Category: Birds.

Sunshine all day long!!!

November 24, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Today has been sunny!! I can’t remember when that happened the last time. It didn’t look that we were going to have any sunshine when I woke up though but in only a few seconds all clouds went away and the sun appeared. I should have understood that we also had a rather strong wind blowing since the clouds moved away so fast. So even if i really enjoyed the sunshine it would have been so much nicer if we hadn’t had that wind. It also comes from the only direction where it can hit my cottage, so the kitchen and the room above are pretty cold but the rooms on the other sides are quite warm and comfortable 🙂

I was quite busy the first half of the day. We went out for our morning walk as soon as we all had woken up. After that we had our breakfast and then I drove to the grocery store in Gudhem to pick up a package. I stopped on my way back at the Abbey ruin, the wind was nasty and bitterly cold up there. As soon as I came home we went out for another walk out to the bog, Nova wanted to walk there and I liked it because the wind wasn’t that bad in there in the forest. I’m pretty sure we had a wolf nearby because suddenly Alma started to behave, Albin looked concerned and Nova was in a hurry to get back home. As always I never saw one though.

I put some french fries and two wiener sausages in the oven when I came back home and after eating that (the dogs got their share of fries 🙂 🙂 ) I took a long nap in the recliner with an around 60 pond pitbull sleeping on my chest and stomach. I couldn’t feel my legs when I finally woke up after a couple of hours 🙂 🙂 I slept for too long because I’m still rather tired. I’ll make a pot of tea after this, with my working hours I really don’t have to worry about not falling asleep early in the evening 🙂 🙂 🙂 and after I get the new ones I definitely won’t have to worry about that 🙂 🙂 🙂

I would love to have some cookies right now but I don’t have any so I might bake some or a sponge-cake, I made a sponge-cake a week ago and even though it takes much longer to make a gluten free one in the oven it turned out really well. I had cinnamon, ginger, cloves and cardamom as spices in it and yes I did get christmas feelings 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

A lazy day.

November 19, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Blue tit. I’ve seen people asking where all the Blue tits have gone when looking on the net, it used to be one of the most common birds by the feeders. They’ve always been around here until this year. It wasn’t until yesterday I saw the first ones by my feeders so they are becoming more rare. I did read however that they are the tits that most common migrates during winter so I do hope that’s the reason we don’t see them as much now days.

I woke up way too early today, just before seven am but I’m still not tired so I do hope the tiredness doesn’t come too early because I need to stay up quite late since I’ll be working tomorrow. We had a rather nice morning here today, no wind, just below 0C (32F) and almost sunshine. We walked down to the creek and Alma behaved pretty well for most of the time.

Nova on the other hand is still pretty annoyed because she’s leashed and she really don’t like that. I’ve told her that if she can’t behave and come when I call her (and sign for her to come, I’ve always learned my dogs signs for different things since many of them lost most of their hearing when going old) she will be leashed whether she likes it or not 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is winter so I thought I should make lots of rice porridge, so I put the ingredients in the slow cooker and it was ready to eat when we came back from our walk to the bog later on. It takes around three hours to do it in the slow cooker but the risk of the porridge being burned is almost none to nothing. It takes at least an hour if doing it on the stove and then it just takes one mistake and the porridge will burn 🙂 🙂 I made the porridge a bit sweeter today because I was also longing for cookies 🙂 🙂 To make it even sweeter I also put some jam in it just before eating it, no craving for cookies after eating that 🙂 🙂 🙂

The sun, so close but still so far away 🙂

I have however not done the laundry and no dinner for next week at work. I just didn’t want to to be honest. So I’ll do the laundry tomorrow before work and I’ll see what I can find in the freezer, I think I have meatballs and sausages in there and I can add an egg or two and perhaps some pasta or potatoes as well. It’ll be exciting to see how many that will turn up to work tomorrow, there are still a few people that weren’t sick last week so it might be their turn now.

The fox came for several visits last night again. I did cheat and put out some dog food but it still moved a bit too fast so most photos were blurry. I’l see what I can do about that tonight, I’ve placed the camera a bit lower this time and I’ll place the dog food in one place and not just throw it out like I did yesterday. The reason I just threw it yesterday was because I had two dogs that would have loved to eat it and I had to do it while they were busy with other things 🙂 🙂 🙂

I talked with a friend on the phone today and told him about my new hours. He has been a boss in several big grocery stores and he said those hours sounded horrible and only people one want to get rid of would get hours like that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well at least I don’t have to work Fridays when it starts 🙂 🙂 🙂

BURREL — I’ve polished the lens on the camera today so I hope that will help with the blurriness.

