Category: Cloudy.

The morning was really nice anyway :-)

· 11 Comments ·

The weather has been really mixed today. The morning was cool and nice with the sun warming up the air rather quickly, later on the clouds arrived and with it heavy showers but lots of sunshine in between. Now we have sunshine and rain at the same time 🙂 Thunder was heading towards us but went north on the other side of the mountain.

The cattle have now moved on to the pasture beside the one behind the beekeepers cottage and that means the road still is blocked with electric wires so therefore much more difficult to walk along the creek.
We saw this deer buck on our way to the bog. Well I can see that it is more or less impossible to see it in this photos 🙂 🙂 🙂

Besides the morning walk I’ve spent most of my first day of vacation with having a long nap 🙂 I’ve had a cold for quite some time now, it has spread all over the country it seems, so I’ve been unusually tired this summer. I’m hit much less hard than most who have had it but instead had it for a longer time. I didn’t miss much while I, well we, were asleep. Every time it stops raining I’ve had the kitchen door open but the dogs have refused to go outside, they were caught in a shower early in the morning that not even Malkolm liked 🙂 🙂 and they wouldn’t do that mistake again 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Both the big weather sites are guessing we’ll have a rain free day tomorrow but loads of rain on Wednesday. I’ll have to go to a grocery store as well, I should have done that today but I looked in the fridge and decided I have enough at home to last until tomorrow 🙂 My neighbors did the same but decided to go today so they don’t need to go for the rest of the week instead 🙂 We all started our vacation today and none of us want to do anything unnecessary during these weeks.

     

I already have three composts but I ordered a new one today, a kind of tumbler. It is black and is supposed to stand in sunshine so it becomes a hot compost. One puts in the material, could be grass or what ever comes from the garden or kitchen, turns it around a couple of times and leave it until next time. This will make compost much faster than the other warm/ hot composts. I bought it mostly because I have a family of mice in one of the old ones and lots of ants in the second old one. I’ve tried to make them move by pouring lots of water through it but they refuse, plus it is hard to open up so I can use what’s in it 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is most likely not a Creeping bluebell because the flower grow out from the stalk n several sides of it.
This is a Creeping bluebell because the flowers all grow out from the same side of the stalk. Almost impossible to see the difference otherwise but my guess is that they both spread just as happily 🙂

I better start writing a list of what I need to buy tomorrow and put it in my wallet already today so I won’t leave it at home as I so often do 🙂 It is so much more expensive to forget that list because I keep guessing what I might need and come home with so much more and most of it is something I really don’t need 🙂 🙂

The peas are in bloom and have started to grow over to their neighbors 🙂 🙂
Malkolm is now almost as high as Nova is 🙂   

Have a great day!

· 2 Comments ·

A storm passed by today and today it was noticeable even here in my garden, the strong ghusts shuffled the leaves in the trees pretty bad 🙂 The more steady wind was as always more or less unnoticeable here. They had guessed that we at least would have some sunshine in the early morning so I waited for quite some time before I gave up and we had our morning walk.

     

A good thing with the winds are that almost no flies are out and about irritating us 🙂 and if any mosquito had been desperate enough they still would have blown away really fast 🙂 Also pretty chilly for being a day in July, only 15C (59F) as warmest and that’s now in the early evening. I’ve noticed something, the dogs don’t like to be outside in the garden windy days like this, I think it is the roar from the wind blowing through the forest and perhaps they smell things from far away that they don’t like and believes what ever it is can be nearby.

   

I’ve been thinking about having a pond again but this time make sure no vole can chew through the rubber.

One being that I think exists all over the world is the Lantern man, When the day becomes night and one looks in to a forest or a bog one sometimes might see a flickering light, sometimes moving fast and sometimes really slow and if one is lucky one might even see the being carrying the light which is a small manlike being usually dressed in grey. It is the lantern man and quite often he tries to lure the human that see him out into the forest so they become lost. Sometimes however he lures them out into bogs or swamps to try and drown them. They will do the latter if they think one has been impolite or rude. However they can also save children being lost if one has been polite to them and also perhaps given them a coin or two (I guess that since silver always work with all other beings he would accept that too 🙂 )

     

They guess that he’s an evil spirit that, when he lived tricked others so that he made his property bigger at his neighbors cost, therefore he will never get peace after dying. He continues this behavior after death by moving property markings at nights, always saying this is wrong and that is right. The only way he can get peace is if someone follows him at nights moving back all the property markings he has moved. The thing is would one really follow someone that willingly would try and kill You just for fun? 🙂 🙂

     

It is time for a cup of tea I think and then see what’s on tv.

