Seinäjoki Neon Lights

I believe this is the corner of our city where are the most of the Neon Lights. There is even a large screen with advertisements.

Frami F ready

Happy new year! This is the entrance of the new extension of the local technology center, Frami. The newest building is called Frami F. People will study business there. As you can see the surface is extraordinary. I'll take some "whole building" shots later.

Christmas trees yet available

Some people have a tradition of stealing their christmas trees from somebody's forrest. Well that's not legal. Here you can by one. I guess it will cost about 30 to 40 euros to get one. I'm not really sure, cause we are privileged to get our christmas tree legally from a relative's forest.

Santa's train

This train took a group of people to Koskenkorva. Twice today. It is the Santa's train. You can see him stepping out of the train. Actually this is a train maintained by the Haapamäki Museum Locomotive Association. This engine is called "Pikku-Jumbo", "Little Jumbo" and it was built in 1947 by Tampella. Below you can see it leaving he station.

White trees

 Cold weather tends to make the birches look all white. It's been -20 degrees celsius few days and about -10 when I took this photo. I quess you could say it's winter now.

Christmas tree of Seinäjoki

This is the official christmas tree of Seinäjoki. Behind it you can see the tower of Lakeuden Risti church.

Independent Finland 95 years

95 years ago, on 6 December 1917 the Parliament of Finland adopted the Declaration of Independence. We have a national holiday today. Finland Independence Day.

Itikka deleting finished

As I wrote before the company which was demolishing the old meat factory Itikka was called Delete. Well now the deleting is finished. Below you can see the "before" photo. Not exactly from the same spot, but I believe you will get the idea. I don't know if they will spare that much of the chimney. We'll see.

This is the same site from a different point of view. You can see the tree behind the sign on the right in the photo below.

The local transport regenerating

The operator of the local transport of Seinäjoki is changing in the new year. It has been operated by Veolia and will now be operated by Härmän liikenne. Veolia is a bigger company, operating in other towns and cities too. Härmän liikenne instead is a local company from Härmä, not far from Seinäjoki.

The local transport here hasn't really developed in the last 20 years. This change would maybe give a possibility for that.  However there was some kind of mixup in the competition and everything can still go back the way it was. That would mean Veolia would continue.

Härmän liikenne branded their buses as "Komia liikenne" (Komia transport). "Komia" is a finnish dialectual word for handsome and it is used in the marketing of Seinäjoki area.

Big Kicksled

This is a kicksled for a giant.

Wikipedia says: The kicksled or spark is a small sled consisting of a chair mounted on a pair of flexible metal runners which extend backward to about twice the chair's length. The sled is propelled by kicking ("sparke" or "sparka" in the Scandinavian languages) the ground by foot. There is a handlebar attached to the top of the chair back. "Kicksled" is a direct translation of the Finnish word "potkukelkka". Some other possible translations are "kicker" and "chair-sled".
 
If you have ever used one of these(smaller ones) it might have been from Seinäjoki. The finnish manufacturer of kick sleds,  Esla is located in the consolidated area of Seinäjoki.

Törnävän kartano by the frozen river

Törnävän kartano and the river. Seinäjoki river flows so slow that it almost fully frozes in the winter.

Red house by the frozen river

Red house by the river. -10 degrees.

Törnävän kirkko in the winter

Church of Törnävä. -10 degrees celsius. Too bad the sky is so gray. It was covered with a layer of thin white clowds

Törnävän kartano in the winter

Östermyra Mansion, Törnävän kartano. -10 degrees celsius.

Foggy winter lake

It was a foggy day when I took this. Well this is how the winter looks here.

Downhill

The downhill skiing has also started. This is not the alps, or even a mountain in Lapland. It's the small "Joupiska" hill of Seinäjoki. For the local skiing hobbyists it serves its purpose perfectly.

Winter sports

It took a while for us to get the winter season started as should....because of the missing snow.Now we have snow and people have started cross-country skiing.

Nocturnal snow creatures

 

Here is a portrait of some snow creatures. 

New hopital

This is a new extension to the hospital of Seinäjoki. It is under construction at the moment.The emergency room will be one of the services to move there when it's ready.

Metallic swans

This metallic work of art has 7 swans flock. 

A bit hard to catch the whole thing into a same photo.