Category: Chilly.

· 8 Comments ·

It has been a rather nice day with lots of sunshine and below freezing temperatures until noon, after that it has been grey and dull.. Most of the snow is now gone, instead we have ice 🙂 except for where the sun has reached, the snow is still there but was so hard that even I could walk on it!

     

We walked down to the creek and thankfully, even though I do like having horses working in the forest, the horse guy and his horses were elsewhere today. So much easier to walk with Alma, especially on slippery ice 🙂 🙂 We managed to have our walk despite ice and lots of pulling the leash from them both. It will stay above 0 C (32 F) both night and day for seven days they’re guessing so that ice will probably melt away in the shadowy parts as well.

     

After that I’ve tried to understand the new computer 🙂 I wanted to see something on tv today so I had to do it via the computer. So I installed SVT (Swedish television) play, easy done but since I don’t have any speaker I then logged in to SVT Radio to get some sound via my phone, It was ski Biathlon I wanted to watch and it is a so popular sport here that they have it on both radio and tv at the same time. What I didn’t know was that the tv was around 10 minutes after the radio so when they said what was happening on the radio it still hadn’t happened on tv, very odd 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I had to download SVT play on my phone so that I could get the sound and picture right 🙂 🙂

     

I also downloaded my photos to the new computer, I can see why professional photographer wants that program, the photos are so clear that it is amazing! However the program is anything but user friendly 🙂 🙂 🙂 Downloading the photos was easy but then trying to create an album took around twenty minutes before I figured it out, the problem was that it seemed impossible to get those photos in to the new album 🙂 🙂  Took ten minutes to figure that out as well 🙂 I only down size my photos and that should be easy enough but oh no. I had to check how many MB it was after I tried it because I’m used to PC 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still don’t know if I have saved it because no such question popped up 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’ve stopped trying for the day so now I’ll go downstairs and have one of my newly baked rolls and then I’ll read a book 🙂 No tea now, I drank some too late yesterday and didn’t sleep much last night 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Low flying mist here and there on our walk.

     

I wish You all a Good Yule!

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A Green Finch, haven’t seen many of those so far.

 

We Swedes are sort of obcessed by Disney today and it has been so for generations. Swedish Television (SWT), our Pbs, has since 1960 sent an old Disney program called The Wonderful World of Disney. 2020 it became the most viewed tv program ever in this country when almost half the population looked at it on Christmas eve. Back at the beginning anything coming from west of the Soviet Union was view as imperialistic and should be banned from the world 🙂 🙂 🙂 So this was the only time we ever had the chance to see anything Disney on tv, we only had Swedish Television in those days and no commercials (that I still love 🙂 )

     

Despite what all experts have said it is still just as popular and that’s of course because we brainwash the kids to watch it as well, even though they later refuse to see it they always come back when they have children so they too becomes brainwashed to see it. Disney now has its own streaming service and doesn’t sell their programs to other companies any more, except for this one and the SWT 🙂 but from what I’ve read the negotiations are hard every year. The risk for Disney being punished by the Swedes if they don’t sell this particular program to SWT is very big though, You don’t kill very popular traditions like that unpunished 🙂 

     

The program is almost totally exactly the same, First we see when the elves make the presents up at the north pole, a film from the 1930’s I think and now days they’ve removed almost all racist parts 🙂 After that we see short parts from Cinderella (when the mice and birds sing and make her the dress. Snow white when she and the dwarfs are having a party singing and dancing. Chip and Dale when Mickey Mouse by accident brings them in when he has cut his christmas tree and Pluto fights with them. 

     

Lady and the tramp when they are at the restaurant and Robin Hood stealing money from prince John and my favorite the Jungle Book when Baloo meets Mowgli for the first time plus one or two snippets from the latest films. However the most loved one is about Ferdinand the Bull. I think it was in the 80’s they announced that he would be replaced by the Ugly Duckling and all hell broke lose 🙂 🙂 🙂 It went as far as Swedish Television getting threats and they took is so seriously that the showed that film after the Disney program was over.  We’ve never seen the Ugly Duckling after that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also this program also decides when to eat and give out the present. We had the present before and ate after some could do the opposite but no one ever ate at 3 pm when Donald Duck was shown on tv 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is what christmas is all about for a me 🙂

I wish You all a Good Yule!

