Category: Cloudy.

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The morning weather was a bit dull and grey so I went to the grocery store before we had our walk, no wind to speak of but it felt like the weather was a bit depressed, out of energy. Could be because the hard winds that passed during the night 🙂 I had just driven out from the parking lot when I for some reason remembered that I hadn’t bought any milk or cheese, I can’t live without either so back to the store I went.

     

It was quite nice when I came back home again, a little bit more wind and sunshine every now and again. We only had a short walk in the forest because Nova had rather stayed at home continuing to sleep in the sofa 🙂 She didn’t look too happy when I showed her the harness 🙂 Alma is getting better when walking leashed but so far we’ve only tried this when walking in the forest where it mostly is quiet. Today not so quiet though because some trees had fallen during the windy night and every time there came a gust they squeezed towards other trees and then making a noise that sounded like something was screaming very loud 🙂 🙂

     

Only one walnut had fallen down during the night so there’s still four or five up there on the branches. It’ll take some time before they turn from green to black and I can pick out the nuts. I really don’t need more walnut trees but perhaps I should poke down some nuts here and there when we’re out walking in the forest and by the bog 🙂

     

I think it is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps a slice or two from my new baked breads 🙂 I’m not that hungry to be honest but the first ones tasted pretty good 🙂

The last Wildapple apple.
My two Pawpaws still have green leafs and I don’t like that. It would have been better if they’d dropped them and prepared for winter. My seed sown ones are finally in tune with nature and are now spending winter in the cool cellar.
But they aren’t the only ones. The sand cherries have just started to get colors and the peach tree is also still totally green.

Have a great day!

A belated birthday present :-)

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I wouldn’t say that a storm passed by today but the wind was hard and it roared when it blew through the forest. My garden was totally wind free because my neighbors cottage took it all and it was surprisingly calm in the forest where we walked, the tree tops swayed but very little reached us on the ground. Warm winds though so it has been rather nice to be outdoors and now there’s only a few walnuts left hanging in the walnut tree.

The last of the bright colors are blowing away, I wonder how much that will be left tomorrow.

   

Even though it is much warmer than usual this month winter is still closing in on us unless we get really lucky and it stays autumn until spring. I know it isn’t a good thing but I admit that I won’t feel sorry if that happens 🙂 Anyway, here in Sweden we have a law that says we must have winter tires if it becomes winter. My cars tires weren’t good so on Wednesday I’ll get new ones and even though I like that we have that law I still don’t want to pay for it, it will cost something around $ 700 US. Ok I drive gentle so the tires will last for long but it still hurts 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Yesterday friends I haven’t seen in well over 24 years came for a visit 🙂 It was so fun to meet them again 🙂 We do keep an eye on us via Facebook but it isn’t the same to be honest. They gave me a present since I now am 60 years old and it was one in a series of  children’s book 🙂 🙂 I love that series of books! It’s  about these characters called Pettson and Findus (another English name for them is Festus and Mercury), an old farmer and his cat Findus. I’ll give You a link to the Wikipedia site: Pettson and Findus . They think that I reminded so much of Pettson 🙂 🙂 and I really wish I was as handy as he is 🙂 I think this might have been the best birthday present ever 🙂

   

The weather will calm down during the day tomorrow but get worse again later in the evening and night so I think I better go to the store tomorrow since I’ll get the new tires on Wednesday. It sounds as if I’m stressed and can’t find the time but that’s far from the truth 🙂 🙂 It’s good to have something to do each day. It is at least easier to remember what day it is 🙂 🙂

     

The dogs are sleeping here on the upper floor and I think the cat sleep in my recliner downstairs. She might be up here as well but she moves so quiet so I never really knows where she is 🙂 The only time I know where she is is when I bring out food, it is amazing what that cat likes to eat, like pickled cucumbers 🙂 not even the dogs like that and if she gets a tiny piece of cheese she bites me till she gets it 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Misty rain.

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Frostbitten tomatoes and I can see the birds have pooped on two as well 🙂

It’s actually a bit difficult to keep track on what week day it is now day 🙂 I had to check my mobile phone because I wasn’t sure of what day it was today 🙂 In a way that gives a nice feeling 🙂 🙂

     

We went down to the creek this morning and it rained, a misty rain. The dogs doesn’t seem to see misty rain as real rain even though I feel it is the worst kind of rain there is, at least on windy days. It eats its way through the clothes in no time at all plus that insects, that we seem to have plenty of now, mostly non biting mosquitoes and small relatives to dragon flies and mayflies, don’t seem to care about it either. I did see a few moose flies but they are actually quite easy to avoid if one see them coming because they are lousy flyers and easy to hit in the air 🙂

   

Looks like it’s a bit hazy but it’s actually misty rain.

