We might get up to two decimeters (eight inches) of snow from tonight and until Friday afternoon so I decided to go to the store already today so I don’t have to drive in that garbage weather on Friday. I know, snow is pretty but I truly dislikes it. The only time I actually liked it was rather many years ago when I spent Christmas in a cottage even more remote than where I live now.
I rented a cottage back then in a region called Dalsland, close to the Norwegian border, and I had the best Christmas ever (I think that I have written about it here in my blog a year or two or perhaps even more years ago 🙂 ). Over half a meter of snow (much the same in yards), -28C (-18,4F), no electricity but a fire stove and my then two dogs and one cat. There’s no light pollution at all there so even if I can see lots of stars here it’s nothing compared to there. I spent an entire week there and as I said it’s the only time I actually have liked snow 🙂
This and the rest of the photos are taken with analog cameras and if I remember it right it’s an Agfa Ambiflex I took these six first ones, then two with a Nikon F90 and the four last ones with an Agfa Colorflex (can be wrong with that last one though).
Back then mobile phones just started to become popular so to hope for any kind of signal there was to hope for a miracle 🙂 🙂 🙂 I would have loved to live there but I think there’s a bigger chance to find a job on the planet Mars than in that region 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I’ll have to endure the snow here no matter what but I do think that if I ever won the lottery I would buy something small in southern France so I could stay there during winter and move back here when spring arrives 🙂
I didn’t bring any digital camera with me on our walks today but it looks much the same as it did a few days back and I also have some wintery photos taken with film cameras last winter so perhaps I’ll put in a few of those. I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I will not bake a mug cake today no matter how yummy it was so I’ll just have that tea and perhaps watch some tv even if I doubt that there’s anything I want to watch, there rarely is.
Even colder this morning but they sun was rising over the village covered in morning mist so it didn’t take long before it was warm enough in my garden for a t-shirt instead of the thick sweater I had when we went out to the garden after we woke up. The tomatoes are still fine but now lots of the vegetation has damages after the cold night. The Pawpaws however still look fine but I do hope they now will prepare for the winter that’s coming.
By the way did the rapture happen? It looks like my whole village might have been left behind, well perhaps the entire country as far as I know 🙂 🙂 So did anyone go? 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest the rapture is an American thing, no one in Europe from what I know believes in this so I guess that’s why we still are here 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do like these End of the World scenarios though. Normally it’s about a comet hitting the planet, a rouge planet passing by creating havoc here or Nostradamus 🙂 🙂 🙂
I lost the feeling in my fingers while we were out on our morning walk I didn’t think I would need gloves or mittens this early in autumn, it wasn’t until we were almost at home that the sun finally warmed them up. I didn’t pick any mushrooms today, most of them would have been turned to ice anyway. We walked the same way as Yesterday because I wanted to see the morning mist for as long as possible and the only chance to do that is to not walk the first bit in the forest. The mist tends to evaporate as soon as the sun starts to warm up the world. Fog is a totally different thing because if it is thick the heat from the sun might not be able to reach down to us ground creatures 🙂
Now when I suddenly had nothing to plant, sawn off almost all dead branches and pruned the trees and mowed the grass yesterday I had no idea what to do 🙂 🙂 That’s when I suddenly remembered there was one thing I can do. I’ll show You in tomorrows post if it is done but won’t tell You what it is now. It did mean a lot of digging, finding something I used years ago and it will make my muscles ache tomorrow 🙂 Still this isn’t anything big but involves lots of work 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also it is placed in the absolute wrong place but I can’t move it for some reason 🙂 🙂
I have otherwise done very little today. I did make dinner, oven fried potatoes and Wiener sausages. The dogs loves the potatoes so I always share them. I should have had some oil dripped over them but skipped that since the dogs would have some as well. I had some film tools developed and I must admit I have no idea what cameras I used and lots of them were so shaky that they aren’t worth showing also all seems to have been taken during winter so they look cold 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day ad tonight they show the season finale of Death in Paradise, I hope they’ll show something good after this but that channel tends to keep their programs fore decades and can’t figure out why people don’t watch the channel any more 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think this might have been taken with an Agfa Ambiflex or perhaps an Agfa Colorflex.
