Photo Philosophy

Sometimes genetics just don't work in your favour

Always keep your eye out for a little bit of love...even in the shittiest situations!

Post-Finland...for now!

So my last post was....SEVERAL weeks ago, so much for trying to keep up! In my defense I have been absurdly busy since then with hardly a moment to catch my breath!

Welsh forestry (just kidding!)

German Forestry

I've been back in Canada for a little over 3 weeks and I'm still stuck with Finland on my mind...But before I left Europe I certainly made the rounds...2 days in Edinburgh, Scotland...5 days in Bangor, Wales...transit through Switzerland....5 days in Freiburg, Germany...transit through Switzerland and Northern Germany...4 days in Skinnskatteberg, Sweden...1 night in Stockholm, 1 night on a boat somewhere between Stockholm and Helsinki, Finland...2 nights in Joensuu, Finland...2 nights in Mekrijärvi, Finland...and then a week at home in Joensuu...finally I set out across the Atlantic for my first return to Canada in 367 days...I may have stretched my visa a little!

Field school group! (or at least some of it)

Beautiful beeches

Here's something that I wrote a few months ago to a friend, but I feel that it summarizes a lot of things about my experience in Finland...All of my predictions from when I wrote that have held to be very true!

"I am thoroughly enjoying Finland; I know that it will be very hard to leave! I can't exactly say what it is that is here to fall in love with, but I know that you can understand! I have met a lot of other international students who certainly haven't developed the same attachment that I have.  Maybe it's the forests and how they are valued by people here so much more than other places I have lived.  Maybe it's the culture and the pride of this country...it is uniquely not European.  The people know that their numbers are small, but are fiercely proud of their independence and stability.  Although they won't vocalize their pride, it is strong (and invisible from the outside) in each one of my Finnish friends here.  Speaking of friends, it never ceases to amaze me what a good friend a Finn is.  I know that I will keep in touch with my friends here better than most others.  And even if I don't communicate with them regularly, I know that they are still out there!  Also, I think I may go through a serious withdrawal from Finnish saunas when I go back to Canada...how have I survived my life without them until now? It is also interesting how many similarities I am starting to see between Finland and Canada.  As for the Finnish language...it still presents many challenges!! I'm still trying though!"

Swedish crayfish party

Well, now that I'm (almost) settled in Edmonton all I can see is a huge amount of work in front of me in the next 12 months. Then...if it all goes according to plan...I should be ready to hand in my theses (yes...2!) at the end of next summer!! I'm a little scared of what I have in front of me! Fortunately, I won't always be in school.  I'll play hockey, and coach biathlon, and play in the Rockies, and enjoy some fine Canadian beer (seriously) that I have missed for the past year.

Here are some photos of my trip to Jasper that I took with Katharina a little over a week ago:

nom nom nom

Maligne Lake

ORAVA PERKELE!

not sure what was actually over there...

we received several formal warnings about mating season and an excellent description of it from Parks Canada

heading up the Icefields Parkway!

bog birches in ruska

Columbia Glacier

Ruska in the Rockies

Catching up! Or at least trying to keep up!

Well...my summer is rapidly drawing to a close...I cannot believe that I am approaching the one year mark soon!! Really, I feel like I am just getting to know the culture, the land, make some good friends....oh yes and the language!  Don't get me started on that rant again...hahaha.  Although, I have been wondering how the English language can adopt a word like sauna and have saunas built around the world....but there is no word for löyly or even a decent description of it!  Every Finn knows that sauna is impossible without löyly...so how is is possible that, as anglophones, we can have a sauna and not a löyly.  Löyly is defined by sanakirja.org as "steam and associated heat in sauna," or, "generated by administering water on the hot stones placed on top of a sauna."  But, anyone who has has Finnish sauna, or is familiar with Finnish culture, knows that löyly is so much more.  So...if you come to Finland, you will have a sauna (this is not a matter of choice), and you should become familiar with löyly.  Ok...that's the end of my language rant!

I have not updated this blog nearly as often as I initially planned to, and it's nothing against you or against the routine of blogging...I have just had little, if any, contact to the world outside of Finland for the entire summer!  The biggest problem is that I use a computer about 1 hour a week and blogging doesn't always make it into that valuable time!  So...what have I been doing? Counting and measuring trees...it's endless!  I have been working long days steadily since the beginning of June (including some weekends) and I think I may finish my field work on Tuesday...if everything goes according to plan!  Then...I start to live out of a suitcase for the foreseeable future. Actually, just until September, when I will be returning to Canada to go to school in Edmonton.  I can't say I'm entirely excited about that...but change is good! ...right? I know I'm going to miss it here! A lot!

Other things I have been doing....This weekend I went to a music festival in Kuopio and that was an awful lot of fun!!!  It's called Rock Cock...yes, seriously.  And everyone understands that this can mean something totally different in English.  It's not something that's lost in translation, It's totally on purpose.  The weather actually turned out to be warm and calm.  I think it was the first sunny day that did not include a massive thunderstorm.  I found myself running from marble-sized chunks of solid, clear ice falling from the sky two weeks ago...not impressed!  We also found time to pick chanterelles this weekend, which some of you may know is something that I will go well out of my way to do!  It has been pretty much steadily raining since May, which has lead to a phenomenal year for 2 things:  bugs and mushrooms! ...and maybe rubber boots too!  This summer is definitely missing sun-sweetened berries (there are more than enough sour ones!), beach days, and quality fishing.  After some very successful ice fishing last winter, I have come to realize that while Finnish ice may hold many fish, Finish water contains no fish...they must grow in the ice or something! ;-)

Anyways, now I'll add a few photos and that's it for this post!  Also...interestingly, most of the people who have viewed this blog in the past month are located in the USA...thanks! 