   

· 6 Comments ·

We had sunshine most parts of the day yesterday and were supposed to have some today as well so of course we hadn’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead we had my second favorite weather today, fog and at times really thick fog. Tomorrow we’re supposed to have fog all day so perhaps the sun will show itself then instead 🙂

     

But we didn’t just have fog, tiny, tiny snow flakes fell all day as well but since they were so small and few it isn’t noticeable anywhere on the ground, I can accept snowfall like that 🙂 🙂 It was a nice morning walk despite it being below 0C (32 F) because there was no wind what so ever blowing. Also both Malkolm and Alma behaved pretty well after the first couple of hundred meters (much the same in yards) of the walk.

     

I still, to my own surprise, have christmas feeling. I normally have them late October to some time in the middle of November and then they die out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess it can be because I don’t have to go out to scrape the windows of the car, feel well rested and actually just because the snow is falling even though it can’t be seen 🙂 I haven’t felt this well rested in years to be honest but I still can’t promote unemployment unless one is rather wealthy 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not so I better keep on looking for a job or win the lottery 🙂 🙂

They have removed the blockage in the creek so now the water level is much lower again.

 

It is time for a cup of tea but nothing more, the dogs and I have just eaten some pancakes and that’s enough for me but they and the cat will have their dinners just after this, even though they all had pancakes as well 🙂

     

Have a great day!

· 8 Comments ·

It has been a boring day, hunters were out in the forest all day so no walks, I don’t want to walk there with Alma yet since she finally seems to calm down a lot when walking in the forest. I think we’ll walk there when most people have their Christmas vacations, very little that can stress her moving around then.

     

It looks like the cattle has moved to their winter pastures as well so we’ll have walks there too during christmas vacation, almost no cars will drive on the big road besides that area. Most likely lots of wild hogs if we go out just before the sun starts to rise but with that much open space they’ll not care about us at all.

     

The weather has been grey and dark with misty rain all day as well so none of the dogs were especially happy to be in the garden either. So instead we’ve been napping a lot 🙂 I should have done the laundry but never came around to do it. I won’t get a job next week either I’m afraid so I’ll have plenty of time to do it, at least until I’ve run out of clean clothes 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We might get some sunshine both tomorrow and on Tuesday so I hope I’ll catch some of that but it will stay warmer here, especially at nights just because of the clouds so I’m not complaining too much 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll also have an egg sandwich with blue cheese and some normal hard cheese or perhaps cheese and apricot jam 🙂

I only brought in one of the Camellias and the ones outside look really healthy despite -13 C (8,6 F).

   

Have a great day!

Winter wonderland.

· 6 Comments ·

We woke up to a village covered in white, well covered is a bit much but it is at least more snow on the ground than last time. It made my neighbor happy because it’s her birthday today and she wanted snow at least today and around Christmas 🙂

     

Even I must admit that it looks beautiful outside now and if the weather sites are somewhat right it might stay like this for a week or longer. I often hear that the snow at least makes it less dark but that’s only true if there is some light reflecting on it, I learned that when I moved to the countryside, if it is cloudy it’s just as dark as it is without snow 🙂 🙂 A clear sky and full moon is the best but since a clear sky usually also means nasty cold I prefer to have it cloudy at nights 🙂 🙂

     

I went to the super market this morning, Tuesday mornings are perfect to go there because there’s so little customers there that one can take time to just walk around looking for what one wants to buy and still not be in the way for others 🙂 That’s a dangerous strategy though because it is too easy to find other things to buy 🙂 I made it through without buying anything that wasn’t on the list though 🙂

     

I’ve started to put seeds in the feeder that is hanging in the huge lilacs and the birds of course loves it and I hope it will stop them from eating all the window putty from my windows. I have no idea what it is that makes them love eating it and it is so annoying! Anyway the small birds are happy and so is the Sparrowhawk. The first thing that happened was a Sparrowhawk catching a house sparrow in front of me. I really can’t be angry because they need food too but I do think it could have been polite enough to wait until I had walked in again 🙂

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I’ve just made a couple of scones and they are good but I don’t like how they smell for some reason. So the faster I eat these the quicker I can make other ones that doesn’t smell like these 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A bit grumpy after having a nap in my sweater 🙂

So dark outside.

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Time just flew away yesterday and I blame that on the only sport I watch on tv, Biathlon. For those of You who don’t know what that is it is cross country skiing combined with shooting with a rifle on targets. To be honest it is strange that I am so fascinated in this sport because I’m a Conscientious objector and really dislikes cross country skiing 🙂 🙂 🙂 I never sleep as well as I do in front of cross country ski competition 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

They normally have these competitions in the mornings but for some reason they had them in in the afternoon this time, so I forgot to check the clock and when I finally did it was too late to start writing anything. Well nothing much had happened anyway and it was much the same today. The weather isn’t anything but fun. So dark and gloomy today that I had to use ISO 5000 to be able to take any descent photos. If You don’t know what ISO one usually use it’s normally around 200 on a bright day.

