Spring??? Really???

March is almost gone and it said it is spring since the 20st. Well, this is what we woke up to this very morning:

Snow. That's almost as much as we had all winter.

"Toivo, come over an have a look!" But he didn't want to leave his seat beside the fireplace.

"Mom, did you see that? It's snowing!" Yes, dear, I saw it.

"And that's what they call spring for some reason..."

"Do you think it will stop again? Our poor flowers!" I don't know, darling, maybe it's gonna rain later.
I've heard a rumor that some where in the Northern Hemisphere they expect temperatures of 21° today... Obviously not here...

At the Botanical Garden with the girls

Spring has come, even if the weather is sometimes still cold. But I wanted to visit the spring flowers in the Botanical Garden, so we went there today. Just we three girls: Inkeri, Sirpa and I.

We went almost straight to the Alpinum, our favorite place. Okay, my favorite place. Inkeri and Sirpa haven't been to the Botanical Garden before. But I like to climb in this wee mountain, rock up and rock down. My hope that there were already lots of flowers didn't come true. Even in the mountain spring just has begun.

The girls were not disappointed at all. They like climbing and that they could do, flowers or not.

"Mom, will we have an eclipse today, too?" No, darling, that something really seldom to be seen.

"It really feels like being on a mountain."

"Yes, it took some time to climb up here. There are tiny flowers over there. Inkeri, let's have a look."

"It says these are Felsenblümchen, they come from North-West America! And they belong to the family of kale or cabbage."

"And they are so bright yellow, as if the sunshine fell on earth."

"That is a birch behind us, but it hasn't begun to get green yet."

"These are also tiny. And they match my pants." Those are scillas.

"There are lots of them."

And on we went, uphill, downhill, until it was high time for a second breakfast.

We found a bench with a nice view.

Those houses in the back belong to the Christian-Albrechts-University. The Botanical Garden is part of the faculty of biology.
After we had our second breakfast we went further.

In the himalayian snow heather the bumblebees were humming. Or were they humming? They were quite loud.

There were lits of them. Bumblebees fly earlier than bees as they can endure cool weather much better.

Inkeri and Sirpa wanted to wait a bit to see if a bumblebee would come and sit beside them.

I enjoyed the landscape and the views.

They waited...

...and waited...

...and waited...

...and waited, but no bumblebee came near them. So in the end we decided to walk on.

This is the rhododendron-forest, in summer it is shady and cool there.

Some cyclamen were blooming. And I know a place in the Botanical Garden where there are much more of them.

To get there we had to passe the heather. We saw a wren there but he was to busy to get his picture taken.

But the jaybird had a moment to spend. Thank you!

And then we came to the cyclamen-spot, but they were not many of them in bloom.

This is an anemone.

We found the earliest corydalis.

A wild bee on a violet.

There were lots of big flowering plants in this house. We couldn't come in but we had a close look through the windows.

Camellias in red and white, and clivias.

So beautiful.

One of the gardeners forgot his bike. It has become all mossy.

Looks a bit like those big Poitou donkeys...

"Mom, that was fun. Can we come here again?" Well, when the weather is fine, maybe after Easter? Together with Malin?

"That would be fun. But now let's take the bus home."