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Walking in the Forests

Forest Cat said:
Yes, they walked from Finland, from Savonia and northern Tavastia and settled in that forest. It became their forest. Many of the people who live there now are descendants of the Finns. 🌲🌲🌲
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Yes! :) I'm a "Finno-Ugric nerd", I love to read about our Finno-Ugric relatives a lot. :)) I'm an eastern Finn too, from close to the areas where the Forest Finns came from, so they might be closer to me than our western Finns here. As western Finns and eastern Finns are genetically less related to each other, than most other Europeans are related to each other! For example Germans and the Brits are more closely related to each other, than the eastern and western Finns are to each other. I've read that Europeans can be placed into two genetical categories approximately: into "Finns" and "non-Finns". I find this very fun, I love to research genetics and of course history too. :)
 
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I live in a region that is home to pretty scenery, but am just now starting to explore state parks in earnest this year. This was taken a few weeks ago, in some pine flatwoods. The trail was partially boardwalks due to high grass. I’m not used to this particular type of forest, so it was a nice change of atmosphere.
 
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blue_bird said:
You and the OP are so lucky. Id do anything to live in a place of natural beauty like that. I'm tired of living in my concrete jungle now.
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❤️ I hope you'll get to the nature more in the future too! ❤️
Finland is practically a big forest (I won't count the south/west here, but just the real "heart" of Finland...). :) Other Europeans told me they get dizzy when they come to the northern and eastern Finland, because they will have to drive for hours in the forest roads to get to the next village. :)
 
Forest Cat said:
Yeah, a staggering 73% of Finland is covered with forest, so many trees!! And I think that is why the Finns are on top of the "Happiest people on earth" list every year. 😃 It's the forest, that's the secret.
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I thought the secret was the Sauna. Do you have 100 degree challenges there? Stoking up the Sauna then when you are very hot jump out and dive into a snowbank. My body was numb after that.
 
On my last exploration trip. Stopped here at the old LA aqueduct pumps for breakfast. This region
is considered desert, although this area is 200 sq miles of dense pine-nut forest.....

mono craters pumps.jpg
 
Forest Cat said:
Yeah, a staggering 73% of Finland is covered with forest, so many trees!! And I think that is why the Finns are on top of the "Happiest people on earth" list every year. 😃 It's the forest, that's the secret.
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Yes I believe too that it's the simplicity and nature that always existed in our culture that makes the average Finns reply that they feel happy about their lives. Some other nations may understand the word differently, for example some people wish for more financial riches and wouldn't think of nature as the source of happiness, so they may feel unhappy if they only have what they need to live a simple life. The fantasy of happiness vs. the mindfulness of living in this moment / the nature where we as humans really belong to.

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I just wrote a long general disclaimer about the happiness and the paradox of it, the darker sides of Finland, because I didn't want people to think that Finland is in any way "perfect" or a "paradise on Earth" - thinking that way makes some people just jealous and unhappy, and of course it would be based on a huge bias anyway (not my own bias, but the general bias of what countries are trendy nowadays).
However I decided to delete my long text about my views of Finland (the scale of good and bad, to balance it out publicly) because I still have it ingrained in my head that it's culturally inappropriate to talk about the dark sides of Finland or express emotions in general.
However I saved my long text in a folder on my laptop and I can possible share it later if someone really wants me to. It's not meant to make anyone depressed about Finland, but just to balance things out about my country, its historical mentality, and my experiences of living in this country.
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Tom said:
There have been some studies done recently about the beneficial effects of certain environments. like walking in the woods or on a beach. I can't remember the details, except for lower heart rate, blood pressure, etc, but I think there were others. They also identified some chemical(s) released by trees that have a beneficial effect on people. On a tangent there are also some very wild studies about how trees communicate to each other underground via chemicals.

I was very fortunate and live in the woods in Pennsyvania. We are on a gravel road overlooking a creek. Soon after moving in the area was turned into a Nature Preserve.
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I've also read that there are benefits to time spent in nature. Now I've also read/studied a very interesting thing about chemicals released by trees. Specifically evergreens and pine scent. That beautiful smell is a poly-aromatic-hydrocarbon (PAH). The fun thing about PAH's is they are cancer causing agents. Now this comes with a large caveat that in toxicology the poison is not the substance but the dose of the substance. You could be in a pine forest for 1000's years and you're not going to breath in enough of the scent to ever worry about it causing cancer. But it's structure is in the same family as some more carcinogenic substances. Thank you for coming to my Tedx talk.
 
I wonder what purpose (if any) the PAH serves for the tree?

On a tangent, a family friend once studied under a professor/researcher who had a story. The professor, simply out of curiousity, decided to find out how plants/trees shed their leaves. He found they produced a chemical in autumn that killed the foliage. Others turned this discovery to Agent Orange.
 
Ivi said:
❤️ I hope you'll get to the nature more in the future too! ❤️
Finland is practically a big forest (I won't count the south/west here, but just the real "heart" of Finland...). :) Other Europeans told me they get dizzy when they come to the northern and eastern Finland, because they will have to drive for hours in the forest roads to get to the next village. :)
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That sounds beautiful. I don't know how you survive the cold though. Someone made a joke once that in Finland during the winter they put the chicken in the freezer to thaw. :D
 
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blue_bird said:
That sounds beautiful. I don't know how you survive the cold though. Someone made a joke once that in Finland during the winter they put the chicken in the freezer to thaw. :D
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Haha, I hadn't heard that joke before! :)

<3 Thank you, the coldness is indeed very difficult for me, I'm very very sensitive to cold (and huge weather changes in general) and lose feeling of my fingers and toes for the winters. Usually I get sick for the winters and then try to get back to "normal" in the spring/summer. Other people just bicycle around in the winter, or go outside anyway, not feeling anything! I have lived in a few different countries (keeping my countries a secret always, as they're relatively unpopular! :D ), and I believe that I was born in the wrong country and culture, if I exclude the midnight sun which I love very much. :)

If I could this year, I would go to Türkiye for the whole winter, but I would need a traveling companion because of...well, autism-related support needs. I was supposed to go there for the last winter, but I cancelled it due to many reasons that happened with me and my Türkish friends/family. But I love Türkiye, I usually love what others hate and vice versa. :) Can't help it.

My beloved hopefully-husband-to-be is in Texas, it would be great to go to Texas, but only if I had the money to stay there for the whole winter (and the traveling companion from here too)! :) It's fun because we joke about how cold Texas is in the autumn for him, and I'm just thinking that it's rarely that hot here even in the summer! :D
(Like today...just googled the weather...wow :D )

This is my gear nowadays inside and outside, haha. :)
 

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Ivi said:
However I saved my long text in a folder on my laptop and I can possible share it later if someone really wants me to. It's not meant to make anyone depressed about Finland, but just to balance things out about my country, its historical mentality, and my experiences of living in this country.
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Does it have anything to do with border tensions?
 
I just noticed a rather idiotic planning flaw in most of our parks. It's a hot climate with lots of beautiful big old growth trees for shade, and lots of nice paths all over the place, and here and there there's a bench to sit on. But instead of being under nice shady trees every one of those benches is out in the full sun where no one can sit on them.

I think I'm going to point that out when I meet some of my government ministers next week.
 
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