Kas in Finland 2009

Dumroese in Dumröse and Poland, Mon-Sun, 24-30 Aug 2009

2009-08-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Monday we had breakfast. The nice woman asked if we wanted scrambled eggs and sausage. We said "sure." The eggs were great, the sausage was your basic, all-American hotdog. Oh my. About 11:00 we were met at the hotel by our guide, Ewa Pękalska, and soon headed due west from Gdańsk under pleasant skies. We took the more rural, southern route, passing through rolling hills with a mixture of hardwood forests and farms. The chief crop was wheat, with a smattering of alfalfa, potatoes, and corn. From Dąbrówka we drove northwest and joined back to the main route, Polish 6, Europe 28, about 4 km east of Domaradz (formerly Dumröse). Here the countryside was more flat than hilly, and the Poles were combining wheat with a ragtag assortment of combines ranging from modern types with enclosed cabs back in time to those where the driver stood in front. Within minutes we were on the outskirts of Domaradz, pausing for a photograph of the sign. The village is situated south of the highway, and we turned south onto the first street, which was cobbles. The main roads are all cobbles, and they make a square around the village. Many of the buildings had dates on them, and most of them were from the early 1900s through the mid 1920s. At the south end of the village, we turned right heading west. At the next cross street were three large, brick buildings that probably dated to the early 1800s. Ewa thought these were the farm buildings that went with the estate operated by the Zitzewitz family, the nobility, from 1440 through 1945. The brick work was intricate. It appeared that a short wall, probably adorned with a fence, lined the cobble road heading north to the largest brick building. Due west of this road is what the current guide book calls the “Manor Park” and is the site of where the manor, or palace, or estate, or mansion stood. While we were standing on the cobbles, a local Pole, maybe 55 years old, came by on his bicycle. He said that his father arrived in Dumröse in 1945 just after the Red Army “liberated” it. Because Dumröse was situated along the main route from Gdańsk to Słupsk, the Red Army was following it toward Słupsk (Stolp). This Pole recalled his father telling him how the Red Army burned many of the buildings in Dumröse, including the manor, which was apparently occupied by the “good, fair, and friendly” manager, who, along with his wife, burned in the fire. An interesting story. Who knows? Remnants of the Manor Park were evident; ivy grew underneath the forest, and several large trees were still growing. A massive Fraxinus (ash), three large Pseudotsuga (maybe Douglas-fir), and several large Fagus (beech). Due south of the Manor Park still stood what appeared to be the oldest house in town, occupied by three generations of Poles. At the southwest corner of the village was the church, constructed, or reconstructed, in 1907. From it, heading west, was a tree lined (Quercus, oaks) pathway, probably an old road, that went out to the “Noble Cemetery.” Here, the Zitzewitz family was supposedly buried, although all I could find was a single, large, cross. The local farmer had run a fence across the road, making it difficult to get there. I was the only one who crawled under the fence to investigate. Again, the ground was covered with vinca and ivy. Apparently the daughter of the couple burned in their manor by the Red Army was the last to be buried there, just a few years ago. An interesting story. Who knows? We turned north at the church and followed the cobbles up the western edge of the village. We passed the school, which looks like the original structure from the postcard, and nicer looking homes. These seemed to have been restored more lately, perhaps by people commuting from Słupsk. Where the cobbles rejoined E28 a bar stood on the southwest corner.

We tried to find the “evangelical” cemetery where the German Lutherans would have been, but weren’t successful. It was supposedly “in the woods” to the east of the village. We followed the cobbles east from the southeast corner of the village, but couldn’t find anything in the woods that look promising. It wasn’t on my 1929 map, although the parallel rows of trees stood as silent reminders of where the old roads were located, matching my map perfectly. We then finished our trip into Słupsk and found our hotel, the Villa Intryga (hotel of intrigue situated within a military base). It’s very new, very modern, with a lovely view if you don’t look down into the base. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Tuesday. After breakfast at the hotel (and avoiding the now infamous “Polish sausages”), we spent the morning in the Słupsk archives, looking for ghosts. The building was a light green, nondescript building. The inside was “hospital green”. We hiked up to the second floor archive room. In it were three Germans who were digitizing every record in the archives, as they say, for future generations. The elder was Georg Nitzke, who was accompanied by a couple that was maybe 50 years old. I think they were excited to talk about something, and the hunt for Doom-rrruse-ahs was on. Within a few minutes we discerned that Lenor Sherdin was probably really a Schardin, Rosinhof was probably really Rosinenhof, and being born in Lauenburg was not a very precise location. Ewa ordered the first set of civil records, the only source available at this archive, and only dating from October 1874. The room smelled of musty books and for the most part, and after the excitement of new people wore off, the only sounds were clicking cameras and the noise made when you turn the page of a quality sheet of paper. It’s much more complicated that I thought, as every little spec on the map had its own source of records, so trying to figure out exactly which records to look through becomes the challenge. About 14:00 we decided to break away and enjoy the sunshine, and drove off to visit Lębork (formerly Lauenburg), a place named on many of my ancestor’s documents. Along the way we found the last White Stork (lifer!)in Poland a top a giant nest; all the rest had already left for Africa. We toured the city center (nicely restored like the others), noted the old wall and St. Jacob’s church, and did a bit of shopping. Rhoda found some nice Polish cotton fabric with an interesting print. We then drove another 15 km northwest to another spec on the map, Pużyce (formerly Püsitz), where my great-great-grandfather Edward (Eduard) was probably born. It was a village of maybe 15 homes, situated on a bit of an S-curve in the road, with lots of children running about. We drove through, turned around and drove back through, heading to the closest parish, which was in Breżno, about 2 km south. The church had been rebuilt in the early 1910s, and was apparently both an evangelical and Catholic church, which makes me wonder if there might be some old Lutheran records still there. We asked the locals where the evangelical cemetery was. As what would become the running joke, it was “in the woods.” We made the 500 meter walk out through a farmer’s field to the forested hill where it was. After World War II, the Germans were essentially kicked out of Poland, and the area they had occupied for several hundred years reverted to Catholic Poles. So, the evangelical cemetery was abandoned, and it looked like it. On the west end was a low, rock wall. The rocks were large and round, but the wall was only about 18 inches tall. Walking in, the cemetery was a jungle of trees, stinging nettles, tall grass, and other plants. One of the locals said that one of the other locals had tried to clean it up a few years ago, which I think meant they had cut down the hardwood trees, because stump sprouts were numerous, adding to the difficulty of seeing much of anything. The ruin of the cemetery was said, but I guess that’s what happens when you are on the losing side in a major conflict, the people who occupy the land have a different faith tradition, and the post-war struggle to just survive, and survive under a Communist system, takes precedence. We could find grave sites, and stones, but none with writing. The only marker still intact was a metal cross, and the name? Hertha Margoretha Domröse, the 9-month-old daughter of a Karl Domröse. A relative? Who knows?

We made our way back toward Lębork, skirting the main city to the east. We ate a “mountain lodge” restaurant along E28. The log building had a thatch roof and a large outdoor deck, where we sat, watching the sun set on another pleasant day in Poland.

Wednesday. Today we spent nearly 7 hours flipping pages in old books. We found a bunch of records for an Albert Dumröse, as well as for a Rudulph Dumröse. I have no clue if or how they might be related, but it was interesting to follow their lives recorded in German script. It was also interesting to see Dumroese spelled Dumroese, Dumröse, and Dumrös all on the same record. No wonder there are so many derivations of that name. About 15:00 we headed north and east from Słupsk about an hour to a tiny spot near the coast named Kluki. Here they have assembled an outdoor museum with original buildings from the late 18th and 19th centuries. It was interesting to see what some of my old ancestors may have had for homes and out-buildings. We then drove out to the coast and walked the kilometer to the sandy beaches on the Baltic Sea. It was getting late, a stiff breeze was blowing sand across the beach, so we enjoyed the view of the setting sun for a few minutes, and then headed for dinner. We returned to Słupsk and ate dinner in a restaurant beneath a museum near the old town. It was excellent.

Thursday. We hit the books in the archive office one last time. During the last three days we looked at all the records for places mostly south and west of Lauenburg. We really needed to see the records for places east of Lauenburg, but unfortunately they were in Gdańsk in the archive that was closed for the summer holiday. By about noon we were done, and headed east to look for Rosinenhof, the point of departure for the Ludwig Dumröse family when they emigrated in 1885. From Lębork, we headed south on to Cewice under sunny skies. Here we visited the “land office” to get some better directions on how to find Rosinenhof. After WWII, Rosinenhof became Klinka, and about 5 years ago, Klinka was absorbed into Karwica. We found out that Rosinenhof had always been a rather small spot on the map, and we would soon learn just how small small can be. With directions in hand, we headed south a kilometer or two, and then headed west toward Karwica. This little village, which had absorbed Klinka, was only a smattering of maybe 10 homes in a picturesque place of rolling fields and forests. Ewa asked directions from a local, and we continued another kilometer or south further west. Story had it that a school was part of Klinka. We found the old school building, which had been converted to a home, and its owner. The 60-year-old woman told us we needed to hike back east to find Klinka, so we did. We followed an old two-track through some woods until it re-joined a better gravel road, more woods, and then about 0.25 mile through a field, down into a draw with a small creek, and there was Klinka. It consisted of two buildings: a large home and a smaller barn. The road circled around back and dead-ended in a gravel yard filled with rusting farm equipment. As we past through the gate, an extremely agitated dog with fangs barred snarled and barked from the end of a stout chain. A good, intimidating watch dog. The entrance door was recessed in small alcove, and there sat grandma and grandpa and two grandchildren, one about 4 and another about 18 months. The man was sitting in a stuffed chair, the woman with her back against the wall and feet extending down the two stairs. She had an extremely sharp knife and two bowls, one with fresh pears and one with peeled pears. The pears were small, barely three inches long, and she could peel, divide, and core them into two pieces in seconds. Ewa had a long conversation with this congenial pair, and the grandpa indeed confirmed we were at Klinka, and from where we stood we could see it all. He thought it odd that one would travel all the way from the United States to look at two buildings. I found it odd, fascinating, that the Dumröse family would tell the agent at the immigration center at Castle Garden in New York City that this was their point of origin.

We ate dinner at the Restaurant Nostalgia, just 10 minutes east of Domaradz. It was an old mill with a lovely brick exterior and numerous pots of red geraniums. On its west side was the river and dam. The interior was gorgeous, decorated with furniture and furnishings that looked straight from the late 1800s and early 1900s. I ordered the trout that was to be boiled with vegetables in the traditional Polish way…. it came wrapped in aluminum foil.

