|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nuuksio, Finland - 8th September 2013
By: Eohippus
Hello again, beloved mom far away! 
It is your little globetrotter frog making his first update from Finland!
But this is just a short one, mainly to let you know I´ve arrived safely. 
It was already dark evening when I came to Finland.
I was walking over fields and trough a big forest, searching for
a little red cottage in middle of it.
When it got really dark and the stars started to twinkle on the sky, a friendly glowworm loaned me her lantern.
I loved my nightly walk trough the good-smelling nature!
After a long walk trough the woodland, I saw another light shining between the trees
and headed towards it, my heart jumping with exitement!
There was a group of toyvoyagers!
They had lit a lantern onto the forest behind the little cottage,
for me to be able to find my way trough the darknes!
I had come to the right place!
They all gave me a wellcoming hug, and then I followed them inside and met
also my new host Henna, who also hugged me and said something like
"Awwwwwwwwwww, how you are a CUTE little frog!" 
That made me to blush a bit.
Then I suddenly felt very sleepy, and my new friends
showed me the bed where I could sleep in.
I fell asleep very soon and dreamed beautiful dreams about glowworms, and glowing mushrooms growing in the densest thickets of the forests around..
I wish you sleep well too and have beautiful dreams!
See you again very soon!
Your Matcha
|
|
 Posted Sep 8, 2013, 3:17 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Nuuksio, Finland - 14th September 2013
By: Eohippus
Hei, rakas äiti! (Hi, dear mom!)
How are you?
I´ve been familiarizing myself with the lifestyle
and surroundings here.
I´m now going to show you photos we have been taking
walking in the nearby areas of the small cottage where we live in.
Here is our little cottage. 
It is in the Nuuksio forest area, and originally it has been the home
of a poor family tilling a small field around it and keeping some sheeps.
The cottage is about hundred years old.
It doesn´t have running water, but there is a good well
on the yard and an outhouse toilet on the backyard.
As you can see, it really is in middle of forest, and just few steps
from the Nuuksio National Wildernes Area.
There is some old apple trees and berry bushes
round the cottage.
If we walk towards North or East from the cottage,
we´re walking inside the forest.
I have been investigating everything in the
forest.
There is lots of different mushrooms and interesting plants and
insects to see.
In the forest live hares and deers and elks, foxes, badgers and raccoon dogs, lynxes and bears, and sometimes they visit the yard.
I saw a very big anthill, like a city.
I was watching the ants busying themselves, carrying pine needles and
dead insects around.
But I also spotted two lazy ants, just loithering on a pine branch, tut tut!
I like to loither myself too, ha haa!
While we walk around, we are talking about this and that and getting to know each other better
and better.
I like all the toyvoyagers here!
But I must say it is specially nice to have a frog friend!
With Tuli we can fall deep in froggish discussions about the best
tasting insects in Japan and Finland,
about the memories of our longtailed tadpole childhood,
and make comparisons between different types of lakebottoms
and hibernating experiences.
All important things you can only share with another frog!
So we are greatly enjoying each others company.
We walked along and every now and then we picked some edible mushrooms or ate some berries.
All the toyvoyagers coming here start to learn to recognice
mushrooms, herbs and wild vegetables.
There´s not much possibility to avoid that, since that´s what
we mainly eat here!
These are Kuehneromyces mutabilis, which grow on the trunks
of leaf trees.
They are delicious! 
These mushrooms are not edible, they are slightly poisonous.
But they are so cute!
They are also hallusinogenic, and in earlier times witches and shamans
were using them to get into contact with the spirit world..
What wonderful blueberries!
Here in Finland they have "everymans rights", which means that
everyone has the right to walk where ever in the nature, be the land private owned or not, and right to pick berries and
mushrooms for free too.
Isn´t that great!
Ooh, lingonberries too!
There is many little streams running trough the forest, from lake to lake.
We started to follow this one.
It grew wider and wider.
And run under a bridge. (And so did we too!)
