Bridges to Heaven

At this very moment I am sitting in a hotel room in New York City, I have had a about a billion Nikivas, the most wonderful drink ever in the history of drinks. Nicky is in bed with me and she's looking amazing, I cannot tell you how little I care about this challenge right now, but I will post some photos nonetheless.


This bridge is in Pargas, Finland.

This is a bridge connecting Sweden to Denmark.

This is a bridge in San Francisco.

This is a bridge in Denver.

This is a bridge in New York City.

Check out PJ's blog for the rest of the participants in his monthly photo blogging challenge.

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Bridges to Heaven

I accept cash, PayPal, gift certificates, goats, statues raised in my honor, poems, praise, and Johnny Depp

I've found myself ignoring this blog more and more. It hasn't been a conscious decision. In fact, when I posted my photos for the April challenge, I promised myself I would blog more often. Somehow, though, the entire month went by without as much as a word written, and before I knew it, it was time to post the May photos. This month, I refuse to let that happen.

The problem is, though, that I don't have much to say these days. It must be old age catching up with me. It's my birthday today*. I'm 173 years old. I think. Last time I celebrated my birthday I was 27, but it feels like an awful many years have passed since then. I told M I wanted adventure for my birthday, so he got me a book about the gay culture in Sweden in the 1980's.

I love him.

But despair not, there are not only awesome books in my future, M and I also have some amazing adventure coming up. See, we have a little bit of a trip planned later this month, so if you're really lucky (or just really unlucky, depending on how you feel about shy Finns avoiding eye contact while talking to you), M and I might show up in a city near you.

Now, since I don't have much to say, I'm going to show you some photos instead.

I've done a lot of baking the past month. This was M's birthday cake.

Hearts in the night.

Remember mom's tiny little itty bitty super cute puppy? This is her now.

Finally, summer... 

Beautiful sister, I love you.

I told you, a LOT of baking.

My mom brought me lilacs, and this little fellow had tagged along. 

*See the title of this post.

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I accept cash, PayPal, gift certificates, goats, statues raised in my honor, poems, praise, and Johnny Depp

Night

It’s the last day of May, and as stipulated by PJ, this is the day to post the five photos you’ve taken throughout the month for his photo blogging challenge. The theme of the month was “night”.

I like taking photos, and I like the night; a winning combination this month. Or so I thought. At 11 pm the other day, I was looking out the window, trying in vain to find some darkness, any darkness. Anything that would even remotely resemble night. When you live this close to the arctic circle, darkness is not a luxury afforded to you during the summer months.

I turned to M, and asked:

“When does it get dark?”

M briefly looked out the window, and gave me the answer I’d been dreading.

“October.”

So yeah, May wasn’t the best month for this theme. That said, I did go out in the wee hours right before dawn, and I did take some photos. First up, the moon. I think every single person on the planet took a photo of the full moon this month, so of course, I also had to take one.

Next, we’re keeping with the sky theme. I wanted to take a photo of the sun setting behind a beautiful horizon, but the clouds and my own laziness made me miss the sunset. Thankfully, I was able to catch the last warm rays of sunlight in the clouds before the blue hour took over.

Now, this next photo is a great example of a summer night in Turku. Scantily clad people flock to these restaurant boats in the river Aura. They spend the night drinking beer and marveling at the fact that summer came this year, too, against all odds. The boats are wonderful gathering places, and if you, my dear reader in a faraway land, ever come to Finland, I’ll take you out for a beer on one of these.

My fourth photo is a deserted nighttime view of the area around Åbo Akademi University. I’ve walked these streets many, many time. Sometimes in the middle of the day, hurrying to make it to the lecture on time, sometimes in the early morning hours after a 12-hour shift at the speakeasy in the basement of the international law department. Those were the days…

The last photo is a friend of mine. He often sits on top of the lamppost outside my living room window. I’ve named him Edgar Allan Poe, and I think he loves the night just as much as I do. He’s certainly awake ridiculously late on weekdays.

That's it for me, but if you want to see more photos of the night, drag your ass over the PJ's blog and there you'll find a list of everyone participating this month. *

Night

Oops

It's that time again. It's the last day of the month, and it's time to post the photos we've taken for the photography challenge so kindly brought to us by P.J.

The theme of the month was "transportation", and I set out with all kinds of ideas. Sadly, life got in the way of photography this time around, so I didn't get the spectacular shots I wanted to get. But I did take a few photos, and I'm sure there's a story in there somewhere if you look closely enough.

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Oops

For Dufus

Mr. Dufus, my dearest friend,

It’s your birthday today, which I’m sure you’re painfully aware of by now. We all love you and your wonderful puns, you liven up the blogosphere (horrible word, that), and your wit and humour never fail to make me smile. There is nothing I want more than to celebrate this day with you.

I realise, of course, that I’m in a faraway land in a distant time zone with weird food and odd languages, and I won’t be able to make it to Canada for the party. I do, however, have a birthday present for you.

Several, in fact.

Twenty, to be more precise.

I’m going to need you to count them out for me, and remember to thank me for each one.

And afterwards, we can have a glass of bubbly together. I'll even bake a cake.

Love,
The Flogging Blogger *

For Dufus

Board Games, Snow and Little People

At the end of 30 Minus 2 Days of Writing, (which may or may not have killed my will to ever write again and completely alienated me from the entire blogging business for an entire month), P.J. decided to throw out another challenge, in the process making himself persona non grata with just about every sane blogger out there. Not me, though, because I am decidedly not sane.

Anyway, P.J. suggested a photo challenge. One theme, one month, five photos. Today is the last day of the month, and the theme P.J. gave us on the first day of the month was "My World".

I didn't set out to take any specific photos with the challenge in mind. In fact, I deliberately tried to forget all about the challenge and just take photos. I figured any photos I took would inevitably fall into the category of "My World", so my only objective this month was to actually carry the camera around with me. Today I finally sat down with the photos I've taken this month, and here are now five photos of things that were all part of my world in March.

At the beginning of the month, M and I decided to play board games. It was a lot of fun until M won and I threatened with divorce. I'm not the best loser...

I've also done a ridiculous amount of baking, and these were definitely a favorite of mine. And M's.

March was incredibly cold and wonderfully sunny in Finland. This next photo was taken at sunrise, around 7:23 am while I was driving to work. It was -20 C (-4 F) and birds were singing. Add some warmly dressed dwarves and it could've been a Disney movie.

I also visited my grandparents, and took the opportunity to take this photo of my 92-year-old grandfather.

And last, but certainly not least, we have the one thing that just would not die. Snow. Tons and tons of it. The past few winters have been so snowy that in the snow dumping sites there is vintage snow from three years back. I am convinced 2013 will be the year when winter wins and spring will never arrive.

That's all for now, folks. Go visit P.J. for a list of anyone else who took five measly photos in March. *

Board Games, Snow and Little People