Midsummer, 20 Jun

We spent the day pounding little pieces of wood into the ground in interesting little patterns. Deb and Marty call it research. The rest of us called it work. Fortunately, these sites are mostly bug free and the weather was quite pleasant. We managed to finish off 5 of the 12 "plots" that need to go in. Niklaas, Dan, and I were "insertion" fools; once we got in to a rhythm, the buried wood stakes went better than anticpated. We found our way back to the hostel about 19:00 and had dinner. Today is the official Midsummer Day celebration, well, at least somewhere. Things are pretty quiet here in Vindeln. The young couple that looks after the hostel warned us they were having a party and it might get loud. It's 21:45 and it's still very quiet... Niklaas thought they were going to have bands playing in the park. They probably are, it's just that the park isn't in Vindeln. So, instead, it's a bit scary... no flowers in our hair (no comments about the blogger), no dancing naked around a pole, no pyres to the sun god, just 5 of us sitting in the hostel, each with a computer linked to the WiFi. I'm not sure that's the traditional way to celebration the day with the most sunlight....


Bird of the day: Common Blackbird.

Friday, 19 Jun

Yesterday was a good day for seeing Swedish wildlife. Coming back to Vindeln from a study site we saw a bull moose with stubby new paddles, and late yesterday afternoon when we got back to the hostel we spied this hedgehog running by. Niklaas and the hog bonded long enough for these photos taken by Dan Lindner. Today we headed back to bug-land and dug the last 4 plots. We've spent the rest of the day processing samples, and probably will spend more time this evening doing the same thing. Deb and Marty are measuring the carbon dioxide the "critters" decomposing each wood stake are giving off, and Dan, Niklaas, and I are drilling little wood samples out of each stake so that Dan can do some DNA work and identify the fungal "critters" devouring each stake. How many times can you do the same thing again? Way too many, it turns out. One thing about being somewhere where it stays light all night is that you dont' realize how late it is. When we finally looked at our watches last night, it was almost midnight. Definitely time to stop working! I'm not sure if we'll finish up today, but it will be close. Today is Midsummer's Eve; already the stores are shutting done early in anticipation of tomorrow's big Midsummer's celebration.

Thursday, 18 Jun

We were up by 8:00, but since I couldn't get into the grocery store last night, we were forced to have a PB&J kinda breakfast. At 9:00 we headed to the store to pick up some food for lunch and dinner before heading to the field. The parking lot was packed. Why was the entire town of Vindeln going to the grocery store at 9:00 am on a Thursday morning? Maybe they should stay open longer in the evening!! Now fully stocked, we headed out for sampling. The afternoon found as at the Norrliden sites. I believe they are the buggiest sites on the planet. We were no sooner out of the cars when the blackflies and mosquitos descended upon us, and then didn't leave us while we worked on the plots. The work went well. I excelled at my "strong back, weak mind" assignment. We managed to dig up 5 plots, 4 more to go tomorrow. Dinner at the hostel, and now we are processing the "parts" we retrieved today.

Bird of the day: Hazel Grouse (lifer).

Wednesday on the Water, 17 Jun

I left Suonenjoki under rainy skies about 8:00 this morning and headed west. As I left Suonenjoki, I passed a bunch of strawberry fields... hopefully those berries will be in season when I'm in town. Heading west, I went through stand after stand of beautifully managed pine, spruce, and birch stands. Some of those birch stands were just gorgeous, reminding me of the crosses in a military cemetery... neat, orderly, perfectly spaced. I saw a forester out planting seedlings with his Pottiputki. As I continued west, the skies gradually cleared. The roadsides were awash in blooming lupines and wild carrots. The lavenders, pinks, and whites were fantastic. Further west, blue skies finally appeared, but it was cold. Only 9 C. I arrived in Vaasa about 13:00, about an hour before I was suppose to be in queue for the ferry. I traded in my voucher for a real ticket, and then did a bit of birding. The ferry was late, and we were late departing. We sailed past Finnish island after island after island, out into the open waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, and then, what seemed like forever, headed straight toward Umeå. I had a chance to do some birding out the front window, and picked up a few "lifers". As we pulled into port, I was kicking myself that my camera was below deck in the car, but hey, anyone can take those smoozy island-with-the-scenic-lighthouse-on-the-rocky-island shots, so you get the ready-to-head-out-the-back-door-of-the-ferry-with-the-car photo instead. It was about a 90 minute drive to Vindeln. I arrived at 20:10, ten minutes after all the grocery stores closed. Ack! Deb, Niklaas, Marty Jurgensen from Michigan Tech, and Dan Lindner from the US Forest Service in Wisconsin pulled in about midnight. Tomorrow, sampling the plots.



Birds of the day: Northern Goshawk, Northern Lapwing, Common Kestrel, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Greater Black-backed Gull, Black Tern, House Martin, Northern Wheatear, Blue Tit, Song Thrush (lifer), Rook, Common Raven, Mute Swan, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Black Guillemot (lifer), Velvet Scoter (lifer), Razorbill (lifer).

