[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 25 November 2025].
grand entrances
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 November 2025].
I discovered some grand and ornate entrances whilst wandering the streets of Helsinki in September.
The first photograph is of the Pohjola Insurance building on Aleksanterinkatu. Pohjola translates to 'North' in English. The building also originally housed another insurance company, Kullervo, and is made of fire-resistant stone. Nordea has owned the building since 1972.
In researching the building, I learned that Kullervo was a hero in Finnish and Estonian mythology, said to be able to control fire.
My eye caught the following sentence in the Wikipedia article about Kullervo, and I chuckled at who it describes well in the world right now: "He showed great potential, but being raised badly, he became an ignorant, implacable, immoral and vengeful man."
The second photograph is of an entrance to the Lundqvist building, also on Aleksanterinkatu, a former department store that now houses a Lyonnaise restaurant, Bouchon Carême, on the first floor.
The figures flanking the entrance are of Spinning and Hunting, designed by the Finnish artist Robert Stigell. I believe the ground floor was occupied by an ecologically-minded fashion boutique, Glasshouse Helsinki, until about 2022 (based on their final Instagram posts). I didn't notice what occupied it now.
The third photograph is of Salama House, also on Aleksanterinkatu. From my quick research, it appears that the insurance company it was named after no longer exists, and Wörks Agency now occupies it. They commissioned photographer Angel Gil to document the building's interior.
pretty fly for a white guy
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 November 2025].
When I photographed these fun guys on a grave in Hietaniemen hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery) in Helsinki, I honestly thought they were artificial.
I probably couldn't have got much closer, as the graves were quite close together, but if I'd realised they were natural, I probably would have tried.
Having viewed them, zoomed in, I'm sure they're real. There's no artificial appearance to the stem of the mature fly agaric mushroom in the front.
So, perhaps not my most artistic photograph, but some pretty impressive specimens captured in pixels for a Fungi Friday.
a mushroom village near pauligin huvila
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 31 October 2025].
I found this mushroom village under a tree by Pauligin huvila (formerly known as Villa Humlevik), a grand house built for master baker Gustav Ulrik Sandberg and his wife Ulrika Charlotta, with construction beginning in 1873.
The building was undergoing further updates when I detoured to take a look at it between visits to Hietaniemen hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery) and the Sibelius-monumentti (Sibelius Monument) (and to rest my blistered feet).
I have photos to share of all three in future posts. I'll share more information about them then.
For now, here are some fun guys.
the tammerkoski on a slow day
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 October 2025].
My brain can barely process that it was already a month ago that I was in Finland.
Correction: it seems like it shouldn't be a month ago, but simultaneously, it already feels like a year.
A day before I returned, I started coming down with a head cold. By the time I boarded the plane in Helsinki to return to London, my nose was dripping like a tap.
I felt much worse than most colds would usually hit me the day after I returned, but we were migrating our CMS to a very tight deadline in my day job, and I had to battle through. So I did.
I ended up taking one sick day after the contract with our previous web agency ended, because I was still struggling, and I woke up with a fierce headache. I'm still a bit sniffly and coughing on and off, even now.
Alongside feeling poorly, my day job being hectic and putting out fires related to that, I've been working on a website for a former manager of mine, around my day job, pet-sitting and life.
I'm pleased to announce that it went live on Sunday evening!
It was a collaboration, with Julia bringing the logo she'd previously commissioned, drafting the content and providing an idea of the style, imagery and colour scheme she wanted. I worked with her to bring that vision to life, providing technical expertise and advice, and my design sensibilities. I also designed business cards and a service explainer for her (digital and print).
She was very patient with me, as I was working on the site around my day job, pet-sitting, and life. I would have liked to have published it earlier, but in any case, her overwhelming emotion when I finally hit publish was such a lovely thing to share.
If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen some (but not yet all!) of my mobile photos from Helsinki and Tampere. Life has delayed me from sharing all my pictures so far, with most of them shared as 'latergrams'.
I had a lovely time in Finland, despite developing blisters on my pinky toes from new trainers and falling ill towards the end.
I had wonderful hosts in Tampere with Pia and her four-legged friends. Pia performed exceptional tour guide duties, including taking me to a local cemetery and introducing me to leipäjuusto (bread cheese) and its delicious accompaniment, lakkahillo (cloudberry jam) (which I had unknowingly savoured the first night in Helsinki with my cheese board dessert). I might also have guzzled large quantities of blueberry juice alongside the cheese and jam.