   

My hardy Rosemary. So far it has managed to survive down to almost -13 C (8,6 F).

It took some time before we could have our morning walk today, it rained around the time the sun is supposed to show itself and the clouds were so thick that very little light managed to reach us here on the ground. They did thin out some thankfully, otherwise I would have stayed at home 🙂

     

I saw a picture of a Werewolf earlier today and came to think of how our folklore describes them. I can’t find anything that if someone was bitten by a werewolf they too became one. There were some other ways that I’ll describe later on but mostly it was because someone had cursed a person to become one or if one knew ones way with magic one could transform to one by oneself. Usually they did that if they by looking like an animal would kill an enemy but it wasn’t only a wolf they could transform too, a bear was also something they could become. When someone had become a werewolf or (were) bear they usually had a lighter color than normal bears or wolves.

We walked in on one of all the small side roads to the gravel road down to the creek and found this small piece of bog.     

There were a few different ways to get free from this and the easiest one would be if someone saw You and thought they knew this wolf they just screamed out his name three times. One could also be killed by a silver bullet or the worst one they had to kill a pregnant woman and eat the child, must have been a nasty way for someone who had been cursed to become a werewolf. Life wasn’t easier back in the days 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I hope Your First of Advent was a good day and now we’re looking forward to the second 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Much hardier than I thought.

· 6 Comments ·

It’s finally warmer again but not especially close to what they guessed, instead of 10 C (50 F) it reached 4.5 C (40,1 F). They did guess it right when it came to the rain though and it it also quite windy so the photos You see today are from yesterday when it still was cold and sunny, so much nicer to look at 🙂

     

Nothing much has happened here and that’s just how I like it 🙂 I had decided to let one of my seed grown Gardenias stay outdoors because I have very little space indoors now 🙂 So I ignored that the cold period would come and it fell down to -12 C (10.4 F) and I thought that was it, after all it comes from warmer areas. So I brought it in anyway and now it has a slightly too dark place in the cool cellar. So I just checked the hardiness for it and to my very big surprise it is hardy down to -12 C(10.4 F) 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I hope any pests it could have gotten from when living indoors, like whitefly have died 🙂 🙂

     

I have also gone tired of my Camellias since they only flower while down in the cool cellar, I know they can take this cold and some more so I’m not surprised that they still look really healthy out there.  I want around in the garden to see how my small trees had managed this first cold period. The Persimmons has frozen some, the tips of their branches but looks good otherwise. To my very big surprise the Pawpaws looks totally untouched by this first cold and those were the ones I was most worried about 🙂 The English walnut is also untouched by the cold and the Red mulberry, White mulberry and the one called M. accidosa or Mulle as its name is as well 🙂

     

Well this was the first cold weather for most of them and winter is young, Last winter really didn’t start until early February and ended in the middle of March just to come back to easter again for a week, just as I brought home Malkolm 🙂 🙂 We had 40 cm (20 inches) of snow and it took a week for it to melt away 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t mind if this was the last snow for this winter but my neighbor wants snow on her birthday on December 3 and on Christmas, after that she doesn’t care either 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day and Instead I’ll make some rose-hip soup, fits so well on a windy and rainy day like today. I’ll also have a slice or two from the loaf I baked today 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Well our weather service :-)

· 4 Comments ·

So this morning they changed the weather predictions, no snow at all but slightly colder perhaps. The low pressure will continue to the south of us before it turns north so the snow will fall over eastern Sweden. I’m all for that even though I now have bought everything I need for quite some time just because of the snow prediction they showed yesterday  🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Well by now we all know how great they are in predicting the weather over here so I wouldn’t be the least surprised if we get that snowstorm anyway 🙂 🙂 I will at least be prepared for it. The insulation in these old wooden cottages have been made as good as it gets but the windows and doors are usually letting the cold indoors, old cottages tend to live a life of their own and move some with heat and cold. So today I’ve started to hang up draperies or what ever I have that covers the door and of course I’ll have something thicker at the bottom so that any cold coming from the doors stay there. Last year I couldn’t find any thicker draperies that could cover the entrance door so I actually used three thin sheet.

