First mushroom picking in Finland

Yesterday we (Sharmin and me) did our first mushroom picking in Finland. We went to Nuuksio National Park to have some cantarella mushroom. Due to our ignorance and lack of experience in mushroom picking it was really difficult in the beginning. We couldn't find any. In fact, we didn't know where to look :P But we saw lot of blue berries. So we decided to pick blue berry instead and got more than half a liter quite fast :)

While picking blue berries a lady was passing by. We saw her bucket half full with different type of mushrooms. Sharmin asked her if she can show us a bit. The generous lady opened her bucket and showed us different kinds of mushrooms and how to know them and where to look. After that we started looking into right places and soon we started to get some. Big thanks to that lady. Finally we managed to get our basket full of different type of mushrooms. Sharmin even got couple of cantarellas :)

It was a nice tracking in the afternoon. We were into the woods for almost two hours. We really enjoyed the time there and finally enjoyed our dinner with fresh picked mushrooms :)

Here is a picture in the bus on the way back home:

 



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Snowfall followed by rain with heavy wind

Today it was snowing for quite a long time. It started around 2 PM and it lasted for more than 4 hours. It was a continuous snowfall. I was looking through the window while I was in the office. The streets are covered with white snow within an hour. I was thinking it would be difficult for me to walk to the train station from office.

When I came out of office at 7 PM it was not snowing anymore but it was raining heavily with heavy wind. It was so difficult to walk. It's like it's storming. When I reached the train station I was wet. I don't why didn't I bring out the umbrella from my bag. I enjoyed getting wet in raindrops.

Since I came home I was hearing sound of raindrops on my roof. It gave me feeling of my home country. I used to hear the sound of rain while I was there. It's very rare in Finland that you will be able to hear that. Usually the houses here are almost sound proof, even windows have two layers of glass. Looks like my present home is not like that. May be it is not well protected against cold. Today it seems nice because I was able to hear the nice sound of rain after a long time. At the same time I am bit worried how will it be when the temperature will be 20 degree below zero. Will this home protect me well enough from that damn cold? I hope it will :)


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First snow of the year

Here comes the snow again :( Well, I like snow but for sure I don't like excessively long winter. Today around 3 PM, while I was working in office, suddenly one of my colleagues said "ohhh, it's snowing". We have a huge window beside our team. We looked through it and found that it was really snowing. It is very light snow because the temperature was 3 degree. It lasted only for 10 minutes. This year it is earlier than the previous two years I have been in Finland. It reminds me that the long cold winter is coming, dull days are ahead of me, and last but not least, I cannot roam around in streets for a long time anymore for the next 6 months :( I just hope winter will be followed by a nice summer next year.




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Early winter this year

Looks like winter is coming earlier than usual this year. This afternoon I saw many trees with yellow leaves when I went out for a walk after being bored in home. I noticed that many trees lost many leaves already. It's only the second week of October and winter is showing her arrival signs in nature. I don't remember about last year but last last year it was November when I saw this kind of change in nature. I also heard from Gagan that this year it might be the coldest winter in 1000 years. They say if the winter is very cold, the next summer gonna be a very nice one. Still I wish if I could postpone the arrival of winter this early. It's difficult to stuck inside home for 24 hours alone. I wish winter will give me at least one more month before shackled me in home.





Trees look nice in afternoon sun while the leaves are yellow.





Few trees are totally out of green leaf.





Just in front of my home, lot's of fallen leaves.



Programming Solution

Shower in the rain, after a long time

This evening when I was on my way home after getting off the train I got a shower in the rain, after a long time. I seldom see this kinda heavy rain in Finland. I was coming home after office. It's been a very hot day today. When I got off from the train I was hearing thunder. The sky was dark. It was windy as well. Suddenly it started raining and it was so heavy. Each drop was like a marble. I wanted to run at first but then I remembered that I never had a shower in rain since I came to Finland. So I just walked slowly and let the rain pour upon me. I was totally wet when I came home; even my bag and the documents inside it. I had to wash my cloths later but I didn't mind. I enjoyed every bit of the rain but I wish I wouldn't be alone.



