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Summer season 2014

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Summer season 2014

Summer season 2014 is just around the corner, now is the time to get ready and be prepared for the Great Outdoors, to explore and discover the Natural environment of the Nordic region. If you are sufficiently financially secure, then summer holiday and travel is not an issue, but if you are unemployed and struggling with finances then maybe this is not the best time for you to do that.  Taking care to protect the skin and the eyes from the harmful UAV sun rays, by wearing a hat, using sunscreen, covering up sufficiently and wearing eyeglasses.  In the Australia culture a classic slogan is called; Slip, Slop Slap:  Slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen and slap on the hat.

However there is something for everyone to explore and to discover where ever you may be located, it just takes willingness and a creative mind to seek and find something of interest to you.  Small steps in the right direction are the way forward to find meaning in life.

Sunglasses.

Here are some sunglasses brands for the summer season.

Sunglasses.  There are many colors and style in the Ray-Ban style sunglasses, here are some samples.

Ray-Ban RB2132 New Wayfarer Sunglasses

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available. The specifications for this particular eyewear is listed here:

Women’s Ray-Ban sunglasses Color: BLACK.

Metal
Propionate frame
Crystal lens
Polarized
100% UV400 protection coating
Lens width: 55 millimeters
Lens height: 40 millimeters

Some other styles and colors from the same brand are:

Cyclamen on Black Frame/Grey Gradient Lens

Top Blue & Orange

Top Havana on Beige Frame/Brown Lens

Kindle Paperwhite.

Reading articles, magazines from a non-glare eBook reader can make recreation, learning and study time more enjoyable.  There is a reading device specially made with special features for the natural reading benefit.  See the Kindle paper-white from here.

Kindle Paper-white is specially designed with these points in mind:

Designed for Readers
Reads Like a Book
Goes Beyond a Book
Technical Details

Read More for Less
Buy Once, Read Everywhere
Kindle for Kids
Compare Kindles

No Glare in Bright Sunlight

Unlike reflective tablet and smart phone screens, the latest Kindle Paper-white reads like paper—no annoying glare, even in bright sunlight.

IMPROVED—Enjoy even better contrast on the latest Kindle Paper-white. Whites are whiter, and blacks are blacker, creating sharp, clear text. The high-resolution display allows for elegant typeface options including Baskerville and Palatino, and all fonts on Kindle Paperwhite have been hand-tuned at the pixel level for maximum readability and comfort.

Fast, Easy Page Turns

IMPROVED—The new Kindle Paperwhite’s processor is 25% faster. Books open and pages turn more quickly for a seamless experience. Kindle Paperwhite also uses the latest in capacitive touch technology, more accurately responding to the smallest touches.

Flip Through Without Losing Your Place

NEW—With Kindle Paperwhite’s new Page Flip feature, you can skim page-by-page, scan by chapter, or skip to the end for a sneak peek without losing your place.

Take and Share Notes

Add margin notes that you can edit, delete, or even export from Kindle Paperwhite to your computer. Share highlighted sections and meaningful quotes on Facebook and Twitter, and see passages frequently highlighted by other Kindle readers.

Kindle Paperwhite 3G

This model comes with a free 3G wireless—there are no monthly fees or annual contracts. Location-specific only. Check your country and area.

Special features are:
No screen glare in bright sunlight
Read with one hand—over 30% lighter than the iPad mini
Battery lasts weeks, not hours
Next-gen built-in light—read without eyestrain

Camera video and Pictures.

Taking pictures during the summer is also a fun way to bring back memories stored on a computer. There are cameras for various applications, locations, and purpose.  There is also the unique Go-pro camera that is a mountable camera with a head strap, or it can be secured/mounted onto a bike helmet or motor vehicle.  This is for taking a video recording of the travel scene without stopping.  It can be a great way to show the highlight of your holiday season.  Here are the Go-Pro camera and a head mount links.

GoPro HERO3+: Black Edition

This model is an improved model over the previous model.  It is 20% smaller and lighter housing, and it is waterproof down to 131’/40m.
It also has 33% improved image sharpness and reduced distortion.
Faster built-in Wi-Fi for enhanced connectivity to the Wi-Fi Remote (included) and GoPro App.
Super View video mode captures the world”s most immersive broad angle perspective.  Last but not least it claims a 30% longer battery life.

