Fall

Once again it's time for PJ's monthly photo blogging challenge. Is it just me, or does it seem like his challenge happens a lot more often than once a month? I think PJ uses some kind of black magic to make the month go by so fast.

I haven't taken a lot of photos this month, but nevertheless, I've tried to pick five that somehow represent Fall for me.

First, the colors of fall. I took these two photos in the beginning of the month when we still had some colorful leaves on the trees. Now they've all fallen, I'm afraid, and the trees are bare and ready for winter. Much like myself.

 

Next up, we have a party. Good food, a live band, and a captive audience. When darkness falls it's good to get out and have some fun, or the oppressive darkness of fall might get to you. Not to me, though, I love the darkest part of the year. It feels like home.

Fall also means it's time to get the car ready for winter. It took M and myself an hour to put the snow tires on the car, and we still have another car to deal with. I really think cars should have less tires.

Last, we have this old, broken rocking chair. Somehow it ended up under a tree at my parents' lake house.

Go check out PJ's blog for a list of the other participants.

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Fall

Outdoors

After Bob comes sunshine. Or something. 30 Days of Photographs IV is over, but PJ's monthly photo blogging challenge is still going strong. The theme for September was Outdoors, and while frantically trying to take photos for Bob, I took the opportunity to snap some photos outdoors, too. I guess technically these are my outtakes from Bob, photos I thought about using, but never did. I know some of my fellow Bob participants will be posting their outtakes in the next few days, so I recommend you check in with all your new friends to see some more great photos.

Trains are very modern in Finland

Autumn market in Kristinestad.

Not everything is black and white. This photo is, though.

Houses are very modern, too.

And last, some flowers to make you feel good. Or sneeze.

Check out PJ's blog for more Outdoors photos. *

Outdoors

Summer and Bob and The Worst List in the History of Lists

It's the end of the month again. Crazy, I know, someone must've stolen a few days in the middle of the month. And the beginning. And the end. Really, I think August consisted of just the first and last day of the month. I certainly didn't think I had taken many photos this month, seeing as I could hardly remember the month to begin with.

As usual, PJ's hosting his monthly photo blogging challenge, this month with the theme "summer". Summer is a great theme, but sadly, our two weeks of summer occur in June, not August, so the photos I've taken this month are hardly very summery. I'm still going to give it a go, though.

My first photo is of a little girl, of love, of newlyweds, of dancing,  and promises of the future.

My second photo is of Gucci, swimming in the sea. I sure wouldn't go in, but apparently having 50 pounds of fur keeps you warm, even in the chilly waters of early winter late summer.

My third photo is of the Archipelago Sea at 7:30 am on a Monday, driving over a bridge in the misty morning light. 

My fourth photo is of my brother's band, because nothing says summer like outdoor concerts.

My fifth and last photo is proof that summer is almost over. The leaves are falling off the trees, and the flowers are slowly dying. But hey, at least we don't have snow yet.

Now, go look at some other people's summer, you can find the list over on PJ's blog.

After you're done with that, come back here and I'll tell you about something awesome MikeWJ and I have in store for you.

See, 30 Days of Photographs IV, also known as Bob, starts September 1st. I hope every single one of you will participate and take a photo or thirty. We're really happy with the list of themes this time around, and with happy, I mean we hate it so much we keep asking ourselves what the hell we were smoking when we came up with it. But we promise we won't laugh at your photos. Much.

You can join the challenge by linking up each day here on my blog. Here's the list one last time:

1. Ice Cream

2. Illuminate

3. Soft

4. Backwards

5. Mushroom

6. Two Birds, One Stone

7. Seven

8. Texture

9. Disguise

10. Close-up

11. Girly

12. Tremor

13. Wrong

14. NSFW

15. China

16. Biblical

17. My Junk

18. Always

19. Never

20. Transparent

21. Anatomy

22. Frustration

23. Tolstoy

24. Carnival

25. Poison

26. Rising

27. NSEW

28. Lover

29. Circle

30. Happily Ever After

See you on September 1st!

Right?

Right?!

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Summer and Bob and The Worst List in the History of Lists

Signs of Desperation

Time flies when you're stressed out of your mind. This is something I realized today when I remembered that PJ's monthly photo blogging challenge was due yesterday. But better late than never, right? Only slightly panicked, I dove into my photo archive for the month, and tried to find some photos of Signs - the theme of the month. I found one. Sadly, this challenge calls for five photos, not one photo, so I had to get creative.

The first photo is from the greatest place in the world, New York City. I took it July 1st, at Times Square. I doubt there is any place quite as packed full of signs and billboards and people and attitude as this place. I love it.

Next, we have the first signs of fall. We've had a couple of cold weeks this month, and as a result, some of the trees have started to turn yellow and red. Little splashes of color in a sea of green.

Another sure sign that fall is on the way, is the fact that I've had to start carrying around my umbrella. And such a pretty umbrella it is. I wish it would rain every day.

Next up is Darth Vader, and yes I know, I'm really grasping at straws here, but the cats are definitely looking a little more furry these days, and I can only assume it's because fall is on the way and they need the extra insulation.

As an apology for the lousy photos above, here's one of an actual sign. This might be the most common road sign in Finland; dinner, 2,5 km ahead.

Go check out PJ's blog for more photos of signs. *

Signs of Desperation

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

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

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