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Finally it's summer

After a long cold winter, finally summer came. It took long time. Last year, from the very beginning of May it was warm. This year, the winter was extremely cold, and till the end of second week of May it was not warm at all. But for 4 days now weather is really awesome. The sun is shining, temperature is around 25 degree. If you go out you will feel soothing gentle breeze all over your body. It's nice to go out putting just a T-shirt on. I am planning to start swimming in lake by the end of this week :)



Programming Solution

It's raining

I was hearing this music (just the music, not the video :P) and suddenly I heard a very familiar sound. Yes, it's the sound of rain. Right now the temperature is 0 degree celcius. I know people of north Europe don't like rain and gloomy weather but since I am from Bangladesh, I have a very adorable feeling for rain. It started raining around 15 minutes ago and I am enjoying it :)


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Early winter this year

Winter came early this year. Since the last week of September it is cold and it started snowing in the last week of October whereas last year it was 16 November when I saw first snowfall in my life. Its only the first week of November and all the streets of Tampere are covered with white thick snow.


For last two days it has been snowing. The whole day today it was snowing. So there are thick snow in the streets. My shoes were drown in the snow while I was coming home from university this evening. Its nice to see white all around you.


I hope the temperature will not rise to positive so that the snow will remain. Its really disgusting when the temperature is +1 or +2 and snow is melting. Consequently you will experience dirty and wet street which is not so pleasant. But the fact is this snow will melt and the streets will get dirty. Moreover, dark December is ahead of me. I wish I could make a hyper jump to February.


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Leaves are showing up

For two weeks now the weather is been very nice. The sun is shining almost all the time during day, and the day has become 17 hours long already. During day, the temperature is around +15, thus, it became very comfortable. May be trees are feeling comfortable with this weather too and that's why I am seeing new leaves are showing up.


For almost 6 months, there is no leaf in trees. I was not able to see anything green even though there are lots of trees in Tampere. I have been seeing thousands of trees, all gray. The blooming started with the first drop of rain last week. The trees are becoming alive again. Hopefully, a week from now, all the trees will be green and flowers will start to bloom as well :)




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Snow is melting :)

Its been more than 5 months I am seeing white snow all around. It was so exciting when I first saw it. In fact its so nice when the weather is sunny and the ground is covered with snow but still for few weeks now I was thinking when this tons of snow will go away. I am bored to wear my heavy winter jacket for over 6 months. I was craving to go out wearing T-shirt only and no jacket at all. When I go out this afternoon I saw water is flowing everywhere because the temperature is +4 and snow started to melt. I know its not the end; the temperature will fall again and may be snowfall will happen but still I feel good when I saw its melting. It gave me hope that its not so far away that I can bike around in a very shiny weather, in a very comfortable temperature wearing thin cloths. You know what? People of Nordic region pass their 8 months long winter hoping for the very short summer. Me, too, is eying the transition period; eagerly waiting for the arrival of summer right now.




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Kesä on tulossa

I think you people are amazed a bit to see my post title. Yes, you guessed correctly, its in Finnish language. I think this is the most common sentence these days among the Finnish people, at least in their mind. It meas "Summer is coming".


For few days now we have been seeing sun here in Finland. The sky is also clear most of the time. It reminds me the sky of my home country. The day is getting longer with time while night is getting shorter. Just few weeks back I had to come to school in darkness and when I used to leave the school it is dark again though I was there only for 4 hours only. Now I come to school seeing the sun and when I go back home still its sunny. Somehow you will feel better in this kinda weather.


I never knew how precious summer can be. Now I feel it. Its really good that kesä on tulossa. I will be happier when I will be able to say "kesä tulee" means summer comes :)




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A wonderful walk in the afternoon

Its really difficult to walk outside for a long time while the temperature is below -5 degree Celsius. This afternoon the temperature was -4 and it was bright as well. So we decided to go for a walk. We went to the nearest lake here. Today I saw a frozen lake for the first time. Whole upper surface of the water turned into ice; I guess at least 6 inch thick. There was snow all over that icy surface.