GoPro Headstrap and Quickclip Mount

Compatible with all GoPro cameras
Includes: (1) Head strap
Includes: (1) Quick Clip
Includes: (1) Thumb Screw
Note: The Head Strap and Quick Clip are recommended for use during non-impact activities only.

Summer season 2014 can be a creative fun time, going to places, meeting people, new experiences and discovering specific locations cultures and peoples.  Or it may be more quiet and relaxed with particular purpose and meaning in general.  Whatever your interest is in for the Summer season 2014 I hope it is a meaningful and a fun time, enjoy.

Spring season, Uncategorized

Spring season with sunshine

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No doubt about it, the spring has arrived once again to the Nordic region, the first signs are the calm weather, clear blue skies, and sunshine.

Then there are the signs from melting snow and ice, water drizzle down the pathways and the roadside. The lakes and the sea give way to clear ice-free water, and then the migrating water birds flock to and float on the first ice-free waters of the new year, another breeding season begins for the migrating birds that are anticipating the summer already, it is in their genes, and they know it.

There could be occasional brief snow shower and maybe a drizzle of sleet, but it is expected that the clear weather persists which means cold sub-zero temperatures during the night-time.  The early morning frost will mostly abate by lunch time, at least here on the west coast and the south parts of Finland.

The month of February last year was still had the winter feel about it, that’s how much the season can vary from year to year? Sometimes there is a good 50-60 cm of snow on the ground in February, but this year on the west coast there is very thin layer of snow, maybe 10 cm at places. Fair to say, that this year was not a good year for the snow sports in the south.

On the positive note is that the bike tracks and roads will be clear of snow and ice soon, which means that the bike cycles will come out earlier than usual during the spring. That means a lot of people will get active riding a bike to work and leisure and not catching a bus or driving their car.  That is a win for all round for health & fitness and the environment.

Pori Jazz, Pori Tori, Salads, Uncategorized

Nutrition at the Pori Jazz festival 2012.

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I went out to the Jazz festival to see what types of activities were on, and what kind of food venues, food service and snacks was available for the public at the market streets.

As usual the Pori market square (Pori tori) had a vast supply of fresh fruit and vegetables available, for everyday nutritional needs, and fresh fish and cooked fish products.  Many fresh flower stalls, craft and art items, and household items and summer wear also.

I found a lot of a lot of information on government services and local business, as a trade show there was a lot of brochures, refreshments and information packs, ranging from the Custom services to the protected National parks and wild life.

At the jazz street, on the south bank of the Kokemaki River, there are many food stalls and services, one in particular has fine dried berries and fruits, large range of nuts.  Also marinated and stuffed olives, and many great flavor filled items to add to your summer salad ingredients, available from the Pori farmers market.  Natural candy cherries, candied cranberries, dried strawberries, mango, kiwi fruits, sour cherries and pineapples, is a great good health alternative to the common food additive and color lollies, natural fruit and berries dried for snack foods.

Fresh salad ingredients, and marinated ingredients, add them to your summer salad table daily. Tomato salad, with fresh basil, Feta cheese and vinaigrette dressing.  Boiled new potatoes, fresh mint, boiled eggs, dried apricot pieces, and mixture of almonds and hazelnuts, with a french dressing and a baguette.  Many other suggestions by adding fruit and nut ingredients to a fresh fruit salad.

Pori Jazz week offers many family activities and entertainment, free concerts at various stages during the day time,  As always at the same time pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh fish products and flowers at bargain prices from the Pori Tori. By doing this you are supporting the local farmers markets, local food producers and small business operators, all in the name of Traditional Culture, Health and Nutrition.

Uncategorized

Strawberry plant

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Strawberry plant

Where is the origin of a strawberry plant, any ideas, would you like to guess, here is some information that I found out about a strawberry plant.

There are indigenous species of a strawberry plant, and also the other “commercial,” bigger, brighter, golf ball size ones that have been cultivated and crossed to maximize crop yield.

Not all strawberry plants are equal, neither are all strawberries equal, they look different, they taste different, and they are different.

In the cultivation of a strawberry plant, similar to general fruit and vegetables there are two extremes, the opposite poles,  just like there are the two extreme ends of human personality traits.  The Considerate versus inconsiderate, active versus passive, diligent versus lazy, creative versus dull, fast versus slow, etc.

