is from the poem Love in the Valley by George Meredith.)

I guess my senses must be losing their touch

2013-05-16T17:30:00.000+03:00

Blueberry 1

Blueberry 2

Blueberry 3

Maybe I'm too tired? Anyway, I had trouble selecting which photographs of wood anemones to post, and now I have a similar problem with these photographs of blueberry flowers. Anyway, blueberry is a favorite, not only for the flowers which are modest from far away and beautiful up close, but for the berries of course.

(Posting title is from the poem Wildflowers by Richard Howard.)

All it can do is hang on and die

2013-05-16T07:30:00.000+03:00

Wood anemone 1

Wood anemone 2

Wood anemone 3

I took these photographs last Saturday in a nearby forest, it was evening and the sun started to be low on the horizon. There are a lot of anemone flowers this year. It feels that the spring is here when these flowers light up the landscape. I couldn't decide which of these photographs was the best, so I'm posting all three.

(Posting title is from the poem Canada Anemone by Fleda Brown.)

It’s laziness that lets them seem unreal

2013-05-15T17:43:00.000+03:00

Green

Swamp

I'm still posting photographs taken on Saturday, but I'm planning to go through the remaining photographs from last weekend later today.

I have felt a bit tired, maybe it is caused by the regular commute by bicycle, each day this week, 32 km per day, 4 1/2 hours so far. The weather has been perfect, not too warm, but that seems to change, as they promise +23 °C for Friday, which starts to be quite like summer already.

(Posting title is from the poem Lazy by David Yezzi.)

In sunwarm my heart beats faster

2013-05-14T18:03:00.000+03:00

Anemone

Blue anemone 1

Blue anemone 2

Wood anemone

Flowers

I'm still posting photographs from Saturday, taken at Tremanskärr. Since then I have commuted by bicycle and haven't had time to take new photographs or to go through the photographs still waiting to be processed.

Yesterday I made a new record in how fast I was able to commute by bicycle. Today I came back to normal. It took 43 minutes to get to work, and 50 minutes back home. On the return leg there was a headwind of 8 m/s; in the morning there was little wind to speak of.

(Posting title is from the poem Morning Warming by Joyce Sidman.)

Protected from any sudden silence

2013-05-14T07:30:00.000+03:00

Hole

Twigs

Bent

Green

Dry

I took these photographs on Saturday at Tremanskärr forests and swamps. I'm learning to know the area quite well, in fact so well that it is becoming impossible to get lost in the forests and swamps. Oh, I miss those days when I walked lost in a circle in the dense forests south of lake Kurkijärvi, when everything there was new and precious.

But still, this is a nice area, the only drawback is the noise from the road, which carries surprisingly well, and from aircraft which fly over at low altitude. Nuuksio is better in this regard, and especially Meiko, which is great indeed with the absense of man-made sounds.

Maybe I should say a few words about how I process my photographs. I import photographs into Aperture on the iMac with my standard settings, which don't do anything drastic except add a little bit of clarity to the jpegs from the LX5. In the LX5 I do the opposite in the jpeg settings, avoiding too much contrast etc.

Then I go through the photographs one by one, and delete those which don't generate any positive response. About 90-95% of the photographs get deleted right away. Sometimes there is a delay of several days when I have a lot of photographs to process. And this is my post-processing. Next I upload the photographs to Flickr to wait for a posting with a selection of the photographs to appear at some point.

Usually I don't do any manual post-processing at all, such as cropping or changing exposure/contrast etc. But sometimes there is a batch of photographs with severe underexposure, and then I may change the exposure for these photographs before deciding which I should keep. Aperture is rather efficient in this kind of use.

The LX5 has continued to work reasonably well. The earlier problems may have been due to some moisture inside the camera, as the problems have kept away now that the weather has been dry. But still, I sometimes worry that the LX5 gets really broken.

Speaking of cameras, Andreas wrote a nice posting about the new Olympus Pen E-P5. Occasionally I think about cameras with a bigger sensor than on the LX5, and the E-P5 is such a camera, causing gear lust. But equaling the versatility of the LX5 (or the LX7) would mean carrying a lens set with the camera, and I'm not really into carrying much gear with me.

