The first frost of the year melting into mist in the morning sun

The title sounds like a bad parody of a Japanese poem, but it’s simply a description of what’s happening in the picture.

A very quick watercolour of the view from my office window, done before starting work.

The clearing in the middle right is a golf course, all frosted over. In the distance you can see a heating plant chimney (it heats up a whole neighbourhood) and the main radio tower in Pasila

Park Improvements, Etelä-Haaga

All summer I’ve been wondering how I would paint this little construction site.
It was interesting but somehow bland and uniform.
This morning the first red leaves appeared and the problem was solved.

Working in the city gardens is a very popular summer job for university students in Helsinki, but the men and women working in this park look like seasoned professionals.
All summer as I went by on by bicycle on my way to work, I would see them sitting under that purple parasol, drinking their morning coffee. I couldn’t help but think to the end of the movie “Office Space” and how much nicer it would be to be working outside in the sun, and actually get something real done.
A side note: There’s a stream behind the hedge at the back with a rare trout spawning ground that became polluted with raw sewage a few weeks back. Let’s hope they survive…