Less than one month to christmas or Jul (Yule) as we call it and it is even less left until it stops getting darker and turns toward longer days again. Even though December is just as grey and dreary as any winter month it still feels better just because Christmas really starts at December first. People put up the electric Advent stars and electric Advent candlestick in the windows, some decorate with lights in their gardens, most just a few light chains but at some go all american as we say and decorate with so much strains and figures that most of us say: Yeah their electrical bill will cost a fortune 🙂 🙂 🙂
Mixed photos today because the weather has been nasty with strong winds and rain. Warm though with over 10 C (50 F) temperature. This is from a film camera called Agfa Ambi Silette.
Most outside decorations are pure white but some do get multi colored ones and I really like that. Back in the days people who used colored lights in any christmas decorations were seen as a bit odd, perhaps even tasteless 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so glad we aren’t that hysterical now days 🙂 🙂 🙂 A lot of people have already started with the decorations of course and it seems as the younger they are the earlier they start which of course more conservative people think destroys the joy and believe that people will get tired of it too early, too bad that those making christmas tv commercials are more conservative because those adds are already tiresome I think since they started in late October 🙂 🙂 🙂
These photos were taken with a camera called Agfa Ambiflex.
However the advent candlestick with live candles must be prepared before Sunday. I usually have one but I never light the candles, I have this phobia when it comes to live candles and living in a wood cottage built 1911 🙂 🙂 🙂 I would have to blow out the candles and then place the whole thing outdoors, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to sleep before I had put it outside 🙂 🙂 🙂 It doesn’t help having a kitten, now also named the monster, walking around burning candles 🙂 🙂
These were taken with a camera called Nikon F75. If You ever want to start with film photography this is the camera I would recommend.
The tradition on when to bring the Yule spruce as the christmas tree is called here and when to dress it varies a lot. Some bring it in already around Advent,dress it as soon as possible and happily throws it out as soon as they can after christmas (usually around the 27th) Others wait to bring it in until the day before christmas which is at the 23d here since our big day is christmas eve and will dress it either late the 23d or more unusual at christmas eve morning. My family brought it in the 13th, the day we celebrate Saint Lucia, for some reason we celebrate a catholic saint in this once strictly Lutheran country 🙂 . WE dressed the tree as soon as it had settled and since we never were able to make it survive for more than a few days and then the needles started to drop we too tossed it outside around the 27th 🙂 🙂 🙂
These were taken with a Voightländer Bessamatic.
The old traditions about celebrating christmas were of course very different than they are now, for some reason we now have a big, fat and jolly Santa (we call him the Yule Gnome) giving out presents, yes the kids meet the Yule Gnome on the 24th here. Also he arrives in a sled pulled by reindeers. Back in the days he came to rich people who could afford presents. Usually a small Yule gnome dressed in green and perhaps a red cap came to the homes followed by either a horse pulling a sled or the same small gnome followed by a goat pulling a smaller sled, I guess he came to those with a good economy but never especially rich people 🙂 🙂 🙂 But to be honest he wasn’t the first one to deliver presents, we had the Yule goat before him. One believes that he either was one of Thor’s goat from the old Norse gods but I’ve also heard from one of the old people when I was a kid, back in the stone age that is 🙂 that he was the devil forced to do good one day every year 🙂 🙂
I’ll tell You all about this the closer we get to Christmas 🙂 It will be rose hip soup again today and not too late because I wake up in the middle of night if I have too much 🙂 🙂
It was a nice and cool morning but those mosquitoes are just awful.
