Petersburg and Pests

St Petersburg, St Isaac's Cathedral

So, in the past 6 weeks, spring has basically come and gone in Finland.  Despite the fact it is 10 degrees and raining outside, it is definitely summer, so I've just been pretending that I live in Vancouver... :)

St. Petersburg, St. Nikolas Cathedral

Over the past couple of weeks I have been busy...actually very busy, though not all work-related.  Finish courses, and projects, and exams took up the first half of May (not terribly exciting).  I managed to get through the most intensive GIS course I've ever embarked upon, so now I feel like I know nothing about GIS! I just have one little thing left to do...my thesis! For my thesis, I will be counting natural regeneration seedlings after different logging and burning treatments.  Somebody was bound to ask, so I thought I should mention it.  So I will be spending the rest of my summer living in Patvinsuo National Park (sweet...a giant swamp on the edge of Finland) and counting baby trees.

The Russian throne is up for grabs...any takers? The last time the whole family was executed, so I can't recommend the position!

I have a sneaking suspicion that this summer will set a new record in my world of blood-sucking bugs.  Finland has a wide selection to choose from. There's the old faithful mosquitos that make the most annoying hum when they seemingly hover in your ears as you try to fall asleep. There are the no-see-ums or midges that can go through any bug netting.  From there the size of biting flies increases through 6 or seven different species up to horseflies, which are well over 1.5cm in size and tend to fly off with great chunks of your flesh leaving you with a bloody hole in your skin.  Nice.  There are two forest friends here in Finland that I am not used to from Canada:  mooseflies and an overabundance of ticks. Yes, we have ticks in Canada, but our stocks (where I have worked) are not nearly as plentiful as what Finland's forests have to offer.  Just last weekend, I experienced the second most disgusting feeling in my life as a full tick (it had dropped off the cat) popped between my toes.  It was the sharp snap like popping bubble wrap that first got my attention, followed by masses of dark sticky goo that were (probably partially digested cat's blood) squirted across the floor and smeared between my toes.  So...watch where you step if you have indoor/outdoor pets in tick country!

Sweet Russian Ride (Lada), St. Petersburg

This brings me to an essential piece of Finnish foresty equipment: Nokian kumisaappaat.  For those of us who understand English better than Finnish (most of the world), that is rubber boots...specifically those manufactured by Nokia that are knee-length, preferably black.  They keep your feet dry through the swamps (which dominate the Finnish forest landscape) and they keep the ticks out. It's fairly common knowledge that Nokia was originally a Finnish company and still is a point of pride for many Finns.  But, did you know that Nokia has made everything from rubber boots and tires (the "rubber division") to electricity cables and power generation equipment (the "cable division") to personal computers and even military equipment.  The rubber boots are still a mainstay in Finland and I can almost guarantee you that every Finn has owned a pair of Nokian kumisaapaat.  The core company today makes phones and smartphones and other things like that.  Fun fact, the current CEO of Nokia is Canadian.

Cathedral of Christ's Resurrection, St. Petersburg

Back to what I have been up to...

We took a budget cruise from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, and as a result we went to the budget docks.  This meant we had to go by all of the industrial docks for this major Russian port...that was interesting in itself!  We passed within 20m of large ocean tanker-type ships and got to see amazing quantities of stell, aluminum, fertilizer and all sorts of other outward-bound products

My parents have visited me during the second half of May and we certainly did our best to cover significant ground in this part of the world...Helsinki, St Petersburg, Lapland, and Eastern Finland...it was a busy tour, but well worth it!  My Dad got to listen to some Russian accordionists, while my mom got to summit the "Finnish Alps" hehehe....they're not exactly mountains by any Canadian's definition, but they certainly rise above the flat lands of the rest of Finland.  You could see from Russia to Norway on the top of some of the hills.  Oh yes, and we drove to Norway too...by accident.  so we turned around and headed back South into Lapland! all the pictures this week are of travels with my parents...

from the mayhem of a large Russian city to the tranquility of the Finnish wilderness...ahh, breathe a sigh of relief!

Well...I have to make it brief, but hopefully the pictures manage to fill in some of the gaps!

That's a funny looking reindeer!

Yep..they grow nice timber here in Finland...just kidding! These are on the tundra "mountains" (tunturi) at almost 70 degrees of latitude...that's like where Inuvik is in Canada!

Swamps and Swamps and more swamps...but they are picturesque.  And, if you're one of those people in the world who likes sphagnum (there must be a few out there..), it is a very interesting place...

The wilderness church near Inari.  This was the second time I went there...notice my mother can't sit still long enough for the long exposure time...she looks like a ghost!

Yes...this is what the rest of Finland looks like all the time...sunshine, flowers, and huge Medieval castles...Actually this is Savonlinna, one of very few castles here on a rare sunny spring day...