6 YEARS, ETERNAL NATURE

Spring is here, heart is restless. 

Today my small company turned already 6 years old. Thank you for your support and following my little adventures. It is the nature that matters the most still. It is comforting to see how it lives and has been living for millions of years. The mountains that once were volcanoes, the sea that was different once. The plants that return every spring and bloom and grow. 

We are just loosing it by consuming so much. Let's try to live with a fewer things and enjoy the silence instead. It is rarity. Let's keep on walking, bicycling and learning from it!

Thank you for visiting here and for your heart-warming comments, without them this place would not exist!

♥ ♥ ♥

(This blog once meant so much to me, thank you so much for being part of it! It seems that it is updated very seldom these months. It is still here because of the stories and the adventures in the past and hopefully for the stories and the adventures in the future too. It is just not updated so often. More frequent stories you will find at my Instagram. Hope to see you there too!)

BEHIND RIVER, BEHIND MOUNTAIN

Friends, morning tea in bed, walking where it looks the nicest, over bridges, climbing up hills/mountains, new landscapes.

New perspective. Behind hills and mountains more hills and mountains. A moment of a blue patch of sky.

Silence in forest, birds, fresh air. Walking until it is time to fall asleep. And the same tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after that day.

At home. dreaming of new travels.

Happy last day of November  ♥

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!

♥

Polar summer holiday greetings. 

My heart, I think, was left somewhere there in the middle of glaciers, mountains, Greenland Sea, Arctic Ocean, blue sky, fossils, long rubber boat rides, fog, puffins, seals, arctic foxes, reindeers, cool breezes of the wind and the sun that shone all the nights through. With 3000 polar bears.

♥

ON A MOUNTAIN TOP AND DOWN IN SEA BOTTOM

What about walking in mountains middle of mist and clouds with provisions (bread with onion, olives, pecan nuts, bell peppers and cucumber, juicy mangos) and then fording in sea in sunrise? I think that is a good plan for today. It is happily almost possible on my painting table.

More snowy but warm greetings,

Anna Emilia

(Both photos taken by S.)

THE WIND BROUGHT WARMTH

The wind has changed. Dropping all the snow down from tree branches. Warming the air. I am afraid, but I think to have smelled the spring yesterday even though it snowed all the day heavily. This early. But that is how the spring comes, in steps. In storms. Backwards and forwards with the winter. I think that the winter still wins for some months.

There are two new prints in my shop. Rainy Day in A Nearby Forest and Stollinn:

— Drip drop sounds through leaves as raindrops are landing. Fresh scents of pine, cherries and birch tree leaves. Soft wet grass under bare toes. Gentle summer rain is here.

— Mountain called Stollinn is like a chair for a giant. It frames a small fishing village in North Iceland and holds a small glacier tightly behind its back. Weather keeps Stollinn playing hide and seek game. Sunshine makes it golden, mist and rain makes it to disappear.

How are you?

Here it is nap time of a Saturday evening. Then a long walk to see if the streets are already cleaned after the storm of yesterday. A bit of chocolate. A lot of tea. Lots of love.

WHILE CLOUDS ARE DRIFTING CLOSER

Salty face, splashes of the sea in the wind. Sandwiches filled with pecan nuts, green bell pepper, onion, olives and sweetest cucumber in a small grey backpack. Mind is still on this small island (and ears still hear the wind and the roars of the sea), hands painting on a satin cotton paper.

Have a pleasant weekend with a strawberry cake!

WALKING IN SOUNDS

These are the places I dream about today. A waterfall joining a river and running down to the sea, babbling on its way. Wind very gentle. Secret huts and a small bridge. Caressed by round mountains around and a hint of snow to make everything fresh. Afternoon nap in Meadow buttercups.

Here sunset has arrived, snow melts quicker every moment, a rabbit eats seeds by an oak in the safety of the arrived darkness, sauna is warming up and tummy is filled with berries, fruits and tea. Have a good long weekend!

(The last picture taken by Heikki.)

GREEN MEMORIES

Hello mountains,

hello green color!

It is all white in here still, but the streets have melt. At home I found some photos in green. The first image is taken on a rainy road from a car. A magician´s car. He was a very kind one. Only because he never had been in Ísafjörður, he and his friend decided to drive us there. Next morning they had to be gone when we woke up, but then they told that maybe they want to drive us even a bit further. We saw seals bathing in the sun. Late afternoon they continued their journey and we stayed over the night sleeping next to a big waterfall. Next morning we met two travelers who took us to a ferry and then further to a glacier. There we slept another night.

The last two pictures are from Dalvík, "Valley Bay". Up to the mountains I walked many times. There the sounds were so far and soft, long continuous echo of cars and the sea humming together. The wind very straight but not as strong as I thought. Birds singing to show me where to walk, not near to their nests. A small waterfall coming from the glacier hurrying down to the sea.

All the shades of green,

Anna Emilia

A LITTLE BIT OF MISSING

It is rainy and +5 °C today in the treasure island Iceland. Quite different it was in the summer of 2005, when I was there the second time. It was very green and an 80-years old gentleman called Halldór was teaching me the names of the mountains around Reykjavík. We sat by a coffee table and looked the landscape opening behind the window. So many mountains fit in one view.

Is there a place that you miss sometimes?

Edit:

P.s. The smell of Reykjavík is of course the wind and the sea, but also vanillin. Very strong vanillin as there is a cookie factory in the middle of the town. Vanillin to my coffee today!