Even though the sun has been shining all morning and that it is fairly warm I still can feel it in the air, autumn has arrived. There’s a sort of bite to the air that I only can feel in autumn. Still the morning walk was really nice even though the mosquitoes doesn’t understand that they now just should fall down to the ground and die 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Alma was just as annoying this morning as she was yesterday morning. She were all over the place and in the end she entangled both me and Albin in her leash. Both she and Albin also sniffed in the air all the time. Nova didn’t but instead of walking far ahead of us she walked by our side. I thought it was because I possible had taped her knee in a bad way. As soon as we had come to the long straight road towards the creek she resumed to her normal position, far ahead of us.
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I saw something but couldn’t really say what kind of animal it was.
Then a much smaller one came out to the road too. Then I saw the ear of the bigger one.
I didn’t think more of it than that she perhaps didn’t feel that bad in her knee anyway. We walked up-stream the creek but neither her nor I wanted to walk in the high grass and in to the more dense old forest, so instead we went back the same way we came and I thought that we perhaps would walk in the forest where we walk out to the bog. I didn’t look especially much ahead of us but when I did I saw something I first couldn’t figure out what it was, an animal that I could guess but not what.
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I think I could see seven or eight piglets.
Turns out that where Nova suddenly walked ahead of us again now stood a rather big wild hog sow 🙂 Thankfully far away from us but I am annoyed at myself for not bringing the right tele photo lens. Then suddenly a piglet came out from the trees and then one more and suddenly I think it was seven or eight piglets in total. This is the moment when Alma actually decides to stand still and be quiet. There’s something with wild hogs that makes her do that, never otherwise but always when we see hogs.
My spring flowering Clematis has restarted 🙂
The Sarracenia sure is slow to open up. I do hope that at least one of the four buds will before frost takes them all.
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One can hate or love the Big Dragon flower (Nepeta sibirica) but bees love them and they flower from early summer till frost take them all.
The wild hogs crossed the road and in to the forest where I had hoped we would walk so no chance on doing that 🙂 🙂 I started to talk loudly to the dogs because I didn’t know where the boar could be or if there were more sows waiting to cross the road. Both Alma and Albin did look at the direction they had come from but that doesn’t mean there were any more out there. I don’t really like to come close to wild hogs but it is fun to see them from a safe distance 🙂
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No more sightings of hogs though. I took a tour in the garden when when we had come home again. There are still flowers in bloom, even potatoes flower still. This is the time the Hardy Kiwi decided to finally start growing and I do hope it calms down before the frost arrives. I’ve re-potted all but one of my apricot trees and also the cherry plum tree seedlings I have. I’m not sure what to do with those cherry plum seedlings to be honest. I really don’t need any more but have no place to plant them and since they tend to spread like wildfire via their roots I’m not sure I can give them away either. Well I do live beside a forest 🙂 🙂 🙂
I have three Hardy Kiwi vines planted towards the fence around my vegetable garden. They have finally put some speed in their growing.
I managed to break the top of this vine when I tried to pull it through the loops in the fence. I have no idea if the top will grow new roots but I’ve put it in a pot and either it dies or it starts to grow new roots.
The third one is a sad one. It does grow but slowly and when it finally put some speed into it something ate the top of the vine 🙂 🙂
Kankakee mallow.
Have a great day!
Time flies and it won’t be long until we’re back to snow again 🙂 Taken with the Agfa Ambiflex.
Yesterday we had a rain free day!! Not any sunshine but still rain free so we all did those chores in the gardens and on the farms that has been impossible or too hard to do when the rain is falling. I was the one who started the mowing, a couple of hours before the rest. The grass is growing like crazy now and even though I do like my electric mower it sure doesn’t work especially well when it is filled up with long and wet grass 🙂
I think we actually have a couple of real Wild apple trees (their Swedish name is actually Wild apple) Malus sylvestris.
