Setting Suns and Snowfall

Helsinki Dawn...Swans (Joutsenet) on Töölönlahti

Things are starting to get a little more interesting around Joensuu.  It has finally started to snow (sataa lunta) so the landscape looks very different.  Actually, today was our first official snowfall (it must snow more than 1cm to even count as snow).  We now have a grand total of 4cm and our coldest temperature has been -7 C.  Not to stereotype, but I was kind of expecting it to be a little colder here...it's just about the same latitude as Yellowknife, NWT (actually we're just a little further North).  However, on Saturday, it was 26 degrees colder in Williams Lake, BC than it was in Joensuu.  It just seems like there is something wrong with that picture.  Anyways, the night appears to be a lot brighter , which is excellent seeing that the sun now sets at 15:00.

Baroque gardens in Fredriksborg, Denmark.

The dreary grayness has been been given a new face with the fresh snow, a face that is  brighter, more festive, appropriate to the season, and...more slippery.  I have to admit this is the first time I have ridden my bike in the snow.  I've been in snow lots....skiing, walking, driving, on the bus...but I have never considered mounting a bicycle.  The especially lethal traps are when a frozen, smooth puddle on the sidewalk hides under a layer of white.  Given the sunset time and the new riding surface my two favorite bike accessories are a light (the law) and a helmet (not the law...as far as I can tell).  Interesting.  I haven't hit the sidewalk yet, but it has been close a few times.

Danish...pastry, chestnuts, cheese, flags, jam.  Tulips of unknown origin...hmmm. But the colour fits the theme!

School is picking up a bit too.  My current class, Economics of Multiple Use Forestry, is a class that has really met my expectations in terms of content and work.  In the past "multiple use forestry" or "other forest values" has only included carbon...carbon credits, carbon cycles, carbon markets...carbon.  However, this course also includes discussions of wildlife, habitat, mushrooms, berries, and recreation.  Finally.  Also, our silviculture course came with a well-endowed stack of reading material, which was fairly interesting information on plantation management (as opposed to the "ecosystem-based forestry" of Canada):  thinning, pruning, genetics programs...all that sort of "fun" stuff.

The Mermaid, Copenhagen...watching some of the German Navy leave the harbour.

As you can tell by the photos, I've been thinking back on my trip to Copenhagen a lot this week.  It is interesting to consider about the differences between Denmark and Finland, they're a lot less similar than most people (I know) would expect.  Denmark feels, well, European for lack of a better description.  Rolling fields, deciduous forests, cobblestones, brick houses...managed and neat.  Finland feels Nordic as opposed to European:  endless forests, more modern architecture...perhaps just a little more wild.  There's a sense like mother nature (or something else) is still in control and that the future may not turn out the same as we plan it to be.  That being said, forests are still immaculately kept and planned...for the most part.  Denmark is the picture of Scandinavian culture (shhh...just don't tell Sweden).  Finland has aspects of it's culture that make it similar to Scandinavia, though it's not technically Scandinavian.  Interior design of new homes and popular home furnishing designs are often what non-Finns would classify as "Ikea-esque design."  Yes, clean lines, bold colours, and botanical motifs...but not IKEA!  Can you tell I live in Finland??  :-)

Swans and the Anglican Church, Copenhagen

Anyways, my Fun Finnish Fact for this week is actually more of a Joensuu fact instead of a Finnish Fact. The main pedestrian-only street has subterrainean heating.  Seriously.  At first I thought they just had a huge sewer or something under there causing the ice to melt, but I've asked around and it's actually heated.  It doesn't feel warm; it's certainly not like walking over in-floor heating.  But, it's just enough heat to slowly turn ice crystals to water and even encourage some evaporation.  I don't think it keeps up with heavy snowfall, but it will eventually catch up when the snowfall stops.  I think it's a fairly brilliant idea.  Just think that in a city that has up to 8 months of winter, the main walking street never needs ploughing.  Reduced liability, reduced long-term work, happier store-owners...but I hate to think what kind of work is required when it needs to be repaired.  Hopefully they don't have to dig the whole street up!

Reflection of Helsinki in a restaurant window...way out of my budget I'm sure!

Nähdään!  Maybe next week I'll have some snow pictures...if I take my camera out before it all melts again!

