The first Advent

It's the first advent today and we lighted the first candle when we had breakfast.  We were visiting my parents and my mother has chosen this kind of candle arrangement this year. If you're not familiar to this tradition I can tell you that we only light the first candle this week and next Sunday we light two of them.  I found an english page on Wikipedia that explains more. I had decided to have a lichen in my  advent candlestick as I wrote before. But there's only a special kind of lichen that will do. I've told you before about my passion for mosses and lichen so I know where I could find it. But usually we have to get it in October or November, before the snow covers it all, which is a problem for a person like me who don't plan everything so well all the time.....  But this year isn't like the others! Now you think that I have transformed to a mature and well planed person. 

But no, I haven't! It's just that we don't have any snow yet, so my oldest daughter and my two nieces climbed this mountain today and found what we were looking for. We also had a wonderful time out in the nature taking many photos....

but it isn't always easy to hold the camera at the same time as you take the shot when you're five. Back  home tonight I went down in our basement and looked for the boxes with all Christmas decorations. Finally I found the red pot and the small fly agarics! We call this lichen "window lichen".  

Have a great week!

The bridge is almost ready

The bridge is almost ready after months of renovation and it has been opened this weekend for walkers, not cars. It was very nice to be able to get to the other side and walk along our "old" round. It was very cold this morning and we saw a family who were skating on the pond close to our house and the river. We also did that when our children were younger but now they do all their skating on artificial ice instead. 

Yes, I was very happy when I walked on the bridge with my hubby today, it was wonderful to get out after a lot of cleaning and fixing in the house this weekend. I would love to have some more hours on Sundays.... But I'll guess that there will soon be Friday again and I will be wondering, where did this week disappear.

I think the pigeons had a freezing chock after weeks with warm temperatures in November. We got just a little snow tonight but I think it will disappear because the temperature has increased. 

Magical 2011-11-11 11.11

2011-11-11

Congrats to all new borns today 

and 

to all couples who walked up the

aisle to get married 

at the time of 

11.11.11

I spent that magical moment with

my wonderful students

at work watching

the clock

and 

shouted

- Ohhhh!

What did you do?

Creative skiers

We have a time right now when we're waiting for the first snow to come. But the last week have been quite warm with temperatures about 10° C which is a relief for some while others long for snow instead of rain.  This pile of snow is very local....  but I have seen kids playing around in it and throwing snowballs. If you have been visiting a hockey arena, maybe you understand that the snow is made when the ice vehicle prepare the ice. The most interesting and impressive things I've seen when I'm here is youngsters with shovels and oversized clothes. They are building ramps and go with their skis and doing different kind of jumps.

It was grey and a little bit rainy when I took this photo and the snow was very dirty. But  when my daughter  was on ice with her team I had a chance to leave the civilization for a moment and get out in the forest and enjoy the green colors. I took some more photos of mosses and lichen and when I saw this tree I thought that it was like graffiti made of the nature itself. 

Moss and lichen

Cladonia stellaris

We call it Window lichen and pick it to decorate flower pots outside or the the candlestick during Christmas. I like the chubby look of it and when it's wet it's quite soft. But I know others who love it even more as the lichen is an important feed for reindeers. It happens that this lichen is called White moss here but that is a mistake because ....

this is the real White moss, and as everybody can see it looks quite green. But I think the explanation is that when you squeeze it and let it dry from water it looks more white.

When it's dry it's both antiseptic and has a very good capability to absorb fluids. So it has a been used as diapers and sanitary napkins long before anyone went to the supermarket to buy these kind of products.