We all know there are two stereotypes of business people, on one side there is the one with a passion for the product, takes into consideration the growing conditions of the plant, and the quality of the product for the customer.  On the other side, there is the other stereotype that is in it just for the money and does not care about the product, nor about the growing conditions or the quality of the product that the customer gets.  You know the one, we have all met both types especially being employed for someone else over the years.  The latter does not give a hoot whether what/when the/amount of chemicals and fertilizers are being used.  They are the type of people that should not be in agriculture or in any food industry, they should be in another appropriate industry. A debate about the above issue would go something like this; Bigger the strawberries grow, bigger the business profit, sold by weight of the product, not quality, and that the customers want to buy products as cheap as possible, they drive the markets.  Also that it’s not only the strawberry plant that has been cross-bred to perform, but also almost every other fruit and vegetables that are being farmed and cultivated.  So it seems that the business viability assessment and the profit margins are what determines what the fruit and vegetables are being fed.

Here is a citation from a web page.

“Indigenous species of strawberries have been found in most of the world’s arable landmasses, with notable exceptions including Australia; South America east of the Andes Mountains; the Middle East; and Africa (the Fragaria vesca strawberry species has been grown in the Middle East and northern Africa for a very long time and may also be native to those areas.  Strawberries for strawberry lovers.com. “

The wild strawberry of the Nordic region is fairly tiny small berry, compared to the cultivated type that is being sold at the supermarkets.

Just one cultivated strawberry weighs about the same as 5-6 wild strawberries.  The worst flavor with strawberry is the one with no taste, just bland water, cells, and fiber.  Strawberries that have been grown super fast lack taste, they look bright and beautiful, but they have very little or no taste.

“However, the “garden” variety of strawberry plant with which most of us are familiar today are known as Fragaria ananassa. “Ananassa” is Latin for “ananas-like”; Ananas comosus is the botanical name for the pineapple plant; and the strawberry plant was so named because of the supposed resemblance of the “berry” to a pineapple plant in shape, smell and taste. The F. ananassahybrid is a cross between Fragaria chiloensis (the “Chilean strawberry”) and Fragaria virginiana (the “Virginian strawberry”).”

Whether it is the Fragaria ananassa variety or not, the growing procedure and the season determines the outcome of the fruit not only with the strawberry plant.  A lot is being said about the growing of grapes, and how it affects the flavor of wine, and how little is said about the growing of strawberries.

“Among those that received a living F. chiloensis plant from Frézier was theRoyal Medicinal Garden in Paris, France. Consequently, it has long been speculated that the first F. ananassa strawberries may have grown in this royal garden. Whether this is correct or not, it is certain that the first “garden” strawberry cultivars did sprout somewhere in the southern England-northern France-Benelux region of western Europe.”

“Nevertheless, the first cultivated crossings of F. virginiana x F. chiloensisoccurred in Europe sometime within the roughly half-century span from 1714 to 1766.”

Where did the strawberry plant originate?  It is still a mystery to me, we know that there are indigenous strawberry plant species in North America, and South America, also strawberries grow in the Pacific islands, e.g. Hawaii.  Maybe after more study and reading, I can update this post with more details later on.

For more pictures of the Wild Nordic strawberry plant. Nordic cuisine focus.

8 health benefits of a Strawberry plant, 1 cup full of nutrition from strawberries. For more photos of a wild strawberry plant click on this hyperlink.

Health Diaries.com

strawberry plant
White flower pedals of a strawberry plant. Copy @ Rights Reserved 2012.
kielo name day, Uncategorized

National Flower Kielo

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Kielo name day is on the 14 June in Finland, Kielo is also the National flower of Finland, since 1967.

Lily of the valley flower in English, is called the Kielo kukka, in the Finnish language.

Convallaria majalis, commonly known as the Lily of the Valley, is a poisonous woodland flowering plant native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe and in the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States. -Wikipedia.

Legends and tradition.

The flower is also known as Our Lady’s tears or Mary’s tears from Christian legends that it sprang from the weeping of the Virgin Mary during the crucifixion of Jesus. Other etiologies it’s coming into being from Eve’s tears after she was driven with Adam from the Garden of Eden.  –Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_of_the_Valley

Other names include May lily, May bells, lily constancy, ladder-to-heaven, male lily, and muguet (French). In Bulgarian and Macedonian it’s called момина сълза /momina.səlza/ and момина солза respectively, meaning “lass’s tear.” -Wikipedia.

