What I did on my summer vacation

[luzula]

Back to work today. It was okay, though I could've done with another month of vacation. Ah well.

I spent last week doing forest inventories in northern Sweden (Gällivare). It's a big annual event with 50-60 people, and it's been ten years since I attended it--I usually help organize smaller trips with a more manageable amount of people. But it was nice to network a bit. I especially got to know the new girlfriend of an activist I've known for a long time, and she was awesome. Also, I can't believe I was the person who knew the most about mosses and lichen (not fungi though) among those 60 people. I mean, I do enjoy sharing the knowledge that I do have, but seriously, I am not that good at lichen, and I'd hoped there would be people better than me that I could learn from.

Before that, I had failed to book tickets to get up there on the night train on the right day, and so had to stop by my old home town for two days on the way up. A lot of my friends there were not actually home, but some were, and I ended up going along to a folk music festival. It was a quite small event, which I liked, and I danced a lot. Every time I do that I wonder why I don't dance more often, because I enjoy it so much. Maybe something for next year's life bingo card?

I determinedly didn't contact my crush beyond including him in the general email to tell people I'd be there, which he didn't reply to. I mean, I spent a few days with him quite recently and didn't want to intrude myself on him. And I know the likely reason he didn't reply is that he's depressed and in general lacks spoons. Also he wasn't the only one who didn't reply to the email (people in general are not great at replying to email). I don't like how my sense of insecurity about him spreads itself to other people, such that I fear that I'm intruding myself on my friends in general when I visit. : ( I did tell a friend about that sense of insecurity, and she reassured me that it was quite irrational and that she'd have loved to hang out with me if she'd been home. ♥ Whatever, I'm human, sometimes I need reassurance.

So before that, I was home for a few days. And before that, I visited Stenshuvud, a Swedish national park I've never been to before. *crosses off bingo square* I was there with a good friend from work, though I kind of wished I'd gone with a nature geek instead since there were so many interesting species to geek out about. But it was good, except for her getting a cold, so we went home early.

Okay, I think I've gone back to where my last update post ended now...

Comments

[ride_4ever]

Life bingo card? Is that A Thing In Some Comm or an invention of your own?

[luzula]

Here is my card for this year. I got the idea for this from some housemates in my previous shared household, and have now spread it to some other people as well. : )

[ride_4ever]

Ah, I see! I read that post at the time, but thought of it as a "list" rather than a "bingo card". (And I didn't comment on it because I figured I'd comment as you posted about listed items achieved.)

[luzula]

I see what you mean--I have a physical paper with a bingo card on it, I just didn't have the patience to figure out how to post one online, so that's why it's just a list. : )

[ride_4ever]

...which reminds me of things I myself have not yet formatted for posting online (dS arts & crafts stuff).

[brigantine]

Forest inventories? Is that where you count forests? Or the instances of things IN the forests, like how many of this kind of moss per square meter within a certain area, that sort of thing?

It sounds nifty, whatever it is!

[luzula]

Well, it is maybe not the right English word. : ) What we do is to look at how close the forests are to being actual natural ecosystems, as opposed to what are basically plantations. So we look at how old the trees are and if there are dead trees standing and lying down, and what species live there. And if a forest has lots of old trees and dead wood and rare species, we try to prevent it being cut down.