Category: Chilly.

Sixteen years old and still going strong :-)

September 6, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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To be honest,Nova is now 16 years and three days old. I should have posted about her in the last post but I wanted to include a very short video(which I hadn’t filmed) as well and it’s at the bottom of this post. Just click on the bottom post and You should be able to see it even if You don’t have Instagram.

a (1) — Below 0C (32F) this morning. Most mornings lately has been so chilly that we’ve had morning mist and I’ve used my car camera for several days now to capture it.

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She has been through quite a lot in her life. Her first year she and her siblings were locked in a cellar, beaten and starved. After that she was with an elderly couple who spoiled her rotten 🙂 🙂 and she really deserved that. They had her for half a year and then she moved to me. She has some allergies, a tumor 2 inch long tumor between her right eye and ear removed, she has no cruciate ligament in her right knee but a knee brace and duct tape takes care of that and she’s in no pain. Constant ear infections and one of those turned in to flesh eating bacteria attacking her. The anti-biotics she got was so strong that I had to wash my hands every time I had given them to her. The skin is still hanging loose on the place where she had it. She has also had cancer but is still going strong 🙂

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I really didn’t want another dog at that moment, my old Erna had just passed away a month earlier but then the animal rescue organisation who called me and asked if I could take her showed me a photo of her. She looked almost exactly like old Erna but only half the size. Of course I couldn’t say no 🙂 🙂 🙂 In the beginning she had this thing of hating hares and if she was unleashed she would run after it and out of my sight (she never caught any though, the hares were just too smart for her 🙂 🙂 🙂 ). I never had to worry about her running away though, she always ran back to either me or back home 🙂

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One day hares weren’t tyat fun any more and after that She has mostly walked unleashed on our walks. Wild hogs and moose have run close to her several times and she might have looked a bit surprised when it happened but she has never run after them. The only time I demand her to be leashed is when I know there are wolves in the area. She’s friendly to all animals so she would mostly likely go to it and say hi 🙂 🙂 She has always had ear infections and one vet once said that her ear is built to get infections. Now days we’re controlling those infections with steroids and so far it has worked pretty well.

Even though she right now is healthy and strong it doesn’t take much to change that in a dog that is that old, so all I can do is hold my thumbs and cross my fingers and hope it will continue like this for a very long time more 🙂

Have a great day!

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Frost again.

September 2, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

a (1) — The photos are from both today and yesterday but actually covers the walk I had this afternoon.

We had a second morning with frost here today, two in one week is at least one too many and it’s still four more days until it usually arrives. I do hope this isn’t a sign about how winter will be, early and long.

The day has been pretty nice though, lots of clouds but still lots of sunshine. It never reached 20C (68F) but still felt pretty warm when the sun shone. It is a bit chilly now in the evening though so I have turned on one radiator, the one in the living room. The little heat it gives will dry up the chilly air and then travel up to my bedroom and make it just enough warm there for it to be comfortable.

Alma has behaved as good as she can the two latest walks, not shouting too much when we’re walking towards the forest and only pulled the leash in one direction. For being Alma that is more or less amazing 🙂 🙂 🙂 We were just about to pass the beekeepers when Salmiak the cat suddenly ran out in front of us and down towards my cottage (I’m starting to believe he does like that on purpose, he might get a kick out of being close to death 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and that was just too much for both Albin and Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 We did manage to come back home without me having a stroke because those two are just too much sometimes 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I was supposed to leave work a couple of hours early today because I wanted to finally buy that document shredder I’ve been thinking of buying for a couple of years now and I wanted to go when there was as few other costumers as possible. I really didn’t want to wait just because people buying new phones never can decide on what model they want to have 🙂 🙂 🙂 Everything was ok but then they suddenly gave my work friend the day off (without actually telling me, I got to know about it by accident since I heard other people talk about it), the one that is, together with me, responsible for the big washing machine. Fridays are now the day we go through it properly after they’ve finished to wash for the day.

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So I had to stay and had a long chat with the one responsible about it. I had said that me going a couple of hours early wasn’t that important but I really wanted to buy that thing now. I said I will stop working with the washing machine if I can’t know if I actually can leave early or take the day off if it all depends on him taking the day off even if he does so after I got the ok for taking time off. For reasons I’m not writing here he has to take days off with short notice now and then. I’m not annoyed about that but I really need to know that this doesn’t happen again. So I’m not really angry about it but I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again, one day it might be something important I have to do.