Friday. By 8:00 we had finished breakfast and bid farewell to the Villa Intryga and were re-tracing our route back to Oliva to retrieve my computer cables. With that mission accomplished, we traveled down Al Zwyciestwa toward Gdańsk. Just before the Old Town, the traffic started choking, but we managed a left turn into the oldest portion of Gdańsk. Old in its heritage, new in its construction, old in its look. Gdańsk was pretty much leveled at the end of World War II, but meticulously rebuilt to its former design and glory. Neo-gothic and neo-renaissance ruled. Lots of intricate detail and gold leaf. Most of the buildings had elevated terraces or patios in front that led to the main door. We walked the main roads, all only for pedestrians, among the numerous amber and silver jewelry stores and vendors. Gdańsk is renown for its natural amber, which washes up out of the Baltic. At the main canal we looked over at the shells of brick buildings left over from the war, perhaps as a reminder of what was. About 13:00 we stopped at a shop and had some exquisite cake with coffee, and then walked over to St. Mary’s cathedral. The bell tower was being restored again, but for 4 Złotych you could climb up to an observation tower and look out over the city. Ewa and I took the challenge. The first third or so of the climb is a circular stairway about 30 inches wide with 8 inch steps. At the top the stairs opened up above the nave, and then it was regular stairs, and a lot of them. At about 400 stairs you climb the last steep 10 out onto the observation platform above the city, and the view was grand. Having burned off a few calories, we had some ice cream and then walked back to the car. Ewa delivered Rhoda and me to the Lezno Palace Hotel in Lezno. It was a palace, or manor, or estate and was now operated by the University of Gdańsk. Our rooms were in the annex, which from the old photos looked like it may have been the old carriage house. We ate dinner on the rear terrace. I had rabbit in mustard sauce.

Saturday. Rhoda and I had a bit of breakfast… the “Polish sausages” again made an appearance. We then walked through the main building (photo). Perhaps the Dumröse estate was similar in design and style. I asked the receptionist to confirm our shuttle to the airport, which she did. At noon we were on station for our shuttle. By 12:15 I asked the reception to call them. By 12:30 we found out the shuttle driver was lost and order a taxi. Fortunately, the airport was a short 10-minute drive and with Rhoda’s business class ticket, we avoided the long line at the counter. The flight to Warsaw was uneventful, and we arrived in a light drizzle. I walked with Rhoda as far as we could. We hugged at passport control. It had been fun to have her along and share the exploration of our heritage. I finally found an exit and walked in a down pour across the street to the airport Marriot. The weather and the thought of a $30 one-way taxi fare diminished my ambition to see old town Warsaw, so I had a bit of dinner and called it an early evening. I had to get up early for my 6:10 flight home.

Sunday. After 20 hours to travel, I arrived safely home. Whew, and thank God for business class! Otherwise, the trip would have been torture. Tomorrow, a summary…

Good-bye Finland, Hello Poland, 23 August

2009-08-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 23 August. I found Wi-Fi. Read on for a summary of Thursday (the 20th) through today… We left Helsinki under cloudy skies at 12:50 on Blue 1. Despite flying business class, we were stuffed like sardines into an Avro RJ85 with about 100 other poor slobs. Tiny little seats, cold pasta lunch, terrible leg room… pretty under-whelmed by the whole flight to Copenhagen. The only saving grace was the nice young German sitting with us (yes, 3 seats wide in business class). He was very friendly and helped make the time fly by (no pun intended). We had a short lay-over in Copenhagen, and then boarded a small CRJ200 (like the jets from Lewiston to Salt Lake City) for Gdansk. Rhoda and I held down row 2, all the Poles were seated in the last 4 rows of the plane. Nothing but empty seats between row 2 and about row 18. Weird. The food was better and the flight went fast. Before we knew it we were landing in Gdańsk. On approach you could see the older European architecture, and the mostly butt-ugly, square concrete apartment complexes of the Communist, post WWII, era. The old town area of Gdańsk looked inviting from the air.

We landed at the Lech Walesa airport. I think it’s the first airport I’ve ever been in where a pilot car leads the airplane to one of the three gates. We walked across the tarmac to the one and only luggage claim. With our luggage in tow we started looking for our ride. No signs for “Dumroese”. We had landed about 10 minutes early so we waited patiently, and finally our driver appeared. It took us about 20 minutes to drive to Oliwa (Oliva) which is north of, but still part of, Gdańsk. On the way we drove through Trójmiejski Park Krajobrazowy (I think that’s correct), which we had seen from the air. The 20,000 hectare (about 44,000 acre) park separates Gdańsk from the airport and is a really nice mixed forest… oaks, beech, Scots pine, maple, basswood, and others. We soon found ourselves at the Pensjonat Stara Karczma, a very nice little hotel (upper left photo). The rooms are spacious, clean, modern, well decorated, and inexpensive (about $70), and it has free WiFi. Life is good. It's lcoated right on a main street (photo). After settling in, Rhoda and I headed off toward the Oliwa Cathedral (St. Bernard’s Church). It boasts a 7000 pipe organ. It was just a few minutes away, and we went inside. Unbelievable. The pipes are surrounded by intricate, moveable wood carvings of angels with golden trumpets. The first church on this site was built in the 13th century, with reconstructions after fires in 1350 and 1577. The current style is Baroque, and it is in-your-face intense. Mass was about ready to start, so we waited to hear a bit of that organ, and then continued our walk. Adjacent to the church was some sort of museum, and the grounds around it were an arboretum. That’s me with an Alnus glutinosa, the biggest alder I’ve ever seen. We were impressed by the number of people out walking in the sunny afternoon weather. Old people, young people, families, lovers, all strolling and enjoying the wooded park and flower gardens. We eventually found an ATM and got some Polish Zlotych (3 Zlotych to 1 US dollar), then had some dinner at the El Paso, where else? It’s under the hotel and had some outdoor seating where we could watch Gdansk go by. The food was pretty good. Tomorrow, Dumrose?

Saturday, 22 August. Rhoda and I headed down about 8 am, had some breakfast, and then walked over and caught the 61 bus. It was pretty empty. At the Tikkurila station we boarded the first train headed for “downtown” Helsinki… it only made one stop on the way and at a top speed of 160 km/hr is didn’t take long to get to the main station. As is becoming my custom, we left the station and headed southeast toward the Lutheran (Helsinki) Cathedral and the Market Square. Rhoda and I prowled the vendors; she bought some souvenirs and postcards, and we had a pear and Nutella crepe at my favorite crepe stand. About 11 am we boarded the ferry for Suomolinna. We walked the main path in simply glorious weather: sunny, warm (70 F) in the sun, although it was a bit brisk in the wind. The islands were covered with Finns soaking up the last long rays of summer, either sun bathing or picnicking. After a couple of hours, we headed back to the Market Square, visited the nearby Market Hall, and then did a bit more walking/shopping in the area, working our way back to the Senate Square and the Lutheran Cathedral. We couldn’t get in right away because of a wedding, so we soaked up some sun on the south-facing steps in front of the cathedral. After touring the inside of the cathedral, we agreed the crepe was long gone and decided to find some dinner. We tried a Finnish restaurant on the main street but needed a reservation (too bad, because the food sounded good and the prices looked good) so we ended up at Nuevo (yes Tom, we ate there last fall) for a very delicious meal. After dinner we hiked back to the train station. Rhoda bought a couple more stamps at the Kioski and after about 10 minutes we were heading back north to Tikkurila station, repeating our train and bus sequence back to the Hilton. Rhoda retired to write postcards. I put my feet up. After a day of walking on cobbles, my dogs were barking.

Friday, 21 August. Wow, my last day in Suonenjoki. Where did summer go? I finished packing and did a little cleaning before Rhoda and I headed up to the station for the 9:00 coffee break. After coffee, Rhoda and I stuffed my suitcase, full of everything I really didn’t need for Poland (extra clothes, photocopies, bike helmet, exercise gear, etc.) into a couple of taped-together boxes to be shipped home. It didn’t look too pretty but should do the trick. I turned in the key to my trusty bike. Farewell faithful friend. Heikki stopped b y with a nice birch serving tray as a going away present. That was kind of him. I had everything wrapped up by the 14:00 coffee break. While everyone was assembled, I made my last rounds of “good-byes” and then Risto drove us to the train station. We were a bit early, as I like it, and had some final small talk before the train arrived. Risto helped us toss the luggage into the train… this was an express train, so the cars appear a bit older and the steps a bit more steep, so his help was appreciated. It was very warm in the train, even with a few open windows and a cruising speed of 160 km/hr. At Kouvola we had to switch to a much nicer intercity train into Vantaa and the familiar Vikkurila station. Because it was 18:00, we made the short walk over to the Thai restaurant for dinner. We then caught the 61 bus, using our tourist transit cards purchased at the Kioski, out to the Hilton.

Juha, Marji, Jaana, Evemaria, Heikki, Katri, Timo, Risto, Markku, and Leo

Thursday, 20 Aug. This morning at 9:00 I introduced Rhoda to the coffee break, and then gave her a tour of the building, the nursery, and finally my office that has been my home for the summer. After the 14:00 coffee break it was time for my seminar. I knew I would have non-nursery people, so I tried to keep it fairly general, and fairly short. I introduced the differences in latitude between Finland and the US, gave one-slide summaries of nursery practice in the southeastern northeastern, and western US, contrasted the main differences between nursery practices in Finland and container production in the Pacific Northwest, asked some questions of my Finnish experts, briefly discussed the new collaborative work between Metla and the Forest Service, and then finished the program with a few memory slides. In attendance were Elena, Otso, Marji, Risto, Juha, Markku, Heikki, Evemaria, Ville, Leo, Jaana, Timo, and Katri. After a few questions, we moved down to the cottage by the lake. Heikki was busy in the kitchen and appeared to be chief organizer. We feasted on a what I think was a turnip and pineapple salad, green salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, rye pasty stuffed with lamb and garlic (photo), and raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream for desert. Risto gave me a nice Suomi cookbook as a parting gift. After dinner, the party wound down fairly fast. Markku, Juha, and I took a sauna. When we were done, it was the girls turn. Rhoda and I helped clean up a bit, and called it a day.

Wed, 19 Aug

2009-08-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Suonenjoki, along with my new house guest. Yesterday I caught the noon train to Helsinki. I arrived at the Tikkurila station in Vantaa (just north of Helsinki) about 16:00. I took compassion on a tall German who was trying to figure out how to get to the airport. Since I was heading that way, I took him in tow, and we boarded the 61 bus to the airport. He went to the terminal, I walked over and checked in to the Hilton. My sister Rhoda wasn't due in until 19:30, so I took a little nap and ate the free chocolates. About 19:00 I walked back over to the international terminal and discovered her Polish Air flight was actually arriving in Terminal 1 (the domestic terminal, I don't know why) and she was arriving 15 minutes early. So, I hustled over to Terminal 1. And waited. And waited. The board said she had arrived. And waited. Where is she? And waited. Because the baggage claim was behind customs, I couldn't see in to see if she was waiting in there or not. Finally, it was nearly 20:00 and still no sister. I found the girl on the scooter who looked official, and she informed me that about 20 Polish Air people had been sent to the wrong baggage claim.... ahhhh, that's where she is. Almost as soon as I started for Terminal 2, there she was. We hiked back to the Hilton, talked for a long time, ate a little dinner, and finally called it a day.

This morning we had a bit of breakfast (way too many choices), caught the 61 bus back to the train station, found Otto so Rhoda could get some funny money, and made our way to the correct platform. We were joined by Heikki Smolander, the director at Suonenjoki, and boarded the 11:16 train for the 4 hour ride "home". Rhoda and I broke up the ride by having lunch in the dining car, and Heikki and I shared an afternoon coffee break there as well. A shuttle met us at the Suonenjoki station and ferried us back to the station. We took a walk, took refuge in an empty greenhouse as it rained hard for about 10 minutes (nice rainbow), and then had a potpurri of leftovers for dinner.

From here on out, blogs will be hit or miss depending on time and WiFi access. If nothing else, I'll post a summary blog when I get back to Moscow, the first of September.

