Weird moods

Darkness, cloudy sky and artificial lighting are good for sort of weird, unreal moods: strange tones of light and colours.

Still, I wouldn't mind at all if the dark time lasted about one month at maximum. Half a year is really rather exaggerated. I have to be optimistic though: it's only three months to late February when the sun already starts to come out during daylight time. If we're lucky there'll be snow and that will be REALLY bright.

The Villa

Sometimes - well, mostly, given the opportunity - I can't resist taking pictures like this. The sky is a bit bright if one wanted that "it was a dark and stormy night" feel, otherwise fairly successful. I reduced the brightness of the sky a bit already, but the trouble in cities is of course light pollution.

These villas aren't gloomy and dark at all. On the contrary, they are large, immensely beautiful wooden villas from the early part of the 20th century (I think), from the times when the wealthy still did that sort of thing - stayed in villas in the summer. This one is located in the part of Helsinki that is called Töölö, on a hill, overlooking a bay. Here is a satellite picture: LINK. It's the building immediately below the bridge that goes over the railroad tracks. The other buildings visible in the wooded area around the railroad tracks and along the bay are similar villas. I love walking this particular route, from the railway station (to the south in the satellite map), along the left side of the railroad tracks, along the bay, up on the hill and across the bridge. With sunny weather the view over the bay is magnificent, the way the sun glimmers on the water. Others have noticed it too, since a summer cafe operates there.

The Crash-Landing of Winter

The winter arrived with a real crash-landing this weekend. On Friday, it was Autumn in Helsinki. Me, my sister and brother with his entire family boarded the ferry that afternoon to go on my sister's birthday surprise trip, a weekend spa holiday in Tallinn, Estonia. Great great fun. On friday evening there was already snow in Tallinn but on sunday a HUGE snow storm arrived, I've never experienced anything the like before. Wind speed upwards of 25 meters per second (20 is storm limit), visibility zero, the snow feeling like millions of needles piercing the skin. Would have been nearly impossible to get to the ferry terminal for our ferry back that day, even though it was not a long distance to walk, had we not been extremely lucky and managed to get a cab. The ferry itself was five hours late because the ships were unable to get docked because of the wind (unlike, for instance, Helsinki, Tallinn has no islands so the port is subject to the full force of storms). It was supposed to leave at 5.30 pm and reach Helsinki at 7.30 but in the end took until 00.30 am.

In the meantime the snow storm, in somewhat weakened form, had reached Helsinki. It had snowed heavily for most of the day and it continued at night. The metro had stopped running, as had the day buses and trams, and of course there was no hope of getting a cab at the terminal. We had no option but to walk about a kilometer to get cabs - unpleasant for adults, all too much for the boys, no older than 9 and 3 respectively, already exhausted because of the long journey. In the end we were lucky to get cabs fairly easily on one of the big streets, so it ended well. My brother let me know that the boys were already cheered up and were able to laugh about the adventure when they had got into the cab. Myself I got home around 2 am without trouble, save for a bit when the cab got stuck in the snow and the driver had to get out to do some shovelling. He reduced the fare because of it, very fair of him.

It snowed through monday as well, the pictures are from that day. Apparently the snow is going to melt soon. In the city center much of the beautiful whiteness has indeed already turned into brown and grey slosh, while here in the suburb the snow retains its whiteness a bit longer. I can say, however, that the winter's grand entrance was impressive indeed. :-)

There's something about light...

... isn't there? Some more sun from yesterday.