Saturday, May 6, 2017

Every one of them a splinter in my eye

The photographs were taken in Petikko on April 9th.

This morning I walked for two hours in Luukki with my daughter. We didn't see Gavia stellata, but at least there were plenty of frog spawning and making noise.

(Posting title is from the poem Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton.)

Friday, May 5, 2017

With an obsessive nature and deep fascination

The photographs were taken on April 9th in Petikko.

I didn't commute by bicycle today, using the train instead. Today would have been a great day for riding the bicycle, as it was dry and warm, up to 18 °C. For next week the weather forecast promises wet and cold weather, and there might be even snow slush.

(Posting title is from the song Pi by Kate Bush.)

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Divest himself

The photographs were taken at Tremanskärr on April 8th.

Today I thought about investments, and stock markets in particular. I did a little bit of investing in shares in the late 1990s, just before the big crash, and learned to be cautious. I'm not into buying and selling, mostly I'm just keeping the shares and enjoying the dividends.

I have done plenty of mistakes, one example of which is buying Nokia shares when the price had dropped well below 10 euro per share, thinking that it can't drop much lower. Well, I was wrong. Of course, there have been some successes as well, perhaps due to the fact that I have mostly tried to invest in companies I know something about, for example because I use their products or services.

However, these days I'm feeling more and more cautious, especially when thinking about the kind of leadership we are having. It may be good for the stock markets in the short term to cut health care and education and give massive tax breaks to the richest people, but I don't think this will work well beyond half a dozen quarters.

(Posting title is from the poem My First Name by Susan Harlan.)