We crossed the lake diagonally on foot. Crossing a big lake by walk - interesting right? I forgot to take my camera with me. Well, Its difficult to carry a big size camera in this cold weather. I took some pictures in my mobile cam but cant share those now as I need to download those to my laptop first. I need bluetooth for that. Unfortunately my laptop didn't come with bluetooth. So I might share the pictures some other time. We walked for almost an hour. I was a bit excited while walking on the frozen lake. At every moment I was thinking if it breaks now :P


Well finally, after 3 days, I managed to get the pictures I took on that afternoon. Here are few of them.






The lake from one side... Fully frozen.





My companions on that day... Shaikat vi and Taslim vi.





My footprint. I removed the snow to see the transparent ice underneath.





Here I am. I don't know why I opened my mouth right at that moment :D





Taking Ur own picture is not so easy :P





Another one. Shaikat vi and Taslim vi are way ahead of me.





While coming back we saw some people playing ice hockey in a field.




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Snow pictures

Here goes few pictures of snow in Tampere. I shot those one of the days while coming home from work in early morning. Most of the pictures were taken while I was in the bus. So those are not of very good quality.

Near the city center, Just after getting in the bus.

Another one from the bus

In the bus, it was almost empty

Another bus going to the city center

This is the road that I use everyday to go to university

Me having warm cloths on. Its not so easy to shoot your own picture when your camera is big in size.

The building where I live right now

Cars covered with snow. Its not so nice for the car owner clean the snow in the morning

The road started from the building I live

Someone wanted to leave some footprints in the white snow

This is just in front of my building(well, not my building; I just live there). There you can bake your "makkara" (sausage) and eat with "olut" (beer)

That is my foot, totally drowned in the snow

This is the entrance of my home here in Tampere.




Programming solution

I saw first snowfall

Yesterday I saw my first ever snowfall. It was afternoon and I was trying to do some really boring reporting assignment. Morshed vi called around 0230 pm and told that its snowing outside. I got dressed up and went out of my room to see it. When I was out I saw it really was snowing but it was very light, kinda flurry.


I went to a open high place. I was standing. It was very windy. I was feeling cold but I was still standing because snow was falling on me. I don't know why I was smiling at that time. I wished I wouldn't be alone at that very moment but unfortunately I was.


I wanted to take picture but my camera batteries were out of charge. It was dark as well. And over all it was very light snow - may be it wont be visible in pictures. I am waiting for a heavy snowfall to see and obviously next time I will take some pictures and post those here in my blog :)




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Warm welcome to Spring

Today is the first day of Spring in Bangladesh. There are six seasons in our country and it is said that Spring is the king of all the seasons. To celebrate the arrival of Spring Bording Vista staffs decided to come to office on this day in traditional attire of Bangladesh. Consequently all the Bangladeshi guys came in Panjabi and sandals and the females in saris.


Our CEO, Jan, came in jeans and shirt tucked in. But he might be feeling a bit uneasy. More over we were telling him again and again to buy a panjabi for this special day and finally he went to nearby Aarong shop, bought a nice panjabi and came back wearing that. We were yelling to see him in the panjabi. He looks so happy to be in the same row of us.


Today the whole office was in a nice mode. So many pictures have been taken by mushfiq vi. I also brought my camera with me but I didn't take pictures as I saw that i am getting some very tiny rain spots in my pictures. I became a bit sad seeing that. Otherwise I would show you people the pictures of our office today.


Hope everybody will enjoy this Spring.
A warm welcome to the Spring, the king of all seasons :)




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The first rain of the year

When I wake up this morning I found the weather extremely nice. It was slightly raining. Aha… is it the first rain of the year? No, it’s not. Then why the title of my post is like that? Coz I felt the rain from my heart for the first time in this year :) This year this is the first time I enjoyed the rain sooooo much and that’s why this is the first rain for me this year :)

The rain stopped within few minutes. But cold gentle breeze was blowing. I was out for my work. Sitting in the bus I found how sweet was the weather today!!! Ahhhhh… I wish I were in home today… laying on my bed… enjoying the nice environment…. holding a novel by my hand… reading 1 page and look outside… few minutes later reading 2 more pages and again look outside the window… passing my time just like that… ahhhhhhhh.

But I was not laying in my bed in my home :( rather I was in the bus… very much crowded… I was going to my work… I will be there until 6 pm :( and there is no way to see the rain through the window or feel the cold wind on my body :( :( :(




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