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.
We didn’t have any walks today the dogs and I. My body is aching everywhere and today was not a day when having dogs pulling the leash would be a good idea 🙂 🙂 🙂 (so the photos You see were taken two days ago and perhaps I’ll toss in a photo taken with my analog cameras).
I’m used to pain since I have rheumatism but today is a bit above that 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is for some reason easier to walk up the stairs than down 🙂 🙂 🙂 The weather hasn’t been that wonderful anyway, ok it is wind free and fairly warm or warmish at least but no sunshine.
I didn’t just sit still though, that would only make it worse. Instead I secured the green house for storm winds. I had already bought a set with ground anchors, wires and the small things like screws. The anchors are the kind that one simply screw down in to the ground. The thing was that I only could find three even though I know I should have four. So I walked around looking for it (I have every now and again used them for other things 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) well while I did that I found a very similar thing, it was for a dog I had and it is a kind of screw that is screwed down in to the ground and one fastens the leash in it.
I never used it though so since it had the same size and works the same way I used it. The problem was that while looking for the fourth anchor I lost the third 🙂 🙂 🙂 This is nothing new but sometimes it scares me 🙂 🙂 I looked for two hours and just couldn’t find it. So I decided to make a pot of tea and take a small break. I had old tea leafs that I needed to bring to my compost and for some reason I wasn’t surprised to see the anchor lying on the compost 🙂 🙂 🙂 So now if a storm comes and the wind actually can reach the green house it should be safe from blowing away 🙂 🙂 at least in theory 🙂
I also found the holder to the ventilation window, it had fallen down beside the big compost so I could attach that and it was fairly easy. so while I was at it I also fastened the door handle so now I’m done for the moment because I’ve ordered a sort of tent pegs for greenhouses. Amazon had good ones that will be screwed down with the help of a drilling machine. It’s not as if I don’t trust the storm anchors but I only have sand in the ground and it just feels like I would be able to pull them up by hand 🙂 🙂 This was the first time I’ve ordered anything from Amazon and so far so good 🙂 Amazon isn’t that big over here since we already have many similar sites we rather go to instead.
I hope I’ll be able to have walks tomorrow, if not for any other reason than that the dogs need to be somewhere else than here. It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and later I’ll check what’s on tv.
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 🙂 🙂
No photos from today but some from Forentorp meadows where I was yesterday and perhaps other older ones.
So as You know I had the kidney stone a while ago and then two weeks later I had to get a new x-ray so that they could see if it was gone. Well it was gone but they instead found a one cm big hump on the top on one of my kidneys, so I have had a new x-ray with contrast fluid to see what it is, most likely it would be the beginning of a cyst and they don’t do anything about those since they do no harm. It’s actually really common for people over 50 to have cysts on their kidneys without ever knowing it.
I’m not sure how old these trees are but they haven’t cut the forest here for centuries, so my guess is that the Oaks and Beech trees are way older than 500 years.
So I was at the big hospital in Skövde today to hear about what it is, it is a tumor but still so small that they can’t take any tests from it so they can figure out exactly what kind of tumor it is. My doctor said though that I couldn’t get a better prognosis since they found it so early. They’ll do nothing about it for now, I guess they will have to remove the entire kidney because kidneys tends not to heal well and will continue to bleed for ages if they get a damage.
An old pilgrimage is passing through this area.
So I’ll get a new x-ray around next March- April so they can see if the tumor has grown. If it hasn’t we’ll do a new one in six months but if is has they’ll take a test from it to see what it is and if it is a bad one I’ll have to go through surgery and I guess the chemo or the radiation thing. So not the best news but not the worst either. The worst that my doctor think will happen to me is that I’ll lose a kidney, not too fun but as long as my kidneys work as good as they do there wouldn’t be any bigger problems for me.
This is an old Mill dating back to, I think it was, the thirteenth century. Belongs to the old Abbey ruins up on the mountain in Gudhem.
