So Glad February Is Over!

February was a dull month this year too: varied weather, snow, frost, slippery pavements...
but also bright tulips and sunshine...
Friends, theatre, books...
There has been a certain fatigue in the air - also towards blogging...

I am more than happy to welcome March!

// MAKROTEX - FEBRUARY

Digital Art - Spring Morning

Blue spring morning based on Jutta’s photo.

The original underneath.

// DIGITAL ART DIENSTAG

Color Collage

Color Collage 9/2019

Friday Bliss #24 - Dangerously Slippery!

It is dangerously slippery in the Helsinki region. On the news they said that daily approximately 30 new fracture patients arrive in the hospital of Töölö where they do all emergency operations. I don’t take a step outside without my Icebugs - but am still afraid.  My ankle and low leg fracture has not yet healed totally - I wonder if it ever will... But this is my insurance against new slippery fractures: one walking stick with a good spike and Icebugs.

Another week mainly inside, that I don’t like at all. 

But read two international novels that I warmly recommend.

Lytton Strachey - Queen Victoria

This was first released also in Finland in the 20s but now we got a new edition. Very interesting biography, although I would have liked to read more about Queen Victoria as a mother. I remember having seen a documentary series of BBC that told about Victorias difficult relations with her nine children. In her letters to her daughters she might say: I hope you are not getting fat again.  The relations to Leopold and especially to Bertie were difficult / BBC: The battle of wills was also intense between the Queen and the Prince of Wales. Bertie did everything Queen Vctoria disapproved of. He had the signs of being a needy person emotionally and once freed of parental constraint he plunged himself into a world of pleasures.
I wonder what Queen Victoria would think about Brexit?

Luis Sepúlveda - Un viejo que leía novelas de amor -The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

I am participating to a reading challenge that aims to gather 25 different countries this year. That is one reason why I read this Chilean writer. The book is short, but very warm and touching - I liked it very much! Now I am reading another novel of Sepúlveda: La sombra de lo que fuimos - The Shadow of What We Were - and it seems to be quite hilarious.

Outside it is ugly and grey, rainy and dull 

- but the tulips delight me with their bright colors!

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

- riitta

 #FRIDAY BLISS 

The link is open

FROM FRIDAY 10 AM TILL THE NEXT TUESDAY 4 PM
Helsinki time

An InLinkz Link-up

DigitalArt Dienstag

This week’s photo is only moderately manipulated.

I wanted to add my water tower a bit scifi and space feeling. Underneath the original.

// DIGITAL ART DIENSTAG

Color Collage - Tammi’s Yellow Library

I’ll talk about books - again! The reason is that I’m short of posting ideas and while I made this Color Collage on Sunday I thought to tell you a bit more. Tammi's Yellow Library is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year. This series of translated fiction includes 28 Nobel Prize winners and so far 495 titles overall. 

Of course there are many Finnish publishers who publish translated fiction. But Tammi’s Yellow Library is the only widely known literary series in Finland. Twenty-eight Nobel Prize winners have been published in the Yellow Library, among them William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Orhan Pamuk, José Saramago and Tomas Tranströmer.

Tammi Publishers was established in 1943, in the middle of World War II, to open new vistas into the wider world. The founding principle was to offer fresh ideas and differing views via translated fiction. Since its foundation, Tammi Publishers has provided the Finnish market with high-quality Finnish and translated literature and narrative non-fiction.

495 books published in The Yellow Library of Tammi

The list is in Finnish, but maybe you are interested in looking at the writer names.

// MOSAIC MONDAY

// COLOR COLLAGE 8/2019

Friday Bliss #23 - Happy Valentine’s Day!

What to give to a person

who already has a bluebell,

twinflower, rays of spring sun,

who already has winter and fall

- how about friendship?

- Elina Karjalainen
❤︎

Mitä voisi lahjoittaa sille, 

joka omistaa jo kissankellon, 

vanamon, säteet kevätauringon, 

jolla on talvi ja syys

– kävisikö ystävyys?

- Elina Karjalainen

❤︎

Was könnte man dem schenken 

der schon eine Glockenblume hat,

und Moosglöckchen, Frühlingssonne

und auch Winter und Herbst

- vielleicht Freundschaft?

- Elina Karjalainen

❤︎

Valentine’s Day - a day of friendship and love.
I made some Valentine’s cards using garden roses and a little angel.  

Wishing Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you dear blog friends!

 #FRIDAY BLISS 

The link is open

FROM FRIDAY 10 AM TILL THE NEXT TUESDAY 4 PM
Helsinki time

An InLinkz Link-up

DigitalArt Dienstag

This week I chose Jutta’s photo to manipulate.

I created two colourful jungle versions

out of her sweet and innocent tulips (or ornithogalums?).
I used Photoscape.

The original is underneath.

BTW

Image verifying drives me nuts and makes commenting very difficult.
Could it be possible for you not to use it?

// DIGITALART DIENSTAG

REGELN: Nehmt ein Foto und dann legt los. Ihr könnt eurer Phantasie freien Lauf lassen. Alles ist erlaubt.

RULES: Take a photo and let go of your imagination. Everything is allowed.

Color Collage

Spring photos from 2017.

Color Collage 7/2019

Winterglück - Winter Happiness?

Loretta and Wolfgang have this linkup called Winterglück - Winter Happiness.  Actually I don’t know whether these sights make me happy - probably not. We have so much snow and we are getting more every other day.... In southern Europe spring sprouts of crocus and snowdrops are in sight, but none here. Everything lies under over a half a meter of snow.

But inside the sight of colourful fresh tulips does make me happy!

❤︎

I’ll add my color collage from yesterday with spring photos...

❤︎

Image verifying drives me nuts and makes commenting very difficult.
Could it be possible for you not to use it?

// MAKROTEX

// WINTERGLÜCK

// MOSAIC MONDAY

// WILLY-NILLY

This song is called White Winter Hymnal, but Pentatonix members are singing
 in a summer forest! They are an American a cappella group from Arlington, Texas.

I hope you enjoy!

Friday Bliss #22 - Yellow Energy

At the moment the world outside is very colorless, 

That is why I searched for yellow spring flowers in my archive and the meaning of

YELLOW.

You can read more on Wikipedia & COLOR MATTERS. Some quotes from the latter:

❤︎

Yellow is the color of happiness, and optimism, 

of enlightenment and creativity, sunshine and spring

- in almost every culture.

❤︎

The human eye processes yellow first. 

This explains why it is used for cautionary signs and emergency rescue vehicles.

When you are enthusiastic about what you do,

you feel this positive energy. It’s very simple

- Paulo Coelho

❤︎

Passion is energy.

Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.

- Oprah Winfrey

The photos underneath show clearly why this longing for color!

❤︎

The energy of mind is the essence of life.

- Aristotle

Image verifying drives me nuts and makes commenting very difficult.
Could it be possible for you not to use it?

 #FRIDAY BLISS 

The link is open

FROM FRIDAY 10 AM TILL THE NEXT TUESDAY 4 PM
Helsinki time

An InLinkz Link-up

DigitalArt Dienstag

These were my originals. First I removed the background from each photo.

Also corrected the color of the tulip.

Then I added tulips & icicles in turns. Underneath another version with only icicles.

// DIGITALART DIENSTAG

REGELN: 

Nehmt ein Foto von euch, und dann legt los. Ihr könnt eurer Phantasie freien Lauf lassen. Alles ist erlaubt.

RULES:

Take a photo of yours and let go of your imagination. Everything is allowed.