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  Autumn changes nature to yellow and red. For a moment the landscape is full of colors. It is bright and beautiful. The evenings become dark. Enjoy candle light, maybe cups of tea and photos. This is Finland and Helsinki in mid-October 2017. Photos and video: Sirpa Pääkkönen   

Photos from Tallinn's Old Town by Sirpa Pääkkönen From Helsinki Finland it takes two hours to get to Tallinn by boat. So near but at the same time you’ll get to a very different world. The reason is history. Tallinn is a medieval city and has a very beautiful but quite small Old Town. Once it was surrounded by walls and there are still quite many old towers from the middle age. The Old Town is beautiful in all times of the year. Just now the autumn colors make it colorful, bright and charming even the weather can be cloudy and grey. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements are over 5,000 years old. So it is one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. Due to its strategic location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century, when it grew in importance as part of the Hanseatic League. Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a  Unesco ...

Fall colors deepen now  in Finland. I am glad I live next to the Botanic Garden in Kumpula Helsinki. There you can follow the change of the summer for the fall in several geographical zones.   The garden has plants from  North America, Canada, Japan and the Far East from the similar climate zones than Finland . Especially mountain ashes and maples now shine with a bright red and yellow. It is still partial green, but after a few weeks the greenery disappears, leaves fall and nature prepares for winter. Photos: Sirpa Pääkkönen 25th September 2016 

One morning you'll wake up and find that summer colors have disappeared. Deep green leaves in trees turn yellow and red. Nature creates a carneval of colors that will flourish a short moment, a few weeks. In Helsinki in Finland that happened today. The heat of the summer is gone, the nights are cooler and longer.  The sun appears only occasionally. Fall colors have arrived. Lets's enjoy the colors a moment. Photos: Sirpa Pääkkönen

Nature in Finland. Photos: Sirpa Pääkkönen Now there are last weeks when in Finland leafy trees are still green. Very soon the autumn changes the leaves red and yellow and they will drop to the ground. Usually the autum colors appear to Lapland at the second week of September and to the southern Finland a little bit later. During the fall colors the nature looks amazing. Anyway in Helsinki it is still warm an green. This year summer started already in May and is still going on at least for a while. We had quite much rains and a few very windy storms here, but the nature loves water. Here you have some pictures that tell we still have green here.

Kadriorgin upeasti remontoitu palatsi sijaitsee keskellä puistoa. Kuvat: Sirpa Pääkkönen Tallinnalaisille Kadriorgin puisto on upea ulkoilukohde ja rentoutumiskohde. Juuri nyt viimeiset keltaiset lehdet putoavat puista ja maa on kullanväristen lehtien peitossa. Puutarhan pieni helmi on vuonna 2011 avattu japanilainen puutarha, jonka suunnitteli Kiotosta kotoisen oleva Masao Sone . Keskellä puutarhaa on lampi, jossa solisee   vesiputous. Lampea ympäröivät suuret puut ja pensaat. Lammessa on kaksi siltaa. Tulossa on lisää siltoja, portteja ja teehuone, joka kuuluu olennaisesti japanilaiseen kulttuuriin. Japanilainen puutarha on tehty lammen ympärille. Penkkejä ei ole, koska tarkoituksena on liikkua ja saada kosketus luontoon. Puutarhassa on toivottavaa kävellä, rauhoittua ja mietiskellä. Puutarhan ideologiana on myös muuttua ajan mukana, kun kasvit venyvät ja rehevöityvät. Kadriorgin puistoa alettiin rakentaa jo vuonna 1718 Venäjän keisari Pietari Suuren mä...