Hyvää äitienpäivää, and Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Äitienpäivämuffari jokaiselle maailman parhaalle äidille! Here's a real cupcake in a real cup to all the best moms in the world on this sunny Mother's Day!

                          

_my new kicks_

My new kicks resting on my coffee table.

_spring_

This is what I saw this morning on our Thursday walk with Ukko, the dog. In my earlier post you can find photos from our Monday walk. Photos are not in any particular order (I wish).

Ski tracks are gone, for good.

Näsinneula

Ukko, the dog

Definitely not a pink glove

Yep

..erm..

Guess who?!

Mä näytän teille kaikille...

 ...kevään merkit.

Baby bunnies

I had my walk with Ukko, the dog, this morning.

Such a beautiful day, it surely was...

On our way back home Ukko noticed ”something” in the ground. I had a closer look at ”that something”, as well. And, guess what?! It was a baby brown hare, and it was bleeding in her eye! And, suddenly, I heard this terrific noise, like someone was screaming! And I saw another baby brown hare, and a maggie trying to eat her alive! I started running and that maggie got on her wings, and flew away (the nearest tree).

So, there I was with two baby bunnies, both of them bleeding in their eye. I didn’t know what else to do so I called my sis. Eventually I took the baby bunnies with me and Ukko, and walked home since I didn’t feel like leaving them there (I could still see that maggie nearby). Once I got home I put the baby bunnies in a cardboard box, and went on to look information on how to handle these kind of situations...

At that point my sis called me back, and told me that I should take the baby bunnies back where we found them at a first place, or take them to a vet to have them put into sleep. Since I had not touched them with my bare hands, and they seemed to be quite in a good condition (except for their eyes that weren’t bleeding any more) I decided to take them back.

I hid them under a tree – where I found a third baby brown hare - invulnerable! I left them all there, and I truly hope that their mom finds them, and takes a very good care of them all.

...what a day...

My Sunday Tradition_Sunnuntaimuffinssit

My Sunday tradition revealed: muffins!

This Sunday I had  banana and blueberry muffins – on a typical Sunday it’s just bananas. But since my mom gave me blueberries (hand-picked by her) on my Easter holiday, I decided to include blueberries in my muffins, too. Yummy! (I guess I need more practise on photographing my muffins. They seem having no colour in them; kind of boring...)

I just started thinking about the difference between muffins and cupcakes – is there any?

According to my source (Wikipedia, 15.4.2012) "a cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, frequently baked in a small, thin paper, or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are common on cupcakes". As for muffins it says: ”A muffin is an American English name for a type of quick bread that is baked in small portions. Many forms are somewhat like small cakes or cupcakes in shape, although they usually are not as sweet as cupcakes and generally lack frosting. They may be filled with sweet fillings, such as chocolate, toffee, lemons or blueberries. They generally fit in the palm of an adult hand, and are intended to be consumed by an individual in a single sitting.”

Well, I leave it up to you: are my muffins cupcakes or cupcakes muffins? And, btw, Ukko, the dog, also likes to feast on them...

Pyöräytin tänäkin sunnuntaina perinteiset sunnuntaimuffarini. En oikeastaan edes muista, milloin innostuin muffareista... Joka tapauksessa banskumuffareista on pikkuhiljaa tullut sunnuntaiaamun traditioni. Tänään lisäsin taikinaan desilitran verran mustikoita, jotka sain pääsiäisenä äidiltäni.

Hieman harmittelin taitamattomuuttani kuvata muffinssini yhtä houkuttelevan näköisiksi kuin mitä ruoka- yms. lehdet leipomuksiaan esittelevät. Täytyy tosin todeta, ettei leivonnaisten valokuvaaminen ole täysin ongelmatonta, sekään. Siinähän ne kököttävät lautasella; herkullisina ja hyvältä tuoksuvina... - Voi, kunpa nykyteknologia mahdollistaisikin sen, että näitä valokuvia hieromalla lukijoilleni välittyisi se ihana tuoksu, joka vieläkin on aistittavissa haciendassani...

Jäin vielä ensimmäisen suupalan aikana miettimään perinteisten muffinssien ja ”vuokaleivosten” eli ”kupkeikkien” eroa: onko se koko vai maku, mikä ne erottaa toisistaan? Vai onko muffinssien ja ”kupkeikkien” ero käytännössä, ja kielellisesti, muffinssiin piirretty viiva?

Life Is Killing Me

Thank you, Mika and Tomi, for sharing this, and the rest, with me.
It may seem a bit dark to you at first but I find it rather catchy, and it has a very unique melody, as well.

Type O Negative: Life Is Killing Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHyjF0Pbgcg

I give you, erm, perspective...

This photo represents exactly what we, me and Ukko, that is, saw this morning on our quality time.
Nothing!
I don't know if it is only me but I think that the horizon is missing, eh?
With a horizon I mean that horizontal line that appears to separate the Earth from the sky...
- That damn snowfall ruins everything!

Dian Fossey

I don’t know how many of you have heard of Dian Fossey but, to me, she is true a legend.

I was just a kid when I saw a movie called Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (starring Sigourney Weaver). I loved it! It was both touching and heartbreaking - it made me cry. That movie made so big of an impression on me that I ended up buying the book, Gorillas in the Mist (in Finnish: Sumuisten vuorten gorillat). After reading that book all I wanted was to become a zoologist, and live with gorillas, just like Dian.

In short, Dian Fossey was an American zoologist who undertook an extensive study of gorilla groups over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey.