It led us onto a lakeshore.
The lake is called Pitkäjärvi (Long lake).
There was some boats enjoying the sun on the shore.
We followed their example.
Henna told us that after the last ice age this lake was a fjord of the sea.
There is a stoneage rockpainting on one shore of the lake,
but it can only be seen from a boat or walking over the ice in winter.
There grew lots of reeds.
The fishes are often hiding in the shallow water between the reeds.
It is like a forest to them!
We encountered a small road, which took
us out from the forest.
This is the big village road, along which the buses run to the village.
We walked along the road and saw everything
there is to be seen in the village.
Like fields. 
And few houses.
This is the Nuuksio school.
There is about thirty students, aged between seven and twelve.
We saw also some horses, and then we had
seen everything there is to see in the village!
The forest is much more interesting!
We walked back home trough a birch thicket.
See you soon again, mom!
Good weekend to you!
Your little froggie!
|
|
Posted Sep 14, 2013, 9:19 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Linnanmäki, Helsinki, Finland - 29th September 2013
By: Eohippus
Hyvää huomenta, rakas äiti! (Good morning, dear mother!)
How are you?
I´m very well and we have been visiting some interesting places.
Last weekend we visited Linnanmäki amusement park
in Helsinki.
We were first walking around the park,
watching the different rides and listening to people screaming.
Besides people bumping onto each other, coming dizzy from the rides, or eating candy floss, there was
also some nice flowers and fountains to be seen.
I think this one looks like a peacocks tail.
We wanted to try some rides too, but it wasn´t
so easy to find an understanding about the rides!
Some of them looked a bit too horrible, and others just a bit too boring. 
But then we saw one ride we all wanted
certainly to visit - this cute old carousel with swings!
So, there we went, and it was so wonderful
we went there about ten times more!
Whee! I could come here every day!
Next we visited this ghosthouse, and there
we were screaming too!
Sadly it was too dark inside to take pics, but I can tell that
we saw monsters attacking us behind corners, and
horrible ghosts flying across the ceiling! 
So we wanted something more relaxing, and
took a ride in the Ferris wheel.
It had cute little gondolas in which we
rised higher and higher towards the sky.
From the top we saw a beautiful view over
Helsinki.
Back upon the earth again.
We passed this ride, because it looked quite too horrible,
but Henna went in, and we watched her to come out,
rather green-faced but grinning.
Then we were going round and round in
teacups, and the others had fun, telling it suited me very well,
since my name means "green tea".
We watched a beautiful old animal carousel,
in which people sit over elephants and giraffees and whatnot.
We took a ride around the area in a small
monorail train.
The evening was already turning dark, and
we knew we sould leave back to home soon.
Surprisingly Henna said she wanted to take another round
in the monorail.
We were a bit surprised, but followed her to sit in a wagon..
But she was fooling us!
It wasn´t the monorail at all, it was the rollercoaster,
and soon we were all screaming and giggling like hell!
It was both horrible and fantastic!
What a great way to finish a great day!
See you soon again, dear mom!
Many hugs from your little Matcha!
|
|
Posted Sep 29, 2013, 8:51 am
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Porkkala, Kirkkonummi, Finland - 5th October 2013
By: Eohippus
Hyvää iltaa, rakas äiti! (Good evening, dear mother!)
How are you?
We have had some coolish days here, and in the nights
the temperature has already dropped below zero
celsius degrees.
But we just put another blanket over us and curl against
each other and sleep quite happily.
Last weekend we visited an
outdoor recreation area on the seashore in Porkkala,
about twenty kilometers from here.
I was studying the map carefully not get lost!
We walked over a rocky area towards the sea.
It was a somewhat gloomy morning, and we were running
and jumping to keep warm.
We walked past a dead, standing tree. They are important,
because the rare flying squirrels like to make their nests
inside them.
We came to the shore.
There was some fog over the water and the horizon looked grey,
but I think there is its own special kind of beauty in that kind
of weather.
