Christmas 2011 Opening

The Christmas 2011 official opening ceremony was held today in Helsinki.  The mayor of Helsinki light the  Aleksanterinkatu Christmas lights  and there was a parade from the Senate square walking up the Aleksanterinkatu and back to the square down the Esplanade.

Here comes Santa in a car. You can hardly see him  because of all the parcels. I would have loved to see him arriving in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. But to get to see that you have to go to Lapland. Can you believe today was the very first time we were there for the opening.

The flower today

Covered with frost !

Viola arvensis

Yesterday when on the way to the dog park I thought I saw some more anemone nemorosas. Having a closer look the flower was not the anemone nemorosa but a viola arvensis. What on earth ! Are all the spring flowers going nuts ? No, not this one.

I checked about the flower on google and found out the time for blooming is from April to October. I think that here in the south of Finland they normally bloom till september or so. But, of course, the fall being this warm it’s no wonder they go on flowering. If the weather continues the same the viola arvensis will still bloom at Christmas.