I went to the supermarket after that. I needed to buy cat food so I did of course come back home without it 🙂 🙂 It isn’t a big problem right now since Nova refuses to eat anything other than boiled chicken (with rice and some of the other dogs food) so I’ll just give Sara the cat some of that chicken until I go to a store next time. I also went to a store called Jysk, they sell cheap furniture and anything belonging to beds and towels and those sort of things. I wouldn’t call it a furniture store to be honest since they don’t have much and have all those other things as well. I need something to cover my big sofa cushions because the dogs really make them dirty.

   

Can You see the opening in to the forest? It is actually almost impossible to see it in the real as well.

So I bought four fleece bed spreads, two grey and two blue. A bit more expensive than I like but they are needed. I did buy a carpet cleaner this summer, You know the kind one can use in the car as well and looks like a chubby little vacuum cleaner. I started with one of the cushions today. I now know that it isn’t a good idea to have it on the kitchen floor if it isn’t possible to spread it out totally. They are truly heavy and when slightly wet almost impossible to move 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll try the next one while it still is on the sofa. The only thing I really miss from when I lived in an apartment is the laundry rooms, all of them were equipped with carpet washing machines and they were amazing! I wouldn’t even be able to get one of those in to my cottage 🙂 🙂 Back in the apartment I could have carpets even if I had dogs, I gave up that almost as soon as I moved to the countryside 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it is time for a last cup of tea for the day and today I have gluten free Digestives. They doesn’t taste like the real ones at all but still are so tasty that I buy them, it’s a new brand I found and as a sweet cookie they are perfect and they also work really well with a nice Blue cheese, well any cheese I guess but I’ve only tried them with a Blue cheese so far 🙂

 

As You can see the cushion is quite dirty, full of sand and hair 🙂

Have a great day!

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

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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!

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The rain has been pouring down all day and the dogs have refused to go outside unless they really needed to 🙂 It will stop raining some time tomorrow morning and after that we’l at least get one day with sunshine, that’s what they’re guessing anyway 🙂

I’ve now planted all but one Camellia in the garden. This one just beside the cottage on the east side and
this one beside the Pawpaws, I think that place has the best micro climate since nothing in there has been touched by frost. One was already dug down on the south side of the cottage.

So it has been very little activity here today, at least from me, the dogs have been chasing each other all over my little cottage and when Alma was bored by that Sara took over. She and Malkolm works really well together.

 

I have however make meat sauce today, unfortunately I had only bought big pack so I had to do more than I really needed to, around a gallon 🙂 🙂 Well I will at least have dinner for quite some time ahead 🙂 🙂 It did taste good though but I’ll need to put quite a lot of it in the freezer 🙂

 

That was about it today, tomorrow I’ll go to the super market so that I at least gets out from the cottage 🙂

 

Have a great day!

Going through the garden.

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I think the birds want me to make sure the feeder is full of peanuts 🙂

I just realized that there are no hunters in the forest yet and it’s lunch time now. The sign they always put up is turned to show the back side and if it is no hunting is going on. My guess is that if they come they’ll come around 1pm-2pm. It could also be that they’ve given up for now and they all will be here during the weekend. The weather predictions have changed again, we’ll get rain from now on and all day tomorrow, lots of it as well but the storm will still miss us.

The seed sown Pawpaws are finally dropping their leafs so I can bring them down to the cool cellar.
The peach tree however looks like it still is summer.
I have a potted Ginkgo that I think needs to stay in the cellar as well this winter. Its leafs/ needles look a bit different from the one already growing in the garden.
The fun thing with sowing ones own trees is that one never know how they will look like. Now when they’ll drop their leafs some have quite red leafs while some turns to yellow.