Have a great day!

It’s raining, it’s pouring.

· 6 Comments ·

Yesterday morning we all woke up pretty early and I thought why not stay up so I could have a really long and calm breakfast before going to work. I had just eaten breakfast and went to brush my teeth when I heard a loud crash. Malkolm had decided he should push down the glass plate I had my sandwiches on to the floor. So instead of having a nice calm morning I instead had a quite stressful morning going to work quite late instead 🙂

 

The cattle is in the pasture behind the Beekeepers cottage so that means we can’t walk along the creek because the path home is blocked with electric wires.
Can You guess what flower this is? I know You all know about it but perhaps never seen the actual flower. I’ll put the answer at the bottom 🙂

Now it’s Novas turn to have a bad stomach so I decided to boil more rice. I always put the pot on the stove and just barely let it start to boil before shutting down the stove, then put two handkerchiefs over the lid and just let it stay on the stove for twenty minutes, I made pancakes at the same time and put another glass plate beside the frying pan. The water just started to boil so I shut of that part and continued with my pancakes. Suddenly I could smell smoke and wondered what house was on fire when I realized that the handkerchiefs managed to reach down to the heat and had started to burn. The odd thing was that the water just kept on boiling harder and harder. That’s when I realized I hadn’t turned it off, instead I had started the stove top under the glass plate.

The oak refused to break when bigger trees fell over it, now it’ll always have that bend 🙂

   

I was just about to remove the plate when it suddenly exploded 🙂 🙂 Thankfully this plate was of a more good quality so the pieces mostly stayed on the stove but some dropped down on the floor. So I had to pour out the pancake batter, clean the floor (vacuuming it) clean out the frying pan, all the dog bowls and restart with making a new batch with pancake batter 🙂 🙂 I’m glad I had enough with eggs because for some reason I decided yesterday not to buy any on my way home from work 🙂 🙂 Besides that we’ve had a calm day. We managed to take a morning walk even though the sun they said would show before the rain never did.

the first blueberries growing by the bog 🙂

   

It is pouring down outside right now and thunder is on the way, I’m not sure if it will hit this village or if the mountain will push it to the other side. Tomorrow will most likely be rainy as well and we’ll have an almost storm passing by as well. We’ve also had a long nap today 🙂 Nice to know I can have that the coming four weeks 🙂 and since the weather seems to stay like this I might even have the chance to have two naps each day 🙂 🙂

     

It’s time for a pot of tea and then perhaps watch the Eurovision Championship in football (soccer for You Americans :- )

 

Have a great day!

The flowers is a wild carrot 🙂

Finally :-)

· 2 Comments ·
Something worried the geese and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me. Lots of sound and running around.

The morning was quite nice with sunshine and just above 10C (50F) degrees. I stopped by the lake on my way to work, there isn’t much to see now but I did see some geese. I would most likely have seen plenty if I just had had more time but work was waiting and a work friend who I was going to pick up on my way.

Suddenly lots more came running from behind me (to the right). I guess it could be a fox hunting but geese are nasty so it must have been an inexperienced one 🙂

Then they all came flying.

It didn’t take long though until the rain arrived, mostly short but fierce showers and it has continued like that all the day but in between we had lots of sunshine as well. Despite it being the last day before vacation the day passed fairly quick. Could be because we had cake twice today 🙂 Firstly a work friend have his 29th birthday today and thankfully he bought an ice cream cake so that I could have some as well 🙂 After that the company had cake as well, unfortunately not gluten free but I did at least have coffee and an extra break 🙂

The sky when I had arrived after work.
I haven’t planted or sown anything in this pot but there are lots of plants in it 🙂 Looks like some kind of Nepeta, possibly Canadian Goldenrod and also an Aaron’s’ rod. plus something small with white flowers.
My tomatoes are coming fine 🙂
My little Mango tree. It stopped growing when it went colder unfortunately.

Yesterday we had lots of pastry because a work friend will retire next week 🙂  so it’s been a good week 🙂 🙂  The weather was nice all the way home but as soon as I stopped by the mailbox the sky opened up again 🙂 Tomorrow will be really rainy, if they’ve guessed it right but it looks like we’ll be able to have a morning walk with some sunshine before the rain arrives. The entire first week will have weather like this but I don’t mind as long as we can have a morning walk without getting soaked from above 🙂 After all vacation is meant for us to charge the batteries so we can manage to work until Christmas since we don’t have a single holiday before then.

