Avainsana: citylife

Sunny Sunday

julkaissut Nokisuu

This afternoon I and hubby drove to Porvoo, a small town nearby. My mom and before her my granny used to live there and they still reside at the old cemetery there as does my grandpa and auntie and my mom’s granny. I never met my grandpa and my granny’s mom, I only know them from pics and stories.

Porvoo is an old town dating back to 14th century and the cemetery is also one of the eldest in Finland. Porvoo has also been significant in some historical events here in Finland, i.e. when Sweden ceded Finland to Russia.

There’s also a very nice candy factory called Brunberg in Porvoo. My granny used to live pretty near their factory and nowadays they have a candy shop in the historical center. Of course we went first to see if the shop was open and it was! Very good for them and not so good for my diet 😀

On March 27th, next Friday, it’ll be four years since my mom died. As we drove past her flat I watched the windows and it made a bit sad. I took some pics of the cemetery, there were some gravestones I hadn’t noticed earlier. In the soldier’s grave section the large wooden cross is made by a Finnish-Swedish artist Lennart Segerstråle who at some point was my granny’s tenant and we have one painting by him (which I should probably take to be valued one day), he had given it to my granny as a thank you gift.

Near the cemetery I noticed a large (I mean huge) glacial erratic rock I had never before seen, mainly because we usually go there from the other side and when I was a kid there was so many trees there one couldn’t see anything. The rock is called Näsin kivi and you can see some pics here. It’s so large that they’ve built steps and a viewing area on top of it so we climbed there and I took some pics of the river and city centre.

Tomorrow I’m going to work. Hubby said he’d drive me there and my boss said she’s going to talk with me about the possibility for me to work from home, there’s things after all I could do in the net. I’m quite content.

 

Old fortresses

julkaissut Nokisuu

Yesterday I made another outing and decided to check on the old fortresses we have in the neighbourhood.

They are part of a string of defence fortresses cut into the rock in the 1914 when Finland was still part of the Russian empire. They were built just before the WWI as Germany declared war against Russia and never used. Now they are grown full of trees, there’s all kids of junk and kids (and teens) love to play in them. Hubby used to play in them as a child in the 1970’s and he says they were quite unsafe. Some that are located near residential areas are often used as compost for garden waste which is a disgrace.

The first one is actually pretty near to our house (around 500 metres) and on the way to kid’s school. The others are on the other side of the school, about a mile from my house and I just had to take a pic of the murals too.

I hope you enjoy the photo journey 🙂

In da woods

julkaissut Nokisuu

Yesterday I felt pretty good after a week indoors so I decided to take a walk. I’ve been feeling a bit nauseous in my head probably because of the hospital medications still so I haven’t done any long walks.

I’ve lived around here about 5 km radius all my life except first 6 years when we lived in the city centre and yet there’s still places I haven’t been to so I decided to tackle one such place and headed to nearby sandpits.

The sandpits were created in the 60’s when the big building fever hit and sand was needed for concrete for the blocks of flats. Those apartment houses were later inhabited by country people moving to city workers and the suburb was one of the most seedy in whole Helsinki and still the people there are suffering of more unemployment and less education than other areas.

But back to the sandpits. When I was a kid the sandpits were a no-go, they were full of dirty water, kids had drowned there and they were full of old cars and other junk until in the 90’s they were just used as a park but still not a very favorable place to go to. In 2018 both Helsinki and Vantaa decided to do something since the area is on both cities concern and the residents wanted more possibilities to outdoor activities there. The water was tested and the pits were cleaned of decades of junk thrown there and now there are three small ponds for people to swim and enjoy beach with firepits and one pond is reserved for dogs to swim. They are very popular on hot summer days and since you can’t park your car there people walk or bike which makes it safer.

On the other side of the ponds is a small forest and swamp which is a conservation area and I walked through it and enjoyed the firs and pines and moss. I was quite alone even though one of the busiest highways is  just about 500 metres away, you can hear it very well and there’s also the candy factory where I emerged from the woods.

After breathing the forest air deeply I walked home, all in all I walked about 5km and an hour and when I got to our street Sirius was on our neighbour’s roof and I asked her to come home with me and she did.

The last pic is from this morning as a blue tit was teasing her and she dropped one of the flowers from the windowsill.