     

I really couldn’t believe how effective this would be since they were so thin. Well turns out that layer on layer works really well so the entire door froze 🙂 🙂 🙂 I couldn’t unlock the door from either side and since the outside of the door was covered in snow/ ice the door had also frozen to the door frame 🙂 🙂 🙂 During warmer days I just pull it all to the side and when needed I’ll just cover the door again. I don’t want it to insulate too good when it comes to the windows since I need it to have potted plants there. It gets a little bit dark indoors to be honest but sunny days I’ll just push all covers to the side to let the light in.

I cleaned some carrots I brought in from the vegetable patch in the water barrel, this is what I found this morning 🙂

   

I cleaned some carrots I dug up yesterday in the water barrel, this is what I found today 🙂

I’m just about to put some bread in the oven, we call them tea cakes but that’s not the name in English, I’ve looked and it’s absolutely something else. One can say that it is sort of flat french rolls 🙂 Even these gluten free ones taste really nice, especially as warm with some butter on and a, in my case, strong cheese 🙂 One can even put some jam on them as well, really yummy 🙂 so I’ll have that last cup of tea for the day together withe one or two of those tea cakes 🙂

    

Have a great day!

A sort of meh fog today.

· 6 Comments ·

Much the same weather today but the fog was sort of meh. It was too thin to really make a big difference and instead just made the world look a bit more sad 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

The hunters were supposed to be in the forest today but I don’t think anyone actually came. Anyway we walked in to the village instead and Alma behaved well enough until we had walked slightly more than half the way. That’s when a car passed around 200 meters (much the same in yards) ahead of us, I guess someone had to go to work. After that she pulled the leash a lot and whined all the way home. I really can’t understand why, she really doesn’t care about cars passing by on the gravel road here at home.

 

This is the tree with the pastel colored leafs and it looks like an old tree with a thick trunk.

But it’s actually several trees, there are some trunks one only can see from a distance.

If it wasn’t puling the leash she has this nasty habit on walking behind me sliding towards my left side (she should walk on the right) and if she see something then she suddenly can start running forward like crazy. That is how she has ripped my right shoulder a couple of times. It hurts a lot and I had to stay at home for quite some time both times but thankfully I never needed surgery.  I have no problems of letting her do that if she walks in front of me because then I see what’s about to happen but she only does that when Malkolm have found something interesting to sniff on 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’ve had rice porridge for dinner today and Malkolm and Alma both had a tiny portion as well. I don’t think it’s especially good for their stomachs since there’s so much milk in it but a tiny portion won’t do much damage to their stomachs. Sara the cat’s stomach is a bit wobbly today so she had to be without.

     

I need to buy a couple of box traps to place in the cool cellar. There’s a mouse/ mice there that tends to bit of thin stalks from the plants I have there during winter and now I’m getting annoyed. it/ they never eat anything just chops them off and leaves!!! I would like to try and find weasel or ferret poop and put some around my cottage and perhaps indoors where they can come in. There’s nothing more frightening for rodents than weasels or ferrets. I have no idea where to find some, I doubt that Ferrets are sold in pet stores even though it isn’t a specially rare pet. I really don’t want a ferret myself though even it it would help keep mice away 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

I’m not a fan of horses to be honest but I really like these two. No matter how much my dogs (Alma that is) would sound they still don’t care 🙂

Then again Sara isn’t a hundred percent  when it comes to the litter box, she does however always pee on paper I have on the floor, I could perhaps use that in the cellar? What do You think? I’ll try it next time I find a wet paper on the floor 🙂 It is time for the last cup of tea for the day but I won’t have anything with it, the rice porridge still make me feel full 🙂

Have a great day!

Been to Falköping today.

· 4 Comments ·

We didn’t have any morning walk today because my car would get the new winter tires, instead we had our first walk just around lunch time. The tires are not studded but still get a really good grip on icy roads. I must admit that I never fully feel safe with unstudded tires so therefor I always drive much more careful when not having that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Plus the car is so much more quiet with the unstudded ones.

     

I brought a camera with me of course so today You’ll see photos from elsewhere than usual. It wouldn’t take long to get those tires changed but I took a little walk anyway and also stopped at a cafe just beside the garage. They did have some things gluten free but not any of my favorites. I still bought a cookie and it actually tasted worse than they usually do 🙂 🙂 🙂 To make it even worse it was nasty expensive but what should one do when one want something to the coffee 🙂

I thought this building was pretty ugly at the backside.

