Author: Christer.

I live in a cottage not far from a lake that get visited by over 20 000 cranes every spring. My dogs and my garden takes up most of my time.

Yay! The mosquito season has started :-)

May 19, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

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I really didn’t need to paint anything today but the weather was so nice and we had summer temperatures so I did it anyway 🙂 🙂 It was so warm in the factory but so nice where I paint so that half of the day I was there was so nice and time just ran away. It didn’t when I had to go back to the heat again 🙂 🙂

DSC_0002 (7) — The cherry flowering is almost over and now starts the apples 🙂

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The clouds arrived before I drove homewards though and now it rains but just a nice spring rain. It can change pretty fast though if the showers that can give us up to an inch of rain comes this way. We do need the rain though so I won’t complain if those showers comes here. That would also fill up my water barrels so that’s another reason not to complain.

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I need to buy more fence. I put up fences around the places where I’ll have the potato patch and the vegetable patch and even though I do feel those spaces were smaller than I expected I still spent an entire roll of fence 🙂 🙂 🙂 I haven’t started to remove the grass yet, I’ll do that tomorrow unless it rains then too. I’ll place the removed lawn on top of stinging nettles, it won’t kill them but it will at least slow them down a little.

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The frost we had the other night killed almost all the small peaches on my new tree, they have turned brownish. I hope that at least the two that still just were withered flowers might grow in to peaches though. It also killed all my corn plants, that annoyes me a bit more actually. I do however have more seeds to sow so I’ll do that this weekend and I’ll cover the ground so that any small seedlings that show won’t freeze if we’ll get frost again.

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Yay, the mosquito season has started 🙂 We were walking in the forest when they suddenly attacked us. I have a few bites on my back but the most annoying one is on the side of one of my fingers. I don’t even know how it managed to go there since I held two leashes with that hand. Just a few minutes ago a woman with a stroller and a small dog passed my cottage and went up to my neighbors. The poor woman must have been scared to death when Albin and Alma suddenly started huffing and puffing and barking just as she walked beside my fence 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!

Frost in the morning.

May 17, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

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From what I’ve been able to see we’ve had a rather wonderful day. It started with frost though and I was a bit worried that the tiny peaches would freeze and fall off but they were still hanging on this afternoon.

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I did start to paint some things this morning but when the first things were painted it turned out that I didn’t have any place to put them while continue painting other things. We have so much to do now in the factory that all places where one can place materials are occupied. So I had to stop and do other things in the factory instead. Time flew while I was painting but it sure didn’t fly when I had to do other things instead. It is amazing how boring jobs can make time stand still.

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I was planning on fence in the area where I’ll have my potato patch and also the place where I’ll have the vegetable patch today. The fence is a self standing one covered in a thin layer of plastic so it will be quite easy to put it up. On my way home however I remembered that I don’t have any cutting pliers hare at home so tomorrow I’ll borrow one from work instead. We’ll get some rain tomorrow night and quite a lot on Saturday if they’re guessing right so it would be a good thing if I could have prepared those two areas before it starts on Saturday.The potatoes would love it.

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We walked down to the creek after work and I must say that Alma has started to behave much better. Ok she still behaves insane but in a calmer way 🙂 🙂 🙂 She even stopped screaming to a couple of cars passing by after just a few seconds 🙂 🙂 Albin continued a bit longer and the beekeeper thought he sounded like a Tasmanian Devil 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest he does sound much like it 🙂 🙂 🙂

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It is time for a cup of tea, I’m pretty sure I’m tired enough so that I still can fall asleep tonight 🙂

Have a great day!

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Sunny and warm.

May 15, 2022 · 5 Comments ·

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We’ve had a rather lovely day, sunshine almost all the time, some occasional clouds have passed by but I didn’t mind. The wind is weaker than before and today it was just cool enough when I mowed the lawn. Not that much of the wind reach the garden but the little that did was really nice.

