Following the light

In the past five or six years I got more and more interested in the natural world. I started my journey thanks to Clare Walker Leslie and her beautiful guides to nature journaling and observation. Since then, I kept many nature journals and nature studies, and when we moved here in Finland my interest was especially drawn to how the light (or the lack of it ) impact the natural life, and which are the signs that the outdoors gives us to hint snow, or rain or especially low temperatures. So far I learnt a lot, but so much it is still out there to observe and understand. In the last couple of weeks Finland experienced very low temperatures, friday was the coldest day for us, with -29 here in the south. The amazing side of these freezing days is that usually they are bright and sunny with clear blue sky. So one day I had some fun litterally following the sun during the day, taking pictures every once in a while from the same window. If you wonder why all this excitement about the sun, here some facts: at the solstice, one month ago, the sun was rising at 9:23 and setting at 15:07 ( we had 5 hours and 44 minutes of daylight ), today the sun has risen at 8:49 and the sun will set at 16:10 so 7 hours and 22 minutes of daylight, almost two hours more in less than a month. This has a terrific impact on every living being's life. Birds wake up earlier, and humans wake up easier and feel less tired and in general the energy level increase so much. Life begins anew somehow. But here my four more significant pictures, showing the path of our star.

  Taken at 1:10 pm

 Taken at 1:30 pm

 Taken at 2:51pm

Taken at 3:42 pm

The Creation is amazing, the nature is such a great gift and teacher. If we could only live in armony with it, and with each other, our world would be such a beautiful place to be.

Have a great week !