I realized that it most likely wouldn’t be a good thing when I got the new appointment till today because I also got a paper where I would write down all about my health, surgeries and other things 🙂 🙂 So the last weeks I’d already planned what to do with the dogs and kitten the week I would have to remove the kidney 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now I have at least six more moths to plan even better 🙂 🙂 🙂 I am not even the least worried right now, how could I when the doctor wasn’t especially worried either. I mean if I started to worry my stomach soon would give up totally and then I would feel that it was a waste of time giving up Gluten 🙂 🙂 🙂
So when I came home I spent most time of calling around to tell friends and relatives what is happening and try to calm them down if I noticed them being worried. This is actually the second time they’ve discovered me having cancer so early. The first time they removed a liver spot that had changed color but not from brown to black but from red to brown. They didn’t think it was something to worry about but removed it since it had changed color. The same evening the called me and said that it was something to worry about , it was malignant melanoma and already the next day I had to get in and have more flesh removed. I was really lucky that time because they caught it just in the beginning. It had moved around 2 mm in to my body but not more. I had to go on check ups for five years though.
Why not show You some foggy photos taken with an old analog camera called Agfa Ambi Silette. Must be from last winter I think.
It is time for that last cup of tea and a chocolate covered Hobnob 🙂
The weather was rather nice this morning while I drove to work but not so nice when I drove back home. Now there’s a storm passing by, it rains on and off plus the sky is mostly evenly grey. The dogs are outside only when they really need to do their business and then runs straight back indoors again. It’s fairly warm though so even if we’re closing in to when we normally have our first frost I’m pretty sure it won’t come tonight 🙂 I’ve just taken a look at the weather sites and all show that nights will be so warm that there’s no risk of frost the coming ten days 🙂
The storm will have passed already tonight so with a bit of luck we’ll have a pretty nice morning walk with a chance of sunshine. I don’t have high hopes about the sunshine though, the sun usually only start to show when we’re almost at home 🙂 🙂
People at work are already giving me tips on where they might need more people and the atmosphere at work has never been as bad as it is right now but I know for sure that they won’t change their minds about me. I’m still not worried the least though because I’ll take any job there is as long as the work hours aren’t during nights. One thing annoyes me even though I know people mean well, many have said that they miss me already 🙂 🙂 🙂 For heavens sake can’t they wait to do that until I’m actually gone 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m still talking to everyone every day after all 🙂 🙂 🙂
No new photos today because of the weather but I do have old analog photos (for those who don’t know what I mean with that, I quite often use the old film cameras and I have loads of those photos here in my computer) I can show and also made a folder called “For a rainy day”. Today is a rainy day so that works fine 🙂 It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and after that perhaps watch some tv, well I tend to fall asleep in front of the tv to be honest but that’s just as good or perhaps even better than to watch what’s on the telly 🙂
These photos are taken with an old camera called Agfa Flexilette. It was never popular to be honest. It’s a twin lens reflex camera and that means that one is looking through a separate lens via the view finder but take the photo with a separate lens beneath the view finder. Here’s a link to Google that will show photos of that camera: Flexilette
The snowstorm Pia passed by yesterday evening and all night long. I had borrowed my neighbors car and if there’s one thing one doesn’t want to do is to wreck their car because one was driving careless 🙂 🙂 🙂 So even though I went home half an hour earlier I still came home a few minutes later than I normally would have done 🙂 🙂
As You can see this photo wasn’t taken today but was taken last spring (with my Agfa Flexilette) but it shows the only big building, besides the castle, that still stands in what once was a thriving village.
This is just beside the previous building.
The car dealer and I had agreed to meet around 1pm and I was going to get there by bus. The bus would leave my bus station at 12:05 and on a sunny and nice day in spring or summer it takes around 45 minutes to walk there,so since the world now once again is filled with that white crap (and the fact that it rained a lot before the snow fell and it went cold) I decided to start early, I’m so glad I have studded boots because the snow didn’t stick well to the ice covered road. Today it took almost exactly one hour.
This is the creek where it flows out in to the lake.
I think I would have thought the world was beautiful if I hadn’t had to walk in this mess 🙂 🙂 I only brought my phone so only a few photos today. The wind was still blowing pretty hard and it was bitterly cold. Well walking and wearing really good winter clothes did help but standing and waiting for the bus still made me pretty cold inside.