Have a great day!

New working hours, again.

November 18, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

A bit difficult to see but there’s a Blackbird sitting on a branch in the photo.

The weather report on tv yesterday said sunshine over almost the entire south of Sweden today, so I wasn’t the least surprised that it snowed when I woke up 🙂 🙂 🙂 No big flakes, just tiny ones so it created a thin dusting on the ground. Just enough to make it feel a bit christmassy and not so much that it annoyed me enough to hate winter even more 🙂 🙂 It also made the hunters out in the forest to give up quite early in the day so that made it even better 🙂

I’ve been at home this week because I had fever and was tired all the time. Turns out that 21 more at work (I think we’re slightly more than 50 people working there) had the same thing, most likely the covid. Some had high fever, runny noses and lots of coughing and the rest of us were hit with milder symptoms. I didn’t have any fever yesterday and since I knew there weren’t lots of people working I thought I just as well would go to work. Good thing because without me there would only have been three people working 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did what we could with only four people but then we came to the things we need lots more people around (masking and de-masking things), when we normally would have to be at least seven people there we couldn’t continue and since there was nothing else to do we all took the rest of the day off 🙂 So it wasn’t that bad to go to work when having the long Friday to work 🙂 🙂

A work friend called me the same morning and told me that seven people have to go after the new year has started and they’ll stop having a night shift as well. I still have a job and will be a resource person. Jumping in at any place if someone is sick or do jobs on the side of the line. Don’t mind that but I can’t say I’m happy about the new working hours, I’ll start working at 3:25 pm and continue to work until 1:55 am. I will not work a single Friday though so I guess that’s ok but I also know that if I don’t sleep for as long as I must I will sleep all Friday instead. I guess I’ll get used to that as well but it doesn’t sound fun. The dogs will be fine though since they most likely just will continue to sleep since it is dark and the world will be quiet.

The new working hours will start at week 50 so I’ll start with one week before christmas vacation starts. I do hope this only lasts for a short while since inflation has sunk and the Riksbank will most likely not make the interest rates higher so most likely people will feel a bit of hope again and start building new homes and buy new things so that we soon will be needing those people who can’t stay. It’s a horrible world really when we need people to spend all their money so that other people can get jobs and by doing so also make the climate crisis even worse.

I wanted to post a video here with the fox passing by but now days I can’t since I need to pay for Premium to be able to post videos so I say to WordPress Up Yours!

Lots of birds at the new feeder and I also got a few nice photos of the fox that visits us almost every night. I accidentally had made the camera take videos the first nights so there’s one video as well showing the fox. I also have some photos of Albin pooping and Alma running around like crazy mostly looking like a blurr 🙂 🙂 🙂 The fox looks healthy and I was thinking of placing some dog food in front of the camera so I could get more nice photos of the fox and possibly the badger if it comes again and hasn’t started its winter sleep. I’ve learned that badgers doesn’t hibernate but instead just sleeps, oh how I wish I was a badger 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

They are picky primadonnas.

November 11, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

We had thick fog once again this morning but since hunters were out in the forest, one can wonder why because they really couldn’t see anything out there 🙂 🙂 🙂 , we couldn’t enjoy it. We might have fog again tomorrow so I hope it lasts long enough for us to have a walk in it.

We call these (well the entire bush) for Goat apple. They are poisonous for us humans and I have no idea why they got that name 🙂 If one for some odd reason would eat those berries one would pee red.

So I’ve put up the new bird feeder and I do hope Alma won’t try and take it down 🙂 The House sparrows and the Tree sparrows are so used to me that they don’t care that I stand on the other side of the window. The Big tits however are more suspicious and flies away as soon as they realize I’m there. So I had to turn off the lights in the kitchen so they couldn’t see me as well and then they came to the feeder. I still haven’t seen a single Blue tit and that’s odd because they used to be the third most common bird around my feeders.

