Scandinavian hot today.

Written by Christer.
Blueberries in bloom.

Scandinavian hot today, 25C (77F), thankfully a wind is blowing to cool it down. Then again warm air dries out the ground even more so it’s sort of a damned if I do damned if I don’t situation for nature. They say we’ll get some more rain tomorrow evening though and the temperatures will drop some as well. The good thing though is that the laundry dried up in less than ten minutes 🙂 🙂

I will be surprised if the peach tree survives next winter, It is hit by leaf curl disease and this time it’s the entire tree. I’ve heard peaches usually can handle it when the tree is older but I’ve had so many peach trees dying because of it so I doubt it.
I’ve tried to remove this rose so many times that even I am beginning to give up now, it’s a garden variety of the Cinnamon rose and happily spreads via its roots.
Soon I’ll have my first strawberry 🙂

I know that for many of You 25C (77F) is like a cool summer morning but up here in the north that used to be as high the temperature rose in summer with, of course, the occasional heatwave passing by a day or two before we had more rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t remember if it is two or three years ago the temperature never rose above 20C (68F) during the month of July and we had at least some rain every day that month. To be honest I didn’t complain even though I did get bored by it before the vacation was over 🙂 🙂 🙂

The potato sprouts I planted has now grown so high that it was time to fill up the entire bucket with soil. It will now produce potatoes along the stem that was just buried in soil. I doubt there will be many per stalk but they usually grow a bit bigger instead.
Three pots with sown rhubarbs. They are so easy to sow that it would have been surprising if even one seed didn’t germinate. Can’t eat any next year because the plant will need all leafs to grow bigger, but the year after that I can start harvesting 🙂

I’m still rather tired today but I guess it’s the combination of one week with high fever followed by a week with evening shift that sort of takes its toll, plus of course the warm weather itself. I’ve tried to not sit still too much, so I’ve done the laundry, started dinner for next week in the slow cooker and now I’m waiting for a bread to be ready to be taken out of the oven. This time I skipped the cheese but have plenty of rosemary in it. Also today I’m trying Teff flour, a cereal growing mostly in Ethiopia but I’ve heard they now grow it in a lot of places. I have used it once a long time ago but can’t remember how it tasted.

I have lots of the creeping bellflower in my garden, over here seen as one of the worst weeds there is 🙂 They are beautiful though and if too many just eat the roots, works great in a salad like radishes would.

I couldn’t for my life figure out what it was I had sown (name tags of course gone 🙂 ) Then I suddenly remembered it, garden varieties of the purple coneflower 🙂
This is truly surprising! Do You remember me telling You about mice chopping off both Giant sequoia seedlings and my Pawpaw seedlings? All looked dead to me but I saved them just in case it would produce new branches. I’ve mostly neglected this one but watered it every now and again. To my very big surprise this morning I noticed that it actually is alive and is producing new branches again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I will take very good care of it from now on 🙂

Not even the dogs are especially active today, they’ve played some but mostly they’ve been napping. I’ve always wondered how thick furred dogs can survive in a warmer climate than what it is here, most of them are knocked out already in our temperatures. We now have loads of insects here but surprisingly few biting ones, that may change quickly now if we actually get the rain that se we’ll get. Not many butterflies though but plenty of different bees and at the moment they are all visiting my wild roses 🙂

Magpies, beautiful, smart, funny and probably one of the most annoying birds there is 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

8 thoughts on “Scandinavian hot today.”

  1. Christer, you are right in saying that your warm temp is nothing compared to what states in the U.S. are experiencing. Even here in New England, the temp is now 90F and is expected to be even higher over the net couple of days 🥵 Luckily, I can find a lot of things to do indoors.

    Glad to read that you are feeling better and I am as well, slowly. Today I have pork in the crock pot for pulled pork tonight and a couple more nights to avoid using the oven. It’s been a while since I have made bread, maybe after this heat wave. Hope you get more strawberries.

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    1. Hi Beatrice!

      Even though it’s summer we still are so close to the arctic that it affects us rather much, I don’t mind because I really can’t take Your temperatures 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Yes slowly but still better 🙂
      I actually had more or less the same as You in my crockpot 🙂 I’ll only use the oven if I need bread, then again the gluten free hard bread is quite good so I can buy that if I need to 🙂 🙂

      Lots of strawberries on the way 🙂

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  2. Today the forecast for Virginia is 99F, but with humidity to feel like 109F. And today is the cooler day. Next few days 100F or 101F with humidity, then high 90s into next weekend. I have my air conditioner set to 77F with also a fan running in any room I’m in. If I get away from the fan, I start getting sweaty. It’s miserable.

    I have quite a few trees that shade the house, which helps a lot. But some of my neighbors have cut down every tree in their yard, so their houses have full sun beating on them. These houses are poorly insulated, so their air conditioners must run nonstop when it’s this hot. In fact, I saw a repair truck at one of their houses last week.

    I don’t know how the cats stand it. They stay quiet and sleep a lot.

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    1. Hi catsworking!

      Yesterday we had 77F and today we have 59F 🙂 They say we’ll now have a week with lower temperatures and possibly lots of rain and I don’t mind.

      It is very unusual for any private homes to have any AC units, fans we do have but no ac.
      Lots of trees around my cottage as well but the sun can hit the roof all day long.

      Cats are smart 🙂

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  3. I actually have a heat pump that does both heat and cool. It does neither very well if the temperatures are extreme either way. I know there are people who don’t have AC at all. I don’t know how they do it. Around here, the libraries and community centers become open to people who just need to cool off.

    When I was a girl in Massachusetts (much farther north from here), I can’t think of anybody who had AC. We didn’t need it. Those were the good old days.

    Several summers ago, my heat pump died and had to be replaced. I went for 3 days without AC with temperatures in the high 90Fs. Had all the windows open and fans going, blowing the hot air around. I wouldn’t leave the cats, so we all suffered through it. They kept looking at me as if asking, “Why don’t you make it cool again?”

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    1. Hi! Our temperatures are similar to yours this year. The tomatoes, and peppers lack enthusiasm, but our fireweed is now over 2m tall, as are the foxgloves.

      Plants ssure can be tough! May your pawpaws prosper!

      Carol

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      1. Hi Carol!

        I think I need to buy older tomato plants from the store to get any tomatoes before autumn :-)and I have given up on the bell peppers.

        Our fireweed has just started to grow high but no buds yet, we did have really warm weather late April early May but I think that just confused all vegetation, some started early and was hit hard by the last frost we had and other things have just started to grow and a bit late actually 🙂 🙂 The foxgloves are either really small or really high but at least they do flower 🙂 🙂

        Thank You 🙂 I hope I’ll get a chance to eat my own pawpaw fruit before I die 🙂 🙂 🙂

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