STILL BLOOMING

Summer continues to bloom on my balcony.

Happy weekend!

IN SHADOWS OF TREES

Under tree shadows, on forest paths, on city streets with Canadian jugglers, swimming and reading.

Helmenkantaja by Marja-Leena Mikkola is a sweet but adventurous story about a girl and her journey under summery shiny waters. Cover illustration by me, design by Päivi Puustinen, published by Otava in Finnish. So grateful to illustrate this cover for my own childhood favourite author.

Tickling sun beams!

----

Heippa!

"Klassikko tekijän suloinen mutta jännittävä saturomaani ammentaa taitavasti vanhasta suomalaisesta tarinaperinteestä.

Eräänä aamuna Reetta näkee kesäpaikan rannassa suuren pyrstön välähdyksen vedessä. Hän saa viimein varmistuksen sille minkä on aavistanut aina: veden pinnan alla on kokonainen toinen todellisuus salaisuuksineen, aarteineen ja vaaroineen.

Veden väki on ahdingossa. Joku on vienyt Veden emännän kauniin pienokaisen. Reetan on aika täyttää oma osuutensa ikivanhasta ennustuksesta."  Otava

Oman lapsuudensuosikkini Marja-Leena Mikkolan Helmenkantaja-kirja kuvittamallani kannella on ilmestynyt! Design: Päivi Puustinen, julkaisija: Otava.

Leppoisia hellepäiviä!

AUGUST

Summer continues with reflections and swimming, pink sunsets, by-swimmers, reading books in shadowy parks. Wild strawberries. 

It has been very warm and sunny with a few thunder storms that were forgotten already the next day with new tickling sunshine.

Welcome August and more sunshine with tiny hints of changing season!

SUMMER CITIES

Summer cities filled with bicycles, roses, sunshine.

Hollyhocks, night birds.

Cities filled with colours.

Cities filled with canals, more bicycles and early sunsets.

Cities filled with boats and blue night skies.

To the summer cities traveling by train over bridges, under seas.

Oh so many boats!

From some dream destinations, called The Fairy.

Wind gentle, lights turning on.

Many friendly summer city beings.

Summer holiday travels will continue, happy july!

FORESTS, FIELDS, MIDNIGHT IN SUMMER

Collecting small pieces of the summer green. The green that changes when the sun tries to set, but does not completely manage yet. The green that hides inside flying mist. The green that hides inside birch tree forest shadows. The green that surrounds all the Cow Parsley and Clovers.

Summer greetings  ♥

EMBRACED IN GREEN

Afternoon walks, sunset bicycling. Heatwave and thunderstorm. Pouring rain and then calm and sunny again. Hems of dresses and bare feet. Blueberry sorbet in a park on green grass. Late nights reading books outdoors. The fragile scent of Bird Cherries flying in the wind. Hello summer, good morning all the green!

Just a little reminder, if searching a little bit of summer for you or yours, some of it can be found at my small online shop. Edit: Some new photos of the prints added to the shop.

Summer smiles!

POLAR SUMMER POSTCARDS II

It is the sky that gives all that space to breath. Those trees that are not there, making everything to look like all is very close to you. The roots of mountains, their tops and the valleys in between them.

Then you see a small rock and think that it is very far and very big when you reach it. But it is just very close and very small.

There are the stones that hide secrets inside. Forty to sixty million years old secrets of plants that were hiding under a glacier all this time. Plants that grew there when it was very warm. Now it is all in permafrost.

The village that naps in sunlight during night time. The long shadows. The wind that does not reach anything, and comes from the sea or the glaciers. The moment when the wind stops.

The line between the known and unknown. The touchable.

The clouds that can travel to see it all as long as they do not get stuck on mountain tops. Some of them were hanging in the same place for three days.

The colours that sometimes were there and then it all could turn to black and white.

Summer continues. In Finland it is very green and warm, compared to the polar images above. The thunder storm of last night did not come. More boat trips, statue museum, bicycling, swimming. The starry nights are here. Still I continue to think of those landscapes. 

Have a beautiful weekend!

POLAR SUMMER POSTCARDS

The mining village that was abandoned, and looked after by the glacier. The light on the glacier that coloured the whites, the greys and the turquoises. The sea that had white peaks on waves once in a while. 

A walk to pass mountains. To a valley with a lake and a red house. Tea water boiling, a greeting message on the table from the previous visitor. Beds to sleep. Small glacier streams close by. Reindeers on the moss. All so silent. The thought about the backyards of mountains, what lies there?

Mountain Avens, a hint of blue sky. Peeking glaciers on all directions. The sound of running water in the glacial streams.

A night boat trip. The light at midnight. The reflections of the glacier so alive. By boat, going around small ice floes. Curvy water road. Puffins, Little Auks.

The silence with songs of birds. Searching for the deepest turquoise. Secrets for sure.

A night floater, brushing his/her beard.

Water roads

Night boat trip adventures. ♥

Happy August, have a calm weekend!

SUMMER PATHS

Wild strawberries and strawberries from the fields of my parents.

Ferry rides and curvy forest roads. After a summer storm checking if the tall trees survived.

Warm glimmering waters inside those tall trees.

Warm and sweet, pine scents and first blueberries. The scent of lake water. Could stay in the water until evening.

Birch trees. Last night, Patti Smith told in her concert here, a story how birch trees are girls that danced so long that they turned to birch trees. Dancing forests.

Shadows on silver meadows.

Sunset.

Ninety years old sauna. The cosiest one. Watching as shadows grow taller. A few steps behind to pick a few handfuls of strawberries.

Strawberry fields forever.

AN ISLAND, A LIGHTHOUSE, ROOTS

Night train towards the North. A bus and a ferry to the landscapes of mist and rain. A small trip to see where my grandfather's mother was born. The thick clouds disappearing from the island, the sun tickling, wind calming down. Beautiful music festival just by the lighthouse. Sunset by the beach listening to the waves.

Middle of the island a village with kind people, good food, tiny piglet and a goat that became a mother for an orphan calf. Light violet harebell meadows everywhere. Sunshine on shoulders, a birch branch to keep the insects away.

Traditional houses painted with Falu red, flea markets and the scent of bent-in-the-wind Scots pines in sunshine.

Afternoon walk in the warm sea.

With a friend. With sun tan.

Evening walk.

Sunset and the songs of seagulls and terns. The horizon disappearing.

Sleeping next to the lighthouse and dreaming of the times when my grandfather's mother lived here. Maybe now I understand why I dream of islands and the blinking towers.

Summer trips with never setting sun.

Greetings from the island!

And warm and sunny July to you!