The rocks were really smooth and felt soft
under my paws.
Henna explained it was the huge mass of ice during the ice age
which polished the finnish shores.
We wandered along the strand, admiring the beautiful views and investigating small details,
like this oval little pool.
Had the weather been warmer, it would have been an excellent
swimming pool for us!
We saw small islands emerging from the mist.
To me they looked like the fairy islands, which appear from
under the wawes in certain times and then disappear again.
I was delighted by the white foam the sea
was pushing over the rocks.
According to the Greece mythology Afrodite, the goddess of love,
was born from such foam.
Not so very different from the frogspawn, hmm?
No wonder we are so lovely!
There was lots of green algae growing in the sea bottom - pretty much the same shade than I am.
Porkkala area is owned by the communs of Helsinki,
Espoo and Kirkkonummi, and it is prohibited to build houses here,
because it is reserved for all people to refresh themselves
in the beautiful shore area.
It is possible to tent here for free, and there is places
to lit up an open fire to make food or coffee.
We hiked on a higher terrain, from which
we get a wonderful view over the sea.
About 80 kilometers to south behind the gulf of Finland is Estonia.
Sweden in farer away in the west.
I was beginning to feel a certain emptines
in my stomach, and I started to give mild hints about it, by making
such questions as "I wonder where they have those places to lit up fire to make food?"
The other got my meaning and realised their
stomachs were empty too, and soon we had a fire going on.
The sun also started to peek trough the clouds.
We heated Carelian pastries over the fire.
They are traditional food from the Eastern Finland.
The crust is made of rye dough, and inside there is either
barley, potato, carrot or rice filling.
After the pastries we had some coffee
and sat round the fire, enjoying the warmth.
Then we had some croissants as a dessert.
The sun had sailed properly out from the clouds,
and wiped the fog away, and we headed for the little sandy beach
to really enjoy it.
We climbed a pine and wondered how it
would feel to be bird or bat and live up the trees.
(Well of course Zoe is a bird, but as a kiwi she lives on the ground.)
The sand was getting deliciously hot
under our paws.
Here we seldom have sunny autumn days. Mainly it is raining -
so when the sun comes out we really appreciate it.
We watched some people coming across the sea with a small boat.
They got onto the shore and went to make some coffee too.
Finns are really crazy about coffee.
They are the biggest coffee consumers per capita on the globe..
We climbed onto the now warm rocks to
bathe in the sun and let the food digest.
The wawes were singing and there was some last insects of the summer buzzing, the rock was so warm under my back, and I was watching the clouds grazing on the blue
pasturelands of the sky.. ..and so I fell asleep.
Henna woke us up a bit later and said it was high time to go home, since we were all so sleepy.
Hyvää yötä! Good night to you too, dear mom!
Many kisses from your little Matcha!
|
|
Posted Oct 5, 2013, 10:14 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Helsinki Herring Fair, Finland - 14th October 2013
By: Eohippus
Hyvää syysiltaa, rakas äiti! (Good autumn evening, dear mother!)
I heard you are having hot weather at home!
Here we don´t have that kind of troubles.
On weekend we were on a sightseeing walk in Helsinki, and also went to watch
around in the herring fair - a happening where they´re
selling and eating different herring products.
Before our sightseeing I had been reading
books about Helsinki.
So I already knew a lot about the capitol of Finland, krhm!
For example I knew that the area called Kamppi, from where
we started our walk, was originally mainly used as a military area, with barracks and training fields, which the name refers to.
(The name "Kamppi" is derived from the Swedish word for battle, "Kampen")  )
Nowadays there is the bus station, a shopping centre and a culture
house.
But my wide studies about the city of Helsinki had not enlightened
me about the mindblowing fact, that there is ropewalking supermans
residing in its premices!
I wanted to see the Kamppi Chapel Of Silence,
which won the International Architecture Award
For The Best New Global Design 2010.
It was built totally out of wood, and from outside it looked,
to my opinion, like some dinosaur egg!