Nova wanted to go out to the bog today but when we reached the peninsula we always walk out on she suddenly didn’t want to. Neither Alma or Albin showed any reaction so we continued out anyway. Turns out that someone had been riding there and Nova has never been particularly fond of horses so I guess that was the reason. Today was supposed to be rain free so I wasn’t the least surprised that it rained every now and again 🙂 🙂 🙂

We had our Saturday pancakes when we came home and even though the dogs had their pancakes Albin still complained when i didn’t give him any more 🙂 🙂 Yesterday I had pommes strips for dinner and the dogs got their fair share of them, besides Albin drooling so much that I had to clean the floor afterwards he still complained when there were no more strips left 🙂 🙂

I need to dig down the pots with plants in the ground since I don’t have space for them in my cellar.

This is how much of the ground in my garden looks like now. Even though the surface is just an inch deep with soil and beneath it it’s just sand the water doesn’t go anywhere.

The weeks when I have a long weekend feels a bit odd. Today was the second day I was at home and it felt like I needed to prepare for working tomorrow 🙂 🙂 It’s around the same time every second weekend, just after noon, that happens 🙂 I guess old habits die hard 🙂 🙂

I’ve placed on of my Camellias in the coolest spot I have in my cottage and now it shows lots of buds. Camellias are picky primadonnas and I really don’t know why I don’t just throw them away, make one mistake during the year and they won’t flower and most likely die as well 🙂 🙂 This one however is at the moment showing lots of buds, it might flower around Christmas if I’m really lucky.

Have a great day!

I still prefer rain to snow.

November 4, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

Long working Friday means slow Saturday. I really can’t understand the genius at work who thought it would be a good idea to make the last working day in the week also the longest (start earlier in the day and stop one hour later in the night). Ok it’s only every second week that happens but to be honest that idea is really stupid 🙂 🙂 🙂 A good thing is that we don’t work the Friday before the christmas vacation starts 🙂

It was so foggy when I drove home last night that I sometimes had no idea where I was. Not even when I was only a few hundred meters (much the same in yards) away from the village 🙂 🙂 I was of course driving really slow and since there were so many Roe deer on and beside the road I most likely would have anyway. I had hoped that there would be lots of fog left when I woke up today but by the time I got up the fog was already on its way to dissolve. I was going to fetch a package at the grocery store in Gudhem so I did that as soon as the dogs had had their breakfast, so I also missed the sunshine we had those few minutes I was away to get that package 🙂

Still it was still quite bright when we were out walking and since there was no wind what so ever it really was quite nice. No bigger animals out in the fields so I was pretty sure no bigger predators were in our part of the forest, deer and other bigger animals tends to go out to the fields when predators are around, so they can see them earlier and therefore flee in time. We did hear some walk away when we passed them on our walk though, running in a dense part of the forest isn’t something one does quiet 🙂

Hunters will be out in the forest tomorrow if the weather isn’t too bad and when looking at the different weather sites it looks like the little rain we’ll get will come in the afternoon. They usually never stay for long though so I guess we’ll have our first walk for the day rather early anyway. It’ll stay fairly warm the coming week and that means it’ll also rain some every day and it doesn’t look like we’ll have a day without rain for at least a week. I must admit that I’m really tired of the rain now, even my sandy soil is now constantly wet and muddy (which is really hard for sand to become 🙂 🙂 🙂 ). I guess however that I wouldn’t like snow and cold weather any more so let the rain come 🙂

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Have a great day!

They are actually pretty good.

October 29, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The rain is pouring down and sometimes sideways because of the strong gusts we have right now. The dogs refuse to go outside and I so understand them. Also they think I’ll have more of the gluten free gingerbreads I baked earlier today 🙂 🙂 The ones one can buy are an abomination towards any living thing, they are actually so awful that not even Albin and Alma wanted any and those two eat any kind of garbage they can find 🙂 🙂

I found this recipe online and it is called “The best gingerbread recipe ever”. Well they are really good but I’ve had normal gingerbreads that have been slightly better. Still these are gluten free so I guess it is true for being gluten free cookies. I had to do some changes in the recipe though. It said agave syrup or maple syrup. This recipe is obviously made by a rather rich person because both those syrups cost close to what gold costs 🙂 🙂 🙂 It also said Coconut sugar? Didn’t even know that excisted so I used normal sugar instead.

They do taste really good but it is really important that they stay the exact time in the oven because bring them out a bit early they will be kind of soft and really brittle but the exact time and they’re like any other home made gingerbread. Also the original recipe said 150 cookies and that’s insanely much for a first try, so I halved the recipe and I managed to get 24 cookies. I’m not sure what size they make their cookies in but they must be really tiny 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway, I’ve tried it and can now do these again closer to christmas.