Kastellet, Copenhagen.  The old army barracks along the original city ramparts.  Apparently there is a high likelihood that my grandfather spent his army service time stationed here.

Blue Steel...Steal?

My bicycle and me.  We have a bond.  With April's help we found each other, and now we are committed.  He waits for me at the bus station, or train station, or outside the bar...just waiting to give me a safe ride home.  Blue Steal provides me with transportation and freedom.  In return, I take him out for adventures.  My favorite are night rides. Standard route: 6.5km Noljakka to Niinivaara.

I have to leave the warm comfort of a friend's house. Stepping outside the air is damp and chilled.  Click.  Helmet on.  Next: the gloves.  If you put on gloves before doing up your helmet the buckle is very hard to fasten.  Bike unlocked...thank goodness it hasn't frozen shut (I helped it out with some cooking oil a few weeks ago).  3 clicks on the bike light...1 - epileptic flash....2 - steady beat....3 - steady on.  Just about ready.  I'm not sure how warm or cold it is out.  Earlier today it was snowing.  Then raining.  Now it is just a thick fog with a penetrating chill.  I test the sidewalk by running the sole of my shoe along the surface...sand and pebbles roll beneath my foot making a scratching sound.  Ice.  Definitely re-frozen; no sudden moves allowed on the way home.

The ride starts with a stiff uphill. My nose is already dripping. Then, I duck behind a church and I'm onto the forest paths.  These are my favorite, particularly on nights like this.  They are lit at regular intervals by high efficiency lights...also known as the lights that keep you in the dark.  However, the lights throw just enough light to illuminate sharp lines through the mist in the trees and create eerie shadows across the paths and into the darkness of the forest on a nordic winter evening.  The lights cast my shadow onto the pathway and it distorts as I ride by.  At first my shadow drags behind as I approach the light, but it slowly creeps forward until it is under me and I am under the light.  Suddenly, my shadow races ahead of me into the darkness, as if to race as quickly as possible away from the light that is making it.  Finally, it dissipates and becomes one with the darkness that is my surroundings.

The trees.  Scots Pine.  Some glow in the mist while others cower in the darkness.  It is a hallway of columns to glide through:  behind the neighbourhoods, under the roads and through the frigid night air.  It is not yet so cold that the air has no smell.  In fact, the air has many scents....exhaust as I pass under a road, cooking as I swiftly slip behind a neighbourhood, wood smoke - pulling at my memories, tobacco smoke - making me cringe.  The tobacco smoke lingers along my ride.  It may have been a cyclist that passed through, a driver (probably with a dangling air-freshener too), a couple on a walk...a single smoker hovers on a balcony; exiled from the warmly-lit indoors

In some places the snow has survived creating a delicate crunch as Blue Steal rolls along.  In other places, I can see the path glistening - an icy concrete.  Footprints and the shallow ruts of bicycle tires have been frozen in time... until the next thaw at least.  Perhaps tomorrow?

All too soon, the lights of the ice hockey arena dance between the columns of pine.  It is the end of the forest path for me.  The zambonie is emptying its oversize nose between the already existing piles of "snow." It's odd that it's called snow because the zambonie tailings are nothing like snow.  It is not natural....it is not clean, fresh, pure or crisp.  It is rejected; the dirty ice scraped off the surface containing the blood, sweat, tears, and spit of many hockey players, figure skaters, and recreational skaters. Zambonie un-snow....definitely not zambonie snow.  

My nose is a faucet at this point.  My butt is cold, but my hands, heart, and feet are like ovens.  I am soo glad I put on these ski socks this morning.  It was a battle.  The skinny jeans said that knee-high wool socks were not a functional article of clothing.  Each time I tried to pull my pant-leg down, the socks would get rolled down to the ankle with it.  ugh.  to  anyone else who wants to wear knee-high socks with skinny jeans: put the socks on before the jeans.  It's like doing up your helmet before putting on your gloves.  it just works better.  I won.

Now I am home, wam, and dry while Blue Steal waits outside in the fog.  He will get a place inside as soon as they are finished re-painting my bike room.  the fumes are offensive too. We look forward to our next barely-lit outing in and out of the Joensuu neighbourhoods.