But inside it was really worth of its name -
cosy and peacefull - really like inside an egg, actually.
We promenaded next to see one of the
most important statues of Helsinki - Kolme Seppää (Three Blacksmiths).
It is a sculpture by Felix Nylund, situated in Helsinki in Three Smiths Square.
I think it is a beautiful statue, but does anyone else find it slightly
odd that the smiths are naked?
We walked along Aleksanterinkatu street.
This is the main Christmas street. Of course there is no hint about
it at this time of year, but at yuletide this street has the most
beautiful lights and decorations, and Joulupukki (Santa Claus)
comes every year to the opening ceremonies.
We strolled past The National Library of Finland, which is the foremost research library in Finland and the most important of the libraries of the University of Helsinki.
Henna almost run past it, saying that she´s become allergic
to it after sitting in it 15 years.
We came to the The Senate Square
(Senaatintori) and saw the Lutheran Cathedral.
The whole complex is a design by Carl Ludvig Engel.
Originally the whole area was a swamp, and when they started to
build the cathedral, people were convinced it would sink.
As a frog, I would maybe prefer the swamp, although the cathedral
is beautiful too.
A statue of Emperor Alexander II is located in the center of the square.
The Russian Czar was greatly loved by the finns, because he gave
to Finland bigger autonomy than the swedes had ever done.
1889 started the darker years, and a long fight over the independence, and the statue became a symbol of quiet resistance, with people of Helsinki protesting to the decrees of Nicholas II leaving flowers at the foot of the statue of his grandfather, then known in Finland as "the good czar".
We climbed the stairs of the Lutheran Cathedral
and watched the views.
The square has always been an important spot for demonstrations,
and the high stairs of the cathedral are a popular place to hang on
on the summer evenings.
On wintertime the stairs are covered with snow and serve as a slide!
Helsinki Cathedral (Helsingin tuomiokirkko), was built 1830-1852.
I didn´t see any signs of it being sinking!
We saw some nice street art when we
continued our walk.
We reached the nice esplanade named Esplanadi, colloquially called "Espa".
It is the number one spot for citizens of Helsinki to come to have
picnics in summertime.
The statue just and just visible in the photo is presenting the National
Poet of Finland, Johan Ludvig Runeberg.
Nowadays he serves as a platform for pigeons.
This cute little statue by Viktor Jansson is
Kalapojat (fish boys).
I only see one boy, unles the fish is a young male too, which
would explain the plural.
There was still some late flowers in bloom.
Soon the winter will be here, and then there is only ice flowers
blooming on the windows.
Here is Havis Amanda, one of sculptor Ville Vallgren's Parisian Art Nouveau works.
It was erected 1908, and its nakedness and seductiveness were considered inappropriate.
It is showing a mermaid rising from the sea, surrounded by four
sea lions.
I think it is beautiful, and I guess the sea lions are quite good company.
We continued our stroll and went to see
Uspenskin katedraali, an Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Helsinki, Finland, "dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary)."
Whatever that means!
The cathedral has several valuable icons, among others St. Nicolas – The Wonder Maker, which was stolen on 16 August 2007 between midday and 1 p.m. in broad daylight.
The icon is now being searched for in Finland as well as abroad.
The finder is promised a big reward. So, if you happened to
encounter it somewhere..!
The golden domes of the cathedral were
glimmering in the sun so that pigeons got dizzy.
Better stay on the top of the head of Runeberg.
We went back down to the Kauppatori market
square.
There was even more people than usually
on a sunny day, because of the herring fair.
The herring fair (Silakkamarkkinat) is an annual event held in Helsinki in October every year.
During the herring fair, many archipelagans arrive in the Eteläsatama harbour to sell fish and other archipelago products directly from their boats.
The event is very old; according to common knowledge it was first held in 1743.
The event has been forgotten from time to time, for various reasons, but in the 1980s it was revived and has become very popular.