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We walked down to the creek this morning and then followed it up-streams and walked through the forest on our way back home again. I think we scared away some wild hogs but I could still feel the smell of them when we passed that place. It’s a good thing they rather run away than stay to see what’s walking up the road 🙂 🙂

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I’ve also done the laundry and mowed the lawn so I feel that I’ve done more than enough for the day 🙂 When one plant a tree like I did the other day one must water at least ten liters of water every day for around ten days, even if it rains so that’s the only other thing I’ve done today. I was thinking for a while that I should bake a sponge cake or something like that but I didn’t have any baking powder and I didn’t have the energy to do anything else so instead I’ve longed for something sweet all day long 🙂 🙂

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I watched the eurovision last night but I went to bed before the voting started. It was around 11:30pm by the time they had stopped singing and I have no idea for how long that program continued. Ukraine won as expected, United Kingdom came second, Spain third and our song fourth, not bad at all. The Italian song ended further down and I have to say that if one insists on singing big parts in falsetto like the Italian guys did one really should be able to do that without getting out of tune, it just sounds horrible 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Well I didn’t win the lottery this weekend either so I’ll go to work as usual tomorrow morning. The coming week will be rather warm, some days well over 20C (68F) but they are also guessing that there will be more clouds hanging around. I’m so glad I don’t work in the powder painting department any longer, it’ll be nasty hot in there already on Tuesday. I’ll be able to have an open gate when I paint so I’ll just enjoy the warmer days 🙂

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Have a great day!

I can always use it as a berså later on.

May 14, 2022 · 3 Comments ·

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It looks nicer outside than it is. Mostly sunshine, I can hear the wind blow pretty hard but I can’t say it feels warm even in the sunshine. They keep saying warmer weather will come soon but they’ve said that for some time now. Most likely it’ll arrive when we work and go away again when the weekend comes 🙂 🙂

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I’ve planted the peach tree today and when I watered it I suddenly saw that there are tine peaches on it 🙂 Seven for sure but it looks like two more withered flowers might give two more. I do hope the tree hasn’t been too stressed by being shipped in a box so that these peaches grow to become big and I’ll be able to eat them. My hopes aren’t high but I’ll hold my thumbs and cross my fingers for good luck 🙂

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I saw cats, hares and foxes on our morning walk today but thankfully none of the dogs did 🙂 So Alma was actually behaving rather well almost all the walk. Too much to see when walking by the fields so she was a bit hyper there but as soon as we entered the forest she calmed down again. She didn’t even scream when we met and left the Beekeepers. Normally it would sound as if she knew they were walking towards their bitter end 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I fell asleep in front of the tv and woke up to the American Song Contest. I had already heard who won it all but I didn’t know the end result. Turns out that my three favorites ended up amongst the four first. I did not like the one who came second though but three out of four isn’t bad. Our big final is tonight. Ukraine is going to win, not only because the group got special permission to go by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (they are after all in war) but the song is not that bad. So the fight is really about second place and our song is one of three (the other two are United Kingdom and Italy) that will fight about it.

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Tomorrow will be lawn mowing day, I noticed that my neighbor mowed outside my garage, we have our trash bins there so he tends to mow that part for me 🙂 I’ll also do the laundry as usual but esides that I’ll do very little. The fence I’ve bought is self standing so to make it easy I might make my two vegetable patches round. The fence is rolled tightly so trying to make the corners in90 degrees will be a bit hard. I’m also thinking of planting my mini kiwi vines towards one of those fenced in vegetable patches so they will keep that fence at place when they start growing.

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If I in the future doesn’t want a vegetable patch there I can use that space as a what we call berså (from the french word berceau and is pronounced much the same way). A berså is a place where one can sit and have coffee with friends and normally there’s a horse shoe shaped hedge around it. Typically here they use lilacs as the hedge. No roof above it though. Mostly the hedge is high so no one can look in and to keep the wind away but I’ve seen those with lower hedges too. So my “hedge” would be a fence covered in mini kiwi vines, not bad at all to be honest 🙂

DSC_0031 (1) — Four small peaches in this photo and five more on the way if the tree isn’t too stressed by the move in a package.

Have a great day!

I went out and took a look at the label :-)

May 13, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

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So just before I was going to bed yesterday evening I suddenly started to think about the label on my new apricot tree. I thought it looked a bit odd but also thought it must be a standardized thing they put on and then the text would say what it was. Well I went out to look at it a second time.

DSC_0018 (2) — Cherry trees are in bloom everywhere now.

Turns out it wasn’t a standardized label, I haven’t gotten an apricot tree 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead I got one of those flat peaches 🙂 🙂 🙂 So the last thing i did before going to bed was to email the company. It costs the same and has the same hardiness so I wondered if they wanted me to send it back to them or if I could take this tree instead since I really didn’t want to find a new box, since I had cut it down 🙂 🙂 🙂 The sort of fun thing about this is that they don’t even sell that peach yet so someone must have made a big mistake.

