Author: PN

Rhododendron park in Helsinki

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There’s a hidden gem in Helsinki, that you just must see! A place called Alppiruusupuisto, a park in the middle of forest, full of blooming rhododendron and azalea.

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The park was established in 1975, over 3000 rhododendron were planted for research purposes.

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For couple of weeks in the beginning of June, thousands of flowers bloom and there’s amazing scent everywhere.

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The park is open 24/7 and it’s free. Thanks to the night-less summer nights, you can go for a stroll in the middle of the night if you feel like it.

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You can reach the park in half an hour from Helsinki railway station with train or by bus.

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Bird watching

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I’ve spent Easter mostly writing my study assignments for university. Getting some fresh air and relaxing my eyes in the beautiful nature has really been needed in between the essays and reports etc. Today I went again to Suomenoja, this time equipped with camera and zoom lens. I wanted to share with you some photos of the water birds that I saw today.

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This guy with the handsome mullet is male tufted duck (‘tukkasotka’). It dives to find food in the water. It’s rare and protected, rare in terms of 40-60 thousand couples nesting in Finland.

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This is a Northern shoveler couple (‘lapasorsa’), it is also protected. Male has its mating “suit” on, later in the summer it changes its feathers to look more like the female. Somehow these ducks always remind me of Disney cartoon figures..

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This fellow who looks as if it has perhaps had too many drinks last night (based on the color of its eyes), is Black necked grebe (‘mustakurkku-uikku’). It’s extremely rare, and approximately 48% of all the birds in EU area nest in Finland, this means 6-11 thousand couples. Obviously protected too.

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This bird is Gadwal (‘harmaasorsa’). It looks quite modest but if you look at its feathers closer, it has very beautiful pattern. This bird is also protected in Finland. There are approximately 500-1000 couples nesting mainly in the Southern part of Finland.

These ones are Goldeneyes (‘telkkä’). Male goldeneye has very theatrical look with the white spot on the cheek.

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Mute swans (‘kyhmyjoutsen’) are always beautiful and majestic to look at. Did you know that whooper swan is actually Finland’s national bird? I hope I spot one of them this year.

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Eurasian coot (‘nokikana’) is also a rare bird. It likes to make its nest in the middle of cattails or even on top of muskrats nest. I wonder what the muskrats think of this neighbor on top of their home.. I hope I will soon see the muskrats too, so far I have not seen any of them but I believe I will see many when it gets warmer.

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And of course last but not least Mallard (‘sinisorsa’), probably the most common duck bird all over Finland.

So as you can see, there are plenty of different birds to see, I only captured some of them to the pictures. So grab your binoculars and take a stroll around the seashore, see if you can spot all these birds! If you want to learn to recognize the birds also by the sounds they make, these Luontoportti pages are good for that purpose.

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Beauty in the details

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Today I took a walk to the Suomenoja bird reservoir to see if there are already a lot water birds nesting. It definitely looks promising! There’s going to be an event on 7th May between 10am-3pm, so if you are into watching birds and nature photographs, it might be a good idea to visit!

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It’s an early Spring, snow has melt away but the green leaves and grass is yet to come.. Still, even the landscape is quite bleak, there’s beauty in the details.

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The bed of reeds is gently moving with the wind.

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Dried flowers remind us of last summer.

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Catkins with their soft fur like tiny little kittens climbing on the willow.

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Aspen with beautiful details, looks almost like a painting.

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Birch tree having buds, ready to bring the green shade back into the landscape.

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And coltsfoot peaking through the ground, reminding us that sunny summer days are almost here! Enjoy the Spring….

Sun and fun on ice

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Instead of our usual Sunday walk in the forest, we decided today to head for the seashore for a walk. Sunny March winter days are really nice, there’s already a promise of Spring in the air but you can still enjoy winter activities. It’s always surprising how fast the days start to get brighter after the long and dark winter.

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We started our walk from the Matinkylä beach in Espoo. There were a lot of people enjoying the sun: skiing, kite-surfing, ice skating, riding bikes.. There was very little snow on the ice so it was perfect condition for different winter activities on ice. As we are in Finland, there were of course also people swimming in the ice hole.

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When we started the walk there was quite crisp wind and it felt like winter. But when we continued walking further to the sea, the weather changed. We decided to walk around Varsasaari island.

