17 May 2012
Have just had a good walk in the forest this morning. Early mornings out in the nature are something I would not trade for anything. My third month of the dolce-fare-niente (sweet-doing-nothing) has just started and I still wake up at 6:30. But I don’t really care because I’m a morning person. Luckily I am getting more sleep now and see that I do manage to sleep more than six hours a day. I’ve always liked early mornings – sometimes I go for a walk or a jog, if I’m at the cottage I might start working in the garden before 8 am after having sat an hour on the terrace sipping my coffee and watching the nature. We have the have the binoculars handy on the porch in case a rare bird should appear.
Today it was quite peaceful in the forest. It is bank holiday because of the Ascension Day. There were no bikers on their way to work and not that many people walking their dogs. Some early birds were out working in their garden patches and some joggers. This one lady passed by twice! I’m trying to restart jogging and try to do intervals – five minutes of walking and five jogging.
The forest is full of birds and their singing. Could instantly spot the robins chirping and spotted also great tits (what a name for a small bird!), wagtails, a spotted woodpecker and blackbirds. There was even a lonely common pintail by the ditch. It must have been lost without a spouse and all. The hare and fox were hiding; I guess I was out too late. It was raining all night and the air was clear and humid, it is 14 degrees – just perfect for jogging.
The wood anemone is blooming and the flowers might be gone in a week or two. The lily of the valley is not quite in bloom yet. The cherry trees are like lovely pink clouds but the apple and bird cherry trees and lilacs are not blooming yet.
We went to the cottage on Sunday. Not much had happened in the garden yet. The ice was gone and there was no snow. The rhubarb was pushing tiny little bulbs. The lemon thyme, oregano and peppermint had survived yet another winter. The cottage is on the west coast by a sheltered cove of the Baltic Sea; the closest town is located at about 61 degrees Nothern latitude and 21 degrees Eastern longitude. In winter we get heaps of snow and temperatures duck -20 and even more.
We did not find any false morels. They were not out yet or someone had been there and picked them already. After the search in vain I was no longer in mood for nettle picking. Thus we did not have a nettle soup with false morels.
The sandpiper had her nest in the same bank as earlier and had one egg in it. The coots were not out yet and it’ll be another month before they make their evening swim in the bath beach.
lippewallenius 