Forests of Heinola
I spent the Mother's Day weekend in Heinola with my mother. We made trips to nature. I swam for the first time this year, and many more times after that.
The photos can be enlarged by clicking.
Published .
Forest on the shore of Lake Ruotsalainen
We found a lot of white hepaticas (Hepatica nobilis). There were at least ten plants in a small area.
A hepatica leaf from last year.
We were wondering what this is, but it turned out to be spring vetchling (Lathyrus vernus).
A five-leaved herb-paris (Paris quadrifolia) and a four-leaved one that hasn't opened yet.
Nice moss.
Mataraniemi cape
There is a private nature reserve in the forest surrounding Mataraniemi cape. The cape is a 35-meter-high (from the lake surface), steep-sloped esker, which isn't included in the nature reserve itself. The surrounding forest is moist and fertile. We bumped twice into a man who was looking for geocaches. He said there are several of them in the area.
I didn't take many photos, but here's one of hepaticas.
Heponiemi cape
The whole Heponiemi cape is a private nature reserve. It was nice terrain, a part had mostly birches and a part had mostly spruces. In the tip of the cape there is a narrow smaller cape called Haikankärki.
On the way there we saw cranes (Grus grus) on a field.
The route to the cape was an old, overgrowing road for transporting timber. Alongside it there was moss-covered spruce forest.
On the shore we saw and heard a red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena).
It was easy to walk in the birch forest. We also found the foundation of a building.
A young fern in sunlight.
Tuomaansaari island.
In Haikankärki cape the vegetation was different. The photo isn't very good, but there was a very narrow juniper (Juniperus communis).
At the tip there was a good place for a swim. My mother is taking a photo of a feather that was on the rock.
A two-stemmed birch had fallen against two other birches and bent them.
February daphne (Daphne mezereum) was still blooming. We saw many daphnes during the weekend. There were also many hepaticas left.
Frogspawn in a ditch.