Musk Mallow, grows everywhere in this area, I have the pink one as well.
My pees are now all entwined 🙂 Plus I saw that a few bean vines still are alive and grows well.

I think it’s time to go to bed even though I really don’t have to think about getting up early tomorrow but I always wake up early and it’s nicer to do so if I actually have slept enough hours 🙂 I can start changing the hours tomorrow instead.

The three tomato shoots I removed a couple of days ago now have roots. If we hadn’t loved tomatoes so much we would call it a weed 🙂
The Hardy Fuchsia cuttings I’ve taken are now planted in three pots. The yellow in the leafs indicate that they lack nutrients of some kind and that’s most likely because all the rain that has washed through the soil, there’s simply nothing left for the plants to use.
Don’t know the name on this one. It is a climbing vine and I think it once belonged to the Corydalis family but now have been moved to the Fumaria family, my favorite weed family 🙂

I hope All of You Americans had a great 4th of July!

Have a great day!

Only one more day :-)

· 2 Comments ·
I always save photos for days when I can’t take any and put them in a folder called “For a rainy day”. All photos today comes from that folder. They can be taken earlier this year or some time during last year. The only important thing is that it doesn’t show snow 🙂

The weather is what I would call rather unstable right now, heavy showers coming and going. Pretty chilly here as well and it’ll be like this over the weekend they guess. No use in looking at what they are guessing for the coming week they change those predictions more or less every hour. Everything from sunny and warm all week to quite the opposite 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Lots of things to do at work and due to bad planning they asked if people wanted to work overtime, they never come to me even if they are desperate since they know I’ll just laugh at them 🙂 To be honest only three people wanted to work, most of us will after all start our vacation now.

     

Only Malkolm liked to be outside in the rain so we haven’t had any walk. Not good for any of us so it’s nice that vacation starts now because it is very rare that it rains all day, so in between showers we’ll be able to go out and get rid of some of all that energy that is building up in the dogs now. Normally during weekends and vacations we’re out on walks at least three times a day but the weather lately has really stopped us to do that. In winter time, before Alma, we usually had walks in the empty cow pastures and normally we walked a bit more than 9km (5,6 miles) but Alma being like she is and after tearing my shoulder twice we haven’t been able to do that last winter. I am hoping that she will have calmed down enough until next winter. They say hope is the last thing to leave us 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Tomorrow is the last working day before vacation starts and at first they said we would stop working with the painting early, then a bit later than they thought and today that we most likely will continue as normal 🙂 🙂 🙂 It doesn’t really matter because I won’t be back in four weeks anyway 🙂

     

Have a great day!

I’m rarely nostalgic and Malkolm is much better.

· 4 Comments ·

So Malkolm is much better already 🙂 I went to work an hour later this morning just so I could see if the food would stay or not. My biggest worry was if he possibly had eaten something that blocked the food. He ate and had no problems at all 🙂

The sky on my way home today.

   

We have lots to do at work but the things I do had all been done just after lunch today, so I left work a couple of hours early 🙂 I went to the grocery store in the village where I work and was going to buy some frozen fish for Malkolm. When I was a kid fish was poor mans food, so we ate a lot of fish. Today fish is rich mans food because those prices really make one need an income on the top 1% to be able to buy it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead I bought frozen chicken and that also works really well for an upset stomach. I made the rice this morning before going to work and boiled the chicken as soon as I had come home. Now days Nova only eat any food made from chicken and the smell made even her want to eat so of course both she and Alma had some too 🙂

     

The food stayed where it should be and now Malkolm have more energy that I think he should have 🙂 🙂 He and Alma were playing here on the upper floor and when both finally fell off my bed and it to what sounded as the radiator I had to shout to make them stop 🙂 🙂 All three are now sleeping on the floor here beside me 🙂 For once no one is snoring 🙂

     

It was supposed to rain this afternoon and the sky sure looked like it when I drove home but one drop hit my head and that was it 🙂 They are now guessing that it will rain more or less all day tomorrow and Friday and Saturday but I’ll believe it if it happens. They are also guessing that my first vacation week will be sunny and just enough warm, I’ll believe that when it happens as well. Some times they don’t even get it right when they show what weather we’ve had during the day. I remember one winter when they said that we had had cloudy weather and -18C (-0,4F) when in fact we had had sunny weather all day long and minus 28C (-18,4F) 🙂 🙂 🙂 WE haven’t had such low temperatures since then so it must be well over 15 years ago but unfortunately the weather sites haven’t become much better since then 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think these are Creeping bell-flowers.
I have two Hardy Hibiscus in my garden but so far no signs of buds.