They answered that I could keep it if I wanted so now I have a peach tree instead 🙂 I do like them a lot those flat peaches but peach trees have huge problems with a fungus that kills them after a few years so I wasn’t sure at first but then I found out that they now have a good pesticide that kills the fungus (it contains sulfur which kills off the fungus and one need so small ammounts that it isn’t dangerous for anything else). One need to spray the tree with it after the leafs have fallen in autumn and one more time before the new leafs grow out.After doing that the problems will go away. I do like apricots though so I might order one anyway but most likely from another business 🙂

DSC_0034 (1) — We have a few Elm trees that still look really healthy so I hope that the Dutch Elm tree disease stays away.

I’ve been a bit worried about Nova for a couple of days again because she really didn’t want to eat, not even treats and she is on her sixteenth year. Turns out her stomach was wobbly again so today she had no problems what so ever to gulp down her food again 🙂 I’ve also bought the old food she likes better again and I’m pretty sure that helped as well. Still I need to find one she likes and keeps her stomach well so I better check out other varieties again.

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It rained some when we were out walking but we also had some sunshine. It’ll rain again later tonight but after that the skies will keep the water to themselves for quite some time, at least that is what they’re guessing. It is time for something to eat and after that I’ll doze off in front of the tv, like always 🙂

h (1) — In my garden right now. I hope the wheel-barrow will look good again this year.

h (2) — Marsh marigold in the root zone.

h (4) — Yellow wood anemone. These came with the perennial sunflowers that You can see the first leafs from around it.

Have a great day!

h (5) — I have three Serviceberry trees in my garden.

A bit higher than I thought :-)

May 12, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

a (28) — The photos are from the folder “For a rainy day”. This is what my Black walnut tree looked like last summer. It actually looks as if it is fighting the tree cancer with some success!

The winds are so strong today that I didn’t want to take a walk in the forest because the gusts might push some trees to the ground and I really don’t want to get one over anyone of us. Besides that it’s a really nice day, just enough warm and sunny. We did get some drops of rain and more will come tomorrow but that’s nothing compared to what we got yesterday.

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I left work a bit early yesterday because some papers would have to be signed before the road association meeting. The rain had started early and then the thunder arrived. To be honest most of it passed north of us but we did get the showers and the hail. I walked five meters from the car to the house door and was soaking wet before I arrived at the house 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so glad that the dog food I had ordered arrived the day before 🙂 🙂 The meeting went very well, we were only five people there so the meeting didn’t take long and after that we had some coffee and biscuits 🙂 I wasn’t away from home more than an hour including the drive there and back 🙂

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Today my apricot tree finally arrived so I had to pick it up at the big package delivery center in Falköping. I did wonder why I couldn’t fetch it at my normal place in Gudhem but I had forgotten to check how high it actually was. It is just as or slightly taller than I am and I did have some problems getting it in to my car 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had to cut off just enough of the box it arrived in to be able to shut the tailgate. Another problem was the wind.

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The package was high but not especially wide to be honest but the strong wind caught it and I’m lucky it didn’t use us as a kite 🙂 The tailgate was headed just towards the wind so at first I couldn’t open it up. It was a bit tricky to hold the package at the same time 🙂 🙂 It was almost as difficult to shut it when all wind pressed in the the car and I tried to push the tailgate down 🙂 🙂 We now I have it at home and it will be standing at the north side of my cottage where the wind can’t reach it until it calmes down and I can find some place to plant it.

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I’ll leave work early tomorrow as well since I’m going to the physiotherapist again. I won’t go back to work after that since there will be very little time left until I stop working for the day. I’m waiting for another package as well, I’ve ordered a fence so I can make it higher so that Alma won’t jump over it (well at least I hope she won’t 🙂 🙂 ) and I’ll also fence in my vegetable patches since Albin would eat anything edible he could reach 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

I solved it quickly.

May 10, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

a (27) — The photos comes from the folder “For a rainy day” because it is actually raining today and just enough much so the dogs won’t go outside 🙂

I had a really bad night, woke up several times because of heartburn. Also lots of gasses 🙂 So I went home a couple of hours early from work today just because I could. The first thing I tried to do was to take a nap.