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When we got to the other side of the island, we discovered open sea. We had to land on the island and walk by the shore as the ice was too unsafe to walk on. We decided to sit down on the rocks and listen to the melting ice. Have you ever heard how the ice sounds like, when the thick ice rafts  press against each other and the rocks? They make quite spooky sounds!

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The ice looked like a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. I cannot wait to be able to go stand up paddling when the sea is finally completely open!

Walking on the ice in the winter is great fun, just make sure to watch where you are going and take ice picks with you if possible. Next time I’ll make sure to pack some sandwiches and hot chocolate, having a picnic in the nature is a great way to relax.

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Espoo archipelago

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Today was a warm and calm summer day, so we decided to spend some time in the Espoo archipelago. There are many places from where you can rent kayaks and sup-boards. We started from Matinkylä beach. It costs about 20€ per kayak for 2h.

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The shore of Espoo has many islands and the landscape is beautiful. It’s really nice to get a different perspective to the city. If you are not into kayaking, then why not take one of the public ferries that sail between the islands.

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Vasikkasaari is one of the biggest islands which are for public. You can land by own boat or by the public ferry. There’s plenty to see and do. You can hike in the forest or just enjoy the scenery from the beach. You can have your own picnic or enjoy a good meal at the restaurant. We paddled around the Vasikkasaari.

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A big white swan swam by my kayak.

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It’s fun to circle around the narrow straits between the islands and admire both the nature and the hidden summer houses people have built on the islands.

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Vallisaari island daytrip

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Vallisaari is an island 20 min by boat from Helsinki market square. It recently opened to general public, after being almost abandoned for couple of decades. The island was governed by Finnish defence forces, and although it had as many as 300 inhabitants in the 1950’s, the last permanent inhabitants moved away from the island in 1996. The island together with smaller island Lonna have become the attractions of this summer in addition to the traditional Suomenlinna fortress.

The Finnish archipelago is beautiful during summer time. It’s hard to resist a ferry trip with the beautiful scenery, followed with a hike on the island. Today as the sun was shining, we decided to see this hidden treasure.

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The island has interesting ruins of the old fortress. There are still areas where you are not allowed to leave the path, partly because of nature preserving reasons, partly for risk of old explosives.

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Pathways are well maintained and the surrounding nature is lush.

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There are plenty of butterflies (and bees) around, probably due to the various flowers that grow all over the island.

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There are swans and other water birds swimming nearby the shore.

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The island has a guest harbor where you can arrive by boat, but you need to leave the island by 10 pm when it closes for public. It’s not allowed to stay on the island overnight. The last public ferries leave around 8.30pm. If you wish to continue the summer night at the archipelago, you can go to the nearby Suomenlinna fortress island and catch a later ferry back to Helsinki. With the 7 eur return ticket you can visit Lonna, Vallisaari and Suomenlinna islands. Great value for money if you want to spend a summer day island hopping in the beautiful archipelago.

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The Vallisaari island has one cafe that serves home made waffles and drinks, and there are also many places where you can fill your bottle with fresh drinking water at no cost.

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Mushroom soup fiesta

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Isohapero 1Yesterday went to the nearby forest in search of boletus mushrooms. Although I didn’t have luck with those, I didn’t have to come home with empty hands. Luckily there were many russula mushrooms to harvest.

This red beauty in the picture is Russula paludosa (‘isohapero’). In Finnish the name means big, and indeed this mushroom is of good size. The cap is the size of palm so it’s easy to differentiate from the bitter tasting red russulas. This one is of exquisite taste and perfect for a soup.

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You can recognize this mushroom by it’s beautiful red color that shifts a bit towards yellow and it’s stem which has a dash of red colour. It’s gills are dense and the color starts to shift from white towards yellow when the mushroom gets older.

Palterohapero

Another good russula for a soup is Russula vesca (‘palterohapero’). It resembles Russula paludosa, but the stem is much harder and thicker.

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Koivuhapero

Russula aeruginea (‘koivuhapero’) tastes good too. The color of the cap varies from olive greem to grayish green.