Monday, 17 Aug

2009-08-17T10:09:00.001-07:00

It felt like October today... strong, cold wind blowing rain about. A good day to stay inside and look outside. I spent the day working on my seminar for Thursday, and discussing the Iliamna germination study with Katri and Markku. I feel kinda bad. I thought the study would be a "quick and dirty" little venture that we could do and write up this summer. Someone forgot to tell the Iliamna seeds. Those seeds are a curious bunch and I'm looking on the bright side. When we finally get them to germinate, we will have a better paper for it.

I believe some sort of history was made today... a meal without a potato :-). I joke about this a lot, but the spud is a really amazing staple in the diet, and a meal without just didn't seem right. Tonight I went out to exercise and the wind was still cold. One of the greenhouses is empty so I went inside and did my circuit. It was still cold but at least I was out of the wind. It was so nasty that even the Wagtails came in and joined me.

This may be about my last blog. Looking ahead, I should be able to tell you on Wednesday how my sister faired on her first international flight. Festivities after my seminar on Thursday may preclude an update. Then, we head to Helsinki midday on Friday and I know the hotel doesn't have free WiFi and I'm too cheap to pay for it. If I find some WiFi in Poland, I'll put up a blog. So, keep checking, you never know. If nothing else, I'll run up a summary blog on the first of September!

Sat, 15 Aug

2009-08-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's still sunny here in Suonenjoki, but noticeably cooler. I spent most of the day working on a manuscript; I'm way down on the authorship rung but I just couldn't help whacking it with editorial gusto. It's going to be a good paper. Speaking of manuscripts, I was relieved that yesterday Juha gave me a thumbs up on the paper I've been working on. Maybe I have some of this soil physics stuff finally straight in my brain. After lunch today I made a trip to town. Got some cash from Otto and a few groceries. I'm starting to play the game of having just enough to eat with nothing left over. It's a little more complicated because my sister will be here, and I probably should be a good host. I had to wear my fleece while riding into town, but took it off for the uphill ride home. I'm going to make myself some dinner, have a beer, and maybe turn on the television. Here's a couple of photos from Suonenjoki for your enjoyment...

Down on the Farm, Thu, 13 Aug

2009-08-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

Today about 15:00 Timo and I left work, headed for his 100-ha farm southeast of Suonenjoki. It was about a 55 minute drive. He has a gorgeous farm that has been in the family for three generations. It's mostly a tree farm, with some ground that he rents to the neighbor who cuts the grass for silage. Upon arrival, Timo gave me a tour of the house (and the cavern that he fills with firewood, oh my). Then, it was off for a hike and tour of the farm, and some berry picking too. Timo has a smattering of small tracts in varies stage of growth, from recently planted on up. Some areas are pine, some spruce, and some birch. We looked for chanterelle mushrooms but only found a few scattered alongside the driveway, but did better with raspberries and blueberries. The raspberries fell off the canes when you bumped them, and they were very sweet. Back at the house, Timo started making chanterelle soup (last year's crop) while I herded the spiders and other critters out of the berry collection. I knew that tomorrow morning they were going to taste great. The soup and Chilean wine were fantastic. After dinner we walked down to the lake and sauna. The view was picture postcard perfect. Lovely, mostly isolated lake with the sun setting behind it. We fired up the sauna and the nearby grill, retreated to the house for "snacks" and towels, and then returned to enjoy the sauna and the customary, invigorating, dip in the lake. Timo says the lake was warm. After a couple of cycles through the sauna, Timo had grilled up some sausages and corn on the cob. We finished those as the grebes made their last calls from the lake and the Whooper Swans announced their return to their nighttime retreat. A lot more talking and eventually a little cognac for a nightcap (or was that a morning cap?). I tried not to think about how short the night was going to be.

Wed, 12 Aug

2009-08-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

My time in Finland is quickly fading away. I'm feeling the pressure to try and squeeze in as much work as possible this week, because next week will be chaotic. My sister arrives on Tuesday, I have a final presentation to give on Thursday, and Friday afternoon I say goodbye to Suonenjoki. So, the past two days I've been grinding on a manuscript based on ancient data. Fortunately, I have a resident expert on the same topic residing across the hall. I took advantage of that today, spending an hour with Juha Heiskanen trying to get my brain wrapped around soil water physics. I'm not sure what has experienced more shrinkage.... the peat in my experiment or my brain. The paper will be better for it! I also got a lesson in the proper way to eat lingonberry mousse-stuff. I started out with it plain. It was dry, like a dry wine. Kinda sucked the saliva out of my mouth. Eevamaria told me all good Finns eat it with a bit of milk. I then put some sour milk on it. No, no, no. Plain milk. Well, after three helpings I got it right ;-). The afternoon turned to drizzle and it still is (it looks like the same weather in Moscow today). So, I leave you with a photo from Suonenjoki on a day that had better weather. It's your basic building painted in the classic color with the traditional style fence in front.

I've been invited out for tomorrow evening so I won't post again until Friday. I know you're all disappointed...

Christmas?, Monday, 10 Aug

2009-08-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Saturday, 8 Aug

2009-08-08T11:20:00.001-07:00

Another beautiful day in Finland. Sunny, warm. I did a bit of work and then headed into town for some groceries. It seems like the whole town turns out on Saturday morning. Lots of people riding their bikes and just as many walking. The three main blocks of Suonenjoki were just crawling with folks. I picked up some groceries and then visited the berry lady outside the market. She was selling the last of the strawberries (pass), blueberries (4 Euros per liter, pass, still have a few left), and the first of the year raspberries (2 Euros per half-liter). That works. I figured that I picked my own $11.50 worth of blueberries the past two weeks so I could splurge on some fresh raspberries. Riding my bike back to the station I noticed that the gooseberries (Ribes species) are just about ripe as well. Reds and blacks. Many folks have them covered with mesh to fend off the birds. I was also wishing Niklaas was with me, particularly when I past the guy wearing the crocheted Karhu beer can hat. I was wondering what color he'd like. (And, he's so fun to joke around with). A bit more work, some laundry, a little fresh fish dinner, and now I'm watching a bit of futbol (soccer)...

Gone birding, Fri, 7 Aug

2009-08-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

I met Risto in the parking lot about 7:00 and we headed northwest of Suonenjoki, about a half-hour drive, to Lintojärvi, Lake Linto, for a bit of birdwatching. This area is on "peat land" and many areas were being harvested. If I understand correctly, the company was inspired to create habitat as part of the restoration process. We arrived and immediately climbed the observation tower for a look-see. And we saw birds. Lots of ducks, waders, warblers, and herons. Common Cranes were bugling all around us, and one gave us a nice fly-by to show off. Aldo Leopold loved the sound of cranes in the early morning on Wisconsin marshes. I bet it is just as good on Finnish peat lands. It was nice being up near canopy level and looking at warblers on their level. It certainly was easier. We then walked around this fairly large lake. The edge of it is reverting to birch and the intensely thick birch thickets were the haunt of the Robin. It sounds like our American Robin (and that's probably how ours got its name) but that's about where the similarity ends. Although they were chatting to us the whole time, I only got one so-so look at this rascal. And, being on peat land, it was a bit buggy. I can't say that I've ever had a mosquito bite me on the palm of my hand before. We birded until about 10:00 and saw 30 species, and I think 4 of those are lifers (I've lost my printed list of "seen" birds of Europe. I'll have to check the recycling bin in my office on Monday.)
I was a good boy the rest of the day and stuck to my office and work; although I did have a big bowl of ice cream with raspberry goop for afternoon coffee break. The photos today are of lupines. You can find these non-natives along nearly every road in Scandinavia it seems; part of one of those good-intended beautification processes. The come in blue and pink and white and all shades in between. Although most of them have gone to seed, a few optimistic individuals think that they can still beat the first frost!

Birds of the day (any of my birding friends still paying attention?): Grey Heron, Osprey, Great Grey Shrike (lifer), Robin (lifer), Lesser Whitethroat, Greenshank (lifer), Redshank, Wood Sandpiper (lifer), Jay.

Thu, 6 Aug

2009-08-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

It seems the longer I'm in Finland, the more difficult it is becoming to remember what day of the week it is, and what the actual date is as well. The ebb and flow of the daily routine, I guess, are melding into uniformity. Not boring, just uniform. It was another absolutely spectacular day in Finland. From what I hear, last summer was cold and wet... I'm glad I could bring some of that dry, Idaho-style summer weather with me (although it looks like Moscow is cooling off for a bit of a change). It was a quiet day in the office, and a quiet day in the station. Most everyone was somewhere else. I hauled my linens up to the station for a trade-in. They have a full-time cleaning woman who keeps the place imaculate, and does the laundry for the linens in the guest houses (and maybe the station kitchen too). She speaks zero English. When I dropped off my stuff, she was no where to be found; probably off cleaning some remote corner. So, I did a quick Google translate and left her a note in Finnish. Scary, eh? I always run the translation backward just to double check. Well, about 20 mintues later she delivered the fresh towels and bed linens, with a huge smile on her face. Maybe she thinks I'm becoming fluent in Finnish. Ha ha. Or just appreciated my effort to speak to her in her native tongue.

Another little Nordic tradition is the wrap for the comforter for the bed. It's like a giant blanket sock into which you stuff a warm comforter blanket thing. The first time I dealt with the task it reminded me of trying to put tooth paste back into the tube, but tonight I restuffed in record time. Ah, life skill development. Here's a few more photos of the Suonenjoki. I recall my first trip around the lake, or the widespot in the river, this June and there were scant few boats. It appears that the population might be peaking.

Wed, 5 Aug

2009-08-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Your basic day at work. I spent most of the day reading about carbon isotopes, isotope discrimination, depletion, enrichment.... by 16:00 I was ready to do something, anything, else. Although the morning started out pretty gray, it turned into a really pleasant afternoon. Sunny, about 75 F. I hopped on the bike and took a nice, 90 minute bike ride in and around fair Suonenjoki. The sun at this latitude kept making me think I was riding my bike in September, but that sun also showed off the nuances of this nice little town. I'll share more photos with you during the next few days. Apparently, much of Suonenjoki had the same thought that I did (nice day to go outside; probably not that they were bored with carbon chemistry).... lots of folks riding bikes, pushing baby strollers, and swimming in the Suonenjoki. Elderly folks cruising the streets on their 4-wheel scooters, or zipping down the street with their walking poles. As I cruised through town I noticed the end-of-the-season strawberries were down to 3 Euros per liter. I was kicking myself I didn't bring any money. They looked really good. BTW Niklaas, it's still the same cute girl selling them. I had a WiFi snafu yesterday, so keep on reading below this entry!

One big nursery, Joroinen, 4 Aug

2009-08-05T08:13:00.001-07:00

Risto and I drove south and east of Suonenjoki, about an hour's worth, to UPM's nursery at Joroinen. To say this is an impressive nursery is a bit of an understatement. This nursery produces 50 million spruce seedlings each year... They use 6 different growing regimes to essentially produce the same target seedling. The challenge they have is trying to grow a seedling that looks the same regardless of when, and where, they start it. Some seedlings are outplanted in one year whereas others take 1.5 years. Tom Landis and I visited this place last year and were amazed by the huge greenhouses. Gotta blimp you need to park? I know a spot. Despite lots of greenhouse space, most of the crop is in outdoor growing areas. Risto and I had a bit of lunch in Joroinen and stopped for coffee on the way back to Suonenjoki. We spent a lot of time discussing trends in nursery research, comparing our respective notes, and again wondering what our collaborative research might look like. By the time we returned, it was about time to call it a day. I got in my exercise and tried to upload this yesterday, but a little WiFi snafu prevented that...

