Sunday was a splendid day in Suonenjoki. The beautiful days just keep coming. I took a bike ride in the afternoon and noted a dog show/competition in Suonenjoki. It looked like a pretty big event, with all the cars and people and dogs. It appeared that the grove of Scots pine along the bike was a popular dog-walking area, and those trees should see much better growth next year. Today, Risto and Heikki picked me up about 7:30 and we drove about 75 minutes to the Tuusniemi Nursery operated by Finn Forelia. They sell all of their seedlings to customers, and are interested in how to reduce costs and increase profits. I reminded them they were growing conifer seedlings for reforestation :-). Today they were transplanting mini-plugs into larger containers, all by hand. The workers were paid by the piece, so there wasn't much conversation in the shed. We made it back to the station in time for afternoon coffee. I ran upstairs to stash my camera and binocs, and on my desk was a stack of containers, each with a different kind of berry. I didn't see a note so I went to have coffee, and joked to Risto that "Santa" had visited my office and left me berries.
After break, I found a note with the berries, and it was signed "Santa Claus". Really. This Santa had really nice penmanship as well. Santa left me black, red, and white (gold) currants and gooseberries. Here they are pictured with my raspberries. Santa also told me that I might need some sugar, and since Santa has never done me wrong, I rode my bike into town and got a small bag. Before dinner I did an extra rep of exercise to burn off the sugar... Okay, they are good with sugar, but I think they are even better with vanilla yogurt. The black currants have an interesting bite. I remember my mother and grandmother making gooseberry pie, and the main ingredient was sugar. Who can argue with their mother and Santa? I'm going to be a busy boy eating all this fruit.
Sunday was a splendid day in Suonenjoki. The beautiful days just keep coming. I took a bike ride in the afternoon and noted a dog show/competition in Suonenjoki. It looked like a pretty big event, with all the cars and people and dogs. It appeared that the grove of Scots pine along the bike was a popular dog-walking area, and those trees should see much better growth next year. Today, Risto and Heikki picked me up about 7:30 and we drove about 75 minutes to the Tuusniemi Nursery operated by Finn Forelia. They sell all of their seedlings to customers, and are interested in how to reduce costs and increase profits. I reminded them they were growing conifer seedlings for reforestation :-). Today they were transplanting mini-plugs into larger containers, all by hand. The workers were paid by the piece, so there wasn't much conversation in the shed. We made it back to the station in time for afternoon coffee. I ran upstairs to stash my camera and binocs, and on my desk was a stack of containers, each with a different kind of berry. I didn't see a note so I went to have coffee, and joked to Risto that "Santa" had visited my office and left me berries. 
After break, I found a note with the berries, and it was signed "Santa Claus". Really. This Santa had really nice penmanship as well. Santa left me black, red, and white (gold) currants and gooseberries. Here they are pictured with my raspberries. Santa also told me that I might need some sugar, and since Santa has never done me wrong, I rode my bike into town and got a small bag. Before dinner I did an extra rep of exercise to burn off the sugar... Okay, they are good with sugar, but I think they are even better with vanilla yogurt. The black currants have an interesting bite. I remember my mother and grandmother making gooseberry pie, and the main ingredient was sugar. Who can argue with their mother and Santa? I'm going to be a busy boy eating all this fruit.
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