The dogs and I have been outside in the garden for quite some time today though, Nova stayed indoors because she usually only go out when she needs to, she’s so old that playing isn’t that fun but sleeping is 🙂 Alma and Malkolm however got rid of lots of energy 🙂 Malkolm is so big now that even though Alma is still much faster she does have problems catching him while they’re playing and that frustrates her so much that she starts barking like a hunting dog while she’s chasing him 🙂 🙂 🙂

The peach tree in the garden also still has green leafs, I would like for them to drop as well so I can spray sulphur on it to get rid of the curled leaf disease. It would most likely be the last time I need to do that.
The shoots from the now dead Persimmon hybrid looks fine. They are touched by frost and will soon drop their leafs, so now all I can do is to hope they’ll survive the winter. The tree I planted last spring has already dropped its leafs.
I’ve tried to get rid of a Wisteria that I once planted in the wrong place, to be honest it shouldn’t survive here but grows like a weed 🙂 I’ve tried to kill it for several years now but it just comes back. Last year I once again dug it up but this time planted it beside a Laburnum and it survived. Still don’t know if the old one will come back again though 🙂 🙂 🙂

I can’t remember when the leafs stayed on the trees for this long. Some still have green leafs as well. I need those that will spend the winter in my cool cellar to start dropping their leafs, well the tea tree/ bush will keep its leafs so I can bring it in already now but the small pear trees, peach tree, all the apricots and what else still is out there need to drop them now, I really don’t want all those leafs on the cellar floor 🙂 Also I need to dig down the rest of the plants that will spend the winter outside but I still haven’t figured out where to plant them 🙂 I guess I’ll just do the panic thing and dig them down together in the ground with the pots still on and then figure out where to plant the survivors next spring.

The Black walnut thrives and I can see some walnuts hanging way up in the tree. This year I’ll use a hammer to crack those nuts 🙂 🙂 🙂
The bought Pawpaw trees still look to much like summer is here, I want them to be ready for winter now. The little one that only had a few leafs this summer is still alive but has dropped its leafs now.

The little Ginkgo looks fine as well. I’ll thin out the branches on the apple tree next spring so that it’ll get more light and rain reaching it.

Sara the cat is pestering Malkolm by playing with his tail 🙂 At first he looked horrified every time she did but now he’s just a bit annoyed 🙂 🙂 Alma is a bit worried every time Sara comes close to her when she’s in the sofa, it’s because she twice laid down over Sara and she screamed like she was being crushed and I had to rip her away but otherwise she adores the little cat. I’ve been trying to undo the damage by not letting Alma jump of the couch when Sara is there and it seems to have helped quite a lot, Alma is after all the mother of all living things 🙂

       

It’s time to figure out what to eat. I think I’ll make a couple of warm sandwiches. I have some mackerel in tomato sauce in the pantry or perhaps with meatballs? and perhaps sprinkling some curry over it all? I could do a real dinner of course but then it would mean so much more work 🙂 🙂 🙂

A really tired little kitten 🙂

Have a great day!

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It did rain a lot in the early morning and should have continued to do so all day. So no hunters were here in the morning. The raining stopped however and even though we didn’t get any sunshine it still turned out to be a rather nice day. The hunters did arrive later on but I think it mostly was because it was the first day and I guess they mostly sat in the hunting lodge, having a nice fire and perhaps grilled some sausages 🙂

I wasn’t going to bring in any of the Camellias this winter but then I noticed they are full of buds.

   

The storm Kevin was supposed to hit us later this week and they predicted lots of wind and rain, now they’re guessing it wont hit that bad, the wind will be quite normal and the rain won’t fall. They can change this prediction loads of times until then so who knows what will happen 🙂  Anyway I was going to have a phone meeting with the employment agency today, some time between 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm to talk of my strategies to get a new job. So at around 11 am I thought why not take a nap? I put the timer on my phone at 59 minutes. I can’t pretend I slept especially well or much at all to be honest so I gave up and looked at the timer, turns out that I had put it on one hour and 59 minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂 I must have slept much better than I thought because it was only 15 minutes left until I was going to have that meeting 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

The stalk to the self sown sunflower had broken so I brought it to the feeder so the birds cane have the seeds. Just as I came in and looked out the window some kind of mosquito landed on it under side.

So they called and asked what I had done so far and what I was planning on doing next. After I had explained they simply said: Well it’s clear that You know what You’re doing and won’t need any help from us, we’ll schedule for another meeting later and leave You to do what You’ve planned. It took around 10 minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂 After that I baked a bunch of french rolls, they turned out good but sort of floated out over the pan but who cares, the important things is that they taste good 🙂

     

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and perhaps I’ll have one of those rolls as well  🙂

Have a great day!