In the “language of flowers,” the lily of the valley signifies the return of happiness. Legend tells of the affection of a lily of the valley for a nightingale that did not come back to the woods until the flower bloomed in May.

All parts of the plant are highly poisonous, including the red berries which may be attractive to children. If ingested—even in small amounts—the plant can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, and a reduced heart rate. -Wikipedia.

Here are some scientific terms for the Kielo flower plant.

Kielo (Lilly of the valley flower.

Scientific classification:

Kingdom: Plantae

Clade: Angiosperms

clade: Monocots

Order:  Asparagales

Family:  Asparagaceae

Subfamily: Nolinoideae

Genus: Convallaria

Species:  C.majalis

Culture, Fruit, Ingredients, Natural Nordic Nutrition, SUmmer time, Uncategorized

The Nordic Berry Season

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The Nordic Berry Season

Summer without the Nordic berry season is not a real summer.

The berry season in the Nordic region is coming to the end of summer, the first two types of berries to appear on the markets are strawberry and raspberry, followed by bilberry and Lingonberry (Vaccinium Vitis-idea).  Currently, the bilberries are still excellent for picking, and not overripe.  Overripe bilberries break up easily and color your fingers bright red with bilberry juice.  The Lingonberries have a shiny red outer skin (reasonably robust), they grow in small clusters (2-6 berries), on the stems of a  short bright green shrub.  The red berries take some time to ripen, to test whether the berries are ripe, you merely squeeze one berry, and if the flesh is white, then the berry is not ripe when the flesh of the berry has become translucent pink in color, then the berry is ripe for picking.

Lingonberries are unique a source of nutrition in the Nordic berry season

Lingonberries are very robust berries, and they have preservatives in their own juice, they are sour/tart in flavor.  It is a unique fruit in the Nordic berry season, and it was also a significant source of vitamins and nutrition for the early pioneers that discovered the Nordic region.  When you think about it, the Nordic summer is short, 4-6 months, theyre are berries that appear at the middle part of summer (strawberry/raspberry), followed by the bilberry, red currants and other berries.  At the end of the Nordic berry season, there are the Lingonberries.

It was possible for the pioneers to gather the lingonberries and store them in a vessel (crushed) and the Lingonberry preserved itself without any extra additives or refrigeration needed.  How many berry types do you know that can do that?  After the Lingonberries are ripe in autumn, there is a considerable time before the winter arrives properly with constant sub-zero temperatures, during that time most common berries would not last the distance through to the winter, and that would be an essential vitamin source lost for the consumer.

No fruit, vegetables or grain foods available for picking during winter. During the winter months (6-9 mths), there is no fruit growing for picking and nutrition, the landscape is under snow and ice.  It would be late August to September when the berries were ripe for picking (some variation from year to year), that leaves about 3-4 months before the constant sub-zero temperature arrives in December (some change from year to year).  In theory, it would be possible to leave the Lingonberries on the shrub until the frosts came, but that allowed the birds and other animals to feast on them during the waiting time, also risky if there was a sudden snowfall that would cover the berry shrubs.

Storing the fruit from the Nordic berry season naturally.

In the early days when there was no electricity for deep freezers to preserve the summer fruit, which is a common practice these days, they could rely on the Lingonberries to last the distance through to the following spring season, now that is fantastic fruit from Nature.  The other berries would have been picked day by day and consumed fresh by the early pioneers.  Later on, the berries were crushed into fruit juice and made into jams with the help of extra sugar to preserve it.  Also with the introduction of wheat flour, sugar and ovens then came pastry making skills of making fruit-filled pies, e.g., bilberry pie.

The Nordic berry season provides an important nutritional boost for the consumer.

“The berries contain plentiful organic acids, vitamin C, provitamin A (as beta carotene), B vitamins (B1, B2, B3), and the elements potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. In addition to these nutrients, they also contain phytochemicals that are thought to counteract urinary-tract infections, and the seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids“.

The health benefits are real, and available from the Nature in the Nordic berry season.

Therefore it is a reasonable gesture/habit for people to exercise their will and choose a healthy diet that includes eating lots of natural berries at the Nordic berry season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_vitis-ida