A mushroom knife, microscope and a petri dish went on a walk...

It's the end of summer. I am currently sitting at a VR Pendolino train, heading from Helsinki towards Oulu. At Oulu, a quick change to a fast train towards Tervola. I am going to participate in the 7th Advanced Fungus Identification Course. So, let's learn to know all the mushrooms - agaricales, Basidiomycota and Ascomyceta.

It's been difficult to write about nature during the summer. The explanation is simple: since the mid-May to yesterday, I worked almost full-time as a nature surveyor. There's not much chance to write about stuff that is trivial in one's life. "Today I surveyed forest types in Kirkkonummi. Found all kinds of nice things."

There's a clause in many consulting contracts that specifies that in the case of something interesting is found, the client should be informed first and a permission should be obtained if you want to talk to anyone about it - a standard non-disclosure agreement. Obviously, this does not work among the tightly-knit community of nature surveyors, who all know each other. And you cannot but meet people in the field. But from a theoretical point of view, the results of a contract are subject to NDA until an official report has been released.

This is all practically irrelevant. The basic gist of the rule goes that you cannot go around and tell everyone everything. It kinda sucks, but is understandable. After all, all I do for work is to collect and represent enviromental data to be used in political process. Dozens of hours condensend into one or two sentences, plain maps and bold, sometimes almost outrageous comments.

I love my job. After all, I get paid for doing what I like to do: go in different places and watch organisms in there. But it does get kinda stale, since it's a business venture. I have no idea how many boring, unsurprising bird survey trips to useless places I drove to this year. For what? Now I know the theoretical density of Wood Warblers in the urban broad-leaved forests of Southern Coast of Finland. Yay, I guess?

So, getting back at the field with the ecologists is great. I don't have to think if an engineer would understand my phrase nor am I time-limited. I get to listen to experts and specialists doing their thing and maybe learn a thing or two. It also means I can just put on my rubber boots and identify all kinds of stupid shit.