Monday, 3 Aug

2009-08-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Besides the obvious darkening of the night, it appears another tell-tale sign of summer slipping away (and I actually have to turn on lights at night) is that more and more scientists are appearing at break time. For the past two weeks we've barely had a quorum, but today we actually overflowed to another table. I'm trying desparately to kick the collaborative research projects into gear. It seems that science never goes as smoothly as planned, and trying to coordinate new projects on two continents with 10 time zones in between is a slow way to do work. I'm certain it will pay off in the long run, but at times it seems like I'm punching the tar-baby. My friend Jeremy has a new nickname for GovTrip... GovTrap. Sounds about right to me. I've been trying the better part of all day to sign in but it won't let me. So, tomorrow, I'm going to the field with Risto. We plan to visit a nursery and maybe see some birds. We've been trying to just chat and compare Finnish and US nurseries, so perhaps tomorrow's windshield time will allow us to do that. Rumor from is that it's hot, hot, hot, and now smoky too. I won't rub it in, but it looks like you might get a little Finnish-like weather later in the week (75 F, sunny). Today's photo is from the kitchen.... not a bad view.... could be better if I close the computer... okay, I'll do that right now.

First days of August

2009-08-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

I spent the first day of August in the usual Saturday way: slept in, work, laundry, rode bike to grocery store, laundry, sauna. Pretty ho-hum, eh? The past couple of Saturday evenings have been more interesting. One TV station shows 1960-1970 US counter-culture films, and then follows that up with a documentary about that film. Last week was "Easy Rider". Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson. Took a long time for that movie to get going.... Remember, two biker guys driving through a lot of great western scenary, not much dialogue, lots of weed, and they eventually get killed by rednecks in Louisiana because they "were different". I'm thinking that not only were they smokin' weed in the film, they must have been smokin' weed when writing the screenplay. The documentary afterwords was much more enlightening. I now understand. This Saturday it was "Dog Day Afternoon" with Al Pacino. He had just found huge success with the Godfather and Serpico, and was taking a big gamble doing this "based on a real story" movie. Remember this one? Two guys try and rob a bank. Al's character is robbing the bank so that his transvestite "wife" can get a sex change operation, but he's still married to his woman wife and has kids. You know, truth is stranger than fiction? Both films were in English and unedited. Whew. Again the commentary afterward was excellent, particularly because they gave real insight into the real bank robber, an odd guy. But, I have to be a real night-owl to watch these as they end at about 1:00 am, and now, it's dark at that time....

So, today, I slept in again. The forecast was for thunderstorms so late this morning I picked another batch of blueberries under ominous clouds. They are bigger than last time, and sweeter too. I suspect that there won't be too many left by next week... my last chance for purple pleasure. Apparently, the mosquitoes thought it might be their last chance for blood. They were particularly pesky today. After putting a liter of berries in the refrigerator, I took a quick cruise into town and picked up the last of the groceries I couldn't carry yesterday. I bought an ice cream cone-thing and ate it in front of the store, watching Suonenjoki go in and out. It's always fascinating to see what walks by... I took my recycling in today as well. I got back the equivalent of US$ 2.45. Wow you say? Not really. That was for 9 aluminum cans and one 1.5-liter plastic bottle. I can see how that might encourage more recycling and less roadside litter. I managed to beat the rain home, even had some time to run my exercise route, just barely. It's been sputtering the rest of the day, while I worked on my travel claims for this trip (ack!) and travel forms for international travel in late September (double ack!). Dreay weather, dreary task.The joys of working for the government...

Thu and Fri, 30 and 31 Jul

2009-07-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a long day. Leo picked me up at the station at 6:15 and we headed north, through some occasional ground fog, to Kuopio where we picked up Risto. From there, we continued north to Kajaani under sunny skies, where we headed east to Sotkamo and "Katin Taimitarha" (the Katin Nursery) operated by Pohgah Taimi Company. We arrived about 9:15 and were met by the manager, Jaana Mannermaa and her assistant Esa Kovalainen. We toured their 10 million seedling operation (they were packing spruce seedlings for summer planting), had a bit of coffee and pastry, received some nice gifts, and by 11:30 we were heading north toward Ristijärvi and "machines." Somewhere in the hinterlands between Puolanka, Hyrynsalmi, and Ristijärvi, and after discussing the fungal disease that was turning the tops of all the spruce yellow, we found our first one. This machine was for "tending" young plantations. Essentially, it's a giant weed puller. The apparatus gets placed over the target tree, and then hydrolic clamps grab the tops of the offending vegetation. When it is lifted, it pulls the "weeds" out of the ground. The original prototype just cut the weeds, but they quickly sprouted back. This is deemed a more permanent solution. Given that most of the site was aspen suckers, it was probably prudent. We then zoomed off in search of the "M Planter". We found it up a really crummy road, after having first gone up an even crummier wrong road. We had to walk about 150 meters to where the machine was working. Instead of 5 minutes, it took about 20 minutes as we had to sample the blueberries along the way. The M Planter attaches to your basic tracked excavator and has two independent tree planters that hold about 100 seedlings each. The operator makes a scalp to remove big debris, then piles some mineral soil to discourage those pesky pine weevils, and finally plants a seedling in the middle, all from the comfort of his cab. On a good 8-hour day the machine can plant about 2000 seedlings. It was already mid afternoon when we started to head back, enjoying all of the blooming fireweed along the way. We picked up a sandwich (a fried egg, two thin pieces of ham, some cucumber, and mayo on thick, dark bread) and some coffee and then headed south toward Rautavaara. Timo Korhonen had called Risto about a "seedling problem" and because we were, more or less, heading that direction, we decided to stop by. We found the Timo Korhonen Taimitarha (Timo's Nursery) near Kangaslahti. After quite a bit of time on our hands and knees looking at his alive, dying, and dead miniplug spruce, we concluded it was probably heat injury and again started for home, back through Siilinjärvi to Kuopio to Suonenjoki. I walked back into my apartment at about 21:30. A long but good day.

I thought I'd do a quick check of my email. Mistake. When Rhoda and I go to Poland the end of August, we are spending the first night in Gdansk. It happens to be a favorite summer destination for Poles, so the person organizing our trip was more than a tad anxious that we still did not have accomodations. Fortunately, she sent me a great link and I felt compelled, after looking at all the hotels with "one room remaining" and "only two rooms remaining" and was able, eventually, to book some rooms. I also had promised to call Niklaas, and I kept that promise. It was good to hear his voice. I finally flopped into bed near midnight.

Today, Friday, I finally made it to my office just in time for the 9:00 coffee break. The big news was that the biochar pellets that Karl Englund at Washington State University made for me, for some collaborative research I have planned with the Finns, had arrived yesterday. Three packages in one week. Wow. Otherwise, same o same o. Tonight I ran my exercise circuit, did a bit more pressing work, and am ready to call it an early night.

Wed, 29 Jul

2009-07-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

I really missed Niklaas today. More than usual. When he was here in Finland, he was the "go-to" guy for making on-line reservations, especially for the train. Without him today I had to muster on by myself... I spent a bit of time tonight making hotel and train reservations for when my sister Rhoda visits the third week of August. It did help break up the usual day of grinding data and reading papers. Tomorrow Risto and Leo and I are heading north and visiting a nursery near Kajaani. The plan also includes witnessing some machines doing "tending" in plantations. Apparently they have machines that grab the plants growing around the desired pine or spruce, and then pull them the weeds out of the ground. Sounds pretty wild. There are 3 prototypes working in the country, so I guess we'll go check it out. Probably too big for the garden at home...

You know how I joke about fish and potatoes in Finland, right? Well, today we had soup for lunch. All of sudden Eevamaria looked up and said, "What, no pototoes in the soup?" This really would have been the first meal without a spud. Upon closer inspection by those assembled at the table, hidden among the larger chunks of rutabaga, were little slivers of tuber. Catastrophe averted!

Mon and Tue, 26 and 27 Jul

2009-07-28T10:09:00.001-07:00

It's pretty ho-hum here in Suonenjoki... I'm eating blueberries and going to work. The last 2 nights I've gone up and watched them apply the black-out curtain to about 600,000 spruce seedlings. They are giving them a 12-hour day (or night) to encourage them to set buds. It only takes 2 people about 15 minutes to do the job because it's mostly automated, except for a little hand work at the very end. I was wondering aloud why we don't use it more in Moscow, but then I looked at the forecast for this week. Yikes! I'll stay here in Finland were it's a beautiful 75 F. Today was a bit more exciting; I got my first piece of mail in my official mailbox. No, it wasn't from Finland. Ted Alway sent me some Iliamna seeds from Washington to add to the germination experiment we are trying to do. I say trying because we are still working on what the best treatments to test might be. No sooner had I opened that, and they brought me a box that Deb had sent. Dang. Too bad we couldn't have spread the joy over at least 2 days! This last photo for today is of silver birch seedlings. It seems that birch seedlings come up in every crack of every sidewalk, so it seems weird that they grow it, particularly because they complain that the "mooses" are always eating it. But, it made for a nice photo with the late-in-the-day sunlight.

Sunday, 26 Jul

2009-07-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up stiff. Finnish beds, Scandinavian beds, are, well, different. They have an inch thick pad that rests on top of about 3 inches of foam. Although I don’t have any trouble sleeping, my back reminds me every morning that it’s not my bed. After a bit of yoga, which only helped a little this morning, I headed outside in search of blueberries. They weren’t hard to find. About 40 feet from my apartment was the first patch. The weather was partly cloudy and pleasant, but still, so the mosquitoes were a nuisance. In an hour, I had about 3/4 of a liter, which seemed like a decent amount. Adding what I'd already eaten, I had probably picked a liter. No sense picking more than I can eat in the next few days, as I don’t really have a good way to store them. About the time I started hand-picking, a woman and her son started harvesting in a more industrial fashion, with their official Finnish berry rake thingamabobs. These gizmos have tines on the end, a handle, and a collection area. You just swoop them through the bushes and they scrape off the berries.

In that same hour, they had picked about 20 liters. They were pretty funny, with their purple hands, purple lips, purple teeth... they had probably eaten as many as they had picked. They also confessed that they had hours of work at home cleaning all those berries. Me, on the other hand, had immediate gratification: fresh blueberries on vanilla yogurt.
After snacking, I headed into town for a few groceries. The strawberry guy was still selling strawberries, but I passed him by today, I’ve got fresh blueberries. Looks like I’ll spend most of the rest of the day cleaning up a chapter for the Patagonian nursery manual. That’s one of the monkeys I’m trying to get off my back this summer.

An update.... I've been sitting in the kitchen of my apartment becasue it has the best WiFi connection, and it's been a steady string of cars all afternoon. Car load after car load of berry pickers. The interesting thing is that they all go to about the same spot, and they all pick for about an hour, and then they all leave with happy faces. Gives you an idea of how many blueberries must be lurking out there...

Dreary Saturday, 25 Jul

2009-07-26T00:46:00.000-07:00

I woke up to a drizzly rain that lasted nearly all day. Shot down my blueberry hunting plans. I ended up resorting to laundry (that's how dire the situation was) and computer work. I couldn't really get motivated for real science, so I did busy work on datasets and organizing my hard drive. Thrilling, eh? The drizzle died off late in the afternoon so I could get out and get some exercise. I have a little circuit I've been following that takes me around the greenhouses. There's about 40 wagtails that live in and around the greenhouses, and a few of them follow me around. I guess I'm cheap entertainment. Afterward, I hit the sauna and when I emerged, it was pouring.... one of those frog-choking, gully-filling downpours. Although it's only about 20 feet from the sauna to my apartment, I waited out the storm. Fixed myself a bit of smoked fish for dinner, and finished off my strawberry stash. Hopefully, I can find some blueberries tomorrow.