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Grey and dull here this morning but cool enough to keep any remaining moose flies calm. I hadn’t slept especially well, have no idea why though. Nova needed to go outside at 4 am so we all joined her in to the garden. I really didn’t want to stay awake so we walked to the bedroom again but I can’t say I slept for especially long.

     

I had to go to a grocery store today, I wasn’t going to buy especially much to be honest, so I decided I would go to the grocery store in the village I worked in. I’ve been shopping my food there since I moved to this area, so 27 years and being unemployed is not going to stop me for continue to do that even though it has to be fewer times since it is much further to that place.

     

I was really surprised over how much I actually bought 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did follow my list but an extra thing here and an extra thing there and suddenly it cost me three times as much as I had planned 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now I won’t have to go to any grocery store again for quite some time 🙂 🙂 I brought the camera with me so a few of the photos today were taken on the way there. I like driving there and it is never as beautiful as it is this time of year.

     

The moose hunt starts tomorrow and it will rain more or less for the rest of the week. If one is a hunter one really doesn’t want to miss this week even though we don’t have any moose to talk about any longer. Some hunting groups are even refusing to hunt moose now days because we have too few (still around 300 000 of them but they get fewer each year now and we don’t know why to be honest). The only ones wanting the hunters shooting more moose are the big forest owners because they eat lots of small trees. Anyway, the hunters still don’t want to miss being out this week so lots of people have a few vacation days now. I haven’t seen any tracks from moose since early summer here, at the same time, an old work friend not living too many miles away have lots of them.

 

 

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and lots of ice cream I think 🙂 It’s plain vanilla, perhaps not my favorite but still in the top five 🙂 I think today they don’t make ice cream any more, they make frozen candy. It’s chocolate chips and caramel and toffee and everything must be covered in salt. I like when it is just one flavor and perhaps raisins in it because I like raisins. Or perhaps vanilla with strings of chocolate or strawberries or any kind of flavor with strings of hazelnut but I really don’t like when it is more like a frozen chocolate bar like Snickers. I have by the way never eaten a Snickers in my life because when I was around seven years old I got so angry when they treated me as a customer as an idiot. That’s when I started to refuse to buy anything where the commercial treated me as if I was dumb, there are so many things I never buy now days 🙂 🙂 🙂

       

Have a great day!

A too long nap :-)

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We all woke up at 4 am today, Nova was running in her sleep at the same time she sounded angry. I had stayed up longer than usual yesterday so I had hoped we all could go back to sleep after that but of course not 🙂 It had rained all night and was pouring down outside so the dogs just ran out to do what they needed to and then they all went indoors again 🙂

     

I had only planned to go to the super market today so I did that early. It continued to rain so the dogs still refused to go outside unless they really had to 🙂 There wasn’t anything worth watching on tv so I decided to go upstairs to take a nap. I usually fall asleep as soon as I put my head on the pillow but today it took a while before I felt that wonderful feeling that comes just as the sleeps hit.

     

At that moment a now days rather heavy male puppy decided to jump up in the bed and landed on me 🙂 🙂 Then he jumped down again and continued like that for a while. Sara the cat had learned to climb the stairs so he was playing with her 🙂 🙂 🙂 I continued to try and fall asleep but gave up after a while. So I turned of the timer looked at the ceiling and after that I don’t remember anything 🙂 🙂 I must have slept for several hours when I finally woke up 🙂 🙂 🙂 Turns out that Sara had fallen asleep beside me and when she did that the dogs just fall asleep around me in bed 🙂 🙂

     

I slept for too long I’m afraid so I’m just as tired now as I was then 🙂 I’ll try to watch some tv but I’m afraid it will be an early night today 🙂 Not even several cups of coffee has helped to make me less tired 🙂 Well I better go downstairs to the tv and try to stay awake there instead 🙂

     

Have a great day!

From now on it’ll rain for at least 24 hours.

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We’ve had a really nice morning here, sunny and because of that rather pleasant except for in the darkest shadows. Now the rain has arrived and it’ll continue for well over 24 hours they’re guessing. They’re also guessing that we’ll get well over an inch of rain as well.

     

Sara is quite annoyed downstairs, she is still too small to climb the stairs and she really wants to 🙂 It’s not like she’s alone down there, she has two big dogs looking after her 🙂 That could be what’s bothering her, she was sleeping in the recliner when we all passed her a minute ago and now the dogs taking care of her no matter if she wants it or not 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We walked down to the creek this morning, at first I thought it might be too much for Nova, she dragged her legs and walked really slowly, that is until she realized we would have a walk where she wanted to walk and the road would mostly be in the shadow. She is a bit under the weather though, losing weight again and I don’t know how to turn that around. I’ll go to the super market tomorrow and buy vitamins and what ever she might need. She is after all 18 years old and it can go downhill fast.