It’s Friday and it is a bit chilly outside so I’ll make either hot chocolate and have some digestives with brie on or some rose-hip soup. Autumn is here and both a really great choices when the days get shorter and cooler.

Have a great day!

The first harvest :-)

August 7, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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I noticed that in one of the plastic buckets where I put the spruts that fell off from the potatoes I was planting the leafs suddenly had gotten small black spots and that’s a sign that they are infected with potato blight. No bigger problem as long as one remove all green above surface before it spreads down to the potatoes. The problem was that these plants hadn’t flowered yet so the potatoes were going to be pretty small.

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So I went over to my neighbors so we could harvest them. There were potatoes and most were tiny 🙂 They had put some potatoes in the ground as well so they dug up some of those as well, they were almost as tiny as mine were 🙂 🙂 🙂 They do taste delicious though, I tried two of each today, so I’ll have them with my dinner at work tomorrow. I also got some onions, so I braided them together and now they hang to dry in my cool cellar. They won’t dry for long because I will continue to make my dinners for work. The food from the new restaurant is delicious but the price is way too high since we all know that the electricity will be nasty high this comming winter.

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It stayed on the chilly side today, it barely reached 16C (60,8F). I tried to stay outdoors but the flies were nasty. I know we’ll get rain later and that it will be the start of warmer weather arriving so perhaps we’ll have some thunder as well, it would explain why the flies were so nasty. People are saying that there are very few insects flying around where they live, it’s the contrary here. I guess that means nature still works pretty well here and I should of course be happy about that and I most likely would have been if it wasn’t for all those nasty flies that always wants to get in to my bears and nostrils 🙂 🙂 🙂

b (1) — Mostly male flowers on the squash plants.

b (2) — But suddenly I noticed the first squash 🙂

b (3) — The beans are in bloom and the first bean pods are growing as well 🙂

b (4) — The walnut tree I got hasn’t grown especially much but I hope that it instead had concentrated its energy to grow roots.

I really need to buy new sofas or a sofa and perhaps an armchair. The dogs have gotten the old sofa and I really doesn’t like to sit in it any more 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really like rattan furniture and have seen some ads. The one I liked the most didn’t have pillows and I really wonder why, of course it should be sold with pillows. One I liked had a more Indian style to it and it had pillows 🙂 Even if I really don’t have any special kind of style in my home an Indian style still would look rather odd in my home 🙂 There was also rattan recliners and i do like them a lot but they were also a bit pricy. The delivery home was free though. I’ll continue to see what I can find. The good thing with rattan furniture is that it is easy to vacuum and scrub the floor beneath them, that’s impossible with the furniture I have now.

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It is time for something to eat and later on watch the British Antique Road Show.

Have a great day!

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Sometimes I do wonder about our postal service!

July 28, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

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So I woke up to e clear sky just before the sun started to rise and we went out for our morning walk as soon as I had put on my clothes and the dogs their harnesses. I did take a look at the thermometer before we went out and it showed 4C (39,2F). It was wonderful to take a slightly longer walk in that temperature because not a fly or mosquito were around to bite and annoy us 🙂

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Alma had once again decided that she would be impossible but she did at least not scream loudly when we passed our neighbors and Albin didn’t even look for Salmiak. Salmiak however is totally ok and it might actually be that Albin never tried to bite him but just push him down with his nose but as I said to the beekeepers I’m not willing to try it again just to see if that’s the case 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway we walked down to the creek and followed it down-streams. Alma was everywhere as usual and when Albin wanted to walk out on one of those small bridges that cross the creek she naturally had to follow and since Alma is like she is she then fell down and in to the rather muddy water 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0036 (7) — Those three trees are the last ones in the WOW trees 🙂

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That didn’t calm her down especially much and we had a full blown war between us all the way home. It’s fun but as soon as we pass the gate she calmes down and becomes that wonderful dog she is here at home. She smelled of mud and rust, lots of rust in the waters here so I had to shower her. I could have and should have done it outside with the garden hose but instead decided I should do it in my tiny bathroom. I decided that she would follow in her own pace and everything was going fine until both Nova and Albin decided they too had to go in to the shower. Well I did manage to get in there but she wasn’t happy. At least until she realized it wasn’t that bad, perhaps even rather nice 🙂

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After that I had to go to the store. I decided I should go to the one in the village where I work, mostly because I needed duct tape. They are the only ones I know that sell a kind where one can split it in half and get two thinner strips. All other ones are difficult to do that with. So off I went. At the same time I got two text messages that told me I was going to have two packages delivered to my home but I didn’t need to be at home at the delivery. Just before I left the store I also got a text message that Almas new harness had arrived and that I could pick it up in Gudhem. I could have waited but thought I really want to try it as soon as possible.