Thu and Fri, 23 Jul

2009-07-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

I’m pretty much in a rut or a groove, I guess depending on your point of view. I’m trying to salute the sun each morning with a bit of yoga, eat some fresh strawberries with that awesome Finnish vanilla yogurt, off to work, coffee, lunch, coffee, bike ride, reading, and bed. Repeat. I guess that’s why I was easily distracted Thursday. I was sitting in my office when a Eurasian Sparrowhawk flew in, chased by just about every little wagtail at the station. He hopped about a bit, long enough for me to find Risto and discuss the finer points of accipiter identification. That led to a chat about Christmas bird counts, and before we knew it, a good chunk of the afternoon had pleasantly passed.

The days, er, the nights, are getting noticeably darker. I’m realizing that the street light outside my apartment is actually starting to shine in through the window, which means it must be darker. At the nursery here the staff is moving the 2+0s out of the greenhouses to begin hardening, and some spruce are being short-day treated (sorry for the jargon, non-nursery folks…. but that essentially means that the nursery folks are fooling the seedlings into thinking that the days are shorter than they really are so that the seedlings set buds and start getting ready for winter). As is customary, they move everything with machines, which explains why they need such tall greenhouses; there has to be enough room to maneuver the equipment.

After work today I decided to ride my bike the opposite direction, away from town. I made the stupid mistake of really cruising along, only to discover that once I turned around, I was peddling into a brutal headwind…. 20 minutes out, 35 minutes back. Erg. Probably nothing that a Lapin Kulta won’t fix… Tomorrow, blueberries?

Bird of the Day: Eurasian Sparrowhawk (lifer)

Wed, 22 Jul

2009-07-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, you guessed it. Another day in the office. So, with the same daily experience, what's left to talk about? Food? Okay. Today's lunch seemed to be consumately Finnish. We had bread. Spread butter on it with the official wooden knife. We had soup. Naturally it featured chunks of fish and chunks of potatoes in a creamy milk broth seasoned with, what else, dill. We had salad. It was a cabbage base, with cucumber, watermelon, and pumpkin. Yup, pumpkin. Kinda soft and maybe marinated somehow. We had desert. Fresh strawberries with ice cream. But I passed on the coffee. Because I didn't go to town yesterday, I had no choice but to go today.... Picked up some groceries (and more strawberries) and cruised on back home. I took a good walk through the woods, didn't get lost, found the blueberries still a bit tart, and the birds now mostly silent. With the quality of light and the look of the woods, it kinda felt like fall... weird.

Tues, 21 Jul

2009-07-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

I spent the day in the office... it's a nice office, although it tends to get warm on sunny afternoons. Beside my laptop, I also have access to a Metla computer which gives me better Internet (faster than my laptop Wi-Fi). Unfortunately, Metla has less access to on-line journals, so I've been searching with the Metla computer and then downloading with my laptop. Juha and I spent some time this afternoon trying to finalize the biochar pellet study, and I think we have reached agreement among science, economics, and time. It looks to be a good study. About 15:00 Risto stopped by and convinced me (didn't take that much effort) that we should walk to a nearby lake and look at a pair of Red-throated Loons with chicks. The lake was probably a 10-minute hike, but the scenary makes it prone for becoming completely lost. Rolling hills covered with Scots pine with a blueberry understory all starts to look alike. We found the lake and the birds. Along the way we tried the blueberries, but they seemed a bit tart, and Risto thought they were not quite ripe. I think I'll have to start making daily forays to the forest to see how they are progressing.

Bird of the day: Red-throated Loon

Back to Work, Monday, 20 Jul

2009-07-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

I slept until 7:30, then crawled up to the station just in time for the coffee break. It seemed everyone was glad to see me, and that I was not captive in a Russian gulag. I spent most of the day working on my biochar proposal and study plan, and hopefully tomorrow I can wrap that up. It was a cool and rainy day, but by the end of work it was trying to clear off. I rode my bike into town and got some groceries, although I'll probably need to go again tomorrow for a few more items. I can only carry so much in my bag. They were still selling local strawberries in front of the store, so I picked up a liter of them as well. They are a bit small, but melt in my mouth.

Saturday? Sunday? 18 Jul

2009-07-20T22:08:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning Deb and Niklaas delivered me to the Pullman-Moscow International Airport about 6:00. It was a whirl-wind week in Moscow, with 4 separate meetings in 3 days, a Rendevous in the Park concert, and errands. I had about a 4 hour lay-over in Seattle. My flight to Amsterdam was uneventful and I enjoyed every minute of being in business class. I used up a lot of frequent flier miles to ensure I had a nice seat in the front of the plane. It really makes a huge difference on a 10-hour flight. My nursery friends will appreciate I had the "Botrytis Semillion" dessert wine... for my non-nursery friends, Botrytis is fungus and a real problem in our nurseries. I also flew first class from Amsterdam to Helsinki. It was a KLM flight and I was the only person occupying a seat in first class. I got really good service. The captain came out and sat down with me for a while. He looked like he was about 25 years old, but was very friendly and interested in why I was returning to Finland. My final leg to Kuopio was delayed about 40 minutes. Maria Poteri was again waiting for me at the airport, and delivered me to Suonenjoki. And, once again, she supplied me with some goodies to get by, including a nice cold beer. Bless her. I'm once again back in the guest apartments, same place I started. I went to bed at 20:00 to see if I could kill off the jet lag.

Leaving Helsinki, and Finland, 11-12 Jul

2009-07-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

We zipped into Helsinki this morning for one more visit. The train was mostly young kids for the first few stops; not sure why. Some were dressed in a most peculiar way. It was a glorious sunny morning, so we had a breakfast pastry and coffee at an outdoor coffee stand, cruised the market, found the last few souvenirs, and spent some time listening to the street musicians. The most interesting was the pan-flute-playing, South American-looking, dressed as Southwestern USA Indians, group. More amazing is that Niklaas saw them a year ago on a corner in Seattle, and I saw them last fall in Patagonia. Small world, eh? We ate a light lunch at an outdoor café (fortunately, we picked the right place and avoided the “wrong” place) and then made our way back to the Metla guest house. We decided to spend the night at the airport Hilton, rather than get up even earlier to drag our bags to the bus stop, take the bus, deal with luggage, etc. We stopped by the airport this evening and checked-in. The great thing about European air travel is that you can check your bags the evening before. So, now we can sleep in until 5:00. Had a light dinner in the hotel and we are planning an earlier retirement. Tomorrow our first flight is at 6:45. We then leave Amsterdam at 10:00 for Seattle, arriving at 11:00… too bad it’s not really a one hour flight! We should be home in time for dinner; hopefully the luggage will be too!

I’ll post again once we are repatriated.

Update from Sea-Tac… no free Wi-Fi at the Hilton, the Helsinki airport, the Amsterdam airport, or the airplane…. but, thankfully the civilized people at Alaska Airlines have free, no-hassles Wi-Fi in the board room. We have arrived safely, as has our luggage. We are drinking our first less-bitter coffee in weeks, and ready for the last leg home.

I'll be starting up the blog again on Monday, 20 July.... Kiitos!

Helsinki, 10 Jul

2009-07-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

We walked over to a little coffee shop next to the train station and started the sunny morning with a pastry and coffee. At the Kioski next to the train station, we bought our official Helsinki tourist cards that allow us 3 days of travel within the "region" for a set price. It's good on all trains, buses, and ferries. We grabbed an "R" train heading to Helsinki. It flew along at 160 kph and in about 12 minutes we were downtown. It was handy that I had been in Helsinki last year and had some bearing of what was where. We headed down to the Market Place and strolled the vendors. At about 10:30 we took the ferry over to Suomenlinna. It's essentially 4 islands that were turned into a coastal fortress for Helsinki.Construction started in 1748 by the Swedes, who lost it to the Russians in 1808. It became Finnish in 1918, a year after the Finns declared independance. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and they were doing a lot of restoration work. We walked the length of the 2 largest islands, did some shopping, had some lunch, snapped this abstract photo of some buildings, recorded my lifer Barnacle Goose (they were everywhere and tame), and by 13:30 were on the ferry back to Helsinki. From the ferry we had a great view of the Helsinki skyline as well as multiple big, enormous, huge, ferries that were in various stages of loading or unloading.We roamed the market again before heading over to a nearby park for a chai latte. What looked like the Finnish army cadet band was playing on stage... including selections from "The Blues Brothers". Huh? We watched Helsinki walk by for entertainment, and entertaining it was. We walked more, shopped more, and by 17:30 we ended up at the National Cathedral. It's Lutheran. We gave it a tour, including a reverent bow to the statue of Martin Luther. After Deb and I posed for a tourist shot at the cathedral, we crossed the square to the south of the cathedral and ate dinner at the Savotta Restaurant. Niklaas and I had reindeer steaks and moose sausage. Deb and I had the traditional Finnish beer. All was very good.

We meandered back to the train station and grabbed an "I" train. Not much choice. It made about 8 stops on the way, but it was still only a 20 minute ride.

Birds of the day: Skylark, Barnacle Goose (lifer), Ring-necked Pheasant, Common Eider.

Closing in on Helsinki, Thu, 9 Jul

2009-07-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

We checked out of the FinnHostel only to discover that our Metla friends had picked up the tab. Everyone at Metla has been an extremely gracious host. Leena and Mizue drove us to the train station and we were soon off on the nearly 5 hour trip to Helsinki. Well, actually, the Tikkurila stop in Vantaa, north of Helsinki. The Helsinki international airport is just a couple of kilometers away. We walked the 1.5 kilometers to the Metla complex. We are staying in the guest quarters, which are on the third floor of the library (the grayish building in the center). For dinner tonight we strolled back near the train station and found a Thai restaurant. It was good to get some food that had a kick to it. It's been a breezy, rainy day, so we are hanging low tonight, reading tour books and brochures, in preparation for our assault on Helsinki tomorrow.

Stumpin', Wed, 8 Jul

2009-07-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

We woke up to a steady rain, perfect for spending the day in the field. After breakfast, Leena, Mizue, and Heli Viiri picked us up about 9:00 and we headed south to see some equipment working in the field. Specifically, Deb was interested in see machines that pull stumps out of the ground after harvesting. I don’t really think this is a good idea from a sustainable forest point of view, but some Finns have good reasons, or at least think they have good reasons, to do it. Our first stop was at an atypical site; they were pulling pine roots and the site was not going to be reforested. The stumps are pulled, piled, allowed to dry a few months, and then moved to bigger piles by roads. From there they are hauled to bioenergy plants, chipped, and burned. Given the time, labor, and equipment expense, it doesn’t seem like it would be profitable, but they claim it is. We then saw a more typical operation pulling spruce roots (they have shallow root systems so they pull easier and with less soil disturbance). They had already pulled all the slash (small stems and branches) to the road to be hauled away for bioenergy. After lunch in Kitee, we went to Heli’s research plots. She is investigating whether stump pulling changes the abundance of pine weevils. These little devils like to eat young seedlings, but the Finns have discovered that if they do some site preparation that leaves at least one square foot of mineral soil around the seedling, it is less likely to be destroyed by the weevils. So, the Finns do a lot of mounding (essentially flipping a piece of forest “sod” upside down and then planting the seedling in the middle of the mineral soil). But, the thought is that stumping may actually improve habitat. So…. under sporadic rain showers and thunder, we helped her collect samples from her trap-line of “fly traps”. The bugs fly into clear panels and drop to their deaths in a salt solution. Ahhh, science.

