15 000 cranes at the lake but few caravans and mobile homes.

I took these photos yesterday when the weather was slightly better.

Yesterday they counted 15 000 cranes at the lake and more will arrive. The weather isn’t inviting though, cold strong wind and some rain mixed in as well. Normally there are loads of caravans and mobile homes parked by the lake but I drove pass that parking today and I could only see a few. I think there’s space for over 50 caravans/ mobile homes and they all pay a small fee that goes directly to buying food for both the cranes and all other migrating birds.

I went to my job coach today, we all must have one when we’ve been unemployed for a longer period of time. I already do most of the things we are supposed to do but I have never really used LinkedIn before so she taught me a lot about that. After that I went to a grocery store and bought what I will need for the coming week. Not much but the food prices are so high that if I had bought for the same amount of money before Covid I would most likely have had food for a month 🙂 🙂 🙂 We really only have one low price store chain here, Lidl from Germany, so there is more or less no competition between the other stores so while they make huge profits they really have no will to keep the prices low. It has gone so far that if Lidl wants to build a new store in a town other store owners do their best to stop it.  Besides Lidl we only really have three other companies because they bought the few others we had.

I hope this cooler weather and with the help of some rain will keep the pollen down a bit. My nose is stuffed and I’m so tired all the time. Even if I sleep all night I’m more tired when I wake up that I was when going to bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is at least not a cold of any kind, lots of that going around here now. So I’m pretty sure I’ll have an early night again 🙂 when I’m done here I’ll have some tea and an ice cream, not that it will help but it’s never wrong to have ice cream 🙂

Have a great day!

8 responses to “15 000 cranes at the lake but few caravans and mobile homes.”

  1. catsworking Avatar
    catsworking

    We got two low-price chains here several years ago, Lidl and Aldi. Upon a search, it looks like they are both German. They are within 1/2 mile of each other.

    I tried both at first, and settled on Aldi, though I think Lidl has better produce and a nice little bakery that Aldi doesn’t have.

    Aldi’s prices are significantly lower on most items than I see at our domestic grocery stores.

    The dealbreaker for me with Lidl was the checkout procedure. Both stores make you bag your own groceries, but Aldi puts them in another cart, which you wheel to a shelf where you can work out the bagging at your leisure.

    Lidl has two chutes at each register, and sends your groceries down one, so you have to be standing at the end, ready to catch and bag the stuff as it rings up, or put it in a cart to take to a shelf to bag it. I didn’t like that added step or the need for speed. If someone has a big order and they are slow but the clerk is fast, their chute can fill up and cause a backup at the register. It just seemed like a lousy system

    I also didn’t like how Lidl had all the food around the edges of the store, with a large section of nonfood merchandise taking up the whole middle. Aldi has one-half of an aisle for that, which is easy to bypass.

    Is that how Lidl stores are set up in Sweden?

    One strike against Aldi for some people is how it makes you “pay” 25 cents to unlock a shopping cart, which you get back when you return and lock the cart, which is an incentive for people not to leave carts all over the parking lot. Lidl carts are free to use.

    Like

    Reply
    1. Christer. Avatar
      Christer.

      Hi catsworking!

      Yes both are German. We don’t have Aldi in Sweden and I guess that’s because we have strong unions here and they really don’t like unions. Lidl doesn’t like them either but had to give up the fight before it started. Other companies like Toys r us tried to fight the unions and failed badly.

      Lidl was just the same here in the beginning when it came to the checkout but have actually learned something so now we don’t have to stand at the end from the beginning to fill the bags, their checkouts looks just like any other stores now days 🙂 (we have always packed our own groceries (or anything we might buy in any store) by ourselves)

      I can never really find anything when going to Lidl so it usually takes much longer time to get what I want and they really don’t have a gluten free section but I still like to go there just because the store is so odd 🙂 🙂 🙂 and one never knows what one may find in the middle section 🙂 🙂 🙂

      We had the same thing with “paying” to get a shopping cart but then suddenly all stores stopped doing that, have no idea why but it is easier this way. To be honest we’ve become much better in returning the carts to their right place and I can’t remember when I saw a cart where it shouldn’t be.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. catsworking Avatar
        catsworking

        Americans, at least around here are VERY bad at returning shopping carts, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the Aldi parking lot.

        Since you say the Lidl checkout has changed, I’m going to stop by the next time I shop and see if ours are better too. I actually prefer to bag my groceries as long as they’re not thrown at me down a chute because I don’t put all the heavy stuff in the same bag like so many clerks do.

        Lidl has fresher produce and fresh baked goods, and different brands, so nice for a change. And my Aldi has been under construction for at least a month with the whole frozen food case gone. All they have is ice cream in one case still working. I need a pizza and some other things Lidl would have. I’m glad you mentioned it. Thanks!

        Like

      2. Christer. Avatar
        Christer.

        As I only can talk about how it is here 🙂 but I do think it’s the same with the carts all over the country. On the other hand we have free parking everywhere here (except for hospitals for some reason?) and I know that’s not the case in other regions 🙂

        Everyone was angry about the old ones, it needed two people to manage it so one Lidl actually went bankrupt because no one wanted it that way. Yes spread the heavy things, can’t have them all in one bag because it would be impossible to carry it to the car and then in to the home 🙂 🙂 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. catsworking Avatar
        catsworking

        Here parking is free everywhere in the suburbs where there’s plenty of space, but not free in the city in many places.

        Like

      4. Christer. Avatar
        Christer.

        The odd thing here is that one has to get an app to have the right to park everywhere, if not using that app one actually could get a ticket even if the parking is free 🙂 🙂 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      5. catsworking Avatar
        catsworking

        I’ve never heard of that. Needing an app really seems to complicate parking. I’m glad we have free parking everywhere I do errands and shop.

        Like

      6. Christer. Avatar
        Christer.

        To be honest it is fairly easy to use, just tap on a map where one parks and it starts but to be honest I just can’t understand why they need to do this?

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

The Cottage by the crane lake.