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When I came home again my neighbor told me that a guy had been here to deliver my packages but went to them instead. My neighbor told him to leave the packages with him or just put them in my garden around 20 meters beside. No problem the delivery guy said, tossed the packages in the car again and drove off??!! I then got a message that the packages had been delivered but I didn’t have them and my neighbor hadn’t either. So I called our postal service and was pretty angry, asked something about if the driver possible had some mental challenges or other problems (I’m not proud of that) (I did say to the girl in the phone that I wasn’t mad at her but she was the one who unfortunately had to take my anger). She fully understood and after perhaps ten minutes waiting she then asked how my neighbors house looked like. The delivery guy had told her he had placed the packages close to the post boxes (around a 100 meters, much the same in yards)Turns out that he had placed my packages at the farm up the slope!

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I know I have a high hedge but my cottage is very visible when driving down the slope so I have no idea why he though my neighbor next door meant the farm up the hill??One package weighs 20Kg (44,1 pound) and the other package was very big but not heavy at all, so I had to go back home and take my car to get it back home 🙂 🙂 🙂 On the other side, I did get my neighbors mail in my mailbox instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well everything was solved and now I don’t have any more packages so everything is as it should but if I can chose who will deliver my packages in the future it will never be our postal service again!

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Have a great day!

e (5) — If Albin doesn’t want to play Alma is fully capable to entertain herself with an apple 🙂 🙂

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There’s a heat wave on the continent, some places here had 8C (46,4F) as warmest today :-) :-)

July 15, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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So I wrote a post here early this morning when suddenly the web site froze and refused to save any drafts. The odd thing was that I could continue to write without any problems. I also couldn’t post what I had written but clicked to save it so I just could update the site and then just paste it here again. For a reason I can’t understand I then couldn’t find the saved post again even though I did look at the right place. So I gave up and now I’m writing it all down again 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Sort of annoying but at the same time perhaps a good thing nothing worked as it should. Nova has been under the weather all day with a slight fever and an infection in her ear, again. SI’m pretty sure the infection make it hurt when she eats because she refused to eat in the morning. Still she would take some blue cheese, no need to chew a well ripe mold cheese 🙂 🙂 🙂 She also followed us on our morning walk so I wasn’t too worried. I started with her ear drops and already in the afternoon she ate a pancake 🙂 Ok she tried to lick it up while lying down 🙂 🙂 🙂 which really didn’t work but if I picked the pancake pieces up and gave them to her she happily gulped them down 🙂

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When she got her afternoon food she still was pretty picky and still tried to lick up the pieces, it sort of worked but I decided that I would pick the pieces up and give them to her. Turns out that she only wanted the orange colored pieces 🙂 🙂 🙂 She just looked at me with disgust when I tried to give her any other color pieces 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do hope she will be much better by tomorrow morning because she is a bit of a drama queen to be honest. Then again at the age of sixteen she’s allowed to be 🙂

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Besides that nothing much has happened today. I bought several different houseleeks this week because I have a rather big pot, low and wide, that needed something in it. Houseleeks are succulents so they don’t need much soil, to be honest wet soil during winter can make them rot, so I used the sand I have beneath the grass in my garden (I still have a lot around after digging my grey water root zone). I had bought eight and they just barely fit in the pot. I’ve watered a lot just so that all the sand will fill up the empty spaces between them because it’s almost impossible to do that while planting and having very dry sand 🙂

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The pot will stay outdoors all winter but I’ll make sure to place it so that no rain or snow will make it too wet for them. I used to have hardy cacti in my garden years ago but too many problems with thorns and dogs to make it worth while 🙂 🙂 🙂 Houseleeks also get pretty flowers but I doubt that I’ll see any this year. It is time for another cup of tea, some bon bons and to watch the athletic world championships. We’ve had a rather chilly day here today, it didn’t even reach 20C (68F). There’s a horrible heat wave down in Europe (even Britain is hit by it) but it doesn’t reach us, at least not yet. Some placed here in the middle of Sweden didn’t even get more than 8C (46,4F) and that is really unusual even up here in the north.