The road leading to the castle. Big oaks grown on each side of it.
I managed to get there in time and went to the grocery store on my way home. They usually like when I tell them about my car problems 🙂 🙂 So we had a good laugh before I finally drove home again. I haven’t had much sleep to be honest but I think the short nap I had in my recliner will help me to stay awake until at least 9 pm 🙂 🙂
There once was a big yellow house standing behind those Birches. I guess it was the rectory but now days priests usually don’t live beside the churches they work in.
Only one previous owner and it has a new cam belt, that was the thing that made me want to have it without even seeing it in a photo 🙂 🙂 It has six gears, something I need to get used to. The only things I really made sure to know about before I drove home was to know how to open the fuel filler flap, something I didn’t understand with the borrowed car, I had to phone them to know how 🙂 how to handle the different lights and how to control the heat in the car, it took me over a day before I understood it in the borrowed car 🙂 🙂 🙂 Cruise control and how to manage to radio can be learned later 🙂 🙂 🙂
This is at the bus stop in a village called Ljung. I like how they decorated the tree like that. Back in the days before they brought in spruces at christmas they often brought in a young crab apple tree, dressed it and if they were lucky it had green leafs and perhaps even small flowers when christmas arrived.
Winter vacation started today so no more work until January 8 🙂
It has been above 0C (32F) all day and will most likely stay there even though it’s just barely. With warmer weather it always looks like strong wind will follow. I can hear it roar outside but it is still coming from a direction that doesn’t hit the cottage. We’ll have a few days that slowly will go colder but then warmer weather will arrive again. How warm it’ll be is hard to guess since the different weather sites says different temperatures. I do hope it’s the Norwegian one because it shows the highest temperatures 🙂
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The day has been quite nice since the wind arrived fairly late in the day. We walked down to the creek and no problem getting grip in the snow now when it slowly melts away (we’ll probably still have plenty left when the colder weather starts again though. Lots of the more shy forest birds have now returned there when the sno falls off the vegetation, so no more Bullfinches for a while I guess. The pheasant however comes for a visit every day and I’m starting to think it might be a juvenile rooster because of its size. If it is I do hope it returns for visits when it gets the new darker feathers. I’ve seen photos of melanistic pheasant roosters and they are truly magnificent when the sun hits the feathers.
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I’ve put up the two lamps in and outside the dog yard. I tried them yesterday and they worked fine but today they didn’t start to shine when my neighbor drove by. No matter what I did it just stayed dark. Then I remembered that they had a switch on the attachment at the back and voila suddenly they weer glowing like the sun 🙂 🙂 There are three modes to chose from. Number one is that the light continues to shine 100% for twenty seconds after the last movement it can detect but as long as there’s movement it shines. The second mode is that it continues to shine all the time but only 60% of what it can. The third one is the same but 90% all through the night.
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So I guess I’ll have the one shining outside the yard on mode three while I have mode one for the one shining in the dog yard. I’ve also started to read the first of the Harry Potter books for the dogs. So far I’ve read two chapters and that took around 48 minutes, great now I’ll only have to read for eight more hours to make sure they can hear my voice all the time after I’ve gone to work 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll continue to record my voice for several days so I do hope these lamps will help a lot!
Blue tit.
Field sparrow.
House sparrow.
Great tit.
Only twelve more days before it starts to turn towards longer days again and I do long after that day! Also only twelve more days before Christmas vacation starts and I long for that even more to be honest 🙂 🙂
Four photos taken with the Agfa Ambi Silette last March, that was when winter arrived last time. I do hope that since we now started with winter that when the warmer weather arrives it also means it won’t return 🙂 🙂 🙂
The rest of this weekend has been much less eventful and I’m so grateful for that 🙂 🙂 However I keep finding a lot of wasp queens here indoors and I have no idea how they get in here. Normally I try to just catch and release them but lately they have been a bit angry so I’ve had no other choice than to kill them. I don’t like that but I just can’t have angry wasps flying around in my home.
