Local yarn bombing

There’s been much to enjoy outdoors recently and not only naturewise. For the two last weeks in May, a stretch of the downtown riverbank was once again adorned with a Knit ‘n’ Tag event. This time the theme was ‘My Finland’ to celebrate the centenary year of our country’s independence.

In addition to knitting and crocheting, diverse other kinds of handicraft techniques were also presented in the creations mounted on the trees: weaving, sewing, quilting, appliqué, even macramé and felting.

I couldn’t help feeling some of the pieces had been just patched together out of a pile of random items, which is of course a perfectly valid way to demonstrate each contributor’s individual relationship to crafting. However, I always prefer those with a more tight-knit approach to the theme, especially those designed to the finest detail taking every lump and bump on the tree trunk into account.

My favourite creation entitled The Landscape of my Childhood was one of those holistic pieces of art. The swellings on the trunk had become clouds. An orange sun was resting where the trunk branched out into three.  There was even an owl sitting in a hollow.

My other favourites included a couple of striped pieces just because of their colourful beauty, the wrap of crocheted portraits because of the brilliant idea, and the piece with a string of lemons because of the positive message. When life gives you lemons use them to make lemonade the last one was indicating. Some optimism would certainly be welcome for a nation with ‘a brutal sense of realism’ as Jared Diamond characterises our people. It is naturally a strength in our kind of a big picture, but many of us could use a generous dose of joviality in the less grave things.

I didn’t know about the event beforehand and will try to keep better track in the future to consider reserving a tree for myself next time. I took most of the photos around mid-May when the riverside lindens showed hardly any shoots yet. Now the scenes are completely transformed into an intoxicating greenery, my favourite season under the sun.

Have a look also at my post of the previous yarn bombing event in 2015 here.

Can't stop singing

And I’m not the only one. It took quite a while to begin but now I am sure everyone is smiling even in their sleep. I certainly am.

Turning green

The spring that will be remembered as the endless one is now turning towards something that might develop into summer one day should we be lucky.

On Sunday, I finally had something to shoot at the cottage. The coltsfeet have been flowering an amazing period of a months or so under the reeds from last year. Those and the wood anemones were no longer the only delightful living things there. When you looked closely, there were bits of fresh green all around the place.

The wonder of spring bringing nature into life makes my heart sing every time. The honeysuckle, the shrubs and trees, even some flowering plants are finally sprouting leaves and buds. The oak trees are the only ones that still haven't got properly going.

The cold sea keeps the shore temperature at least a couple of degrees lower than it is a few kilometres inland, not to mention the wind-chill effect. Therefore everything has progressed a bit further downtown, especially in the microclimate of courtyards bordered by buildings on all sides. The most striking example of that is the horse chestnut below. I wonder how many more days it will take for the specimen at the cottage to reach the current blossoming phase of the courtyard tree I zoomed through our bedroom window yesterday.