DSC_0046 (2) — Some sprouts fell off when I was putting down the potatoes in the ground so I planted them in two buckets. I wonder how many potatoes I’ll get from them 🙂

DSC_0052 (2) — I planted several different Houseleeks in a big clay pot this morning. Only sand and stone in the pot and I do hope they’ll thrive 🙂

Have a great day!

Lots of napping today :-)

July 9, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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I really haven’t done much today besides napping for a couple of hours and going through the dogs checking for ticks. The rainy weather really brought out those nasty critters again. We have very few slugs and snails though so that’s at least something.

a (4) — I’m not sure if it is wheat, rye or wheat-rye they are growing in this field. Back in the days it was easy to see the difference between the different kinds but now days they’re so mixed up with each other that one really need to know what it is to be able to see it 🙂 🙂

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It stayed towards the chilly side until noon today. It was mostly cloudy but as soon as the sun showed between the clouds it warmed up pretty quickly. We went out on our morning walk just after five am and unfortunately that was enough warm for the forest flies to start annoying us all. There were even some horse flies and I can now tell You that we’ll have a few less next years since I killed any of them that landed on me 🙂 Still they managed to give me a couple now quite itching bites.

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Yesterday I ordered a few rolls of films to my bigger cameras, it’s hard to get any now days and I’m not sure if it is because of the war in Ukraine or if it was during the virus they stopped producing those films. Today however I ordered a tin box with bon bons from Quality Street. I don’t have many memories of my father but I do remember that every time he came home (he was a sailor) he always brought a box with Quality Street bon bons. They are really hard to get around here so this box actually comes from Denmark. Hopefully it’ll arrive in the middle of next week 🙂

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We’ll have much the same weather tomorrow they say, a bit on the chilly side in the morning but it will never really be warm at all, it won’t reach 20C (68F). I’m ok with that since they’re guessing it will be slightly warmer the coming week, no rain though and we really would need some more to be honest. Then again with no rain I’ll be able to finally mow the lawn and with no rain the grass will grow much slower as well 🙂 🙂

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It is time to get something to eat and then doze off in front of the tv, like always 🙂 🙂 The swedish ladies will play against the ladies from the Netherlands later tonight in the European football (soccer) Championship. I might watch that, otherwise I’ll just check videos on Youtube or Facebook all evening 🙂

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Have a great day!

DSC_0011 (5) — I bought two of the rose that would be planted where Teodor is buried. This is the one still standing in a pot (the one on Teodors grave is a bit behind still). If I learned right this orange flower will now slowly fade to almost white. So it’ll have both of his colors.

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Almost cold in the morning :-)

July 2, 2022July 2, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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it was hotter than in hell here in the cottage yesterday evening, well outside as well to be honest. The fan was working hard to help us make slightly less cooler than melting 🙂 I did manage to fall asleep and wasn’t the least annoyed when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of heavy raining.

a (3) — I saw something moving towards us on the road I wanted to take but it did look a bit hefty to be a deer of any kind.

a (4) — Turns out that a semi big calf had jumped out of the pasture.

a (5) — It wasn’t happy to see us so it walked back down the road again 🙂

Just hearing the rain made it feel cooler. Apparently we also had thunder passing by but I didn’t hear anything of that though. I wouldn’t hear if the world exploded when I’m sleeping 🙂 🙂 It continued to rain well in to the morning. I must admit that it did feel a bit chilly when the dogs and I went out for our walk but I enjoyed every second of it. It was unfortunately warm enough for the flies to fly around but it was almost only the annoying forest flies and very few if any horse flies.

They’re guessing that we’ll get lots of rain and thunder on Monday and the temperature will stay around 20C (68F) for the rest of the week and after this heat wave I’m really looking forward to that 🙂 My neighbor mowed the lawn outside our gardens today, I napped 🙂 🙂 I have been rather active today though. I’ve done most of the laundry and I’ve finally planted all the carnivorous plants in the big pot I bought.

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I took a look through Instagram and I do like the few commercial adds I find there. I don’t know why but some of the adds show things only a big time farmer would by 🙂 🙂 I did however see one add from a business that seems to sell anything and today they sold a baking machine. I sort of would like to have that one. It wasn’t that expensive and had good reviews but do I really need a baking machine? Well perhaps maybe 🙂 🙂 I do bake a lot of bread in periods and this one had a timer so that I would wake up to freshly baked bread in the morning. To be honest I thought all those baking machines had such a timer. So I might buy it if that add shows up again.

