What are you doing today?

[GaryE]

I'm glad to be reading TFF today. It seems the site has been having server problems, and over the past short period has been down a couple of times. So far, it's been getting back on its feet again each time. so if you try and fail - hang on!

In my tiny corner of the world, autumn has arrived early. I'm up just after dawn, with a wildfire tinged sky (they've become so common they're barely reported on now). I have enormous groups of Canada geese traveling over the house honking like 1970s weddings, and more crows than I ever thought I'd see and hear. I went for a walk in a coastal forest yesterday and it was fantastic in there. I was with a person who studies mushrooms for fun, and as she pointed out things I might not have noticed otherwise, it was a world in those mossy pines.

I don't know if you're the same - but I find it great when people point out nature to me. I walk by mushrooms and notice them, but when the differences are pointed out, they're much more interesting. The same with my recent exploration of diversity in songbirds - I have seen a lot of small birds, but now the subtle differences are catching my eye. Mushrooms, plants, wildflowers, rocks, birds - I have always paid close attention to the differences in fish and insect species with my urban eye, but living in a less human modified place really allows your eyes to be opened to evolution, geology and diversity.

My mushroom admiring friend, the visiting mother of a friend, can't look at a rock face without wondering about its geological history. She's never been in this corner of the world before, and she brings a fresh eye. That is very interesting.

 

[Helina]

Wow what an amazing story GaryE!
Makes me wish I'd be living in countryside instead of an suburban environment! I try to make my little apartment here as green as lovely. And my aquarium is the diamond of the decor, in adding more greenery and life and an actual living and working ecosystem to my daily view. With these I try to compensate for the lack of rural landscape. Nothing beats the fresh chilly air of autumn in a morning walk in a rural landscape, with orange leaves falling and fields and forests in color. Ohh. Your story made me miss and wish again all that.

Anyway, to answer also the topic: today, I feel a bit better after being sick whole week. So, I am back to working with my master's thesis references. It'll all be soon ready and done, at least the first stage of it before mid-evaluation and feedback. It's a survey-based study I made, on the views and beliefs of Finnish Eastern border forest owners about forest restoration. Forest maintenance in the declining situation with diversity here and with climate change bringing its own challenges of longer drought and heat periods we have already experienced and longer growing season and shorter snow cover which we are also already experiencing, in as north as I am, has been what my masters' studies have focused on. So having a thesis with an approach of also ecologically sustainable forestry (not only economically sustainable), and the attitudes and readiness of private forest owners to that, is very interesting topic to me.

 

[GaryE]

@Helina to me, your thesis is an important topic.

I'm at heart a city person. I like my human diversity too. But circumstances have me learning life on the edge of a small city, and I like it too. No one can have knowledge of everything, and I really appreciate the expertise others have acquired and are willing to share.

We're facing the same ecological pressure, with a consistent drop in snow cover. I'm not experiencing the heat directly as many here are, as living right beside the ocean has a moderating effect. That said, the water temperature in the bay has been going up, and that is going to have consequences here. There are changes happening as southern species push north in ways I don't consider gradual.

Many of our forests have been modified by tree planting monocultures, as everything put back is for harvest by one mega-corporation. It looks very good when a company says it has planted millions of trees, but when they ignore the ecology of the forests they cut down and then farm them, it has repercussions. Now we have one of our few old growth forest areas being leveled to put in a data centre that will provide important short term jobs, but nothing direct for local people in the long term. Well, maybe some unwelcome excess warming...

Finland isn't a big tourism destination, but it's a country that has always interested me.

 

[Helina]

@GaryE wow, that's an amazing reply. I could not have said it better.
I am extremely pleased to find people who have observed and noticed the changes and how big companies drive the change of structure and diversity in our forests. In Finland, good forestry is an honor of the nation they take a great pride in. But when they say it's sustainable, they mean rather sustainable logging wise, not diversity wise. As in, they don't log usually more than one year share of a continued calculated growth. But yeah.

What can I say. Diversity favoring measures are completely voluntary and not yet very popular. But with the new Restoration Regulation from EU they plan to add restorative measures to some of the forests. That's what my thesis was about, about what is the willingness and awareness of people to welcome that and when they don't welcome it, what specifical restoration measures they are against and what measures they welcome. When I get my thesis published I can share more, but I'm really excited about the promising results that I got back from the survey.

