Last weekend we did the first sowings for pre-growing: Pekka sanded the chillis and the sweet peppers,
I sowed the tomatoes (plenty),
the aubergines (enough); the above-mentioned chillis (plenty) and sweet peppers (ditto) – and as an extra the leeks. Though cross-eyed at the end of the exercise we felt the achievement was worth celebration…
Apparently the Management agreed; in the evening we had fireworks all over the sky.
and spent the better part of the evening out, watching the ever-changing aurorae and trying to find various constellations (“Ursa Major, of course – and look, Cassiopeia just opposite it on the other side of the Pole Star…”).
Yesterday morning the first buzzard of the year screeched above the house “Where is my breakfast?” With some 80 cm of snow we deemed that to be a pertinent question; Pekka phoned a local butcher and as he happened to have a good stock of fresh meaty bones we went to get them. Crossing a bridge over rapids we saw downstream a family of whooper swans, two adults and two last summer cygnets. It always feels like a sign of spring to see swans – though quite likely they haven’t migrated at all; there are several rapids in the vicinity that don’t freeze in winter.
Homeward bound, we stopped at a rivulet and admired the ice flowers that glittered in the sun
A lynx had strolled along the bank, clearly not in a hurry…
This morning, the first tomatoes had germinated (quite a few first ones…)
This being our weekly shopping day in the town, we came home in the late afternoon through the forests. A rivulet again, with the resident half-tame dipper – when it sees the car stop it flies towards, not away.
And the meadow next to the rivulet was full of tracks
Northbynorth 