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I’ve also shaved off all hair on my head and it feels so nice 🙂 I did look fro my mosquito hat before I started because I would hate to feel tiny flies walking all over my head while walking in the forest, not to forget that horse fly bites must be nasty if they bite on the skull 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wonder if horseflies would be interested in visiting carnivorous plants? 🙂 🙂 🙂

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It is time for something to eat and after that fall asleep in front of the tv. I have the window beside me open and I can hear that it is drizzling outside. I can also hear the rather annoying magpies in my garden. I wonder if they would react if I hung up a stuffed magpie toy upside-down in my garden? I know that if someone kill a magpie and then hang it in the garden the magpies will stay away. I like them too much to have any killed though so perhaps a stuffed one would work 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0017 (1) — Grapevines really grow like weeds 🙂

a (27) — I hope lots of flies visit these plants 🙂

Have a great day!

I think it hoped we wouldn’t see it :-)

June 19, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

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It hasn’t been as nice as they said it would be today but it has still been pretty nice weather anyway. A bit on the chilly side as soon as the clouds covered the sky. Those times were perfect to take naps on 🙂

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It is always interesting to watch how they change the weather predictions every day. Yesterday for instance they showed that we were going to get pretty unstable weather, lower temperatures and anything from a bit of rain to loads of it. Today they show that we’ll have pretty nice weather, just above 20C (68F) but no rain what so ever. It still looks though as the heat they have down in Europe won’t reach us but that can change any minute since it as usual doesn’t look as if they know what they’re doing 🙂 🙂 🙂

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As You all know I get my water from a neighbor around 100 meters (much the same in yards) away, if You draw a straight line between us. However the owner of the land between us back when they put down that pipe refuse to let them put it down the straight way, instead it takes a long detour so it is perhaps three times as long 🙂 🙂 🙂 No problem really to be honest and to be even more honest I doubt that anyone now days actually know where that pipe is placed 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway, I’m the only one using that water now days but the one having the pump on his property is kind enough to still care for the filter so I didn’t have to buy a new one and install it here.

DSC_0019 (11) — The path down to the island in the bog where we always walk. If the dogs and I don’t walk there the grass grows high, we are the only ones ever walking there except during hunting season.

DSC_0020 (8) — The same on the path to the peninsula. The cranes are nesting there now so we don’t walk down there until the younglings can fly away.

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Every time he fixes anything with that filter though some of what has been caught in that filter ends up in the pipe, can’t be helped and back in the days when we both used that water I never noticed anything because he then pour out that water into his garden through his garden hose. He can’t do that any more since he now have communal water and those water taps were closed. Now days it all comes to me 🙂 🙂 🙂 He always tells me when this is about to happen but I don’t use that much water and the pipes are soo long so I actually never can guess when it will arrive over here 🙂 🙂 🙂 It did that last Monday and as worst it looked like I was pouring out very strong tea from my taps 🙂 🙂 🙂

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There’s nothing wrong with the water, it is mostly rust and some silt but it really looks bad 🙂 So it has been a good thing that I’ve sowed a lot of seeds and that we didn’t get that much rain because to get rid of it and to get back my clean water I’ve watered a lot 🙂 In between when I have needed water I’ve just filtered it through thick paper but it is really nice to just be able to use the water out from the tap again 🙂 The seeds I’ve sown are finally showing up in my vegetable patch. I had to wait for them to so I then knew exactly where those plants were and how many that showed up in case I needed to sow again. As soon as the seeds I sowed today shows up I’ll be able to cover the soil with grass from the lawn mower.

DSC_0033 (6) - 2 — I think it hoped that we wouldn’t see it 🙂 Well the dogs didn’t but I did. It has a tiny pine cone in its mouth 🙂

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I’ll go back to work tomorrow. I can’t say I feel back to normal but I don’t have any fewer now. It’ll be a short week anyway. Friday’s off since we’ll celebrate midsummer and I’ll be at the hospital for my twenty years inspection of my right hip on Tuesday. I guess I’ll go back next year for the tenth (really eleventh) year inspection of my left hip. I wonder why they couldn’t do both at the same time, it would just take five more minutes to be honest. It really doesn’t matter, I’ll always enjoy a day off from work 🙂

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Have a great day!

The first potatoes are in the ground now.

