On Czech trains—I love ‘em—forget the coffee and drink Czech beer!

Ever so much better for both body and spirit.

Nescafé—ugh! Won’t touch the stuff.

T.

Holding a small caliber, single-shot pistol in one hand, you fired sixty shots in one hour at a [small] bullseye target 50 meters away.

I loved the idea of an Olympic sport, the goal of which was to >not< move!

The pistols were very exotic and, in many ways, the sport was not far removed from photography: timing, practice, holding still…and fancy gear. Both profited from a Zen-like emptying of your mind.

I liked the practice but never cared for the competition.

There are a lot of forest-owners in Finland, but owning forests is controlled by local forest districts (which have tight connections to forest industry), and there is not much choice in what to do a forest-owner has with his/her forests. If you don’t want clear cuts, you can be sued for neglecting to take care of your forests. (In current forest policy “take care” means maximixing the industrial value.)

However, there are people who are advocating changes in forest policies, and sooner or later those have to be taken into account, I hope.