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Unfortunately the dogs thought I should do other things 🙂 🙂 But I guess that of the one hour I set the alarm for I did doze off for perhaps twenty minutes. It did feel so much better afterwards anyway so I didn’t mind that both Alma and Nova constantly demande belly scrubs and Albin standing beside me growling loudly while wagging his tail 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I also went home early because tomorrow we’ll have the annual road association meeting. Well it hasn’t been annual in a couple of years now because of the virus. I know I’ll have a problem with the printer, I always do, so I thought that more time would help me from at least going insane while trying to make it work.

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It did of course not work as I thought but this time I figured out why pretty fast. For some reason it had chosen another printer, one that has never been used with this laptop or even ever used in this cottage. I can’t understand why it decided that but as soon as I changed that I got my papers and still hade time to do other things after 🙂

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Today I’m prepared so that the night won’t be as bad as last one. I bought Novalucol, anti acid pills. My stomach seems to have settled down as well so I’m holding my thumbs 🙂

Have a great day!

An attempted fraud?

May 8, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

We’ve had a really nice weather here today, a few clouds in the morning but the rest of the day has been totally free from them. Not as warm as yesterday though and the wind was a bit chilly but since it couldn’t reach my property I really didn’t mind 🙂

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We walked down to the creek and in to the forest this morning and Alma behaved really well, to my very big surprise! I so wish that this is the way (or even better of course) she’ll behave from now on. I won’t hope too much though, she has behaved well occasionally before 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I don’t know if You have the Swish app, an app that one can use for sending smaller ammounts of money to other peoples accounts? One connects ones phone number to the bank account so it’s really easy to use if someone wants to lend money or to pay in stores as well. There are of course lots of frauds done that way too and today I got a text message from someone I don’t know who claimed that he had, by accident, swished me some money.

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I really don’t know how anyone can use this to scam anyone else from money but apparently one can. I used to have this app but that was several phones ago and I’m not planning on getting it again. So I texted back that: He had to do this via his bank because I don’t have the app any longer and won’t get it again, because You know too many frauds are done that way. 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve also called the bank and told them about it and they said I did the exact right thing. It will take a bit longer for that person to get his money back but he will get them back as soon as they’ve talked to me and I say it’s ok.

I’ve mowed the lawn today as well, well spots of it anyway 🙂 Mostly I actually mowed stinging nettles and that always make it feel more as a fun job that mowing grass. Stinging nettles thrives when one have several dogs peeing and pooping in the garden and they also spread very easily both by seeds and roots. They are edible (they stop to sting when heated up) and are full of nutrients but I can’t say that they taste delicious even though many actually think they do.

I didn’t win the lottery yesterday so back to work on Monday as always. Well I would actually have stayed the month we are supposed to after giving notice but I would not have to come to work until I’ve had a visit to the bank to make sure the money had found their way in to my account 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Slept almost all day.

May 7, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0007 (1) — The first flowers on my plum tree.

I’ve had a 24 hour flu. I don’t know if You have that on the other side of the ocean but that means Your stomach will give up completely for about 24 hours.

DSC_0005 (1) — Filled White wood anemone.

DSC_0017 (1) — Two Eurasian tree sparrows.

DSC_0019 (1) — It looks like one of my Service berry trees are opening up now as well. It’s like an quiet explosion of leafs and flowers here now.

It’s normally a summer thing but apparently it’s going around like wild fire over here. It started after I got home from work yesterday and now it’s more or less over. I have done very little besides sleeping today but I managed to take a few photos in between long naps 🙂

DSC_0009 (1) — Having fun in the garden.

I’ll see You all tomorrow again.

Have a great day!

And even more old photos.

May 6, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

Image000_1 — There was a pond just a few yards away from where I lived before I moved here and the dogs and I always walked there every day.

I looked through my old Cd’s with photos and I managed to get some from the old laptop (because my little computer hasn’t any cd player) and mailed them to myself Some of the old Cd’s weren’t compatible with windows 64 or something like that so I couldn’t download them but I was able to look at them anyway. Too bad because then You could have seen the cottage I lived in before moving here.

Image004_5 — I’m not sure who this one was though.

Image011_12 — This was Orvar, not the Orvar who lived with me here. This one went to live with a trotting coachman and spent all his days around horses.

Image012_13 — This one You saw yesterday but this photo is slightly better.