I've just seen the additional methods of serving leipäjussto in the Wikipedia article, so you know I have to buy some to experiment further, barring the coffee options (I don't drink coffee).
We enjoyed the option in the third bullet point: served as diamond-shaped pieces, roughly 5 to 7 cm long and a little less wide, with cloudberry jelly, the cheese briefly heated in the microwave to make it slightly runny.
I found a jar of lakkahillo in a boutique market near my hotel in Helsinki on my last day, which I carefully wrapped and stowed in my suitcase for the journey home. I devoured it in two sittings with blue Stilton because I hadn't got around to seeking out bread cheese locally. I will have to source more, though it seems somewhat elusive. I really should have bought multiple jars in Helsinki!
I took these photos from Palatsinraitin silta (Palatsinraitti Bridge), which crosses the Tammerkoski (Tammer Rapids), during my walk with Pia. In the first, fourth and fifth photos, you can see the Museokeskus Vapriikki. We didn't visit the museum during my stay. However, when searching for information about the building and a link to the museum, I discovered they currently have an exhibition about Manserock.
In addition to asking Pia to introduce me to local (non-animal) delicacies during my stay, I enquired about bands she might recommend from the Manserock movement, as I read about it in the Tampere article on Wikipedia.
Consequently, I listened to and enjoyed the sounds of Aknepop by Eppu Normaali and Raswaa Koneeseen by Popeda while researching things to see and do in Tampere on my first night in Helsinki.
geometries
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 February 2025].
It took me longer than planned to complete the trilogy. But here's the third and final instalment of my photographs of Parisi Udvar in Budapest, Hungary.
I previously shared my fortuitous experience visiting the arcade with my parents in May 2012. That piece includes information about the architecture and history of the building.
in the arcade
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 July 2024].
In May 2012, I flew to Budapest to meet with my parents, who were travelling through Europe.
We stayed in a small hotel, the Leo Panzió, on Ferenciek tere, near the metro station of the same name, not far from Erzsébet híd (Elizabeth Bridge).
On our first full day exploring the city, we started out slowly, each capturing the street and architecture near our hotel with our cameras.
Soon after venturing out, a fellow approached my dad, seeing the three of us with our cameras in hand and furiously snapping away.
I still don't know if the fellow was homeless or just a random passerby. I didn't speak to him much myself until the end of our 'tour' and, as we followed him into the building, I won't lie: alarm bells were quietly going off in my head for us as three non-Hungarian tourists, including two women, following some random guy into a building.
Maybe it was all my parents' teachings about "stranger danger" coming up from childhood, the knowledge that many tourists are scammed while travelling, or simply being a woman and aware that following strange men into unfamiliar places is not recommended.
Nevertheless, my dad was less cautious. And I will always be thankful for his trust in this fellow and what the fellow showed us that we would otherwise likely never have discovered.
We had been photographing the exterior of what had been known as Brudern-ház (Brudern House). It was rebuilt as the headquarters of the Belvárosi Takarékpénztár (the Downtown Savings Bank) starting in 1909 and contains the Párizsi udvar ('Parisi udvar' according to the signage on the building).
Google translates 'Párisi udvar' to 'Parisian courtyard', but 'Párizsi udvar' translates to 'Paris Court' and seems more commonly used. Based on the place and information from Wikipedia, the arcade was modelled on Parisian arcades, specifically, the Passage des Panoramas, and it incorporates Indian, Islamic and Moorish elements.
The building's architect, Henrik Schmahl, died in 1912 while undergoing intestinal surgery before the building's completion. Pál Lipták, the building's construction manager, oversaw the completion of the building.
When we followed the fellow through the fancy entrance with MCMIX written above it, we found ourselves in a mostly vacant, partially derelict but extravagantly beautiful former shopping arcade.
Signage told us the arcade used to house a store selling fine carpets. Another store sold leather goods, and another sold gold jewellery.
However, in May 2012, the arcade housed very little for sale.
It did, however, house a grand interior replete with lifts, telephone booths, ornate staircases, a magnificent ceiling, mosaic flooring, and classic shopfronts facing into the arcade and onto the street.
There were broken glass panels and some graffiti, but most of the arcade still seemed to be in a relatively good state. Little visible to us appeared to be unsafe.