They are becoming rare, we don’t even know if there are any real left because they cross pollinate with our garden apples. It’s always great to have a real Wild apple tree close by especially if one only have one apple tree because the Wild apple will help pollinating the garden apple. The ones we have a shoots from the old one that grew here when I moved to this place and that tree were old enough to actually be a real Wild apple tree. The apples are really small and mor sour than any lemon 🙂 🙂
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European spindle.
The mowing too three times as long because every thirty seconds or so the mower stopped because there was just too much grass glued to its inside. I now have loads of small mounds with wet grass all over the lawn. I started to spread out the grass so it would dry up better but since it is pouring outside there’s no use in doping that any more. The farmers were out fetching those white balls that contains the silage they’ve made from earlier this summer. Also one neighbor was out cutting the grass and flowers along the gravel roads. They normally do that earlier in the season but since everything went late they waited long enough for most of those flowers to release their seeds.
It’s a great apple year.
These are the seven Apricot trees from seeds this winter. Growing well.
The pears however was hit by mildew and some died but they are finally growing again 🙂
I doubt that the hunters had any luck yesterday because of all the noise, I doubt there was a single animal even remotely close to the village 🙂 I don’t think they’re out there today either since it is pouring down and I really would like to take a walk today but then again my dogs refuse to step outside while it is raining so here we are, quite restless to be honest 🙂 Well I can do the laundry, bake bread and make dinner for next week at work but then again I’m not sure I’m restless enough to do more than the bare minimum 🙂 🙂
Flowering Bog myrtle (Sweet gale). Smells really nice.
We’ve had a really nice day here, it would have been wonderful if it hadn’t been for the pretty cold night and sometimes the wind being a bit too chilly. To be honest it was warm enough to have the kitchen door open all day and the little wind that actually reached the garden helped when I worked in the vegetable patch and potato patch. The vegetable patch mostly only had grass that I needed to remove but the potato patch also had dandelions, greater celandine, a few small elder bushes, wild raspberry bushes and that red leafed oxalis one can buy as a potted plant, usually have yellow flowers and really is a spreader. Many oxalis can be used in food but this one isn’t one of those but I musty admit that amongst weeds it’s quite beautiful.
I checked so that there were no bees visiting the dandelions before I removed them. There are plenty more dandelions in the lawn anyway so bees of all kinds won’t be hungry 🙂
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The vegetable patch were much easier to clean out even though it’s almost twice the size.
The box is almost falling apart and I think I won’t have another there next summer.
I’m happy to say that today was one of those days when Alma behaved pretty good even though two Roe deer ran in front of her eyes and she even noticed a hare in a field without going insane. She did however almost fall of the entrance stairs and pulling me with her when we went out for our afternoon walk. I wonder if I should put on her harness when we’re not taking any walks because as soon as I put that one on she starts to tremble, panting and whining a lot. If I open the door and she doesn’t have it on she behaves like any other dog. When we start walking and I can keep her reasonable calm the first two hundred meters the rest of the walk usually works rather well. If not it’s horrible for both of us. She has become much better though, now days I can actually hear the birds sing, I couldn’t do that from the day she arrived until some time in the middle of the winter that just passed 🙂 🙂 🙂
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They are finally putting more gravel on the road outside our cottages 🙂 The “big” road in the village belongs to the village and all of us are responsible for it but the roads leading from it are private roads and are supposed to be taken care of us who live along them. The problem is that it is timber lorries that destroys it so therefore it’s the forest owners responsibility to keep it in good shape. This winter was warm and the road was soft so now we have huge holes in it and the forest owners have been no where to find but finally one of them said he’s taking care of it. I don’t know how many times I’ve done what I have been able to to fix the holes outside my cottage but that doesn’t help when a new lorry arrives and just makes it worse again, also I live at the lowest point of the road so all water runs down to me and sometimes I have to wade in water when I’m trying to go out from my garden (well wading is a bit much but there’s at least 5 cm (2 inches of standing water there, five meters (much the same in yards) wide) 🙂 🙂 🙂