On the other side one can see that it is the City Theater and

Hotel Falköping. Great views when staying in that hotel 🙂

These houses are built at the top of Mösseberg, that’s the other side of the Mountain You can see in my photos. One gets a higher status if one live on that mountain and on the side turned towards the town 🙂 🙂

The sun was shining but it still felt a bit too cold in the morning to make it enjoyable, especially since the wind still was pretty hard and Falköping is built on two mountains and the valley in between, so the wind reach everywhere, even between the houses. After that I went to a place called Forentorp ängar (Forentorp Meadows), I think it is a nature reserve even though cattle roam there most parts of the year. It is a favorite place of mine to stop at even though I really can’t bring the dogs just because of the cattle. One pasture in the middle of all trees has a table where one can sit and eat and drink coffee if one so wish and to be honest I’ve never seen cattle there.

     

The rest of the day has been rather calm and nice. We had our walk in the forest and Alma does behave much better still, the big test will be when we walk in to the village, so much things moving and sounding that she might not be able to stay calm. We will keep on trying though, she will calm down even if it perhaps don’t happen until she’s 13 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’ll show You photos from Forentorp tomorrow if I remember it 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea and most likely a sandwich or two 🙂

Have a great day!

My second favorite weather.

· 2 Comments ·

Well none of us slept especially well last night because a certain kitten decided it was fun to terrorize the dogs 🙂 every now and again she also decided to go close to my head and start to sniff all over my face 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s a little monster that cat 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

So none of us was especially eager to go out for our walk to be honest 🙂 Then I removed the curtains from the window and noticed that we had wonderful fog and I changed my mind, one never knows for how long it lasts. I didn’t have to worry about it going away though, it lasted for very long after we had come back home. Sometimes it was so thick that the camera couldn’t focus on anything 🙂

     

I really like to walk around on the bog when we can but this year it has rained so much that it has been more or less impossible to and when it is this foggy it would be down right stupid to do so because one can easily get lost even on a sunny day. But we did walk to the bog staying on dry land on my favorite peninsula instead. Alma, who behaved really well for being her today, and Malkolm stared out over the bog. They could both hear and smell what was out there but I could only guess and of course my mind went towards beings and folklore 🙂

     

They’ve changed the weather predictions for the rest of this week from grey, dull and rainy to sunny, dry and almost warm, up to almost 15C (59F) on Friday. You all know by now that that can change several times every day and when Friday finally arrives it might snow instead 🙂 🙂 I don’t think the risk of snow is especially big even though it has already snowed way up north and since they up there seems to like winter they’ve saved snow from last year so they have already started to cross country skiing. Not my cup of tea but I’m not judging peoples strange behaviours 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it is time for a pot of tea and perhaps a cookie or two. I might get visitors later this week so I’ve even bought instant coffee so perhaps I’ll have a cup of coffee instead? I’ve only used my coffee maker for tea so if one then suddenly makes coffee in it  it will give a coffee with a side taste of Earl Grey tea 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

Have a great day!

It would have been nicer if it had been spring :-)

· 6 Comments ·

Grey and dull as predicted today and not especially warm, 10C (50F). No wind though so it could have been worse. If this had been in spring time I most likely would have thought this was pretty nice and warm 🙂 🙂

     

We walked down to the creek instead of the village today, no hunters were out and the fun thing is that I saw moose tracks on the gravel road and by the look on them they weren’t more than a couple of hours old 🙂 🙂 🙂 Still I don’t think they are allowed to shoot more than a calf and there were no small tracks that showed that there was any calf around anyway but now they don’t have any new story to tell while sitting by the fire after a day of being out hunting 🙂

     

We did have a nice walk because Alma did finally calm down. She didn’t like all the cows in the pasture just after we had passed the creek though, they were anything but quiet and have been quite loud now for over three days, I wonder if they have removed all the calves because cows do call out for them over a long period of time after they have taken the calves away and I always feel sorry for them.

     

I think I might have seen who I think is Sara’s mother today, the distance was too far and I only saw the cat for a few seconds but it did look like her. She was walking on the road close to the old stable, then Malkolm came a bit too close and she ran away, probably inside the stable. I’ll keep my eyes open every time  we pass the stable because it would be nice if she still is hanging around here and not have been taken by a predator.

The electric wires were hanging across the road so I had to remove them quickly because

the entire gang were on their way towards us 🙂

 

The afternoon has been a rainy one. So I baked some french rolls. I can’t complain about the result 🙂 The odd thing is that one actually can cut them in half without destroying it while it is warm, even normal bread are usually impossible to cut when it still is warm. So the cheese melted nicely when I did that 🙂 It is time for a last cup of tea and perhaps another french roll 🙂

     

Have a great day!