Though, I've always enjoyed nature and liked animals allot, since kid, I've tried to never become radical, or join radical movements. I believe in peaceful sharing of information and influence from the standpoint of science. And not excluding the needs of anyone, but you know... "cultivate and look after" or how it's written in start of an English Bible, is actually a good point. Can't forget the need to cultivate forests but can't also forget to look after them as well.

 

[gwand]

I live in a mixed rural suburban setting coming up on 30 years this month. We are next door to a horse farm and down the road from a several thousand acre farm that alternates growing cattle corn and sunflowers. Besides human neighbors we live among deer, fox, an occasional coyote and geese. It is a peaceful area that is now threatened by suburban expansion. We live in a ranch making it easier to age in place.

 

[Chickadee]

I have enormous groups of Canada geese traveling over the house honking like 1970s weddings,

This made me laugh. Only recently I had a random thought that I never see cars with "Just Married" signs and tin cans tied to the back anymore. The good ole days.

I don't know if you're the same - but I find it great when people point out nature to me. I walk by mushrooms and notice them, but when the differences are pointed out, they're much more interesting. The same with my recent exploration of diversity in songbirds - I have seen a lot of small birds, but now the subtle differences are catching my eye.

My dad was like this and it's probably why I love nature so much. The only mushrooms I can ID and love to eat are morels. Sometimes I see some that are bright orange and wish I knew what they were.

 

[bgarthe]

Just finished creating and attaching slate rock bases to some driftwood for one if my 33g long tanks. Now I’m getting ready for this weekend’s two car shows…..weather permitting. I’m gonna be getting some more Panda CoryCats and Bentosi/Ornate/candy cane/HY511 (synonyms) Tets next week if all works out. ATM, I’m sitting out in the screened in porch with my wife and dog with 78 degree temps, a gentle breeze, and hummingbirds visiting our deck flowers. Life is good.

 

[jaylach]

This made me laugh. Only recently I had a random thought that I never see cars with "Just Married" signs and tin cans tied to the back anymore. The good ole days.



My dad was like this and it's probably why I love nature so much. The only mushrooms I can ID and love to eat are morels. Sometimes I see some that are bright orange and wish I knew what they were.

A bright orange mushroom is most commonly either a Chanterelle (edible, with blunt ridges) or a Jack‑o’‑Lantern (toxic, with sharp true gills), and the key difference is the gill structure and whether it grows on soil or wood.

 

[Back in the fold]

Highly considering a Lake Tanganyika "biotope" setup in the future right now. Looking into julidochromis

He’s alive ! ! ! Where you been kid ?

 

[Rocky998]

He’s alive ! ! ! Where you been kid ?

Haha.
Just been working a lot honestly. Lost the motivation to keep up my activity with the forums sadly. I still have a few friends on here I keep in touch with. They're some of the best friends I've ever made. So we keep in touch outside of the forums.
Just got home not long ago from another shift. I'm tired lol.

How have you been?

 

[Back in the fold]

How have you been?

I have been just fine . Life is good and things are going okay . A pity you have to work . Retirement is wonderful !

 

[jaylach]

I have been just fine . Life is good and things are going okay . A pity you have to work . Retirement is wonderful !

Yep, retirement is the best job I've ever had. I even like getting older. Face it, when you stop growing older, they plant you 6 feet under.

 

[bgarthe]

I agree. I’ve been busier retired than when I worked. Go figure. At least the busy factor is doing things I love instead of always things I have to.

 

[MattW]

I think my generation probably won't get retirement at this stage. Work until you end up in the ground

 

[jaylach]

Watched the movie Star trek 4, The Voyage Home, with the whales that is well within my top 3 favorites if not #1. I wonder how it would have been on the screen if it followed a few scenes from the book that didn't happen on the screen. Here are some things I missed in the movie in relation to the book. This reference comes from Leonard Nimoy's book "I Am Not Spok" so I must consider accurate as Vulcans cannot directly lie.

• When Spok dove in to get first contact with the whales he was drunk. He had eaten some mint candies which act on a Vulcan like strong booze on us. This also contributes to the confused discussion as to if Spok likes Italian food.
• When Kirk and Gillian were in the pizza shop in the book they actually started to eat. Kirk had no concept as to pizza and started eating from the crust end. Would have added another subtle layer of humor.
• I REALLY wish this would have made it! Hikaru Sulu, George Takei, was supposed to meet his many times over great grand father when his ancestor was still a kid. Sadly, every time filming started, they couldn't keep the kid from crying and didn't have production time to re-cast. The scene was just deleted.