Christmas?, Monday, 10 Aug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.