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I found another walnut on the ground today but the weather wasn’t the nicest so to look up a tree to find one small green thing amongst the still green leafs made it hard to see if it was the one I’ve been looking at or if this was another one that came from elsewhere in the tree 🙂 It’ll rain a lot these coming days so I’ll check the ground for walnuts instead of looking up the tree 🙂

The House sparrows had taken a bath and were cleaning and drying themselves before the rain arrived.

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The morning walk was really nice though, no wind and no rain. No sunshine either but that was to be expected. Well I almost saw the sun for half a minute when a thinner layer of clouds flew by. It looked really nice during that half minute and I guess that is what we’ll be able to see until after christmas, if we’re lucky 🙂 🙂 We might get fog though and that’s my second favorite weather but I don’t have high hopes for that either, the last time they said we would get fog what we got was what could best be called a thin haze. It is time to pack my dinners for the coming week at work. I bought some small pieces of chicken the other day, so I fried them just enough to get that fried surface, I also fried a big onion. After that I tossed it in the crockpot together with water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, potatoes and some kind of Asian cabbage, it tastes actually much better than I thought it would 🙂

Have a great day!

Much the same weather all week long.

July 21, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We haven’t had much rain this week, a shower now and again. The weather has been very much the same each day though, lots of clouds, sunshine in between. Rather chilly when cloudy but really nice when the sun shone. One day it did reach above 20C (68F) but mostly it has been lower than that. Sunshine in the early and cool morning so not many flies or mosquitoes annoying us while having our morning walk.

The Norwegian site says it will be warmer than the Swedish one but then again they say we’ll get more rain. I looked at the weather sites early this morning and none of the sites said rain tomorrow, they do now. So I sort of regrets that I didn’t mow the lawn today while it was quite windy and the grass was dry. Well we know how great they are in predicting the weather over here so it might be sunny and warm all day 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have gotten the carpet/ furniture cleaner but I haven’t tried it yet. So I guess I’ll try it tomorrow if the rain actually arrives. I think I’ll start with something not as thick as the big cushions I have on my sofas, they will after all have to dry up before I can put them back on the sofas. I have a couple of those thin mattresses on my bed, I can easily sleep one night without one of them.

It was quite nice when we were out walking early this morning. No wind but cool enough so that most flies stayed calm, at least until we came closer to home and the sun had warmed up the air. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek again. We have lots of morning dew here right now and there’s a lot of relatively high grass along that way so we were soaked by the time we came home. What surprises me each time we’ve walked there is how few ticks I need to remove from the dogs. It should be tick paradise there and lots of animals full of ticks walks there as well but each time I go through the dogs there are just a few. Well I can’t say I feel sorry about that 🙂

Nothing much is happening in the garden right now. My Persimmon seems to do very well, my Pawpaws grow and look healthy and so so my Ginkgos. The English walnut still grows but it is hard to see it since the plant in front of it is so big that I barely can see it 🙂 🙂 🙂 The last two Nectarine kernels that I’ve had in and out of the fridge finally started to germinate this week. Mostly it’s enough with one round to the fridge to make them start but these two needed several times in and out. I think that means that they come from a tougher area (climatewise) and that their spring can be as treacherous as ours, like really warm and sunny in early March but then full blown winter in April 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Apricots are growing fine and the biggest ones are now over 30cm (one foot) high.

Finally, the Nectarines germinated. They are now planted in two small pots so cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck 🙂

I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea even if it is well after 4pm. I have vacation, it doesn’t matter if I can fall asleep normal time or not 🙂

I’ve planted one of the Cherry plums on the north side of my cottage, close to the gate. I’ve put a bottomless tub around it so that the roots can’t spread and give new Cherryplums. I’ll plant one on the other side of the gate when I can find another tub I can remove the bottom from.

The Hazelnut bush has also found a place not far from the Cherry plum.

The House sparrow fledglings learns how to fly under the roof of my old patio, which I haven’t used in over twent years. Now some are daring enough to fly outside it, a whole meter (a yard) out to my Apricot tree 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

cleaning my sofas will be easier, I hope :-)

July 15, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The day has mostly been gray and dreary. Rather chilly in the beginning but not chilly enough to keep the flies calm though. Later in the day rain passed by and now there are some cracks in the clouds where the sun can peak through and it’s also much warmer. Still it won’t last for long because it’ll start raining tonight and we can either get almost nothing to very little or just as much as we had the last time. It all depends on where the heavy showers will pass.

