Wed, 19 Aug

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

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

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

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

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

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)...