May 29, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0002 (12) — I can barely see my gate during summer 🙂 I like it any day as long as it hasn’t rained. The slightest touch and all rainwater on those leafs will fall down on me 🙂 :-)

We’ve had such a nice day here, sunshine for half the day and it reached almost 18C (64,4F). Very little wind and the wind we had was lukewarm 🙂 Quite chilly in the morning (almost frost) though but with the sun shining it didn’t feel that bad anyway.

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I have continued to remove the lawn in my new potato patch and it does take much more time than one might think, especially since I want to remove as much soil from it as possible. I now have removed half the surface from grass and I’ve also put down the first potatoes. I know it’s good for my body to do things like this because moving my body is the only thing that actually keeps my rheumatism in place but I can tell You that it won’t feel that way for a couple of days from now 🙂 🙂 🙂 If the weather permits I will continue to remove the rest of the surface the coming days. After that I’ll have to do the same with the vegetable patch I’m planning 🙂

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Clouds are now covering the sky and every now and again I can hear some drizzle fall from the sky, not enough to actually call it a rain fall but I do like the sound it makes when hitting the leafs in the lilac hedge. Also so little that having an open window doesn’t even making it wet 🙂

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I’ve picked up the last plants from my cool cellar and turned off the lights until next autumn when I’ll move those plants back again. I’ve realized that I’ve sown loads of clementine kernels last autumn and most of those tiny plants have survived, both those who stayed in the kitchen during winter and those living in the cellar. Can’t say I can see any bigger difference in size between them but I guess that if it matters how they stay over winter I’ll most likely see the difference after this summer.

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It is time for a last cup of tea for the day. I’ve tried not tro fall asleep in front of the tv all day so I’m so tired now that I doubt that any ammount of tea or coffee would be able to keep me awake during the night 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!

Lots of tea :-)

May 28, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0001 (9) — The leafs are finally growing on the Ash trees. They are the last to get them but the first to drop them. My black walnut are just slightly behind them though 🙂

Now I know that it wasn’t my next door neighbors who was visited by Alma, so my guess is that she went up to the farmer next door instead. Well one can always hope they believe it is either a fox or perhaps wild cats that has gone through their trash 🙂 🙂 🙂

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The weather has been a bit mixed today. Cloudy all the time but sometimes it’s just been raining, some times the sky has opened up totally and sometimes actually not raining at all. We’ve even have had some occasional drizzle. It was mostly just raining or drizzling when we went out on our morning walk and since the forest kept most of the wind away from us it actually wasn’t that bad. We followed the creek up-streams and Nova sensed something that she didn’t want to meet. The other two sensed it also but they sure didn’t hesitate to meet what ever it was 🙂 🙂

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My guess is that they could smell wild hogs because they tend to be around the creek a a lot and that’s where we’ve seen them most times but it could have been moose or red deer too. It could also have been a wolf, lots of sightings of wolves in this and neighboring counties lately. I think it is a lone wold that walks around and as long as I have the dogs leashed I don’t worry about them. Besides how would a wolf react to two screaming dogs where one sounds as if he would like to tear what ever we meet apart and the other one as if something actually is tearing her apart 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think the wolf just would feel very sorry for me and walk the other way 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Alma did behave pretty well for being her on the other half of our walk. The first half not so much though. She does however listen very well to me when we’re in the garden now. She stops and turns back every time I tell her to just before she will jump over the fence. The last times I’ve opened the kitchen door today, when it just drizzled, she didn’t walk or run that way at all. Instead she stayed on the other side of the garden. Perhaps there actually is some hope that she one day before she dies actually will behave really well 🙂 🙂 🙂

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The weather hasn’t allowed us to do much else today. I’ve tried to nap but every time I do one of the dogs has come and wanted some belly scratching or to be just a bit annoying 🙂 🙂 🙂 We’ve had pancakes for dinner and I’ve had lots of tea. Right now the sun does its best to shine through the clouds and even though it actually isn’t especially successful it does get a bit brighter outside. they’re guessing that from tomorrow we’ll get no more rain and that temperatures actually will rise to just below 20C (68F). Tomorrow will be sunny and the rest of the week a sky full with clouds but actually some sunshine as well.

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Well I’ll believe it if it happens. Time for more tea and to give the dogs their food.

Have a great day!

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It is hard to shout quietly :-)

May 27, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0003 (7) — The tree stump from the old crabapple tree. I would like to cover 99% of that big hole so that wild bees could move in. I’m pretty sure it is thick enough so bees would survive there during winter.