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So we’ve done very little today. Alma has been really bored because none of us wanted to go outside to play and the neighbors daughter has been indoors as well. So no one to play with and all that energy has made Alma a very talkative dog 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s normally not a quiet dog but today she’s been worse 🙂 🙂

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I’ve just ordered a small carpet and furniture washing machine 🙂 I was thinking about how I was supposed to be able to clean the big cushions on my sofas and was thinking of a pressure washer. I’ve seen how good they work on carpets but then again those cushions are quite thick and would become so heavy with all that water that it would take ages for them to dry if at all in this cool and rainy weather 🙂 🙂 🙂 So instead I found this little machine where the only complaints about it is that it is very loud. Does its job really well though. It’s called Bissell SpotClean Pro 1558N. I even looked at international reviews and all said just the same, does its job really well but is very loud. Well I have earplugs at home so I’ll use those.

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The odd thing was that I couldn’t buy the detergent at the same time as the machine, as soon as I had pressed the button there was no turning back to buy anything more. So annoyed as I was I bought the detergent from another business 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll let You know what I think about it when I’ve tried it and I do hope I’ll say the same thing as the reviews 🙂

My big apple tree will get loads of apples this year, the rain came just in the right time because it had already dropped lots but now it looks like no more small apples have fallen off.

I have a patio that I haven’t used for well over twenty years, well I put a lot of things there but never sit there any more. It is mostly covered by a big rose, a grape vine and a climbing clematis so now House sparrow fledglings practice their flying in there. Magpies tried to hide there when it was raining but I think I finally managed to scare them away, they are big birds and will have to manage anyway. Every now and again though those little fledglings comes outside very close to my kitchen window and I managed to take a few photos through the rather dirty window 🙂

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Have a great day!

First week soon to be over.

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

Magpies, funny birds but also bl…y annoying 🙂 🙂 🙂 They can terrorize an entire neighborhood and attack cats and dogs and are really intelligent.

The weather has been rather mixed this first week of my vacation. Everything from sunny and hot to a bit chilly and heavy raining. Today is really nice though, mostly sunshine, a nice breeze and around 20C (68F). It was supposed to be like this yesterday but like always our weather service managed to miss that we would have rain almost half the day 🙂 🙂 🙂

The rain started quite nice on Wednesday

Another one on the back by my kitchen door. It needs to be a lot of rain to create a lake there because it’s only sand and runs down through the sand as soon as it hits, normally that it 🙂 🙂

We’ve gotten well over two inches of rain this week and nature loves it. Well I don’t complain about it either to be honest 🙂 Unfortunately the ticks loves it most of all. After every walk I’ve picked over twenty ticks from Alma while the two others have had perhaps five together. I have no idea why Alma is such a tick magnet but they do seem to love her. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek this morning so I was a bit worried that they all would have lots more walking around on them but to my surprise they had just a few, not even Alma had more than six walking around on her.

Yesterday morning felt quite chilly so not a fly was flying around annoying us.

The weather has made it more or less impossible to do anything outside and it has been perfect 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t remember when I slept this much before. The heavy rain day I must have slept well over six hours during the day (mostly with the window open so I could hear the rain hit the ground and cottage, until it changed direction and it started to rain in through the window 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and I still fell asleep at my usual hour and sleeping all night without any problems. I guess I needed it but have no idea why 🙂 🙂

We could pass this doe without Alma screaming like insane 🙂 🙂

The flies have calmed down because they’ve now cut down all the grass and made silage balls of it. That always happens when they do that so I guess that flies prefer to stay in high grass instead of trees during nights and perhaps even during days and when it’s gone the flies go to? Well there’s plenty still but not near enough to what we had before. I don’t even bring my mosquito hat on our walks, it’s enough with a hoodie. Alma has calmed down even more now, she still pulls the leash but the screaming when seeing anything move is almost gone! So now days we even see the odd deer again, still hares do make her a bit too excited but we’re working on that. The sitting down until she’s calmed down seems to work pretty well 🙂