I’m not the one to be nostalgic or think back on memories form the good old days that weren’t particularly good to be honest but today lots of memories came back when a smell I really can’t say whet it was brought back a lot of memories, mostly about our summer cottage up in the mountains just outside my home town. Suddenly I saw myself sitting in the glassed veranda with place for two people eating two sandwiches and I could feel the smell of newly brewed coffee. The cottage were placed at the top of the mountain and there was no running water, an outhouse painted screaming green, a gas cooker and showers were taken outside with cold water that we brought with us in big plastic jerricans.

     

I started going there by myself when I was around 13 years old. I lived on the other side of the city so I think it was around 40 km (25 miles) to our cottage. The only heating we had was a kerosene  heater so i rarely went there when winter had arrived. From early spring to late autumn however I want there quite often, the rest of the family didn’t care especially much then. Normally I biked there so I didn’t bring a lot of water but enough for a cup of coffee in the morning and to be able to wash myself if there wasn’t any water in the rain water barrel (well this is Sweden so naturally there was water in the barrel 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) The best thing, I think, was that I passed my mormor (grandmother on my mothers side) so I usually had a pit stop there bunkering up with a couple of sodas and cinnamon buns 🙂 and of course I had some while visiting her as well 🙂

     

I was quite young so if something walked outside the cottage it could be a bit scary but it was always a moose or deer that passed by 🙂 I loved that place and I think I mostly just read books or listened to my radio, back then they often played the Radio theater shows and those were really good. I don’t think they do that any more. Nothing would grow there except for grass, moss, daffodils and some Irises, we tried to grow potatoes there once but the potatoes were tiny and so hard that it didn’t help that we boiled them for hours, they just kept on being like little round rocks 🙂

Have a great day!

Sick puppy.

· 15 Comments ·
One can make a really good tea substitute from the leafs and flowers from the Fire weed. I realized that I only have two left in my garden and I’ll leave those alone but found another place at the edge of the forest, I think I’ll pick some of those tomorrow if the weather allows.

I became a bit worried after I had come home and Malkolm suddenly threw up all what he just had eaten. I waited a little time and gave him a small treat and it didn’t take long before he threw up that too. Naturally I then started making scenarios in my head that he had eaten something that had gotten stuck and that he would need surgery tomorrow. Just to be sure that it isn’t anything stuck I then boiled some rice and poured in lots of water and gave it to him. He started to eat and then looked at me and I understood what he meat, so I crushed four pieces of his regular food in my mortar and poured out the powder in the rice.

     

It still inside him well over an hour and a half after he ate it 🙂 I now also know he has a case of really bad stomach because he wanted to go outside and I said to him that if You’re going to throw up I really need to know it so stay indoors, no it wasn’t throwing up he wanted to do and the small after he had the runners on m,y floor is pretty bad 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve already sent a notice to my team leader that I’ll come in later tomorrow, if the boiled rice and fish I’ll give him stays I’ll come to work, otherwise we’ll go to the vet.

     

I am however not that worried any more because he has been playing just as wild with Alma for quite some time now and I realized that he also had thrown up in the garden when I saw him eat what was left 🙂 🙂 That’s really gross but that food has stayed down as well 🙂 The thing with Malkolm is that he doesn’t make that awful sound when being sick, it just comes out, so no warning what so ever. Besides all this I must say that the day has been rather good. A bit on the cool side and mostly cloudy but the hours at work passed fairly quickly.

I was sure that last winter had killed my Eastern redbud but then I saw new lafs 🙂 It never grows bigger than this though.

I know it’s hard to see but here are a few of my seed sown apricots.

Alma is sleeping on the floor to my right, Nova is sleeping on the floor to my left and Malkolm is sitting on the stairs half way down to the kitchen 🙂 He does that quite often and it’s like he’s bored but still don’t want to be downstairs all by himself 🙂 Well it is time to go to watch the news and then most likely fall asleep in the recliner 🙂

And here are the two seed sown peaches.
Here are the cuttings (the second round) I took from the Hardy fuchsia, all fuchsias tend to produce flower buds really early and there’s no use in removing them, all that happens is that it will continue to produce even more flower buds and that takes more energy than to just let them stay.

   

Have a great day!

Lots of rain and thunder.

· 2 Comments ·

So I guess I can’t say that the weather service we have got it right this time but at the same time not too wrong either 🙂 🙂 Early this morning it did say, on the net, that we wouldn’t get any rain at all but   and that the temperature only would drop a degree or two. Earlier in the week though they did guess that we would get an inch of rain and the temperature would drop down below 20C (68F).