(Posting title is from the poem Earbud by Bill Holm.)

You were once again the one human being

2013-05-13T17:25:00.000+03:00

It is difficult to catch the feeling of a swamp in a photograph, and a sunny day is especially challenging. But here are four photographs from Saturday, from Stavurkärr swamp, which is north of Tremanskärr swamp and much less open swamp type. Spring is advancing also at Stavurkärr now that the snow has finally melted.

Today I commuted by bicycle. In the morning the commute took 39 minutes, which is a new record - the previous was 42 minutes. And it took 43 minutes to get back home. And what was good that even though rain was forecasted for today, none happened during the commute. Well, there were a couple of raindrops when I was almost home, and afterwards it rained so that the ground got wet.

(Posting title is from the poem absence or a record of the creation of a fabulous animal by Gisela Kraft, translated by Laura Leichum.)

In an instant within the meaningless

2013-05-13T08:00:00.000+03:00

Forest

Reflect

Seedlings 1

Seedlings 2

Twigs

Here are some more photographs taken on Friday in the north parts of Nuuksio wilderness. This is a region I'm planning to explore further during the summer. From the northern direction there are big lakes - Saarijärvi and Suolikas - one has to circle around, so maybe it would be worthwhile to try other approaches as well. In any case it is very quiet in northern Nuuksio, as there are few people who walk all the distance to these parts.

I got over 14 hours of exercise during the week, most of it walking in terrain which was not easy, i.e. swamps and rocky hills with fallen trees blocking the way. I think I'm getting into shape, even though my weight is not going down any more. But maybe the fat is turning into muscle?

(Posting title is from the poem Shapes by Ruth Stone.)

Nature without check with original energy

2013-05-12T21:53:00.000+03:00

Bugs 1

Bugs 2

Bugs 3

I wonder what is the species of this pair of bugs? They flew joined together, and then settled hanging on a dry grass blade, allowing the camera to come close. The length of the insect is about 1 cm. I took these photographs on Saturday at the north edge of Tremanskärr swamp.

(Posting title is from the poem Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.)

To be one thought, one voice before we die

2013-05-12T18:57:00.000+03:00

Saarijärvi

Path

Cabin

Bridge

Reflect

Isosaari

Frogs

I have still hundreds of photographs to be processed, but at least I managed to go through the photographs from Friday, when I walked for 3 hours 45 minutes in the north part of Nuuksio wilderness, from lake Saarijärvi past lake Suolikas to lake Ruuhijärvi.

In fact, I visited ten lakes in all, in this order: Saarijärvi, Sarkkinen, Suolikas, Mustalampi (a.k.a Pöksynhaara), Valkealampi, Kakarlampi, Ruuhijärvi, Pikku Pöksynhaara, Iso Majaslampi, and Pieni Majaslampi. Of these ten lakes I visited seven for the first time ever.

There were a lot of new things to discover, and the terrain was variable, from wet swamps to rocky hills to dense forests. My orienteering skills have improved quite a lot, and I managed to stay on the map. Sometimes I even surprised myself with map-reading skills, finding the way even in rather delicately shaped terrain.

Here are photographs from the first half of the walk, from lake Saarijärvi to lake Ruuhijärvi. One of the photographs shows a small island, but the name on the map is Isosaari, "Big Island". Whoever has named the place has a sense of humor. Perhaps the same person may have given the name to lake Pikku Pöksynhaara? (The translation into English is left as an exercise.)

At lake Ruuhijärvi there were a lot of frogs wrestling in the water, engaged in their spring rituals. Some of the clumps of frogs were submerged for minutes and minutes, and I was wondering that they don't drown when staying under water for such a long time.

(Posting title is from the poem Wrestling by Louisa S. Bevington.)

But when the emancipating springtide breathes wholesome

2013-05-12T09:40:00.002+03:00

Here are photographs of spring flowers, taken on Thursday when walking in the forests in Luukki. I have over a thousand more recent photographs waiting, but it may take a while until I get them processed. I'm keen on walking outside enjoying the spring, not so much using the computer to go through photographs.