It has rained off and on all day but I didn’t care that much. I’ve been busy napping since I came home early after work. I woke up at 2:20 am to the sound of a dog vomiting. It wasn’t anything more than a ball of grass though so easy to clean up.

DSC_0007 (10) — We were walking down to the creek when I noticed that they’ve closed the road so that the cattle could walk over to another pasture. I really didn’t want to try and pass there with my dogs who are terrified of those electric cables, so we had to turn back again.

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I decided to let them outside before going back to bed again. So naturally Alma decided to jump over the fence and go god knows where. It’s so fun to have to shout as quietly as possible in the middle of the night to get that dog back home. Well someone had left a trash bag outside their door and Alma had gone though it. She smelled so wonderful and I was so upset about her that I couldn’t go back to sleep 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is never a good idea to put out a trash bag here, even if one perhaps doesn’t expect a dog to go through it at night, because magpies will tear it open as fast as they can and then spread the contents all over the area. I’ve done it once and I’ll never do it again 🙂

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She was also impossible on our walk so she is not on the top ten list of things I like at the moment, not even on the top thousand to be honest. So now she’s not allowed to be outside without me being there too and she really doesn’t like that 🙂 🙂 🙂 She knows that she isn’t allowed to do most things she does and doesn’t even have the decentness to look guilty when being discovered 🙂 🙂 🙂 I looked at a tv program with a dog expert who dealt with dog behaving like Alma and turns out they actually do the same things I’ve tried with Alma and sometimes without any good result either. So I guess I’ll just have to keep on trying until we either get it right or we both die trying 🙂 🙂 🙂

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They are now guessing that we’ll get rain tomorrow but actually sunshine all Sunday. It would be nice if they get the temperature right so that I finally can turn off the radiators. They work all night here and even if I don’t have them on high temperature they will at least keep the humidity outside, we’ve mostly had a humidity around 90% to 100% lately and it does it its way through the walls. The vegetation outside loves it though so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Have a great day!

Lots of rain and looong naps :-)

May 26, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0002 (10) — Through my kitchen window early in the morning.

It rained half the day and now we have sunshine but also a really strong wind blowing. I must say I do prefer the sunshine and wind because it’ll dry up lots of the water that fell from the sky the last day. Also the humidity is finally going down again. We’ll get plenty of more rain the coming days if they’re guessing the weather right.

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The Cuckoo bird is rather shy and hard to see but I just had one siting in my lilac hedge so I guess now some of the smaller birds nesting in my garden will have an egg added to the ones they already have and that one will hatch much earlier and then toss out the other eggs so that it will get all the attention and food. Nature is really only nice and relaxing for us humans since we are top predators, for the rest of the animals and plants it’s really a battle ground.

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We managed to take a walk in between showers today. It stopped just before we went out and we even got some sunshine. It started again as soon as we had come home 🙂 I really didn’t want to do anything today so except for walking the dogs I’ve napped and napped for hours 🙂 🙂 I do hope I can fall asleep tonight because I’ll get up at 3:30 tomorrow morning 🙂 🙂 Not a lot of people will work tomorrow since today is a holiday and who wants to work on a Friday? So I’ll stay for a couple of hours just to check te huge washing machine after they’ve poured in new water and chemicals. I’ll do some testings to see that it doesn’t change too much before I go back home.

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I’ll do some more sowing of flower seeds later today. I’ll sow the seeds where I’ve put all the lawn I removed. I hope that when these seeds germinate and grow they’ll make it much harder for any of the stinging nettles to grow back up. Futile I know but one can still hope. Perhaps I at least will get lots of flowers in between the nettles 🙂 🙂 I found to my big surprise that my honey suckle had died, I didn’t know they could 🙂 🙂 🙂 Quite often when someone wants to get rid of honeysuckles they still grow back every year, so it was quite surprising to see that mine was totally gone!

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Tomorrow after work I’m planning on going to the pet store to buy some fish to have in my water barrels. I don’t think I’ll have goldfish this time because they grow so big but there are alternatives. Water barrels without fish in them are mosquito paradise and even though I don’t mind mosquitoes that much I still don’t want them to have that while they still are alive 🙂 🙂 🙂

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It is time to go out and sow those seeds and after that I think I’ll check for other seeds from flowers who like dry conditions, I only have sand beneath my lawn and that dries up quickly no matter how much it rains here.

DSC_0038 (3) — In my garden right now. Lilacs and lots of them unfortunately.

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Have a great day!