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We went out to the bog this morning and everything was just fine. Nova leash free as always a bit ahead of us and the rest of us following her. We went out on the peninsula and stayed there for a few minutes and turned back homewards again. Then suddenly Nova, 17 years old, started to run on the path. Albin did look a bit worried frowning and Alma did suddenly behave as if she had been to obedience school. So I guess we might have had a wolf rather close to us. I never see them though even if I now days quite often look back to see if anything is following us. I guess wolves just are too smart to follow us on the roads or paths.
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My orchid is finally opening up its flowers. They don’t smell anything but that’s quite common with orchids we have in our homes. I think it’ll get at least four more flower stalks before it’s season is over. The flowers look a bit more yellowish in the photos than they do in the real but I guess that’s because I used a flash when I took the photos.
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I also found something in my garden that made me really surprised! I found four fruits beneath my Black walnut!!! I haven’t even seen it in bloom. At first I thought it was odd that I found four figs beneath the canopy since my fig tree stands closer to the kitchen door but then I picked them up and realized that it was walnuts 🙂 I know I should have waited to open up any of the fruits but I just wanted to see how big the nut would be, so I opened the smallest one. I figured that since it is so small I’d rather plant it in a pot and place it outside, if it germinates there’s always someone who would want a walnut tree and if not the forest is quite big and most people would see it as an ash tree instead 🙂 🙂
I’ve started to bring in more of what is going to spend winter in my cool cellar, like these apricot trees.
They do look like figs, don’t they?
The smallest that I opened up.
Nova taken with the Minolta 8000i.
I didn’t win the lottery so tomorrow it’s back to work again, it is at least a short work week this time. It’s dark outside now but tomorrow morning I’ll check if there are any more walnuts in the tree. To be honest I’m happy about the four I got since I didn’t think I would get any at all but as we say here: much wants more 🙂 🙂 🙂
Only photos from old cameras today. I’ve just had two films developed and this photo comes from the Minolta 8000i.
A ferocious storm has just passed by, still quite windy but much less than what it was when I drove home last night. We also had heavy rainfall so I never thought that any animals would be outside foraging, so I didn’t think twice about the dogs hurrying to the back of the garden, I guessed that they wanted to do their business quickly and then indoors to the cottage. Suddenly I heard Alma and Albin barking like crazy.
Still the Minolta.
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Turns out there was at leas one animal, a young badger, walking around and also in my garden! The dogs should be happy that it was just a young one and not the big male badger that visited us. Albin attacked the poor badger from behind and Alma towards the front. Thankfully I wore my head lamp so I saw what was happening and started to shout and try to get both Alma and Albin away from the poor badger, also jumping around like crazy so that none of them would bite me. Then suddenly the badger got a good bite (and held on to) Alma’s lip. So Alma started to shout because now she was the one attacked and it hurt. The brave Albin then ran away and the badger let go of Alma.
Also the Minolta.
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Badgers have a really thick fur so I think that was what Albin was holding on to. I managed to take a good look at the badger (because it sat still for a few seconds) and when it left it didn’t limp. Also Alma’s lip was a bit swollen but ok already now this morning. If it had been father badger both Alma and Albin would have been badly injured because he would not have let them get away with anything like this without them paying badly for it. So on Monday I’ll buy lots of nuts and go to where the badgers live and pour it out close to the opening in a sort of way to apologize for Almas and Albins behaviour.
These are from the Nikon F75.
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I scolded those two so much that when we went to bed they didn’t dare coming close to me 🙂 🙂 🙂 They have also behaved very well all day today so perhaps I actually managed to get something in to their heads, normally I don’t. It is times like this when I miss the old dogs as most. If any of the six old dogs would have met a badger in the garden they would just have greeted it and went on on their merry way to do other things (Nova behaves just like that as well). Despite all the commotion in my garden five meters away from my neighbors cottage they didn’t hear a thing. The storm was hitting their cottage in full force so there were enough noise to filter away the dogs and I 🙂 🙂 🙂
Also the Nikon.
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I doubt that we’ll have a badger visit in the garden for quite some time again but I will check the garden before I let the dogs out tonight. I mean it’s one thing with the dogs, I can always get them to a vet but what would I do with an injured, angry and scared badger? It’s not like I could just toss it into the old cat carrier and bring it to the vet 🙂
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 🙂 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 