Not a start of the morning I like to have :-)

August 2, 2026

It was just before 4:30 this morning, I woke up to hearing the dings run up and down the stairs so I thought I better get up and let them out because I really didn’t want an accident happening just because I was to slow to open the door. Turns out that they really didn’t need to go outside. Instead they ran straight to one of my apple trees and started barking like crazy. I don’t know what it is with Alma and her hate for badgers 🙂 🙂 Well I have a very loud voice so I scared away both the dogs and the badger and I think they all were more afraid of me than angry at each other 🙂 🙂

Lots of swallows were flying around the pine tree tops but every time I tried to take a photo most of them vanished. Here’s a few anyway 🙂

The badger ran off and the dogs ran in and refused to come to me when I told them that we could go out again 🙂 🙂 It took a lot of persuasion to get them outside again 🙂 🙂 There was no use in doing anything else than to go out on our morning walk after that. The sun shone and it was 10C (50F) in the air. I was a bit tired of always walking down to the creek because of all the high grass and ticks on our forest road out to the bog. So I rubbed the dogs with lots of yarrow and hoped for the best before walking out to the bog. It worked fine and I only had to pick four ticks from the dogs when we had come home again.

We didn’t see any bigger animals but we could hear that the moose still hang around here. They are so big that it’s impossible not to know when a moose walks or runs away 🙂 I’ve heard that the moose flies have started to hatch already, two months early!! So I wore the hoodie all the time while we walked out there. Nasty flies and impossible to kill it seems. There were som forest flies though but so few that it didn’t feel real 🙂 and bumblebees of course. There are however no wasps/yellowjackets this year?! I have seen two and that was in late spring one flew in the garden and one that had drowned in the pool at work. On the other hand, there are so few flies so I guess they would have starved if we’ve had the normal amount of wasps here.

I’ve done the counting of hours I’ve worked and reported it so I get the right amount of money from those paying me the unemployment pay, it’s be very little since I’ve worked so much and get paid for that from my employer. I’ve also done the laundry and also dinner for work tomorrow. I had to clean the aquarium filter as well and I watered my tomato plants, litchie tomato plants, melon vines, kiwi vines and the ginger that now grows slowly but steady in the greenhouse. Aquarium water is great as fertiliser so I should perhaps clean it more often than I do 🙂 However one should not water trees and bushes with it this time of year because they are now slowly preparing for autumn and winter so they need to stop growing. If not they’ll risk freezing when the first frost comes.

It is time for me to have that last cup of tea for the day. The dogs are sleeping in my bed right now and I can hear that Malkolm is dreaming of this morning, he sounds both exited but also very worried, I guess the volume of my shouting at him still echoes in his head 🙂

They sent me this dahlia as a sort of bonus when I ordered the cherry dogwood. Most likely they had too many left and thought why not? He’s buying so much anyway 🙂

Have a great day!

The first of the perennial sunflowers to open up.

This, I think, is counted as an annual sunflower here because the roots can’t take our winter. We’ll know better next year 🙂

I planted lots of Morningglories just beside a big branch I dug down by the fence. I thought they would cover it pretty quick. So they’re growing away from the sun and in to the stinging nettles instead 🙂

2 responses to “Not a start of the morning I like to have :-)”

Caryn O’Keefe

August 3, 2026

I thought morning glories didn’t like sun. The ones around here close up when the sun hits them.

Would those sunflowers survive if you put a lot of mulch and leaves on their bed? They grow in the midwest prairie where it gets really cold in the winter. Swedish cold even.

Poor badger. Bad enough that the dogs yelled at it but then you, too.

Piki Dog and I went out early this morning. We got less than a tenth of a mile up the dirt road and the rain came. We turned and got back to the house before it started to get heavy. It’s been dark, dreary, and wet since then. But I did find a pignut sapling along the way. There used to be some in the neighborhood long ago. Apparently the squirrels have found a remnant population.

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1. Christer.
  
  August 8, 2026
  
  Hi Caryn!
  
  Well I’ve tried them in less sunny places before and they’ve never really worked well but that could explain why they so desperate tries to grow away from the sunshine 🙂 🙂
  
  I’m not sure but the problem is most likely not the cold because I’m pretty sure it can be nasty cold where they grow but that our summers usually have been too short and cool and winters too long and dark. It might be different now though since we have these heatwaves and shorter winters. Well know better next year 🙂 🙂
  
  I think it can take the dogs because it does come back every night, just different hours, but to also have to do with a screaming human might be too much 🙂 🙂 🙂
  
  I think I sowed pignuts long ago, they didn’t survive the winter in the cool cellar though. I understand they’re edible and sometimes even taste good but usually not. I would never have had a chance to see any nuts though, read that they usually take up to 40 years before they give any nuts 🙂 🙂
  
  Very mixed weather here this week, really hot and sunny to almost chilly and rainy. Too little rain though but I’m happy for what we got 🙂
  
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