     

We have gotten bucket-loads of rain, lots of thunder and the temperature dropped to just above 20C (68F) 🙂 It didn’t help much with the heat at work though because the wind blew in the wrong direction so even if we had two big gates open none of it would reach us in the factory. Now in the evening however I have the wind blowing from the kitchen door, up to the upper floor bringing in the cool air through the bedroom so now I think we all will get a good nights sleep. It will be nice not having the feeling being boiled the first in the morning 🙂 🙂 🙂

Troll grapes.
We call this plant Troll grapes. It is a native plant many of us have in our gardens and the berries are quite poisonous for us humans. Actaea spicata, it only thrives in dark shadow and good soil. I do have the shadow but apparently it also likes to grow in sand 🙂 The fun thing is that the seeds this one comes from were bought from a Canadian seed business that unfortunately doesn’t exist any more.
I sowed some Borage this spring and some have pink flowers
while others have deep blue 🙂
I sowed the Campanula rapunculus, the Rapunzel, last summer. It is a biennial flower so it flowers before it dies. This one is edible and can give rather big roots that can be sued like radishes. Very closely related to the Creeping bellflower but not even close to as bad since it dies its second year. The Creeping bellflower is also edible in the same way.

The dogs are running in and out through the open door and then to my bed where all the rain water drops off, I can only hope it doesn’t get too wet to sleep in. Tomorrow will stay cool and for the rest of the coming week they’re guessing that the temperature will stay just above or below 20C, that works great with me 🙂 It isn’t supposed to rain or thunder any more but the sky is dark grey, I need to have the lights on indoors, so I guess it isn’t really over yet. Nothing clears the air like a good old thunderstorm and it feels like we need some more clearing of the air before I’m happy 🙂

Aaron’s’ rod. Grows wild here and always have yellow flowers.
They mix with our garden varieties so every now and again one with a different color turns up.
Iris hollandica isn’t the hardiest of bulbs but two survived the winter here and one was destroyed by the dogs and the second one pressed to the ground but survived 🙂
Sorry can’t remember the name for this one 🙂 Some kind of Nepeta though.

No walk today because of the thunder but I do hope tomorrow morning will be sunny as they’re guessing it will be so we can have a long nice walk while it is rather cool. No watering in the garden either so no more mosquito or hose fly bites to scratch today. I was outside for a few minutes to gather some Iceberg lettuce though. I need to thin them out as much as possible and it is nice to have on sandwiches together with some ham, tomato and cheese plus today I had something we call Skagenröra, it sort of is like shrimp salad with lots of mayo but with more things in it 🙂 Unfortunately I only had hard bread and one never knows how hard bread breaks, so now I need to find a clean t-shirt 🙂

These photos were taken yesterday.     

It is time to stop for the day and go to bed, the heat has really made us all really tired. Only one more work week until vacation 🙂

Have a great day!

Really nice day.

· 4 Comments ·
I really hope the birds don't find my Sand cherries. They are really delicious and I rarely get a chance to get any myself.
I’ve found several Sand cherries this year 🙂

I slept late, for me this morning. I didn’t wake up until after five am. The weather was just as grey as they had guessed and it was actually pretty chilly when we finally came out for our walk. So instead of wearing my mosquito hat I just wore a hoodie and it was enough to keep the flies away from my face. Also I did spray the entire hoodie with that anti tick, horsefly and mosquito spray that works for both animals and humans and that could have helped more that I thought it would. So today both my dogs and I smell like an old lady in the sixties that didn’t understand when to stop spraying her perfume 🙂

I do like ferns!      The Grape Elder is early this year.

We have actually had much more sunshine than they guessed that we would so the kitchen door has been open most of the day but I really need to buy a new mosquito net for that door, I’ve taped it together in some places 🙂 🙂 Dogs never walk though slow and carefully, they run through ripping of the magnets keeping it together but every time I’m out on the internet I tend to forget to order any. From now on they’re guessing that we’ll have sunshine and hot weather for the rest of the week so I didn’t mow the lawn today as I had planed because the grass is still very wet since it has grown so high. I’ll start doing it tomorrow after work and just take small areas each day until it is done. So I won’t write anything here tomorrow.

I've never seen either a toad or frog here so I guess the Källrå might stay in the lake itself :-)
No unusually big toads or frogs here so I guess there isn’t any Källrå living here.
Lots of Lingonberries this year, I might even go out and pick some myself this year.

  Squirrel berries in bloom still.