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It’s the finale in the Eurovision Song Contest next Saturday. To be honest they have been really quiet about it so I didn’t know until a few days ago. Our song is the absolute favorite an it is Loreen, who already have won this with the song Euforia, who sings for us. The music isn’t that much different than when she won the last time but I can’t for my life hear what she’s singing 🙂 🙂 I’m not sure if anyone actually can hear that but she’s like always very dramatic in her performance so I guess that’s what they fall for. I must admit that even if I can’t hear what she sings it still was the only song that should win, the rest were actually total crap and probably the worst I’ve heard in years 🙂 🙂 🙂
So if yesterdays weather looked nice from indoors todays wetaher doesn’t and isn’t either 🙂 There was at least no wind in the earky morning when we went out for our walk but it did rain consistently for the entire hour we were outside. To be honest, none of the dogs wanted to take a walk but I forced them because I wanted them to get rid of some energy. Albin and Alma can destroy an entire house when they’re going full force playing 🙂 🙂 🙂
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The rain did stop and naturally during the time I did the laundry. Almost as soon as I’ve finished it the rain came back 🙂 🙂 During that time I also saw the sun for almost ten whole seconds 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t mind that much if the wind just could stop blowing, especially since it is just as cold as it was yesterday. The birds doesn’t seem to mind the weather as much though, they sing a bit less I guess but then again lots of them are on the ground eating what ever they can find and it looks like they find a lot.
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Can You see the bud?
I did my taxes today and even before I made the car deduction for driving to and from work because I really can’t use public transportation (it would take 150 minutes one way and it takes 30 minutes with a car) I would get a few dollars back 🙂 Can’t remember when that happened the last time With the deduction I’ll get a few more back but since our inflation is insane here that money won’t last for long 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it’s better than to have to pay back 🙂 🙂 🙂
Four from the Agfa Ambiflex. A bit too wintery but they make today look nice and cosy in comparison 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Around five? years ago I sowed some Gardenia seeds, I’ve tried before but have always failed. This time however I got five little plants and I still have five living even though one really look more dead than alive 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today I found flower buds on the two of them that I looked at!! I also noticed that they were attacked by something, can’t really say what I only saw the larvae or what it was. So now I’ve sprayed them with soapy water. Soapy water suffocates everything insect-wise and I do hope I didn’t destroy the coming flowers by doing so.
Four from the Agfa Ambi Silette. These photos on the other hand make today look like a nasty november day 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Tomorrow’s a working day again so back to work it is. I actually almost won back all the money I spent on the lottery, not quite but very close 🙂 🙂 🙂 not enough to stop working but I’ll at least not have to pay more than less of a $ US next week 🙂 🙂 🙂
Why not ad a wintery photo from the Flexaret VI too.
Today should really have been a wonderful day. The sun has been shining all the time and the temperature rose to 10C (50F) but there has been a nasty and bitterly cold wind blowing and that has sort of destroyed the entire day. I couldn’t even have the kitchen door open because the wind came from the only direction where it actually can hit my cottage and it chilled down the entire cottage. Still when we were walking in the forest where the wind had troubles reaching us it felt quite ok.
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Everything comes in cardboard boxes and everything in those cardboard boxes are wrapped in enormously much plastic, usually bubble wrap and I have finally got my thumbs out of my a..e and started to break it all down in smaller pieces. It is insanely boring in the long run to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂 It doesn’t take especially much space when I’ve packed it all in the car though. I also vacuumed the entire cottage and by entire I also mean the ceilings 🙂 I thought I had removed all spider webs from the ceilings a couple of weeks ago but the spiders are either really fast in making new ones or I was half blind when I did it the first time 🙂 🙂 I realized that I had missed one place so I’ll get a stick and remove the rest later today.