The deaths of some of her most studied gorillas caused Fossey to devote more of her attention to preventing poaching and less on scientific publishing and research. She became more intense in protecting the gorillas and began to employ more direct tactics: she and her staff cut animal traps almost as soon as they were set; frightened, captured and humiliated the poachers; held their cattle for ransom; burned their hunting camps and even mats from their houses. She also constantly challenged the local officials to enforce the law and assist her.

Fossey was discovered murdered in the bedroom of her cabin in Virunga Mountains on December 27, 1985 at the age of 53. The case remains open. The last entry in her diary read:

"When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future".

When and where I bought the book written on the inner cover

Fossey's skull had been split by a machete, a tool widely used by poachers, which she had confiscated from a poacher years earlier, and hung as a decoration on the wall of her living room adjacent to her bedroom. She was found dead beside her bed, with her handgun beside her, and her own hair pulled out and in her hand. She was in the act of loading her weapon, but picked the wrong type of ammunition during the struggle. The cabin showed signs of a struggle as there was broken glass on the floor and tables along with other furniture overturned. All her valuables were still in the cabin - thousands of dollars in cash, travelers' checks, and photo equipment remained untouched. She was 2 metres away from a hole cut in the wall of the cabin on the day of her murder. 

Fossey is interred at Karisoke in a site that she herself had constructed for her dead gorilla friends. She was buried in the gorilla graveyard next to Digit, and near many gorillas killed by poachers. (source: Wikipedia, 31.3.2012)

You can find more info on Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas on www.gorillafund.org.

I’m personally a member of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Sometimes I do wish I could do more for the gorillas...

20_03_2012

What do you see in this photo?
Correct answer: ice fishing.

Uusi lumi on vanhan surma, sanotaan

I was here

Jäin tänään suustani kiinni siskoni naapurin, vanhemman sedän, kanssa. Puhuttiin säästä, kuinkas muuten! Taivaalta tippui valehtelematta (mutta ehkä hieman liioitellen) kämmenen kokoisia räntähiutaleita. Näkiessään minut kerrostalon rappukäytävässä yltympäri valkoisen hötön peittämänä tokaisi setä: ”Mukava keli, vai mitä?” Totesin tähän: ”Tuliks nyt sitten takatalvi?” Setä jatkoi, hieman hymyillen: ”Ei suinkaan! Eikös sitä sanota, että uusi lumi on vanhan surma?” En voinut olla vastaamatta: ”No, ainakin minun surmani sitten!”

Jäin miettimään tätä vanhankansan hokemaa ”uusi lumi on vanhan surma”. Mitä ihmettä se tarkoittaa? Mielessäni pyörittelemät hyvät arvaukset eivät kuitenkaan tyydyttäneet tiedonjanoani vaan selvittelin asiaa vielä kotiin päästyäni.

 

Yhden selvityksen mukaan sanonta ”uusi lumi on vanhan surma” on tuttu hokema kevättalvelta, jolloin toivotaan talven loppuvan ja kevään koittavan. Sulaminen näyttää johtuvan enemmän muista seikoista kuin uuden lumen rakenteesta: 

’Kevättalvella aurinko, joka alkutalvesta roikkuu metsänrajassa, nousee yhä ylemmäs. Yöt voivat vielä olla kylmiä, mutta päivällä auringon lämmön vaikutuksesta lumi alkaa sulaa jopa silloin, kun ilman lämpötila on pakkasen puolella. Sulaessaan lumi muuttuu vedeksi. Osa sulavasta lumesta haihtuu näkymättömänä vesihöyrynä ilmaan. (--) Vastasatanut lumi on kevyempää. Ajanmittaan lumihiutaleet muuttavat muotoaan, ja lumi muuttuu tiivimmäksi. Tämä tiivistyminen näyttää usein silmämääräisesti lumen sulamiselta.’ (lähde: http://igs.kirjastot.fi/iGS/kysymykset/haku.aspx?word=Lumi)

Helsingin yliopiston fysiikan laitoksen tutkija Onni Järvisen mukaan muutaman plus-asteen lämpotila ei riitä lämmittämään koko lumipeitettä, vaan se lämpiää pinnasta (n. 10-15 senttiä), jonka lämpötila nousee nollaan. Tätä syvemmälle lämpö ei ehdi tunkeutua päiväsaikaan.

nim. kesää odotellessa

Lumen sulaminen pääsee kunnolla vauhtiin lämpötilan noustessa, jolloin lumi menettää kovuuden ja veden määrä lisääntyy, mikä edelleen edistää sulamisprosessia. Kuitenkin uusi lumi saattaa muodostua myös vanhan lumen pelastukseksi tutkija Järvisen mukaan: "Jos sataa pakkaslunta, niin sanoisin, että se jopa hidastaa lumen sulamista hetkeksi. Uusi pakkaslumi heijastaa valoa tehokkaammin kuin vanha. Tietyissä olosuhteissa, esimerkiksi jos tulee märkää lunta, räntää, niin se saattaa nopeuttaa sulamista", arvioi Järvinen. (lähde: http://yle.fi/alueet/lahti/2011/03/uusi_lumi_voi_olla_vanhan_pelastus_2471815.html)

Paappanetistä(!) löysin muutaman hauskahkon vanhankansan sananlaskun. Tässä hauskimmat:

Kun aamulla karjan kynteen sataa, niin sade lakkaa  puoliltapäivin.
Kun heinäsirkka sirisee, tulee pouta.
Ei sää sääreen tartu.
Liisan liukkaat ja Kaisan kaljamat.
Jos vappuna on hyvä sää ja suvituuli, tulee lämmin kesä.
Jouluna jos on kesä, niin pääsiäisenä on talvi.
Ruis kasvaa, kun isännät on kekrinä humalassa.