Patvinsuo life

So this week I'm too tired to write much of anything...so I'm just going to share these pictures, then I'm off to sleep!  Here are some photos (again) of things I find interesting and other parts of my life that you may find interesting!

Finland's only carnivorous plant

Who knew that cranberries had such beautiful flowers?  the swamps are carpeted in pink cranberry flowers these days.

swamps, swamps, swamps....originally 1/3 of Finland's land area was swamps.  Many have since been drained and converted to forest or agricultural land.  

This is why Finns wear rubber boots in the forest...look at the ground you have to cover in between the trees! It doesn't help that my work is based in the small forested sections between massive swamps

Damsel fly

Butterfly

3:00am on Ruunaa Rivers

My backyard..seriously this is what I gaze at out my window when I eat breakfast every morning.  Also, swallows have nested under the eaves of the old farm house I live in, so there are aerial acrobatics to watch as well

My personal rantasauna.  I forgot to mention in the last post that when heating a sauna, you should achieve a minimum  temperature of 60 Celsius.  The best saunas are between 75 and 85 degrees Celsius.  

The most common ditch weeds along the road as they cross swamps: orchids! And they're pretty ones too! Dactylorhiza, unfortunately I'm unsure of the species

Once again, my back yard 

Finnish BearAware:  pull pants down and moon the bear to cause it to flee

Inside of the old farmhouse kitchen area where I live.  Our raingear is drying after a particularly wet day!

Summer....and sauna!

After-storm sunset across one of the many lakes in the park

So, my past couple of weeks living in a National Park (Patvinsuon kansallispuisto) have been pretty much...mahtava! Awesome!  Anyways, I have millions and millions of friends that keep me company wherever I go, all I have to do is share a little of my blood occasionally...

These little butterflies are always very brave and tend to surround me and land on anything while I am doing my plots

My average day starts at 6am, but it feels like midday by this point as the sun has already been up for almost 4 hours at this point.  After breakfast I go to the forest and count trees...lots and lots and lots of trees.  This is interspersed with small breaks of mosquito mass murder...and of course taking pictures of cool things that I have found.  A friend of mine said "I take photos of things I find interesting..." and I think is also true for me.  After counting trees for several hours, I try to get back to the house/cottage by 6pm.  Then make dinner, light the sauna, do a little reading...have a sauna, wash the dishes, go for a walk, go to bed.  Repeat. I live in an old farmhouse with no electricity or running water.  Instead, we have an outhouse, several wooden ovens (direct translation), and a gas stove.  Oh right...and 2 saunas!  because there are no showers or anything of that nature, we have traditional sauna to wash everyday.  There are 2 wood-stove type devices.  One is below a large water tank and is used for making hot water.  The other is the kiuas and is the actual sauna stove/oven.  So, in order to take a proper sauna....

Ahhh...a summer evening in Finland...about 11:30pm. It doesn't really get any darker than this.

1.  Light fire in kiuas and under water

2.  Stoke fire

3.  Use hot water (mixed with cold) to make warm washing water in buckets

4.  Use hot water to make löylyvesi (water for throwing onto kiuas...to make the steam)

5.  Take off all of your clothes (naked is the only way to sauna)

6.  Climb on benches and heitä löylyä (throw water onto the stove to make the steam)

7. Sweat

8. Use vasta if desired.  This is a small bundle of birch branches that you dip in water, steam the leaves briefly on the stove, then beat yourself with.  Seriously.  Beat yourself with hot branches while sweating in a small steamy room.  I highly recommend you try it some day.

9. Take a little break and go outside

10.  Return to sauna and sweat some more. use vasta some more if you would like to.

11.  When you are done sweating, it is time to wash. Use the warm water and pour some onto yourself. Wash as you would in a shower, use the rest of the water to rinse.

12.  You are now done. Dry, dress, and drink water (and/or beer!).  

So now....go have a sauna...for your health!!!

So on that note...here are a selection of photos of what I have found interesting so far this summer!

Sunny morning after a big rainstorm that left the grass saturated. 

Another perfect summer evening.  The only problem is that there are so many things waiting to eat you that it is hard to stop long enough to take a photo

Lakka or cloudberry.  They are now blooming and in August the fruit will be ready.  There is a special kind of insanity that takes over every Finn when it comes to cloudberries. 

The aptly named suokukka, or swamp flower

Kielo, or lily-of-the-valley, has been blooming over the past couple of weeks.  It makes carpets across the floor of some forests and leaves the evening air smelling simply amazing.  It is the national flower of Finland...an excellent choice in my opinion!

Cottongrass (of some sort) fills the edges of some bogs and wet forests here.  Masses of it look really neat carpeting the forest floor in waves of white tufts

One of the friendly butterflies was enjoying blueberry nectar when it was ambushed by a ghost spider.  Too bad for the butterfly, but definitely a lucky day for the spider; that would make a juicy meal!

Green lacewings.  The veins on its wings are actually covered in thousands of stiff black hairs...you can see them making a dark halo around the edge of the wings.  I never would've known this before I took these pictures!  Lacewings are voracious predators with an appetite for aphids. 

Orchids!!  Yes, the first ones are finally out and I found this yellow coralroot in one of my plots.  Corallorhiza trifida, or harajuuri in finnish.  It is an orchid with no leaves or chlorophyll and it gets all of its energy from decaying organic material.

Regeneration survey (tree counting) purgatory.  Plots like this definitely receive a few colourful words of frustration...

This is my awesome work truck.  Aka Fiat Bravo.  So far, so good!  5.3L/100km (44.1 mpg) is alright even with European gas prices.