The fair lasts a week, and it is all about herring.
There are fishermen coming along the coast in their fishingboats
to sell the herring, but most of them also sell different herring
products they´re producing.
There´s herring in glass jars with varying ingredients and spices,
smoked herring, herring pies, kalakukko, of course, and traditional
island bread, called black bread, which contains blood.
It was really hard to get any kind of photos
of the herring stands - there was so many people blocking the view.
I don´t know.. fish is good for our health and some of it is quite tasty,
but I wouldn´t go raving mad about it and fighting to get my herring!
Besides the fishingboats and stands selling fish, there was many boats serving as restaurants selling beer
and fish dishes.
We walked around watching the boats and people and activities going on.
Every year during the fair there´s a jury picking
the best herring product of the year.
How would you like to be in the jury, mom?
Tasting maybe 200 different herringy things in one morning?
Besides the best herring product, there is also
a competition for the most beautiful fishing boat every year.
I personally enjoyed more the blue sky and sea
and the shrieking of the daring seagulls than the herrings.
There was also a nature wellfare organization
giving people information about what fish to eat and what not,
considering that there´s nowadays for example many endangered
tuna species, not to speak of sardins, which have been
overfished the past hundred years. 
Then we visited an old lighthouse boat,
which has also been turned into a sailing restaurant.
There was a brass band playing on board,
and it all looked quite nice, but we were starting to get hungry,
and so we headed towards home again.
On our way there we stopped to have some
pancakes with jam and whipped cream.
I wish you´ve had some too!
Unless you prefer herring.
Your
Matcha.
Kisses!
|
|
Posted Oct 14, 2013, 3:20 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Laajalahti, Espoo, Finland - 18th October 2013
By: Eohippus
Hei taas, rakas äiti! (Hello again, dear mom!)
The autumn is really here now.
The leaftrees have turned yellow and orange, and in the morning
we had the first sleet rain this year.
Here I´m admiring the colors around the cottage.
In Finnish, the time when the colours of the nature are changing
in the autumn is called "ruska".
We were roaming and playing and doing
somersaults in the golden leaves!
It was so beautiful, that we went for a walk to see more "ruska".
We went for a walk in Laajalahti Nature Reserve
Area.
It is an important bird nesting area with broad reedbed and shoreline groves and meadows and a trail for nature observers.
We followed the trail trough varying beautiful
landscapes.
In more humid areas there was wooden duckboards to walk along.
Every now and then there was information
plakes telling about the landscape, plants and animals surrounding
us.
Walking amongst the high reeds we could
hear the sounds of waterbirds resting in midst of their long flight to south for winter.
We could not see then, nor could they see us, and maybe that was good!
A crane, for example, would have taken me and Tuli as a nice snack, before realising us to be toyvoyagers - not ordinary frogs.
We sat on the railing and imagined how
it would feel to be a migratory bird and fly thousands of kilometers
every autumn from Finland to Africa.
The bird certainly don´t need a gym!
Zoe commented that actually she is a migratory bird, since she flies
every autumn from Finland to Portugal, and Tuli said she thinks
Zoe would benefit from attending a gym, and then Zoe was running
after Tuli along the rail.
On one turn of the trail we saw a gazebo
amongst the trees.
What a fantastic place that must be in summertime
to sit eating a snack and listening to the birds!
We went inside to see around.
We didn´t have a snack with us (what a shame!),
and the only sounds I could listen to were the highpitched toyvoyagerous
shouting when my mates saw what was inside the gazebo.
There was Uranus!
Who would have thought there was room for a planet inside!
From the gazebo windows we could get
a good view over the wonderfully coloured foliage of the autumn
forest.
The fallen leaves looked to me like a
golden carpet spread over the earth.
We walked forward, and Tuli was teaching
us to sing a Finnish autumn song.
Lehti puusta variseepi The leaves are dropping from trees
päivä yötä pakenee. the day is escaping the night.
