The Year in Pictures

The year of 2006 is now on us so it’s a good time to review what has happened in the past year. However, I will spare you from an autobiographical novel at this time and instead allow a few photographs and some short sentences to convey glimpes into the past 12 months. For further detail, check the archives.

In January, the year started off in a raw, sad mood with aftershocks of the tsunami. Flags were flying at half-mast for the hundreds of thousands of people perished in the disaster, including some dear friends of mine. As the month progressed, the disaster started to fade to the background for most of the world – for those involved, the rebuilding of lives and livelihoods was only starting.

Winter progressed in February and some weird alien-type of invasion took over our local pond. For many days, it had strangely symmetric circular portions of water in the middle of the frozen parts.. there are no vents or fountains or anything special in the bottom to my knowledge, so I can only assume extraterrestials are responsible Eventually the circles disappeared and another of life’s small mysteries is forgotten, unsolved.

Epsilon, our bearded dragon, was already wide awake in March – here basking in the spring sunlight. Unfortunately it was way too cold to let him enjoy the UV without the windowglass in between there, so maybe we have to think about that UV-penetrating special glass.. March is always a nice month in the sense that you start to realize that the sun is shining longer and longer, and that soon it’ll be spring. The darkness of the winter months is history and the winter will soon give way to warmer seasons.

Spring started to show signs of itself in April, although at first only inside our apartment. At the end of the month, it was time for the mandatory Finnish Vappu celebrations. The celebrations were quite subdued for us, but we did manage to attend one nice party which turned out to be a start for a new friendship, too. So comparing to the rest of the Finns, who were throwing up on the streets for most of the night, a peaceful and succesful Vappu.

In May, the flowers started appearing outside, too, in their full color. The cherry trees blossomed, especially in the Chinese garden in Helsinki – I wish we had more of those as they’re really beautiful in springtime. End of May also saw such warm weather that it was possible to eat on our balcony while wearing just a T-shirt; a promising start to the summer.

Domestic summer treats like strawberries and rasberries started appearing in June and obviously had to be put to good use. While still full of work and wrapping up tasks from the first half of the year, June was already a good summer month. With the sun shining practically around the clock, sleeping starts to feel somehow unnecessary and a waste of time, really. Life continues until late in the evening – a complete opposite of the winter when one wants to go to sleep at 5pm because it’s “been dark for hours already”. Even in southern Finland, there really is no night in June.

July was arguably the best month of the year, not least thanks to the three weeks of vacation I had. I had time to enjoy the summer in Helsinki (and a little bit elsewhere, too), take hundreds of photos and just enjoy life and the warmth of the summer. It dawned on me that what comes to cities, Helsinki is not at all a bad place to spend a summer – you can enjoy sunbathing, swimming, shopping, movies, a nice dinner and lively nightlife all in one day. Spending time with friends, picnics in Suomenlinna and other islands… I wish July could last at least three or four months.

Other than for one occasion of torrential downpour, August was still a perfect summer month – the days started with beautiful sunrises that even look warm as in this photo. Still, August is the month of harvest – and it was the start of a modest chilli-harvest for this year. Modest harvest is good, too, considering I still have hundreds of chillies in the freezer from previous years. August also saw some additional harvesting of touristy experiences of Helsinki, with me going around the city with my camera and snapping away. At the end of August, a rare weather phenomenon hit us – a Finnish variety of a tornado ripped right through our yard and the local park, leaving in its wake dozens of fallen trees and even some injuries when a tent collapsed in the nearby golf course.

In September, we enjoyed what we thought were going to be the last shreds of summer at a garden party my parents threw. It’s a rare occasion when my parents and my siblings are in the same place at the same time – even being in same country often presents challenges. Good food was abundant but what also started in September was a busy fall; with work and studies for both of us, time for friends and family was about to take an unfortunate turn for the worse once again. Towards the end of the month, the first fall colors became visible – but the season was not a terribly exciting one in terms of fall colors; gradual decrease in temperature produces a much more subdued display of colors than a sudden drop.

After an unusually warm fall, the fall colors were still in full display in October with some pleasant weather to go with them. Being mid-fall, things are always very busy around October and thus there aren’t that many single memories from the month that would really stand out. When busy, the best thing to do for relaxation is — nothing. And doing nothing rarely leaves an unforgettable experience in one’s memory. What is more worrying, though, is that a lot of what I supposedly have learned in October (and, for that matter, in many other months) has apparently either escaped my mind or dug in so deep I can’t excavate any piece of that information.

First snow came in November, but it didn’t stay on the ground for very long. All in all, October and November were historically warm months. It was nice to see that Finland can have a tolerable climate for six months in a year – but kind of disheartening to realize that to achieve that, all kinds of climate records had to be broken. What doesn’t change from one year to the other is the amount of light. When the sun starts setting before you get off from work and doesn’t rise until you’ve been at work for a couple of hours, you know it’s winter in Finland. This brings out the collective melancholy of the nation and everyone looks, to a lesser or a greater degree, like they’re part of the living dead. Note to all foreigners: November is not the month to visit Finland.

December, the month of deadlines. Studies and work wrapping up for the year results in a congestion of deadlines. One deadline that wasn’t met was that of snow – in early December, Finland was swallowed by the darkness of the winter and without the snow to help lighten things up in the capital region. Even mid-December saw temperatures hovering around +5C and snow was still lacking. However, the year ended on an even warmer note – more of that a little later.

All in all, it’s been a good year. One could say a balanced year; there have been many moments of hectic and too busy life, but also moments to relax and take it easy. Moments of great joy and moments of sadness. Moments of achievement and moments of failure. Moments of extreme energy and moments of fatigue. Thankfully mostly moments of health instead of sickness.

2006 promises to bring more of the same, but also new challenges, dreams, quests and tasks. Will it be better than 2005? One always hopes so, so bring it on!