Tonight for dinner we walked down to a “Hungarian” restaurant. It was pretty good. Time to pack in preparation for Helsinki.

Island Sauna, Tue, 7 Jul

2009-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

This morning Leena Finér told us about her research program. Her area of study coincides more with Deb’s work than mine, so lots of time was spent talking about soil, organic matter, soil disturbance, harvesting impacts on future forest growth…. At noon we met some other METLA researchers (Tapani Repo, Marja Roitto) as well as a soils professor (Tarja Lehto)from the University of Juensuu for lunch at a cafeteria on campus. We then spent most of the afternoon looking at various laboratories and growth rooms. They have really nice growth chambers. I was drooling most of the time. And, the METLA building with all its wood is impressive. After freshening up at our FinnHostel, Leena, Lasse, and Mizue the researcher from Japan) picked us up and we drove about an hour north to the Finér cottage. We sent Lasse over by row boat to start the sauna and dinner, and the rest of us went to the nearby Koli National Park. It is a small park, but has very ancient bedrock formations. It’s a high point in Finland, literally, all 300 meters (1000 feet) of it. From the parking lot we took a short tram up the mountain. It starts out going nearly vertical, then switches over to near horizontal. Kinda like a self-leveling Palouse combine. The views from the top were great. We then headed back to the cottage. The Finérs own an island, about 1 hectare (2.2 acres). We took the row boat across. They have a nice rustic, wooden cabin that sits about in the middle of the island, and on the north end is the sauna.

Lasse said the sauna was ready so the women went. We men folk toured the island, looked for the loons, and listened to the Mew Gulls that nest on the nearby rocks. Once the women were done, it was our turn for the traditional sauna. It was wood-heated, and in the spirit of learning the culture, we did the traditional naked thing, which for us Americans is a bit weird at first. After getting a good sweat going, we walked down to the lake and plunged into the 15 C water. What is that in Fahrenheit? Dang cold! After a brief dip, it was back to the sauna, a swig of beer on the way. We repeated the process three times. Lasse showed us that you could drink the water out of the lake direct, but we weren’t that game.

By the time we walked back to the cottage, dinner was ready. More good fish! On the way out, I stepped on a rock next to the dock. Too bad it was loose; I found myself knee-deep in the lake. We got back to the hostel at midnight. I put my boot in the oven.

On to Joensuu, Monday, 6 Jul

2009-07-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Lappeenranta; our hosts, Marji-Liisa and Eero treated us so kind. We will always remember their hospitality. About noon Marji-Liisa picked us up at the Lappeenranta Spa and drove us to the train station. Niklaas has become our official tour guide, so we already had our tickets for Wagon 2, seats 81, 85, 86 (upper level), on the intercity train from Helsinki with a stop in Joensuu. It pulled in to the station at 12:26, and 2.5 hours later and that much further north, we arrived in Joensuu. The biggest excitement was winding through 4 cars to find the “kiosk” for a snack. Upon arrival, we were met at the station by Leena Finér from METLA, along with a visiting scientist from Japan, Mizue Ohashi from the University of Hyogo. They delivered us to our accommodations, a sports hostel. We aren’t quite sure what that means, but the room is clean, quiet, with beds, so that should do. We had about an hour to kill so we walked the block over to the big Lutheran church and gave it a once over. It was very ornate, with beautifully painted ceilings. At the opposite end of the street, about a dozen blocks away, was the Greek Orthodox church. I guess that is as close as they could get. About 16:30, Leena and our Japanese friend picked us up and gave us a brief tour of Joensuu, including a stop at the METLA building, which is atypical for a new building in Finland. Built about 5 years ago, it is almost completely made of wood and other local materials, some of it recycled (maybe some photos tomorrow). We then swung by and picked up Leena’s husband, Lasse, and went for dinner at a nice restaurant downtown. I had fish and potatoes, what else? The food was excellent, as was the conversation.

Sunday, 5 Jul

2009-07-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

We slept in. Finally about 9:30 we shuffled across the street for our complimentary breakfast. By 10:00 we were hunting down an Otto, and then headed toward “the fortress” that overlooks the harbor at Lappeenranta. The old buildings have been restored and many of them host art galleries, shops, and restaurants. It would have been a better time, but it was on-again, off-again rain. We ended up by the harbor and Finland’s biggest sand castle. For the past 5 years, they have been constructing huge castles to draw tourists. It was big, and the details were amazing. They spray it with glue to keep the rain from disintegrating it too soon. About 14:00 Eero picked us up and again we were hosted by the Juntunen’s. We were served another great dinner; this time moose. After dinner we drove up to Imatra to see “the rapids.” During the summer they release water from the old power plant and flood the old rapids. People line up on the bridge to watch, and get an idea of what the river must have looked like before it was tamed for hydroelectric power. Now, the water is diverted even farther away to the new power plant. After a brief tour of Imatra, we ended up at the military cemetery in downtown Lappeenranta, viewing the respectfully maintained graves of Finns that died in the Winter War and World War II. We finished off the day at the harbor, eating a waffle smeared with strawberry jam.

“The Bear”, Sat 4 Jul

2009-07-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons we came to Lappeenranta was a chance to visit Russia. Marji-Liisa was telling us that we could take a cruise down the Saimaa Canal from Lake Saimaa at Lappeenranta to Выборг (Vyborg), Russia. After her offer, I read the official US State Department website about travel to Russia and about fainted. We then consulted our published-in-April-2009 tour guide of Finland and did faint. Both talked about required visas, lengthy detentions if you try to enter the country without one, yadda, yadda, yadda. The Finns, however, were adamant that the rules had changed and visas were no longer required. We would be fine. So, at 7:10 in the morning we found ourselves in the queue for the boat. They asked if there were any foreigners and we were the only 3 to raise our hands. They checked our names against the photocopies of our passports we had sent a week ago, got stamped by the customs agent, and boarded the Carelia, along with about 150 Finns. Soon we were on the way for our 5 hour, 43 km trip. We passed through 8 locks, dropping about 80 meters in elevation along the way. About half way, we passed into Russia with thoughts about visas and detentions and gulags running through my head.

We pulled into Выборг and could see Marji-Liisa and Eero waiting for us outside the customs area. They had traveled by bus instead. It took us nearly 30 minutes to get off the boat and through passport control. We discovered the 2 women customs agents were three times as fast as the man… too bad we were in the man’s line. Out the door we went, with just 2 hours available to see the sights. We headed toward the city center. Before World War II, Vyborg was the Finnish city Viipurin, the name the Finnish still use. It has some of the best surviving Finnish architecture, mostly because the Russians have never spent any money updating the structures, which are looking very tired. Most of the buildings we saw in Vyborg looked old and deteriorating. Our first stop was a three-story, round, fortress-like structure. This building looked very good, considering it was 700 years old. We went to the restaurant on the top floor and Eero surprised us with a bottle Champaign to celebrate the Fourth of July. Then to the main market. Oh my. People were selling candy, cigarettes, herbs, fresh fish, fresh meat, clothing, crystal, what were probably boot-legged CDs and DVDs, linens, clothing, and assorted stuff. The butchers were pretty interesting. They had large logs on end. The top had a piece of cardboard on top. Put the meat on the cardboard. Whack the meat with a large knife. I guess at the end of the day you toss that piece of cardboard and get a new one for the next day (at least that’s what I hope they do).

We visited Lenin’s statue, walked past the Lutheran church, and then back to the boat. The Juntunen’s road the boat back with us. We took the early dinner in the restaurant, and spent most of the rest of the trip on the aft deck, trying to stay out of the rain. The photo is a relieved Dumroese family having just crossed back into Finland. The boatload of Finns had spent most of the trip to Vyborg drinking, and picked up where they left off on the way home. They had a guy with a guitar and microphone and proceeded to have a good old fashion sing-along. He was assisted by very drunk women in a sort of karaoke-like style. A few folks were dancing as well. We pulled back into Lappeenranta about 21:45. A long, good, fascinating day.

Bird of the day: Common Sandpiper.

To Lappeenranta, Fri 3 Jul

2009-07-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

After lunch today, we tossed our stuff into Marji-Liisa Juntunen’s car and headed south and east to Laappeenranta. From Suonenjoki, our travel first took us to Mikkeli where we walked through an outdoor craft fair. It reminded me a bit of Moscow’s Rendezvous in the Park… lots of crafts, folks dressed in renaissance garb. We also saw the Guinness Book of World Records award for the largest “pin” collection (pins, badges, buttons). The record holder was there, proudly showing off his 32,000 pins. I gave him a couple of Forest Service shields for his collection. From Mikkeli, we turned more easterly toward Puumala, driving through the heart of Finland’s lake district. Along the way we stopped at this kioski for an ice cream break. Ice cream is big here. A multitude of flavors. From there, more south and east to Imatra, just a stone’s throw (well, 5 km) from Russia, before heading south and west into Lappeenranta. Marji-Liisa dropped us off at the Lappeenranta Spa on the waterfront. It’s a great hotel, and I really like the European style in the rooms. After freshening up, we headed out to the Juntunen house for dinner. We met Marji-Liisa’s husband, Eero. He smoked us some “rainbow trout”. It was spectacular, pure and simple, although it seemed more salmon-like than trout-like.

Birds of the day: Hawk Owl (lifer), Whooper Swan (lifer).

Thursday, 2 Jul

2009-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today was spent trying to get ready for tomorrow. After lunch tomorrow, we are heading for a weekend in Lappeenranta. The first half of next week we'll be in Juensuu visiting another METLA station, and then on to Helsinki before heading back to Idaho. So I tried to take care of as much busy work as possible today, but I have a bunch more to squeeze in tomorrow. Deb and I backed up the last of her research tools to ship back to the states (rather than lug them through eastern Finland). That also means we are cleaning out the refrigerator, which should make for an interesting dinner. I'm guessing that when I return to Suonenjoki later this summer, I'll be back in the guest apartments... so no more enjoying the rustic cabin. I'll have to take a good-bye sauna tonight.

Bird news is pretty slow.... but the woodpeckers have fledged, as have the Nightingales that I think had a nest under the eaves of the cabin.

Wednesday, 1 Jul

2009-07-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

Going back and forth from the cabin to the station is a nice walk. Here is our version of a Finnish tread-master. I'm not sure how many steps there are (maybe I'll count them), but it sure gets the blood pumping in the morning. It's still very warm... Deb says some kids came down and swam in the lake this afternoon. It was more interesting when the girls changed their clothes out in the open. No, Niklaas was with me at the time up in the station. This evening, the cuckoo lived up to its name... calling cu-cu... and enjoying itself, I think, listening to the echo across the lake... CU-CU, cu-cu, CU-CU, cu-cu...

BTW, 151 steps.