Tuesday, 16 Jun

Another mostly basic day at work, except this afternoon I had a good meeting with Risto and Juha discussing our experiment using biochar as an amendment to peat moss for growing seedlings. I think we've about decided on a study plan, and hopefully we can do some preliminary testing in a month or so. After lunch I moved what I'm taking to Sweden down to the cabin by the lake, which will be the Dumroese abode when we return. I'll brag more about that later. About 15:00 Risto and I headed off to Kuopio so that I could pick up the rental car for use the next few days in Sweden. I ended up with a German-made Opel Vectra Wagon. It should work just fine. I cruised back to Suonenjoki, bought a disposable cooler for the road, cleaned my apartment, finished off the leftovers, and now it's about time to call it a day. Tomorrow I'm off to Vaasa to grab the ferry across the Gulf of Bothnia, landing in Umea, Sweden. Then it's an hour drive to Vindeln. Deb and Niklaas should be arriving around midnight. It'll be good to see Deb and Niklaas again. I'm anxious to hear about his adventures in Louisiana.

I think the hostel in Vindeln has WiFi. If not, I'll update you when I return to Suonenjoki sometime around the 24th.

Monday, 15 Jun

This afternoon the Finns were having a "field day" at a nearby research site. The plan was to talk about the research and demonstrate some data collection techniques so that the summer technicians, regular technicians, and others were all on the same page. After lunch about half of the participants rode their bikes the 9 km to the site. I hopped on the back of a tandem bike, and with Pekka steering, off we went. The last couple of kilometers were a big hill, up. I can't say, as a forester, I've ever rode a bike to my field site. The weather was so-so with on again, off again sprinkles. The ride back was a bit quicker, whistling down the hill, in the rain. After arriving back at the station, folks met down at the cabin by the lake for a BBQ, which translated into roasting sausages on sticks over the fire. We also had a crepe-like "pancake" with some raspberry-strawberry jam spread on it. Pretty darn tasty.

Bird of the day: Common Buzzard.

Sunday, 14 Jun

I was pretty lazy again today. Got up late, had some breakfast, did some work. About 14:00 I hopped on the bike and road into town. Visited Otto and then went to the grocery store for some odds and ends. I'm meeting Deb and Niklaas in Sweden on Wednesday, so I'm playing the game of trying not to starve but not have anything left in the refrigerator... a delicate balancing act for sure.

Today's photo is from the Kuopio Museum I visited yesterday. This red color with black or white trim is a common color scheme in Scandinavia. In front of these buildings they had a "historic" herb garden, that would have been used by earlier pharmacists in their work. It was a bit funny, as they had your basic dandelion growing in the garden, on purpose, with its own little sign, and the yard around the garden was full of the same plant. That's a lilac blooming on the right... the grounds were full of old, huge, lilacs in full bloom, and the aroma was heavenly.

Sorry, no new birds of the day. But I did discover a Fieldfare nest at eye-level right along the road going to the station. It had 3 big chicks hunkered down in it.

Saturday, 13 Jun

Okay, I took Friday off from Blogging. Not really much to say... work, work, and work. Today, however, was a bit different. I went with 3 other folks to Kuopio. Eevamaria drove her car, and we were accompanied by summer students from France (Max) and Spain (Joan). In an hour we were in downtown Kuopio. Many of the researchers who work in Suonenjoki live in Kuopio, because it's a much larger community with more of things that go along with much larger communities. We walked a few blocks to the central market, a large, outdoor affair. Lots of vendors selling lots of stuff: flowers (pots and cut), vegetables, baked goods, crafts, drums, and assorted junk. You know, just like a Farmer's Market in the US. They also had the inflated girraffe for the kids to play in. After a stroll there, we walked a few more blocks to the Kuopio Museum. This museum's main goal, it appeared, was to preserve some of the old wooden houses that were the old Kuopio. After WWII, because of Kuopio's place in the landscape (surrounded by lakes and "mountains", they systematically replace the smaller houses with apartments. Eventually somebody noticed they were running out of those old, classic, wooden structures. So, they moved them to the museum.

We then walked back to the market area, past this cathedral and park, and headed down to the harbor. On stage were some local muscians and some dancers doing just that. Nearby was a restaurant, and since it was now nearly 13:30, we went for lunch. I went to the buffet, advertised as "Find your prey on our buffet." Clever, eh? It should have been "How many ways can we prepare fish?" Raw, smoked, in a variety of sauces, cooked inside bread, whole, and pieces. Oh yeah, and potatos. It was good!

With full bellies we departed for Suonenjoki. Upon arrival, I had Anna-Maria show me the right setting on the washing machine, and I spent the rest of the day doing some laundry. The time zone business is a challenge, but at about 21:00 my time it's about 11:00 at home. I surprised both Niklaas in New Orleans and Deb in Moscow with a phone call. I had to wish Niklaas a happy birthday. He said he was on his way to a consignment store... I wonder what he bought... Around midnight we had a hum-dinger of a thunderstorm. I woke up thinking I was back in Illinois. Pounded on for nearly an hour.


Birds of the day: Black-headed Gull, Common (Mew) Gull