Today was supposed to be sunny and warm but most of the day has been cloudy and a bit chilly. We didn’t have any frost during the night though so that’s something. I’ve been tired all day because for some reason I kept on waking up several times during the night. Have no idea why and I did fall back to sleep in seconds. A bit annoying but I’ll catch up with sleep again now when it’s weekend.

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I need to make my fence higher so that Alma can’t jump over. It doesn’t matter if it is people who lives on this little side road but she’s big and if one doesn’t know her she can look dangerous. Ok she doesn’t even walk towards anyone she doesn’t know but if one is worried about dogs that info isn’t worth a lot 🙂 🙂 I’ll also need fencing in my vegetable patches, Albin has a tendency to eat everything I plant and sow if it is edible 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I’ll start looking online tomorrow, the fence itself isn’t that expensive but the fence poles ars so I’ll look for some kind of substitute, like common wooden rules that I’ll paint so they can stand the weather.

Image005_6 (1) — This is here and these are Orvar and his sisters.

Mårby (2) — and old Erna. She really was a lousy mother 🙂 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and then most likely fall asleep in front of the tv, there’s really nothing worth watching on tv tonight 🙂

Have a great day!

sickan igen — Sickan was a much better dog than I deserved 🙂 I made most beginners mistakes with her but she really didn’t care 🙂 🙂

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More old photos.

May 5, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

048 — The photos doesn’t come in any particular order, like age or so. It tends to be that the smaller they are the older they are. I can’t remember the password so I can’t reach the photos from my oldest blog unfortunately.

I have nothing much to say really, the wetaher has been nice but today is a bit chilly and we even had some drizzle on my way home and a while after I had come home.

Alla hundarna — Sickan is the brown dog, Viran the big black to the left and all the puppies were Virans.

Erna för elva år sedan — Erna when she was quite young.

Erna äldre — and at least twelve years old.

Nova, she quite the spitting image of Erna but just half the size 🙂 Too bad that the harness covers the white that Nova also has on her chest 🙂

Work has been flowing nicely and I have had the big gate open when ever I’ve had the chance, like today when I cleaned some things I was about to paint. The sun was shining then and all that nice warm sunshine filled the place.

Bäcken orvar och hector

The swallows have arrived and they nest beneath the roof just outside where I paint and where all goods are delivered or shipped away. I do like them but they poop a lot and it’s hard to remove after just an hour or so. Plus they can spread salmonella with their poop so mask is always worn when cleaning it off.

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Today I’m showing more old photos from when I had this blog at another place, blogger. Some are from 2008 and very small. I have all these photos in the laptop I can’t remember the password for though 🙂 🙂 I really need to find some place that can help me open it up again so I can get photos from old Sickan and Viran too.

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Have a great day!

This is Öivind, later on renamed to Maxi. He was the father of Orvar and Hector and unfortunately their mother was Erna, Öivinds sister 🙂 🙂 🙂

Spring in the garden.

May 3, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

In my garden right now. A blue White wood anemone.

Nothing much has happened since last time. Up in the morning, going to work, home again and then it feels like it’s time to go to bed again 🙂 Today the sun is shining and even though it is a bit cooler today it still feels warmer than previous days.

Corydalis or Nuns worth as it’s called here.

Alma is still in heat and she leaks like mountain spring, my cottage doesn’t smell nice at all. She has also started to pee at the same spot just before we get up in the morning (that doesn’t help with the smell at all), I do hope she stops with that as soon as this is over.

This White wood anemone will be filled with petals.

I think we actually can say that we’re in a drought now, it hasn’t rained (or snowed) in weeks now. Can’t say that the ground is especially dry though so I’m not sure if it can be called a drought then. For once we didn’t have frost this morning, it felt kind of odd not having to scrape ice from the car 🙂

The white one is always a few days later.

Can’t for my life remember the name on this one right now 🙂

We’ll have the Road association meeting next week, three years since we had that the last time. I think that was the only good thing about the virus 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest it usually doesn’t take that long, it all depends on who will be there and if they can behave 🙂 🙂 So many times people start to discuss other things than the road. If everything goes as we hope the meeting will be over in ten minutes and after that we’ll have coffee and cookies, buns or something similar for well over half an hour 🙂

Lonicera caerulea var. kamtschatica gives blue edible berries.

Can’t remember the name on this one either 🙂

Have a great day!