More pictures from Finland

Noticed I had some pictures taken on the second of February when I visited good ol’ Heart of Finland. Here you go: the beautiful parts of what has been, weather-wise, a lousily warm and irritatingly genial winter.

(As always, click to embiggen.)

The first picture is of a pine hedge. The path under it is as tiny as it looks. The thing to the right is a rusty old water-tank, whose hand-pump has two outlets: one gushing through the hose, and the other simultaneously spraying through the pump mechanism right on the person doing the pump-handling.

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The second has a nice view of mixed forest and an old threshery — the place where dried bundles of rye were bludgeoned with cudgels, partly to relieve the tedium of Finnish autumns, and partly to get the edible grains out. (Or to erottaa jyvät akanoista, to separate grains from the straw.)

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The third is a rowan-tree covered by snow. It’s sights like this that make me wish for a neverending winter and eternal monochromatic gloom. It would be troublesome and cruel, but so very beautiful. (Actually, there’s no need of endless winter since those qualities… well, we have women, right?)

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The fourth has the same rowan and a taller birch behind it. Behind them a hedge of pines. Oh, Finland: it’s mostly trees, with the rest being either snow or mosquitoes.

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The fifth is a puzzler. Look at the full picture and, in five seconds, try to guess whether it’s upside down or not. (The answer is clear after a closer look.)

If you wonder “Huh? Why more pictures?”, go and look at the previous set.