The mild and delicious tasting russulas make a heavenly mushroom soup. Here’s how I made mine today:

Mushroom soup: Clean and chop about 5dl of mushrooms. Heat the mushrooms in a kettle with some butter and onions. When the mushrooms start to soften, add 5dl of boiling water or vegetable broth and let boil for a couple of minutes. Thicken the soup with some melted cheese (50-250g depending how thick you want it to be), the Valio koskenlaskija savuporo cheese is my favorite for mushroom soups. You can also leave out the cheese and add some cream and flour instead. If you want a smooth soup, you can mix the soup in a blender before serving. Garnish with pepper and herbs. The red colored russulas give the soup elegant rose color (just like in rose champagne). Enjoy!

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Mid summer beauty

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Mid summer is always special time in Finland. Mid summer weekend is the time of the year when people either flock to the various music festivals Finland offers, or alternatively, head out to the summer cottages. I’ve always belong to the ones who head to summer cottage, and preferably to a one by a lake.. The mid summer weekends weren’t perhaps so peaceful as a teenager with friends, as nothing prevents you from crazy-partying there either with your own mini-festival, sauna and barbeque. But nowadays, I enjoy more the peace & quiet that Finnish nature can offer.

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This mid summer, we went to the lake with a rowing boat at midnight. The colors were really beautiful! Did you know, that in the northern part of Finland the sun doesn’t set for months this time of the year? It’s light all day and night long! In the southern part of Finland where we spend the mid summer, sun touches the horizon and creates beautiful sun set and almost immediately a sun rise with rich colors. Many of the neighbours had mid summer bonfires, but those were already fading when we went rowing.

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We spotted a couple of black scoters at the lake. They are quite rare in this part of Finland. Also we saw fish jumping and creating waves to the otherwise calm lake. There must be some big northern pikes living in that lake!

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If you have not tried a Finnish wood heated sauna and a swim in a cool lake, put that on your bucket list! It cannot get more Finnish than that, you’ll love it!

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How did a fox get a white tail?

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For the past weeks I’ve been mesmerized by red foxes.. It all started by the photographs taken by my buddy from photography school (we nowadays call him the fox whisperer because of his portfolio of fantastic fox photos). He has also other great nature photos, you can check them out in instagram.

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Then luckily an opportunity came to watch and photograph wild foxes. And I totally get it now why someone would wake up at 5am to find these beautiful animals. This beats any reality tv show, anytime 🙂 Luckily this family of five puppies weren’t shy or bothered by people.

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The cubs were eating rabbits, squirrels and birds, brought by their mom. And they were doing what all kids are doing: playing with their siblings!

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There is an old Finnish tale about the white tail of a fox. In short the story goes that a fox went to drink the cream from a churn inside a house, and got the white tail from the cream while escaping. True or not, I don’t know. But these two look like they could be up for such an adventure 🙂

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Rhubarb heaven

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When living in a country with four distinctive seasons, every year has some events that are like milestones for the season changes.. And no, I’m not talking about the ice hockey championships! While rest of Finland has been glued to the TV to watch will Finland bring home the gold medal this year like in 1995 and 2011, I’ve been gardening. My milestone from spring to beginning of summer is the first harvest of rhubarb.

This year summer seems to have started really yearly. It’s not even June and the lilacs are blooming.. Usually that is just before mid-Summer!

As my rhubarbs had survived the winter and started giving harvest, I decided to bake a pie. Rubarb is also great for kisel and compote.

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Turned out I was a little bit overly positive regarding the amount of my rhubarb harvest (as I wanted to make a full baking tray) , but I added on some strawberries. Those unfortunately weren’t yet from my own garden, but hopefully by July I’ll have strawberries growing too. And if not, the markets will offer the sweet Finnish strawberries for sure.

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Here’s the recipe if you want to try:

Rhubarb pie

1 litre of soured milk (‘piimä’)

5,5 dl of organic sugar

11 dl of flour (I used gluten free)

3 tea spoons of baking soda

2 – 3 dl of melted butter

3- 6 dl of rhubarb

Mix all ingredients in the above order, pour on a baking tray and add the rhubarb on top. And if you want, season with cinnamon and sugar. Bake in the oven in 175 degrees celsius for 40 – 60 minutes. The same recipe works with berries and apples etc.

Enjoy with vanilla ice-cream or vanilla custard!

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