Budding blooms

Hello again and happy Saturday! 

I was able to sleep in until a blissful 9 a.m. and enjoy a large cup of coffee without having to be anywhere within the hour. Bliss bliss. 

I just ended clinical training (last for the school year) and after two short days at school, I start work on Wednesday. How this will affect my crocheting/blogging/enjoying life, I don't know. But at least I don't have to turn in stupid papers or projects and will get days off and best of all, money! The plan was to have money saved for the coming school year, but I have so much I need and want, I don't know how that is going to be possible. Sigh, I wish I were rich! Money may not buy happiness but I think it buys a heck of a lot of peace of mind.

On to happy things... We are on the brink of actual SUMMER SUMMER here, although the weather this week has been dismal at best. Rainy, windy and cold -- typical Finnish weather. At least the flowers are liking it and it is so green outside!!!

Thursday was a rather nice day, cold and windy but lacking the rain part. In the afternoon, my mom and I met up and walked around the arboretum and I snapped some pictures of how lovely it is. We were hoping to catch the apple trees in bloom (almost equivalent with the cherry trees in Japan) and the lilacs. However, most were just budding or beginning to bloom so we'll have to see if we can make it there in the coming week for the actual bloom.

Here are "just a few" pictures from our walk. Daffodils and tulips are still going strong. I was kind of surprised at how vibrant looking they still were. I guess the area is a bit colder (on a lake) so spring develops more slowly...?

If you aren't hyperventilating with the beauty of that, check out the different kinds of primulas I found scattered around!

There is also a gorgeous duck pond...

As well as an old mansion, complete with old brick buildings on the property (could I please live in one?! I can settle for something other than the mansion!) and a large rose garden, magnificent in late summer.

I have heard this is the largest pear tree in Finland. It's gorgeous even if it's not true. 

 

 Rose garden, love love love. Super green grass after a long winter, LOVE LOVE LOVE!

One of the first blooming trees here is called "tuomi" or prunus padus. The traditional white variety is in abundance, but the more rare pink variety can be found in parks and in this arboretum. 

Other gorgeous flowers displaying their annual beauty:

Clematis 

Technicolor azaleas

  

Fritillaria Meleagris (kirjopikarililja, snake's head). Surprising that it belongs to the lily family and not the tulip family. Until I just googled, that tulips also belong to the family Liliaceae.

 A variety of tiny fragile bleeding hearts....

Irises so proud... I loved the story my mom told of how when she and her siblings were little they had permission to pick flowers to bring to their grandparents. Her brother and sister picked pansies for their grandma and my mom picked irises for their grandpa. 

A special darker variety of grape hyacinths or muscari, growing beneath lilacs.

And the lilacs growing above the muscari.

Being as there are lots of trees in the arboretum and lots of people passing through feeding ducks etc, it's only natural there be an abundance of squirrels. Here is one that was so tame it came right up to my mom and I and was insulted we had nothing to give. It looks mangy but I think it's just going through an unflattering process of shedding its winter coat. I hope so anyway! 

Off to cleaning and hopefully crocheting some of my blanket. I haven't even touched it this week. Sad, I know. Today is another rainy day though so I can't really think of anything nicer than sitting indoors, drinking tea and crocheting something warm. :)

Thanks for reading and enjoy your Saturday!