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I found a dead kitten in my garden a week ago. I noticed that Albin was licking on something and realized it was a small cat. I called my neighbors and asked if they had all their cats but they weren’t at home so they sent me a photo of their cats and thankfully it wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t find any injuries on the kitten (can’t have been more than half a year old) so I don’t think Albin has killed it. He is a cat hater and have tried to take the beekeepers cats, I must admit that I’m afraid. He did (nor Alma) not show any signs of interest when I removed the kitten and not the place where it was lying so I don’t think he did anything to it. Anyway, it hadn’t been in that spot a couple of hours earlier so what ever has happened it must have happened almost just before I noticed it. I have a tradition that when one of my cats has died I bury it and plant something above it.
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Cosmos the kat is buried beneath some Irises, beside a big rose (rosa rugosa), Bertil i buried beneath a small cherry tree and Teodor beneath a rose that first gives orange flowers that then fades to almost white. This little unknown kitten is now buried beneath a Nanking cherry. Cosmos the Cat will have something else this summer because I plan to reduce the size of that rose, or remove it totally and the Irises never liked that place to be honest. Perhaps that’s the place where I’ll plant the Walnut, it is rather protected from the wind by the neighbors cottage and it will get sunshine all day.
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We’ve had our pancake Sunday and I checked on the box what the mix is made from. Turns out it’s mostly corn flour! Had no idea. I have now also learned that the brand of oat flour I’ve bought lately can contain gluten so that’s the explanation to why my stomach is so upset again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I better keep my eyes open the next time I go grocery shopping. I might come back tomorrow since it’s a holiday here, otherwise I’ll see You next Friday.
I can’t say that the day has been pleasant because that wouldn’t be entirely true. The day has mostly been cloudy and light grey but there was no wind in the morning so it was quite ok anyway. Then the wind arrived and it went from quite ok to rather unpleasant. Then the sun started to shine between the gaps in the clouds and the wind calmed down so suddenly it was quite nice again 🙂 🙂 Now there’s an evenly grey sky again but I’m indoors and I really don’t care about what it is like outside 🙂 🙂
There’s already flower buds on the wild gooseberries.
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My home is a mess and has been for quite a while now 🙂 But I decided that I wold clean up a little at a time so that’s what I’ve been doing today, plus I’ve baked two breads and I also made french fries for the dogs and me (and sausages and meatballs for me 🙂 ). Still I don’t think I’ve done especially much at all. Time has flied away though but I can’t expect it to do otherwise since it after all is a weekend. We’re having a long weekend because it’s a holiday on Monday the first of May here (and I think in the entire of Europe). May first is the workers day and back in the days everyone were out demonstrating for workers rights. Nowdays most of us might have a picnic or barbecue if the weather is nice 🙂
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A couple of days ago I planted the inner seeds from red skinned apricots, I had removed the thick and hard shells and placed the seeds in damp paper towels in a plastic bag and then tossed them in to the fridge. I planted them in one of those see through plastic boxes one can buy grapes and other fruits in and today I could see that the roots had grown down to the bottom of the boxes. I really have no need for more apricot trees but I could do it so why not 🙂 🙂 I have plenty more in the fridge plus some from peaches. Well I can always give them away when they’re a couple of years old 🙂
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I did also, a couple of days ago, lay a bid on a camera, an Agfa Flexilette. An odd camera because it’s a twin lens reflex camera but in the shape of an SLR. I did not expect to win it and wouldn’t have been especially sorry but of course I did 🙂 🙂 🙂 Ok it’s not a lot of money but I could have bought some plants for that money instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 They’re guessing that we’ll get really nice weather tomorrow so I hope they’re right for once. I guess I better check if some shoots from the sloe and rose bushes have started to grow and if I need to mow that area again already tomorrow. Then again it’s been so cold at nights that I doubt anything shows yet but I guess all those roots are preparing to make my life a bit miserable for a couple of years before they finally gives up 🙂 🙂 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 