Wednesday, 1 Jul

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.