     

Sara on the other hand is really good. I brought her outside for a short while so I could get fresh air in to the cottage. She wasn’t too happy about it though, not until I put her in the big pocket in my hoodie 🙂 She’s still so tiny that I have to give her her food on the floor in the bathroom, anywhere else and she would only be able to eat when I’m around, otherwise both Alma and Malkolm would eat her food before she even got close to it, once upon a time I made sure to be able to have the bathroom door semi open so that cats could go in there but not big dogs 🙂 🙂

     

Well they are all telling me that it is time to eat even though I think it is a bit early but I better do as they say 🙂 after that they all want some of what I’m eating as well but they’ll have to do with some cheese I think 🙂

       

Have a great day!

Busy morning.

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Have no idea where time flew yesterday, suddenly it was time to go to bed and no time left to write a blog 🙂 I went to my old work place to get the employer certificate but it turns out that works automatically now days so it was sent to the unemployment insurance on the last pay day, that’s today 🙂 So instead I walked around talking to everyone and had a really nice morning 🙂

These photos comes from the folder “For a rainy day”.

v v

Got a text message from a work friend early this morning about a job that would be perfect for me, in the same village where my old job is. The fun thing is that I actually was going to get a job in that factory 17 years ago but for some reason couldn’t find the place and that was odd since I actually lived nearby but just couldn’t find it 🙂 🙂 Instead I drove to my old job and asked if they needed a painter. Started working there the day after 🙂 🙂 Turns out that was a good thing because the place I actually looked for went bankrupt two weeks after. I remembered where the place was as soon as I got hired at my old work place 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It’s always stressful to look for a new job, especially since I’ve almost never have had to search for one. What is important what isn’t? Well since this is a painting job I mentioned that I was educated as a car painter at Volvo cars but that I also had done other things there but for the last 17 years I’ve been both a powder painter and went paint painter. I also have the CEO from my last work place as my reference person and I do hope that helps a lot 🙂

     

Sara is doing really good. I was worried that her stomach wasn’t working properly because lots went in but nothing out but just as I was on the way to be she showed her stomach works really good 🙂 🙂 Her eyes are puss free now and she has a lot of energy and I think it helps her having two big dogs as parents as well 🙂 She must be the cleanest cat in the world by now 🙂 🙂 Especially Malkolm follows her everywhere and she’s not afraid to show when she is tired of him 🙂 Still she has pneumonia so I’m not celebrating yet.

     

It has been raining constantly since I came home yesterday but now the sun shows so perhaps we’ll be able to have a walk before the rain starts again. So we better go out while we can 🙂

Have a great day!

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My neighbor is mowing their lawn, I haven’t mowed in weeks 🙂 I’ll do it when this tiresome cold has went away. Ill have to wait until the afternoon because we have so much dew here now that the grass is soaking wet in the mornings but just very wet in the afternoon.

     

It was sunny during our morning walk again and I just took a little to long time to go out so a few moose flies were already flying around, only in the sunshine though, it was still below 4C (39,2F) in the shadow. These flies are sort of rubbery so one can’t smash them to death, one needs to sort of roll them between the fingers. They won’t burst open but the wings will fall off (something they do themselves when they have landed on a victim) and they won’t be able to reach any other animal. So now I have at least made sure fewer of them will fly next year.

     

Alma has a really bad stomach, because she eats too many apples and other berries. She woke me up last night and was in a hurry. I did try my best to get downstairs but was a couple of seconds late. I am however very happy that I managed to go down as fast as I could anyway because she ran straight in to the Jerusalem artichokes (these are never eaten but seen as any other flowers in a flower bed) and then I heard sort of three explosions 🙂 🙂 So now the rather difficult job has come to convince her to stop eating all berries and apples still around 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Otherwise we’ve mostly slept today, I in the recliner and all three dogs in the sofa. I had my feet towards Alma’s head so there was no risk my feet would feel cold 🙂 The kitchen door has been open quite a lot too, not much sunshine but almost 20C (68F) anyway, the weather will continue being warm they’re guessing so lets hope they’ve guessed it right 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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