Autumn photos from Myllyjärvi in Espoo

Myllyjärvi is a small lake in Espoo's Röylä district, north of Lake Bodom. We went with kids for a trip to 'some forest' and found it accidentally last week. We walked it around, it's really beautiful, peaceful place and it looks like it is worth visiting during summer. The lake and its surroundings are nature reserve.
There is a small beach and jetty at the shore. 
Take a look:

snow all year round

There was interesting article by Reetta Paavilainen in Helsinki edition of Metro newspaper on 10th October.
The last four winters were very snowy in Finland and there is still much of unmelted snow piled in some places. The attached photo shows huge amounts of the last winter snow in a snow dump in Maununneva (neighborhood of Helsinki). This snow will not have possibility to melt by itself before the new snow comes. There are plans to fence this area for security reasons. Snow can be melted in different ways, eg. by district heating, by using waste heat of the district cooling, or using waste heat of the power plant. 
Snow from the Helsinki region is dumped in numerous places but these places are not enough. There are plans to create the new places.
Part of snow is dumped into the sea, but snow from the city is mixed with stones and littered.
About the second photo - I took it from the train window at the Pasila railway station. I would not be surprised by such view somewhere in Lapland, but there were piles of snow in the middle of May in the very centre of Helsinki. We'll see what brings the upcoming winter ...

Finns - the cell phone makers

I got this link by Facebook from one friend: Le mappe degli stereotipi europei
I have seen already similar, more or less serious maps of the European stereotipes,
but this time I noticed something new.
Five of the twelve mentioned countries associate Finland with the mobile phones. 
In the wake of recent events concerning Nokia this looks really sad. One month ago Nokia's mobile phone business unit was sold to Microsoft. Since late 1990's until last year Nokia was the largest in the world mobile phone supplier. Nokia is to Finns much more than just a company:
YLE UUTISET (Finnish News) 4.9.2013: 'As well as making a huge economic impact, Nokia has had a remarkable psychological significance for Finnish people. The company has, according to some experts, greatly impacted Finns’ self-confidence.' ... 'After the recession, Nokia became a part of Finnishness. The company’s fortunes have had an impact on Finns’ morale, and self-confidence increased as the company's fortunes rose.' Markku Kuisma, a professor of Finnish and Nordic history at Helsinki University says: 'People don’t generally have an emotional connection to companies, but Nokia has aroused very strong feelings, both positive and negative, because its significance to national identity has been so powerful.'
Link to the whole article in English HERE.
Nokia began in 1865 from the pulp production of cables and rubber, i.o. rubber boots .. so the below picture is a truly bitter joke: (from Comedy Corner)