Two more weeks until the vacation starts 🙂 Those two weeks will feel like years because when it is hot outside it’s even hotter in the factory. The one standing at the paint ox it can quite often reach 44 C (111,2 F) and no matter how much waster one drinks it’s not enough. Hopefully the painter working there will work every day, otherwise it might be me they think should do that job and after 16 years of it I truly hate it. So cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck so he’s healthy both weeks 🙂 🙂

Japanese climbing rose in bloom, lots of flowers this year.
I can’t remember that I’ve seen as many flowers on the Japanese climbing rose as I have this summer. These are above my head now making a roof together with the apple tree and a grape elder.
I think the flowers are quite beautiful and these have no thorns 🙂
Red leafed rose, self sown.
The self sown Red leafed rose has been planted and grows really fast now.

Today I’ll write about a slightly more nasty being, the Mara. She’s the one that gives us nightmares But also from how I interpret it anxiety attacks at night. She crawls up on a humans chest at night and squeeze out all air and will to live. If she has been visiting You Yo’ll know it since You will wake up cold sweating and have the feeling of being suffocated. She cab squeeze through any crack she can find so it is more or less impossible to keep her out of any place. Thankfully the Mara suffers from obsessive thoughts so it is fairly easy to occupied until it is morning. One can for instance put a bible with lots of hair in between the pages because she must count them all before she can do anything else. Another way is to spread lots of tiny seeds around the beds because she must count them as well.  I guess that not cleaning the floors if one has dogs could help a lot as well because of course she would have to clean before doing anything else. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been around my place for ages because my floors are just as dirty as they were the night before 🙂 🙂

Old Nova, 18 years old and still going strong :-)
She’s hanging on the old lady 🙂

   

No one really knows where the Mara comes from but it is usually a female and some think it is the soul of dead unmarried women who tries to get the warmth from the living. It could also be as simple as a curse is put upon her because their mothers, trying to not have as much pain giving birth and therefore used black magic by crawling through amniotic membrane from a new born foal. If the woman would give birth to a boy that boy would later on become a werewolf. Now our werewolfs  are slightly different than the ones we have seen on films or read about but more on that another day 🙂 🙂

I asked Malkolm what he was doing and then he covered the hole and looked so innocent 🙂

 

This beetle doesn't seem to do any harm in the garden so it is a favorite of mine.
This is a favorite beetle of mine.

It is time to prepare something to eat at work tomorrow, I really don’t have anything at home so I’ll just make a couple of sandwiches and bring some yogurt too.

Have a great day!

Mösakäringa.

· 5 Comments ·

Foxglove to the right.

We’ve had everything from cloudy weather to sunshine to rain and thunder today.It rained when I came home from work and after that we had so dark clouds that I though more thunder was on the way so we stayed at home and in the garden. I and my dogs once got caught in a thunderstorm where I had to chose from being the highest point in the fields or standing between the trees in the forest 🙂 🙂 It was one of those fierce storms so the lightning flew all over the sky above us but none hit the ground here in the village.

Grape vines grow like weeds.
I apparently still have two grapevines in my garden 🙂 I thought I had removed this one several years ago but here it is 🙂

The broken old wheelbarrow. I always sow different poppies and morning glories in it.

The poppies will soon open up, the Californian poppies however is far behind.
I sowed this Mock orange around 20 years ago and it flowers nicely every year and has become pretty big.
I sowed this Mock orange well over twenty years ago. It is now huge and flowers nicely every year.

They are guessing that the weather will stabilize towards Midsummers eve and after that become warmer and more sunny but You all know by now that they aren’t too good at their work when it comes to guessing what the weather will be like here 🙂 🙂 🙂  I know that in some folklore the beings doesn’t like to be out and about in daylight but very few is like that here in our tales. Like the Skogsrå, a forest nymph. She has lots of local names and I think that when people talk about here in this area they call her Mösakäringa (would be something like the Bog hag, personally I call her the Bog Lady just in case I ever should meet her 🙂 ). Everyone knows that when the fog rolls in over the fields from the forests it’s the Bog hags that has poured water over their nightly fires.

I have more roses than I can remember and I really can't say I like roses :-)
Found another rose that I remember I brought home after a plant swapping day. It has had a tough life fighting with wild roses I now have removed.Turns out it was lying flat on the ground so I’ve now helped it up again.
Persimmon shoots.
New shoots from the roots of the dead Persimmon hybrid. I’ve read that it is easy to make those shoots grew new roots so I’ll try that with some of them.