Lintu pieni syksyn tullen When the autumn comes, the little bird
kesämaille rientelee. flees to the lands of summer.
We were singing it sitting over a fallen tree,
and can you imagine, an ant hurrying past told us it was beautiful!
The trail led us out from the nature reserve
area, and we waved our farewells to the waterbirds (and to
Uranus).
We reached a park full of golden maples.
Just look, mom!
Isn´t this stunning?
I would love to have a similar carpet on the floor of our home
than there was under the trees in the park!
From under these trees I wave to you too!
See you soon again!
Keep well!
Your loving little frog
|
|
Posted Oct 18, 2013, 8:08 pm Last edited Oct 19, 2013, 10:45 am by Eohippus
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Sahajärvi, Espoo, Finland - 21st October 2013
By: Eohippus
Hyvää huomenta, rakas äiti! (Good morning, dear mother!)
Mitä kuuluu? (How are you?)
I was reading Auras updates and heard that you´ve had there a
landslide and a typhoon! Gee!
We are here very happy nothing bad happened to you!
We went yesterday for a walk here in the surroundings, and then happened
something very fun, and I´m now going to tell you about it!
In the morning the earth was lightly white!
It had been snowing a bit during the night.
When the sun rise the snow melted away, but in the Northern
Finland there is already half meter of snow.
We walked along a narrow, peaceful
road.
The day was turning to be sunny and the birds were singing
cheerfully on the pine tops when we walked past.
We were watching the birds, and the sky looked so blue we wanted to climb the treetops ourselves too.
See how high up we were!
A crow saw us sitting on the tree branches and stopped to talk
with us.
"Gee! Wow! How come there is two frogs, a sheep, a kiwi bird and a teddybear high up in the tree?" she asked.
"We´re toyvoyagers!" we answered, "we can be where ever!"
Then we came down again, and the forest
surrounding the small road was so beautiful, that I sat, leaning
on a tree trunk, just enjoying the view and the sun and the smells
of the forest - the decaying leaves and the earth itself.
We reached the small Salaoja stream, which run
to the lake Sahajärvi.
The name of the stream comes of a small species of fish, called salakka (bleak), living in it.
We were playing on the little stream, hopping
from stone to stone, screaming and giggling.
And then we were making bridges of
tree branches and balancing ourselves over them.
We left the stream and walked along the shore of the lake.
We saw many rowing boats on the bank, and a desire to get
rowing on the lake conquered our fluffy hearts!
But alas! The boats were all so very big!
We tried, but there was no way to move
such a big boat!
What frustration!
But then..! Look, mom, what we found!
We could hardly believe our eyes!
A toyvoyager -size rowing boat waiting for us!
Must be a very smart, civilized and enlightened person who
has left it there!
We pushed the boat in great hurry onto the
water!
When the boat started to float we all rushed in at the same time, eager to get on board, and ended up into a great pile on the bottom of the boat..
The cargo was too big and too unbalanced!
The boat lurched and one voyager flew to the water!
"Voyager overboard! Voyager overboard!" we shouted in panic,
but the I realised it was Tuli, and as a frog she just swam
easily back onto the shore, phew!
But the accident made us realise we should
be more carefull and take turns!
So we went on boating three at a time, and it went well!
First I had some troubles with the oars,
and the others were teasing me."Is this a carusell or why are we moving in circles?"
There was fishes who came to stare us.
"Hey, guys, come and see! Frogs in a boat!"
"Yeah, fishes!" we answered, "Why don´t you do something
surprising some time? "
The weather was very calm, and there was
no waves at all - it felt like we were gliding on the surface of
a mirror.
After rowing around the lake my arms
started to feel a bit tired. I think my muscles are bigger than
they were!
We sat still for sometime watching the beautiful
lake view, and then we left back home.
We came home in a great mood.
I would love to take you rowing some time!
Kisses from Matcha!
|
|
Posted Oct 21, 2013, 9:12 am Last edited Oct 21, 2013, 8:15 pm by Eohippus
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
