Jack’s Walk

Jack is walking with his daddy today because I am in the big city of Toronto visiting a friend. I thought I would share a quick photo of Front Street in the heart of the city. On the left is the main transportation hub, Union Station where trains of several sorts come and go all day. On the right is a Canadian Classic, The Royal York Hotel built in 1927. In the center on the left is Citigroup Place and on the right is Simcoe Place. Me, I prefer the old classical buildings.

Front Street, Toronto

Front Street, Toronto

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L Is For Landmark.

Landmark.

This building is a landmark of the pastel-coloured Pikku Huopalahti residential area in Helsinki, close to downtown. The building, called Terassitalo (Terrace house) was completed in 1994. The area was built between 1986 and 2000 and it’s named after the narrow bay touching the area.

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Jack’s Walk

I think someone forgot to give Mother Nature the memo that it’s springtime. Yesterday we had a blizzard and today it continues to snow off and on. The temperature is hovering around -5 and everywhere I go people are grumbling. Jack and I decided to go to the park this morning and even the ducks and geese seemed out of sorts. Over at the frog pond the water is still frozen and there isn’t a single thing even close to blooming. What few bulbs that had poked their heads up have come no further. I don’t blame them. If not for Jack, I wouldn’t be outside today either.

Frog Pond

Frog Pond

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K Is For Käytöstä poistettu.

Käytöstä poistettu.

Finnish for “no longer in use”. The pictures are from spring 2017 and taken in the Vallilanlaakso park (in English: Vallila Valley). This is what was left of the one-track unelectrified railway to the port in Sörnäinen. The port facilities were relocated to Vuosaari in the southeastern corner of Helsinki and the rails and sleepers had been removed and junked. The tunnel leads to Pasila railyard and railway station, where various shunting operations for the trains from the port were done.

The port areas in Helsinki peninsula, apart from passenger and vehicle terminals for car ferries, high-speed passenger ferries and cruise ships to Sweden, Russia and Estonia are now in the process of being redeveloped into residential areas. This process has resulted in two railways becoming “käytöstä poistettu”.

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Jack’s Walk

It’s snowing here today with high winds (gusts up to 90 km/hr) and I just can’t bear to take one more wintry photo this spring. Instead, I give you this beautiful old willow tree that caught my eye the day Jack and I went to the lake. It looked so sculptural silhouetted against the blue, blue sky. I’m actually very fond of the look of bare trees in the winter. You can see how unique each one is and that they all have their own personality. Normally, I don’t find them depressing at all. Today, though, I would give a lot to see a tree fully dressed. Heck, today just a few leaf buds would thrill me.

Willow tree

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J Is For Juoni.

Juoni.

The Finnish word juoni has multiple meanings. Plot (of a book or a play) or intrigue. As a geological term it means a dike. This dike is (I think) a magmatic intrusion, probably thousands of millions years old. This rock is in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki and the (otherwise) paved seaside way/path for pedestrians goes over it.

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Jack’s Walk

Over the weekend Charly wrote an interesting post about different types of fungal infections in trees. Today, Jack and I came upon this downed tree and if I remember his post correctly this is a sapwood infection with unaffected heartwood. The damage is quite extreme and I think the infection is parasitic rather than fungal. So much of the wood has been eaten away that I suspect some sort of critter made a banquet of this tree.

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I Is For Ilma.

Ilma.

Ilma is Finnish for air and also colloquially weather. In November 2017, it was windy and wet snow was falling in Hesperia park in Helsinki. With flash, it was possible to catch the trajectories of the falling snowflakes in the air (thanks for the advice in this blog a few months before, Caine).

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