Today I'm planning to explore a forest I haven't yet looked into. Now that my orienteering skills have improved I'm interested in going to places where there are no paths marked on maps.

PS. For some reason my Twitter account has been suspended, which is a strange thing indeed, as I have carefully followed all the rules. Of course this may have happened because of some breach of security at Twitter itself. I hope to have the Twitter account restored promptly, but one never knows with services of this type how long this will take.

(Posting title is from the poem By the Waters of Babylon by Emma Lazarus.)

To seek strange truths in undiscovered lands

2013-05-11T21:01:00.002+03:00

River

Rapids

Väärälampi

Halkolampi

Here are photographs from Thursday, when I went for a walk in Luukki in the evening, circling toward lake Väärälampi from west, through a route I haven't tried ever before. It was a beautiful route over the hills, but a bit noisy, as it was close to the road and there was nothing in between to decrease the road noise.

There is a river west of lake Väärälampi, running from south towards north, and there was plenty of water in the river, causing the rapids to be more impressive than usually.

I'm much behind in processing my photographs from yesterday and today (Friday and Saturday); there are more than 1000 photographs waiting. Yesterday I walked for more than four hours, and today over three hours, making the total for this week 12 hours already. And tomorrow I may have some time to explore the forest nearby.

(Posting title is from the poem Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude by Percy Bysshe Shelley.)

Your water, the only water

2013-05-10T15:18:00.001+03:00

Snow

Stream

Frogs

Frog

I walked in the forests and swamps of Nuuksio wilderness today for 3 hours 45 minutes, exploring the landscape south of lake Saarijärvi on the north part of Nuuksio, all the way to lake Ruuhijärvi. I visited ten lakes in all, seven of which I have never visited before. It was very quiet in Nuuksio, it seemed that even aircraft stayed away, and road noise was so diminished to be almost nonexistent.

In addition to the walk in Nuuksio, I was up and walking when shopping and when preparing meals for the family so that of the first seven hours since waking up I was on my feet for six hours. Not bad. As they say, we sit all too much nowadays, we should be more often on our feet.

I haven't had time to look into the photographs from Nuuksio, and I also have photographs from yesterday to be processed, namely yesterday I walked to lakes Väärälampi, Mustlampi and Halkolampi in Luukki.

Yesterday it was hot, temperature rising to +21 °C. Today it was cooler, about +17 °C, which was about perfect for walking. And there are no mosquitoes yet to speak of, which is an additional bonus.

I have had almost nine hours of exercise so far this week. But there is still the weekend ahead...

(Posting title is from the poem A Twenty-fourth Poem about Horses by John Peck.)

We love the Croaking Section

2013-05-09T21:02:00.000+03:00

Frog 1

Frog 2

Frogs 1

Frogs 2

I walked for 3 1/2 hours today, going out three times. The first time was with my daughter, going to lake Myllyjärvi at Luukki, where we discovered that frogs had taken over the lake. On the average there must have been more than one frog each meter of the shore, but then there were places where a dozen frogs were doing their spring thing.

(Posting title is from the poem I’m Fond of Frogs by Jack Prelutsky.)

Sorting the diamonds in our dazzling cell

2013-05-08T17:52:00.000+03:00

Ditch 1

Fir

Reeds

Swamp

Fallen

Ditch 2

Today we had +20 °C. I commuted by bicycle, and it was great. In the morning it took about 42 minutes to get to work, a new record by bicycle. Return home took about 47 minutes.

A year ago I wrote about the commute time: "... morning commute took 49 minutes, and the return 54 minutes, 5-10 minutes faster than last week."

It seems that I'm now 5-7 minutes faster than year ago, not bad, especially as it felt today that traffic lights changed to red as I was nearing them.

Of course, getting another type of bicycle would help with the commute time. My hybrid bicycle with a gear hub is not a speed daemon. But it is good enough, and one should also take care in the traffic. Fortunately I have long stretches where there are few pedestrians or other people on bicycle, and few crossings.

These photographs were taken on Sunday at Tremanskärr swamp and Kurkijärvi lake.