Tuesday, 30 Jun

2009-06-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

Another tough day in the office. I wish I could say I spent all my time in this office by the lake, but the truth is that I end up doing most of my real work in the second floor office in the station. I spent the day trying to better understand the nuances among water retention curves, media shrikage, particle density, and bulk density. Maybe I should have stayed by the lake! We Dumroeses are falling into a predictable pattern. Deb joins me in the office in the morning to take advantage of the Internet, and then escapes to the cabin (she probably uses the lake office). Niklaas does likewise, having discovered he can communicate with his buds if he gets on-line early enough and they stay up late enough. In the afternoon, Niklaas and I go down for coffee and our sweet tooth fix. Then, by 16:30ish, when nearly all the Finns have already left for the day, we wander back to the cabin. So.... it's 16:30. I think it's time to go to the other office. I have some papers to read and that spot looks more comfortable....

Weekend, 27 and 28 Jun

2009-06-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

It was a hot weekend in Finland. Temperatures were near 30 C (86 F). After securing a couple more bicycles, and buying some tickets on-line, we cruised into Suonenjoki Saturday morning and boarded the 9:06 train to Kuopio. The trip to Kuopio is actually faster by train than by car, and by 9:36 we were walking toward the center market area, right next to City Hall. As I mentioned earlier, they have food vendors, craft people, folks selling produce, and on this particular day, a large rummage sale. At the far end of the square is another building containing a variety of other vendors, including folks selling cheeses, meats, chocolate, and souvenirs. Inside, we perused a bit and then enjoyed a cup of coffee before heading out for more investigating. After a morning of shopping we ended up on the outdoor patio of the Kummisetä restaurant . After a nice meal, more shopping, including some fresh Suonenjoki strawberries that are coming into season (not quite as big as the one in the photo). Niklaas thought it was pretty funny to see a Tex-Mex restaurant in Finland. By 15:00 we were pretty much done sightseeing and shopping, so we took seats near the square at an outdoor coffee/beer house (in the shade, thankfully) and watched Kuopio walk by. We saw a lot of very white people whose legs and arms had probably not seen sun in a very long time. We also noted a lot of black clothing. Deb and I both commented that we also saw a lot of pregnant women, not that we were particularly looking for them, which makes their sheer number that much more significant. I guess we know what the Finns do on the winter solstice. We waited about 40 minutes for the train, got in the wrong car (oops, who would guess that the first car behind the locomotive would be car 6, and the last car would be 1?), and in 18 minutes were back in Suonenjoki. We sent Niklaas off in a flash to get some supplies in the 6 minutes before the grocery store closed at 18:00. Deb and I took a leisurely ride back to the station.

Sunday was warm, very warm. We all slept in and then lazed around the cabin. After brunch, Deb decided to take a walk in the woods and Niklaas and I made our usual and customary run to the grocery store for a few supplies. We figure if we buy just a little each day, it gives a good reason for Niklaas to peddle to the store everyday and keep those soccer legs in shape. We picked up some more Suonenjoki strawberries from the local girl, and cruised back home.

Friday, 26 Jun

2009-06-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

It's a warm day in Suonenjoki. My office faces south, and when they gave it to me they joked about it being rather warm. I now understand. It's like my own personal sauna. Otherwise, another day at the office... writing, reading, editing, answering email. Deb joined me for the morning coffee break, and Niklaas for the afternoon coffee, or in his case, apple juice, break. He had two missions today: get groceries and find out about train tickets to Kuopio for tomorrow. After asking around a bit, he discovered you can buy them on-line, so we are good to go, especially now that we have secured a third bicycle for local transportation. The weather is promising a great day.

The Dumroeses are staying in the METLA cabin by the lake. Right next to the station (down the hill from my former apartment) is a small lake sitting in the bottom of a big hole. It's surrounded by Scots pine and birch. The cabin is all wood; logs for walls, wood floors, wood furniture, wood light fixtures and shades... I guess nothing less should be expected from the Finnish FOREST Research Institute. It has a gorgeous fireplace, and, of course, a spectacular sauna. Deb and I tried that out last night. I managed the top bench, Deb was only hardy to the medium. The Finns tell me I should be running from the sauna to the lake. I'm not sure I want to scare the local fauna...

Sorry birders, no new birds to report. However, the Great Spotted Woodpeckers have a nest tree just up the hill from the cabin, and noisy, nearly-ready-to-fledge chicks were very demanding yesterday evening. Also, the Nightingale must be nesting nearby too. We've seen one flitting around the cabin a lot.

Return to Suonenjoki, Wednesday, 24 Jun

2009-06-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

Our room at the Scandic was nice, but for some reason all of the Dumroeses slept poorly last night. I know that for me, the sound of the big buzzy insect at 3:00 contributed to the cause. A downside of all-day light is all-day bees buzzing about. We grabbed a bit of breakfast at the hotel and drove the 20 minutes to the ferry. It was on time, and we sailed away from Sweden. This was our parting view. For the next 4 hours we mostly slept and watched bits and pieces of really depressing US movies... at least they didn't show "Titanic." As we drove away from the ferry dock in Vaasa, we found a little water-side place that had a deck with umbrellas and a beer sign, so we stopped for lunch (it was nearly 14:00 with the time change). We had what appears to be the usual lunchtime meal, at least on the ferry or on this side of Finland: a piece of buttered break covered with a lettuce leaf, covered with wedges of tomato, some thin slices of hardboiled egg, and, cold, smoked, salmon. It is pretty tasty. Deb had the version with shrimp instead of salmon. From there, it was a mere 5-hour drive back to Suonenjoki. As we pulled into town and stopped at the grocery store, the lightening and thunder started, as did the down pour. The rain followed us back to the station, and we unloaded the car in between bouts of hail. The cabin we are in is gorgeous. More bragging later.

Birds of the day: Commom Crane, Hen Harrier, Horned Grebe.

Umea, Tuesday, 23 Jun

2009-06-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well, we got packed up this morning, ate some breakfast, packed up Deb's stakes, cleaned up the hostel, and headed over to pay the bill. One thing about being in Sweden is the krona, the unit of currency... right now it's about 1 krona = $0.12 US. So, our 6-day bill was 3000 krona, which just seems way too much (that's actually really cheap). As does the 25 krona Coke, or the 149 krona buffet. We drove the 50 km into Umea, found our hotel about 13:00, and then walked the half mile or so to the "centrum" or downtown area. Umea has a big university, with something like 22,000 students. The centrum had a pedestrian way through the middle, and it looked like most of those students, and their bikes, were there. We did a little shopping and got a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel. After a dry run out to the ferry to confirm we know where we need to go tomorrow at 6:30 a.m., we retired to the hotel, had some dinner (buffet), and are now watching the home team Swedes beat up the Serbians in the 21-and-under futball championships. We are in a family room; it has a queen bed and two bunk beds that fold out of the wall. Niklaas has secured the upper bunk, somewhat vulture-like. It has good WiFi, and here you see the blogger at work...
Bird of the day: European Greenfinch.

Monday, 22 Jun

2009-06-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was spent putting more little pieces in and on the ground. This site is known as "Flakaliden" and is a famous research site (that's what they tell me). Apparently, a lot of high quality work with boreal forest systems, carbon balances, climate change, etc. have been done on this site. They even had "cool" soil "warming" plots to investigate potential climate change shifts. The photo by Dan shows one of those warming plots, with all the associated scientific junk. One wonders how much the instrumentation changes the system... Today was an easy day. We only had 2 plots to finish, about 2 hours of work. Depending on which plots we were on, the soil was rock, or the soil was soil. When it was rocky, it was slow, but not as painful as it probably could have been. Niklaas apparently enjoyed pounding in stakes, and everyone was happy to let him do it. Back in Vindeln we crossed the street and visited the liquor store. Bought 5 different beers based mostly on how neat the can looked. Danish, Finnish, and Swedish brews. Had a little taste-testing event. I think the Finns won. Tomorrow we head to Umea for the day...

Bird of the day: Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

Midsummer, 20 Jun

2009-06-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

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

Thunder on Thursday, 11 Jun

2009-06-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

I spent the day working... pretty simple. After work, I took a fast bike ride into town and back to get a little exercise. While biking, I remembered folks talking about the lake "one over" that had nesting loons. So, as soon as I got back, I took a quick stroll over and indeed found one; not sure where the other was hiding. On the way back to my apartment, the sky grew increasingly black. The whole afternoon was a series of 10-second "pineapple" showers, followed by clear skies, and I thought this was going to be another. Just as I stepped in the door, the lightening flashed, the winds picked up, and the water poured down. Great timing, eh? About 20 minutes later it was over, and some blue sky again appeared. I had a bite to eat and now I'm watching Finnish baseball. I think I about have it figured out. The only similarities are 4 bases, bats, a ball, and gloves.

Birds of the day: Nightingale, Black-throated (arctic) Loon.

Wednesday, 10 Jun

2009-06-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

It was a really quiet day at the station. Either everyone has taken off on a holiday or are in the field. I spent the morning working on my proposed collaborative research with Juha concerning pelleted biochar, and the afternoon working on some preliminary investigation into germination of Iliamna rivularis. Not much has been done with the species, and we only have a limited number of seeds, so we are trying to wade in carefully. Katri has been doing some great work, including using this machine to get 1000 seed weights. Hopefully we'll have some preliminary results by the end of the week and can plan accordingly. This evening I was suppose to have a conference call... I got the international calling card to work fine, but the passcode for the conference call was extremely frustrating. No matter how carefully I typed the phone keys, the polite but annoying computer voice kept insisting that I had entered extra digits. Ack. So much for modern technology. I've found that the timing is right, time zone wise, for me to get my first salvo of Forest Service emails while I try to relax in the evening. Perhaps I should ignore the emails and do just that. Right now I'm trying; I'm watching Finland and Russia play a little futball... my first game I've been able to find on television. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll last through the second half... I may have to call it a day.

Tuesday, 9 Jun

2009-06-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

I felt like a real researcher again today. Actually did some research, talked about some other research, and read about research. I guess that's what a sabbatical is all about... getting away from the phone and the email and visitors in the office to concentrate on one's vocation. Katri started some preliminary work on the Iliamna seeds I brought along. Got some seed counts and we looked at some x-rays to see if we could figure out what we were looking at. Once we have a better feel for seed quality we can start the real experiment. Juha and I had a nice chat this afternoon about a potential experiment looking at using pelleted biochar as a amendment for nursery media. After work I took a good bike ride to get some fresh air.

Today I've been married 25 years. Wow, time flies when you're having fun. We will have to celebrate when we meet up in Sweden next week. Deb says she has heard from our offspring, Niklaas, who is working in steamy New Orleans and plugging his youthful arteries with some good ol' deep fried cookin'. We'll work that off of him soon enough on the research plots.

I was just lamenting that another day had gone without a new bird, but right outside my window a Treecreeper is, well, creeping up the tree. And, even better, it's a lifer.

Bird of the day: Treecreeper (life)

Gesturing Works, Monday, 8 Jun

2009-06-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today the Director of the Finnish Forest Research Institute was making a presentation. I thought I should probably look professional, so last night I looked at my very wrinkled dress pants and shirts and sighed. If I had to represent the United States Department of Agriculture, I didn't want to do it looking overtly wrinkled. What to do? No iron... of course! I moistened the worst wrinkles and me and my pants and shirt went to the sauna. I tossed a couple of extra ladles of water on the rocks to get it good and steamy. While I gave up my sweat, my clothes gave up those pesky wrinkles. Sorry if I've offended any sauna purists out there, but you have to do what you have to do. As it turns out, it was all for nothing. I snuck into lunch with all of the attendees, but I did not have to represent the government. Oh well, at least I looked good. Instead, I had lunch with Marja-Liisa Juntunen; I organized a tour for her in the US back in 2002. It was nice to get caught up on the news. I also had a nice visit with Pasi Puttonen, who is the Director of Research. Pasi had worked for the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

After work I hopped on the bike and headed for town. It's a good way to get some exercise. I discovered riding in the rain the other day that I needed to re-waterproof my rain gear. So, I went into the "sport" store. The older owner... no English. He called for his son; about 1% better English. After some gesturing, I finally got across my need. He drew me a nice map to another store, right around the corner. Ah success. They didn't speak much English either, but I got my spray-on waterproof stuff. On the ride back to the station, I stopped and took this photo of the bike trail. Large sections of it are lined with lilacs, that are currently in full bloom. It was really sweet-smelling this afternoon.