I’m waiting for the package delivery car to come. I’ve ordered dog food and I have almost no dog food left so these packages will arrive just in time 🙂 🙂 I’ve just recieved a text message that they are on the way. So anytime from now until 5pm I’ll need to stay at home. Just a few weeks back they changed it to that packages below 20Kg ( 44,1 pound) can be delivered without me being at home but above that I need to be at home to recieve it. I’ve just bought a new kind of food for Alma and Nova because they didn’t really like the one I had and they have been a bit wobbly in their stomachs since we started with it. So today I’ll get one package that weighs well over20Kg and one well below. Does that mean they then would deliver the lighter package while bringing back the heavier if I weren’t at home? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nova can be the most stubborn dog in the world 🙂 🙂 I called for her because she went away on her own and to a road we weren’t going to take. She could hear me very weel and she knows the sign for coming back and she just didn’t give a crap 🙂 🙂 🙂

After around five minutes she slowly came towards us.

Then she stopped again and just stood there for another five minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂 She finally started to walk towards us again but refused to go all the way and instead went to where we were going to walk but through bushes and high grass instead 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Not much in bloom in my garden at the moment but the Creeping Bellflower has opened up. It’s voted to be the worst weed one can get in a garden 🙂 🙂 Here it has to fight with other plants almost as bad as itself so it’s no problem here.

A Perennial Sunflower is almost as bad as the bellflower.

The Nepeta sibirica or as its Swedish name is Great Dragon flower can also compete with it.

the Large yellow loosestrife isn’t much weaker.

Hotas are however not a match and would lose the battle fairly quick 🙂

Now I hope I can start what I planned to do during my vacation, lots of napping :-)

July 9, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So yesterday was mowing day and today it was filling the holes, or perhaps ravines is a better word, with gravel. We were four people with shovels and rakes and one with a tractor with a huge scoop. So we worked quite fast and effective to be honest. We might have worked for forty minutes but after we stood and spoke for at least an hour and a half 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was a bit worried about my back because it felt really bad this morning when I woke up but it didn’t bother me especially much at all to be honest. I am however a bit worried about my back right now because it really bothers me and I know this is nothing compared to how it will be tomorrow morning 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway now the job is done and now I hope I can start with how I planned this vacation to be, lots of napping and doing nothing 🙂 🙂

It was cool in the early morning when we went out on our morning walk and not a fly could be seen or heard but as soon as the sun started to heat up the air things changed rapidly. I’m glad I brought my mosquito hat because I think there were a gazillion flies just waiting to annoy us, no biting ones though, they all seems to have moved to my garden and the cows in the pasture beside. Lots of butterflies where we walk but none in my garden. Lots of bees though but to be honest they aren’t as beautiful as butterflies.

Tomorrow will be hot as well but the rain will arrive in the evening and with northern winds it will cool down quite a bit. The guessing about how much rain we’ll get varies quite a bit but at the moment the Norwegian site says almost an inch and the Swedish one four fifths of an inch. This morning they guessed we would barely get anything. One could say that we’ll know for sure about how much rain we’ve gotten afterwards but to be honest they usually says we’ve had a very different weather than we’ve actually have had 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s what happens when they trust computer programs instead och checking the real world 🙂 🙂 🙂

A perennial sunflower. It took ages for it to start spread and when it finally did it spread to a place where I don’t want it 🙂 🙂

This is a rose that has been here in this part of bthe village for well over 70 years. Have no idea what it is called though.

I’ll get ten Sand cherry cherries this year. This one is really drought tolerant but this early summer managed to make them let go of their berries.

I will need to go to the supermarket soon but I think I can wait until Tuesday when the weather won’t be anything else than rain anyway. I have enough to eat, I have enough with milk and I have enough with ice cream so I’m pretty sure my planned napping will happen tomorrow 🙂

Catmint and it loves dry and sandy places and spreads happily but I’m not swarmed with cats 🙂 🙂

The worst parts of the road was upp the slope here but I didn’t want to walk up there to photograph it because of all the biting flies.

Have a great day!

This could have been such a nice day.

April 30, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

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.

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.

A15398_028 — These four ate taken with the Agfa Ambiflex.

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Have a great day!

The wind was a bit too chilly.

April 29, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (1)

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 🙂 🙂

a (2) — There’s already flower buds on the wild gooseberries.

a (5)

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 🙂

a (8)

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 🙂

a (12)

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 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (16)

Have a great day!