(Posting title is from the poem Hall of Records by Peter Spagnuolo.)

The hidden harvest of luxurious time

2013-05-07T17:26:00.001+03:00

Flowers

Well, here are two spring beauties in one photograph, Pulmonaria obscura and blue anemone, seen on Sunday at Tremanskärr where I went for a walk with my daughter. Today it is warm, up to +18 °C, but I haven't had time to enjoy the weather. But tomorrow I'm planning to commute by bicycle, the weather should be perfect for it.

(Posting title is from the poem Ave Atque Vale by Algernon Charles Swinburne.)

Used as a brightening agent

2013-05-06T19:52:00.001+03:00

Rock

Sarkkinen

Suolijärvi

I haven't had time to process photographs from Sunday when we went for a walk in Tremanskärr forests and swamps. So, here are photographs fron Saturday, taken at lake Sarkkinen and lake Suolikas, which are close to each other, only a narrow neck of land separating them from each other. Tomorrow seems to be a very busy day also, so it may be that I'm unable to make a posting.

The weather forecast promises +17 °C for Tuesday and +21 °C for Wednesday, which is great, except that it may be that I don't have any possibility of enjoying the weather, being indoors in meetings or elsewhere busy as a bee, as they say. And bees certainly are getting busy now.

(Posting title is from the poem Fact by Craig Dworkin.)

Who hangs our house in the world’s branches

2013-05-06T08:00:00.000+03:00

Saarijärvi 1

Saarijärvi 2

Saarijärvi 3

Ice

Rock

Sarkkinen 1

Sarkkinen 2

On Saturday I walked with my two oldest daughters in the north part of Nuuksio wilderness, from lake Saarijärvi to lake Sarkkinen and lake Suolikas, to the narrow neck of land between these two lakes.

It was quiet at Sarkkinen, as the sound from the road does not carry over the hills. And we didn't see anyone else, or hear for that matter, except for some voices which carried over the water at Saarijärvi, from the cottages on the north side, near the road.

(Posting title is from the poem Baby Wrens’ Voices by Thomas R. Smith.)

If I could sing one last song

2013-05-05T16:11:00.001+03:00

Cut

Cliff

Shadows

Sometimes random scraps of information join together, giving a glimpse of something unknown. Here is Finland there has been discussion of the misuse of nitrous oxide as a drug, and a newspaper article mentioned that nitrous oxide can cause vitamin B12 deficiency. I read aloud this item in the coffee room at work, and a colleague mentioned that this is the same condition that can affect vegetarians.

This was a completely new thing to me. Apparently we humans need a source of B12, as we are unable to generate it ourselves. Thus vegans who avoid milk products and eggs need to take care of B12. However, there are also some sites on the net that claim that this B12 deficiency is a myth, but they don't appear to be especially trustworthy sources.

I any case, this is not a problem for me, as I'm not a vegan, and not a real vegetarian either. I just have moved towards meals which have much less meat than I used to eat earlier.

Another thing is that I read a book about the ethical choices of improving the human race, Matti Häyry's book Ihminen 2.0 - geneettisen valikoinnin ja parantelun eettiset kysymykset. Häyry posed several difficult ethical questions, one of them being the case of deaf parents wanting a deaf child, which can nowadays at least in theory be done by embryo selection, or by the use of donors who have the right genes, etc.

Some time later I was reading about the prognosis of schizophrenia (John Nash being used as an example), which offered this tidbit: "Schizophrenia is a major cause of disability, with active psychosis ranked as the third-most-disabling condition after quadriplegia and dementia and ahead of paraplegia and blindness."

So, the question is, what kind of side effects are we willing to accept if we would like to generate genius-level people? Another thing is how is it possible to rate disabilities in severity; there are tragedies, and there are cases of acceptance.

I took these photographs on Saturday in the northern parts of Nuuksio wilderness, near lake Suolikas, south of lake Saarijärvi, where I went for a walk with the two oldest daughters. It was a fine sunny evening to be out in the wilderness.

(Posting title is from the poem Blue Monday by Diane Wakoski.)