Sorry, no new birds for the day, but as I tap this out, the Spotted Flycatcher is working hard right outside my window.

Sunny Sunday, 7 Jun

2009-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

It’s been a pretty ho-hum Sunday. I’ve been dinging away on the second volume of the “tribal nursery manual” most of the day, but I did take a couple of breaks. The weather was mostly sunny, but cool. I made a bicycle run to the grocery store to pick up a few little things. With the great breakfast and lunch I’m getting, I’ve discovered that I can get by with a pretty light meal at dinner time. So today’s adventure was finding some easy, light things for dinner. I already had my stash of PB & J, an apparent universal food, easily found even if you can’t read the language, so the hunt was on for some other things. I found some tuna in water, but I’d kill for a turny-crank-type can opener. All I can find are the “fang” version, which work, but… when you’re hungry the slow pace is downright cruel. I also worked over the yogurt aisle again. The first stuff I bought had a weird, elastic, texture… not quite what I was after. Hopefully round two will be better. As I tap this out, I can look out my window at a great stand of Scots pine with the sunlight shining through them. A great day to be a forester. It’s also a great day to be a proud parent. My son Niklaas is heading off to New Orleans today to spend a week helping rebuild. He should have a great week, and good preparation for his first try at a Finnish sauna!

Soggy Suonenjoki Saturday, 6 Jun

2009-06-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

I had a really lazy morning… didn’t drag my carcass out of bed until nearly 10:00. The purported better weather was nowhere to be seen; it was still overcast and raining lightly. I did some reading, but by 14:00 the sun was trying to poke out, so I decided to go for a bike ride. At the last moment, my gut said, “Put on your raincoat and rainpants.” If you want to follow my route on a Google map or Google Earth, here we go. From the station, you know, Metsänturkimuslaitoksen tutkimusasema, I headed northeast on Juntintie, turning right (southeast) onto the bike path that follows Iisvedentie toward Suonenjoki. I went under E63, the main route to Kuopio. At the intersection with Rautalammintie, I zigged a block to the east and then followed Herralante for a block, before turning left and going under the railroad tracks and emerging onto Asemakatu. A right (south) turn and in a couple of blocks I took the photo of this church. I continued south and stayed left onto Siioninsllankatu and followed it until it ended at a bike path that goes up and over Suonenjoki River. Okay. Good thing I listened to my gut because the sky opened up and poured buckets on me, probably because I was at the farthest point from home. Anyway, I trudged on, looping north back to Rautalammintie, past the apartment I stayed in last August, under the railroad, which brought me back to the bike path which led me home. Even with the rain gear, I was a bit soggy, so I’ve fired up the sauna. I see some blue sky now and the forecast is for improving weather…

I brought my bike helmet with me. You know, the number one cause of death of people my age is accidents…. Apparently nobody in Finland knows that or cares about that, as everyone I saw on a bike today had a bare noggin. On the flip side, near this church is the customary cemetery. Extremely well kept, with a station containing a wheelbarrow, rakes, shovels, baskets… all unlocked and available for use. How long do you suppose they’d last in a cemetery in the US?

While on my little adventure, I saw quite a few birds. I heard a lot more but they are still a mystery. I'm now ignoring the clacking Fieldfares and the melodious Chaffinch, but the rest of the calls are just teasing me. Keeping with the Finnish today, here are the birds I saw: Keltasirkku, Vihervarpunen, Kirjosieppo, Punakylkirastas, Sepelkyyhky, Kalatiira, and Isokoskelo. Okay, fine, I’ll list them with English names too.

Birds of the Day: Yellowhammer (lifer), Eurasian Siskin, Pied Flycatcher, Redwing, Wood Pigeon, Common Tern, and Goosander.

Sweet Ride, Friday, 5 Jun

2009-06-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work I hopped on my new ride and headed toward Suonenjoki. The wind was howling, but I needed a couple of things I forgot at the grocery, so off I went. The station sits up on a hill, so once I got to the edge of the station, the next 500 meters was all downhill. I cruised onto the bike path and 15 minutes later was visiting Otto in downtown Suonenjoki. Otto is Finnish for ATM. From there I rode a block to the Alko (yup, exactly what it is; and if you want a real beer, it's where you have to go), and then to the grocery for my necessary odds and ends. I stopped at a little "sports" store and bought a pair of mittens (dang, I had forgotten my gloves). The owner didn't speak any English but gesturing worked. He also let me borrow a wrench so I could adjust my seat. It needed to be raised, what a surprise. The bike ride back was fine, except for those last 500 m uphill... This morning the wind was still blowing and light rain still falling. Apparently thousands of Finns woke up to no power, so I was fortunate. Otherwise, another day at the office. I've had a pile of literature that I've wanted to read for the past year or so and never seem to be able to find time... I shipped it to myself and today that box arrived... that should keep me busy. Tomorrow I plan to head to "the river" (if that's what you really call the connection between two long lakes) and do some birding. The weather is suppose to be better and I'm hoping the birds are lively.

Bird of the day: Hooded Crow.

Long Day But Still Dark, Thursday, 4 Jun

2009-06-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a gray day... on and off rain showers and a lot of wind. Right after lunch the power went out at the station for about 2 hours. I managed to keep pecking away at things on my laptop, figuring that if the power didn't come back on before my 3 hours of battery life, well, so be it. Two and a half hours later, presto, power. I had a nice chat this afternoon with the director, Heikki Smolander, METLA scientists Risto Rikala, Jaana Luoranen, Juha Heiskanen, and Markku Nygren, and Markku's PhD student Katri. We laid out some ideas for how to proceed this summer, what topics sounded timely, and our respective schedules. It was good to get that groundwork done. Otherwise, same o same o... potatos for lunch and work on manuscripts. I took a break from volume 2 of the tribal manual to grind on the Fusarium biocontrol paper. Variety is the spice of life. I'm going to call it a workday and grab my loaner bike and ride into town... I could use some fresh air and a bit of exercise. The owner of this car was loading up his trailer with seedlings. This is great tree planting weather. Part of me says that looks like fun; most of me knows that's a lot of work!

No new birds today... too windy for both bird and watcher. I gave my Finnish bird wishlist to Risto today, so hopefully he can point me in some good directions!

Going Cuckoo, Wednesday, 3 Jun

2009-06-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

I got up early this morning and did a little birding. The birds had been calling since 2:00! It was like the call of the siren to me.... Although the forecast was promising clouds and rain, the morning started off pleasant and sunny. And, fortunately, it wasn't too buggy. I strolled around the lake that is right behind my apartment. The grounds near the station are covered with Scots Pine and criss-crossed with cross country skiing trails. I really was after one bird: the Common Cuckoo. Those rascals were calling all night. I've heard them in Switzerland and Sweden, but never really got an upclose and personal look until this morning. (Yes, I saw them, lots of them.) I made it to the office by 8:00 and slaved that whole hour before coffee break. Whew. I spent the day, when not drinking coffee, working on volume 2 of the "tribal nursery manual." After receiving word yesterday that we have already distributed almost all of the first 1000 copies of volume 1 (in about a month), I was motivated to get going on the second volume, which will contain nearly 300 propagation protocols. There's still a lot to do... but without the distractions of my usual office, I made good progress today. Lunch was a great salmon and potato soup (hey, I'm from Idaho, the potato state, but Idaho has nothing on Finland... every meal here includes the humble potato). A brisk, cool breeze is blowing in some rain now. I've retreated to my abode, figuring I can work on the computer there just as easy as in my office.

Birds of the day: White Wagtail, Crested Tit, Great Tit, Mistle Thrush, Fieldfare, Tree Pipit (lifer), and Whimbrel (flying by).

First Day on the Job, Tuesday, 2 Jun

2009-06-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Thankfully I slept well, nearly 8 hours. That should preclude any weird jet-lag... I started the day with a little yoga to see if I could "un-stiff" what 14.5 hours inside an airplane had done to me. It helped. About 8:00 I walked the short distance to the main building. The day was essentially spent meeting old friends, filling out paperwork, getting my key card (the Finns can do this in 2 hours; I'm still waiting after months for my new Forest Service card) and starting discussions about what exactly I'm doing here.... oh yeah, and having coffee breaks. The first one is at 9:00, along with some real breakfast goodies. No sugary donuts! Just some hard bread, a slice of cheese, and some fresh veggies (tomatos, peppers, and cucumbers). Most of the staff attend. Then, lunch at 11:30. Again, served up hot and fresh. And if you feel the afternoon grind taking its toll, don't worry. There's another coffee break at 14:00! My office is on the second floor. When I came back from lunch, they had put my name on the door. These Finns are a class act. About 16:30 Risto Rikala, one of the researchers I'm working with, took me into Suonenjoki to get groceries. I love buying stuff by only looking at the pictures on the label. A real adventure! More adventure at the check-out line... my credit card wouldn't work. Fortunately I had some Euros left over from last fall; just enough to get me out the door. I found out that Deb had used the card in Moscow, and then I tried it shortly thereafter in Suonenjoki--a big red flag to the credit card company! Hopefully by tomorrow they will have found me a bicycle so I have some mobility and can go purchase what I forgot today... it's about a 5 km ride to Suonenjoki.

Birds of the day: Coal Tit (and a nest with 4 just-hatched chicks), Common Swift, Great Spotted Woodpecker, House Sparrow.

Getting to Finland - 31 May through 1 Jun

2009-06-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

I flew out of the Pullman-Moscow airport at 6:40 on Sunday, given a bon voyage by Deb and Niklaas. Landed in Seattle under perfect conditions, with Mt. Rainier looking glorious. After a 4 hour layover, my boarding pass turned out to be invalid... only because I had been upgraded to first class. Yee-haw. It's a 10-hour flight to Amsterdam, and then it seems like it takes about as long to go through "passport control". Fortunately, I had plenty of lay-over (but not too long). Then it was another 2.5 hours to Helsinki and another hour on Finnair to Kuopio, the nearest airport to Suonenjoki. I landed about 17:30; the weather was perfect. Marja Poteri from METLA (that's the Finnish abbreviation for Finnish Forest Research Institute, the folks sponsoring my trip) met me at the airport and after an hour or so, we arrived at the Suonenjoki Research Station. The station is in the small town of Suonenjoki (about 8000 residents), about 300 km north northeast of Helsinki. I'm in the flat, room #2. Marja was thoughtful and provided me a sack full of groceries to tied me over. After a long walk and a bit of birding, I hit the sauna. Felt like I was re-visiting my Midwestern roots... Then, early to bed to see if I could ward off the jet-lag.

Birds of the day: Mallard, Black-billed Magpie, Eurasian Jackdaw, Barn Swallow, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, Little Ringed Plover (lifer), Common Cuckoo, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Chaffinch, Winter Wren.