The Wisteria that I’ve tried to remove so many for years now but cut off a big piece of root is now growing in the Lathyrus, Golden shower. They have leafs looking very similar so if I’m lucky I’ll have both yellow and blue flowers in that tree 🙂

She’s the one that reigns over the forest /bog and all the animals and if she likes a human she will allow them to hunt in her area. In this region she’s always described as very beautiful and tries to lure men to follow her and, if she wants to, kill them or seduce them. Her backside looks different when it comes to where she lives, Here she looks like a hollow log on her back but further north she look just like a human but has a tail. In the Norse beliefs the god Odin hated her and often hunted her like an animal but she’s hard to kill, only a silver bullet could do that (and I guess that since there were no bullets back in Odins days he must have used something else made by silver. If one would meet any kind of beings when walking around in the forest it’s always a good idea to have  some pieces of silver, either as an apology if one has done something stupid or a way to become friends with them Preferable that silver should be begged while walking on a pilgrimage 🙂 To be honest I don’t think they are that picky now days since so few wear pieces of silver in their pockets while walking in the forest 🙂 🙂

Nepeta sibirica.
Rosa multiflora. Forbidden to have in many states in the US.
Rosa multiflora, Japanese climbing rose. It is still behaving nicely up here in Scandinavia but can spread fast and tends to push away other wild roses. Forbidden to have in many states in the US.

Have a great day!

Don’t try to catch a hornet.

· 6 Comments ·
The only photo I have of Malkolm today 🙂 He and Alma learned that it isn’t a good idea to try and attack a Hornet, Alma was limping for a while and Malkolm as You can see was stung on the back.

 

More mixed weather today than what they guessed yesterday. It was sunny and rather cool in the morning while we were out on our morning walk but the clouds arrived much earlier, so by the time we came home the sky had an evenly dark grey color.

No ALT texts today, too tired in my brain :-)     

With darker day comes the mosquitoes and once again they attacked my ancles when I was watering the newly planted seedlings. The Dahlias were still there so perhaps the slugs still doesn’t know they are there. The dogs really didn’t want to be outdoors even though it has been warm but I guess they too are a bit sick of the insects now.

The little creek up by the bog is almost dried out oddly enough since it has been raining so much but the ferns shows where it usually flows.

 

Besides doing my chores it has been a rather uneventful day, perfect really 🙂 I’ve watched some football (soccer) and we took a nap, shorter than I had hoped for because a friend called on the phone. At least I didn’t sleep for too long so that I can fall asleep tonight 🙂 I have a short work week ahead of me because on Friday it’s Midsummers eve and that’s a big thing here.

   

To be honest I think it is even bigger than Christmas here and even though the church tried to make it a christian holiday (John the Baptist’s’ Birthday) it’s all pagan here to be honest 🙂 According to the folklore it’s a day when the Beings are out and about a lot and if we do it right we can keep us all healthy during winter and also see the future if we want to. For those new to this place but have been following me on post I think I’ve told You about the trolls and perhaps gnomes but there are a lot more to tell. I’ll start telling You more about the beings and how we celebrate Midsummer over here from tomorrow.

     

I have re-potted the Guava trees today. I think they have been a bit confused with the weather because first it was hot as h..l here, then almost autumn weatherwise plus all the rain, so they haven’t been growing that well, especially the roots have stopped to grow. I can only hope they’ll start growing again now when it has become a bit warmer. All apricots, peaches and pear trees are now re-potted as well.  and I had a few seedlings from the Lemonquat seeds I sowed just before the warmth arrived. It takes far less time to get a seed sown Kumquat, limequat, lemonquat and what ever other quat there is out there 🙂   than it takes for orange, lemon or lime trees sown from seeds. For those it can take up to ten fifteen years before they flower but perhaps, with a bit of luck, only four to five years for the quats. It is time for a cup of tea so I don’t fall asleep in front of the tv later. Only four more days before long weekend again 🙂

I totally forgot that I also planted the last potatoes in pots today. The sprouts were so long that I made them follow the inside of the pot 🙂
The Guava trees has changed color to red, normally a sign that they stand in too much sunlight but these doesn’t so I have no idea to why they’ve done that.
I hope the old Pawpaw tree that survived winter here also speed up the growth of the new leafs now when the warmer weather return.
Perennials and trees can take years to start germinate so I’m quite pleased that I now have Giant Sequoias growing.
The Himalayan Cedar is coming fine 🙂

 

If You want a flower that will keep on flowering until autumn, smells really odd and would spread like wildfire this is the one for You, Nepeta sibirica, Siberian catmint (our name for it is Siberian dragon flower). It is 5 feet high and smother any other flower to death within a year 🙂 Only just as invasive flowers can keep it in control 🙂 🙂 It is beautiful though.