The blue modern payphones were incongruous in their booths. But time had marched on in Budapest, and time had since continued its forward march beyond the usefulness of public telephones with the prevalence of mobile phones.
Despite still feeling a little nervous about whether we had walked into a trap for tourists, I snapped away in every direction, in thrall with my surroundings.
After we had seen and photographed our fill and my dad had tipped our impromptu tour guide for his advice, we moved on. But the place stayed in my mind.
So much so that, a couple of years later, watching an episode of Penny Dreadful, I was overcome by déja vu as Vanessa Ives entered a shop in an arcade. It took me mere moments to realise where the scene was filmed.
It was lovely to see the arcade appear lovingly restored and close to the appropriate period (the opening narrative of Penny Dreadful takes place in 1891, and the building was completed in 1913).
Over the years, I've spoken with friends about it and discussed the place and the circumstances of our visit there with my dad.
A while back, I went to seek the building out on Google Street View and discovered the building had been restored and is now a five-star Hyatt hotel.
As much as perhaps that isn't my ideal outcome for its restoration, they've retained much of the arcade's glory in the refurbishment, and I'm pleased to see it's found a new lease on life.
Despite knowing the arcade's name for all this time, I only translated it as part of composing this post. In doing so, I was reminded of the writings of a German philosopher, Walter Benjamin, about Parisian arcades, Arcades Project, which I read about in a book titled Psychogeography that my friend, Phil, gifted me.
I thought it interesting that Henrik Schmahl, a German-born architect living in Hungary, decided to 'import' a Parisian arcade to Budapest.
Hopefully, one day, I'll return to Budapest to lounge in the hotel foyer with a cocktail and admire the work done to restore a gorgeous interior.
Perhaps one day, I'll also have the funds to stay in one of the rooms in the hotel to get the complete experience.
Either way, it was a highly fortuitous and unforgettable experience during our holiday.
I thank whoever that fellow was who saw us and wanted to share his knowledge of his city with us avid photographers. I will forever be grateful that, despite my initial reservations, my dad followed a random man into a seemingly abandoned building. I hope that fellow will understand and forgive my hesitation.
marguerite in bud
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 17 May 2024].
parisi udvar
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 15 May 2024].
In May 2012, visiting Budapest with my parents, we ventured from our hotel for our first full day in the city.
Just on our doorstep was this beauty, containing the Parisi Udvar arcade, though its full beauty hadn't yet revealed itself when I started photographing the building's exterior.
I'll write a piece about it and our experience when I share the second of three instalments of photographs.
jesus and jules
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 May 2024].
leo/poldo ii
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 April 2024].
I captured these photographs of the equestrian statue of Leopold II in Place du Trône in Brussels during my visit to Belgium with my parents and then-partner, Kyle, in September 2014.
According to Wikipedia, Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians. Although he still holds the title of the longest-reigning Belgian monarch, by all accounts, Leopold II was a nasty piece of work.
See, in particular, his reign over the Congo Free State (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
I won't use the words 'founder' and 'owner', as we know there were already people there when he claimed those titles who had more right to claim ownership than he did.
I usually avoid capturing people in my photographs of monuments, architecture, street scenes, etc., but I quite like the moment I captured with these particular folks in the second image.
untitled #186
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 January 2024].
shot through the heart
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 27 October 2023].
scherpstellen, kleffe vingers
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 January 2023].
lamb's tongue (one o'clock gun)
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 November 2022].
basic (baby, you can drive my car)
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 November 2022].
rue des mineurs
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 26 October 2022].
crown imperial
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 June 2022].
neon chicks
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 June 2022].
full of goodness
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 June 2022].
The inscription on the headstone of this grave reads Eenvoudig en oprecht vol goedheid was uw leven, uw edel hart heeft ons zoveel gegeven.
According to Google Translate, it means Your life was simple and sincere, full of goodness, your noble heart has given us so much.
The other photograph I took of this grave showed the other two items holding more cobweb hens and chicks - or sempervivum - and the inscription, but it wasn't sharp and worthy of sharing. However, I decided to take the title for this image from the inscription.
I took this after the rain in the churchyard of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Wulveringem.
The church is opposite Kasteel Beauvoorde. We visited the castle (it was the reason we were in the town), but I've yet to edit most of the photos from there. Another task on my to-do list...