Have a great day!

It is at least warmer again.

· 2 Comments ·

Misty morning looking up the road before leaving for work.
No the coming photos with morning mist isn’t from today, I had those in my car camera.

It is raining outside, a nice gentle summer rain and the temperature rose up to 18C (64,4F) so it’s quite nice outside. It looks like Malkolm doesn’t mind rain after all, he’s the only one of them that willingly goes out no matter how much it is raining, Nova and Alma just stand by the door opening looking at him 🙂 🙂 I’m still trying to figure out what kind of dog he will be as grown up, when it comes to behavior I men. There are no signs of herding characteristics, not good at fetch but is truly gentle and like rain.

Fur photos taken in the village on my way to work when we had a few misty mornings.
My work friend once said that this isn’t a village but a wasteland 🙂 Big open fields in the middle with a few groups of houses and cottages spread here and there around it 🙂

   

That sort of fits with both Cockerspaniel and Golden retriever. Border-collie isn’t a retrieving dog so that fits with him, then again no herding 🙂 So it will most likely be something towards the golden and spaniel . All goldens and spaniels I’ve met have loved water 🙂 I tried to see how high he is now and he’s somewhere around (he wouldn’t stand still 🙂 🙂 ) 42cm-44cm (16-18 inches) high. That’s actually higher than what a Golden should be at that age?! He’s still the little guy here, Nova is 52 cm (almost 21 inch high) and Alma is 70 cm (28 inch high).

Malkolm yesterdxay when I had come home from work. The big package behind him is the dog food and toys I had ordered :-)
Malkolm waiting for me to walk in with him and as You can see the dog food and toys I’d ordered had arrived.

Buttercups, in the real those flowers are slightly tinged with green, really hard to get in a photo.

The haunted tree.  Still can't remember the name on this one :-)

Our morning however was rather wonderful! Sunshine and cool enough to keep all mosquitoes calm but not cool enough to keep the flies calm. Still it was enough to wear a hoodie to keep them away from bot nostrils and ears 🙂 Later on a strong wind arrived so that kept most of the flies away as well. We walked down to the creek and Nova sort of thought that was a good idea, not great though so she did walk more slowly than usual 🙂 The only animal I could see, besides birds, was a deer. I had hope that we would meet the foxes again but perhaps tomorrow, They’re guessing that we’ll have much the same weather tomorrow, cool and sunny in the morning and warm but rainy in the afternoon. They are guessing much of next week will be much the same 🙂

Down at the creek, lots of flies there but surprisingly few mosquitoes.     

I let both Nova and Malkolm walk without a leash on the last part of our walk, turns out Nova had quite a lot of speed in her legs 🙂 🙂 She did stop and look after us every now and again but we were never really close to her until we came back to the gate 🙂 🙂 🙂 Malkolm followed her for a while but decided to run back to Alma and me. He is very slowly accepting the smell from the anti tick spray and I could only find one tick on him when I checked him before I let him go inside. Alma had five and Nova only one.

  Quite often we meet a fox here but I guess she has learned when we come by :-)  I'm pretty sure that if the deer hadn't moved I wouldn't have seen him at all but they are more cautious now when we have wolves here. 

Besides that I haven’t done much today, I did plant the dahlias I’ve sown but I don’t think they’ll last for long. Lots of hungry snails and slugs now when the weather is like it is. We don’t have the feared Spanish forest slug here, it behaves like a forest machine when cutting down trees, it eats anything and everything in its way but our native slugs and snails are enough as it is. One advantage we do have here though is the Panther slug, it eats other small slugs so we take really good care of those 🙂 🙂 So to be honest, it could have been much worse.

Nova and Malkolm walking ahead of us.  She did stop every now and again to check where we were :-)  Malkolm stopped and waited for us. 

Time to go down to the tv and watch the European championship in football (soccer for You Americans). I’m not a huge football fan but I do like to see these big championships 🙂

Malkolm then decided he wanted to walk with me and Alma.     

Have a great day!

I had forgotten to bring in the water bowl and (lying inside the bowl) the treat cup yesterday :-)
The water bowl I forgot to bring in yesterday 🙂

The dog yard fence is now slowly covered in Boreal vetch (and stinging nettles) on one side and

One neighbor once threw away hops he had in his garden not knowing how great it is at surviving. Male plants though so nothing to use for either scent or beer making :-)
hops on the other.