Category: Cloudy.

I had to apologize to Alma :-)

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Today I’ll show photos I’ve taken on my way to work so some can be a few days old but also some from today.

So it wasn’t Alma who had stolen the meat, it was all my fault even though it actually happened because of keeping it away from her 🙂 🙂 I was going to do something and it wouldn’t take long so I thought I just place it high. Like always things that won’t take a long time usually does 🙂 I have two window sills in every window and in this window I have one rather high up but at the moment no plants there. So I reached up and placed the meat there 🙂 🙂 🙂 One can’t see that window sill because the drapes hang low so even when I looked “everywhere” I couldn’t see it and had forgotten that all those pots now stood outside on the north side of the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

One the other hand today I once again got a call from my neighbor, Alma was outside the dog yard again and this time Malkolm had followed. My neighbor told the two of them to follow him to my garden and blocked the gate. He then called me and when he had he noticed that Malkolm sat beside his feet 🙂 So he let him in again and made sure the gate was properly blocked. Alma wouldn’t leave Malkolm all alone so he thought he could relax a bit before he had to go away for a while.

     

I came home not long after that and heard Malkolm in the garage and thought he must have told me wrong where Malkolm was because Alma was outside the dog yard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I placed them both (and Nova even though she would have been happy to be anywhere as long as Malkolm was busy with Alma. So I went to check where she had escaped through and turned around and there he was, Malkolm, by my feet 🙂 🙂 I had the same thought as my neighbor so I took him back to the garden again. For some reason I looked back towards the gate when I was going to fix the fence, she had managed to remove a huge log that I tied to the fence with thick electric cables, she had worked hard on those from the morning when I checked everything in the dog yard until my neighbor called.

     

So when I turn around I saw that Malkolm knows how to climb over a fence 🙂 🙂 🙂 When I saw that I remembered that I said that it was so nice to once again have a dog that loved to use his brain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So how long will it take when he’s grown up to be able top climb over the well over two meter (much the same in yards) high fence around the dog yard 🙂 🙂 🙂 The log by the way is now #tied” together with the fence with a really thick steel wire so now we’re guessing how long it will take until she manages to remove that, should be impossible but if any dog can it will be Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well what ever I sowed there last year will most likely never see the light of the day unless it in some way has managed to be covered with enough wet sand and then grow up elsewhere.
I think it might be a joined work between these two 🙂

 

Otherwise it’s been a rather wonderful day, not hot but not chilly either. Lots of sunshine but also lots of clouds. I’ve re-potted some of the Guava seedlings, they are now placed outside as well. I had planned on mowing the lawn tomorrow but they’re guessing it will be a bit rainy. I have however a long weekend now so no more work until Monday. Malkolm will also get his second vaccine shot on Friday and I’m already worrying about Alma 🙂 It will not be especially warm so I might have to bring her with us and then Nova can relax here at home without being disturbed by wild playing between Alma and Malkolm, she deserves that the old Lady 🙂

I managed to break off one of the small branches on the Apricot tree I bought this year. I have no idea if this works but I put it in moist soil and put a plastic bag over it. I have done this with an apple twig once and it grew roots on its own. Those apple trees becomes very weak and usually dies with a few years. The Prunus family is know for spreading easily with their roots so who knows it might work. I’ll keep You updated weather it goes well or not.

   

Have a great day!

The thunder did arrive.

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The sky just before the thunder arrived yesterday.

The thunder did arrive not long after I posted the blog. It struck somewhere in the northern part of the village and not especially much south of my cottage. Thankfully none of the dogs react to thunder so we just relaxed while it was here. The showers were quite hefty though and washed away the grass seeds I had spread here and there in the garden, well I have plenty left so I can continue to sow if this would happen again 🙂

     

We woke up to a wonderful foggy morning, it was so thick that it even was foggy in the forest, that rarely happens here. We walked out to the bog and I could hear Cuckoo birds all over the area. We have a saying here when it comes to Cuckoo birds and the first time we hear it every year, so here’s some Swedish: Norrgök är torrgök, södergök är dödergök, östergök är tröstergök men västergök är bästergök. Gök is the Swedish name for the Cuckoo bird. So the saying say that if one hear the Cuckoo bird from north the first time it’ll be a dry summer, if You hear it from south someone close will die. If You hear it from east You will need comforting but it’s best to hear it from west which means it’ll be a great year. I heard it from east and I hope that included poor Albin because I don’t want more of comforting this year 🙂

     

Even though we took an hour long nap today I’ve been fairly busy. I’ve done two sets of laundry, I’ve made pancakes, I’ve re-potted all the tomato plants and also all bell peppers.Plus of course I have been watering all those trees I’ve already planted in the garden. I have defrosted some meat to make as dinner for work next week but I’ve forgotten to do anything with it and now I feel it’s too late in the day to start doing it. So I’ll do it tomorrow instead, just as well because I barely had any vegetables at home, I thought I had something more than tomatoes but I was so wrong 🙂

     

Only three working days next week though, holiday on Thursday and what we call a squeeze day on Friday. Some will work on Friday but I really didn’t want to when I don’t have to.Will not be any great weather according to the weather sites but I don’t care. I’ll just relax all four days until next working week 🙂

A Jackdaw inspecting the Magpies nest. I wonder if it would have used it if the Magpies haden’t used it right now? Jackdaws usually nest in chimneys and my neighbors chimney has always been a target 🙂

 

Alma inspected the pastures on the other side of the gate a long time this morning. She sat there with me as well for a long time when we waited for the laundry to be ready 🙂It is time to bring in the laundry that hangs outside. The sky is dark grey around the village so I better bring it in. The first round dried in a few minutes but we had sunshine and a very weak wind, now we don’t have any of that.

This is how it looks when one forgets or delays the re-potting of the tomato plants 🙂
90% of the plant is now below the surface and the plant will create roots all the way there making it much stronger than it otherwise would be.
I decided four potted tomato vines would be enough the rest I either planted in the ground like here or in a raised bed I still have where a redberried gooseberry bush grows.

Have a great day!

We have at least nice weather.

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A short one today because my back is killing me. I have rheumatism in my spine and mostly it’s ok, well I always have back pain but it is bearable. Today however it isn’t. I once destroyed my stomach with an anti inflammatory medicine, it was amazingly good but also pretty aggressive towards my stomach, so now days I can’t even take anti inflammatory medicines for kids.

     

I can take some of the ointments (not too much though because then I get stomach problems) but I don’t have any at home so the only thing that helps is to move around, it’s when I’ve been still for a minute or two that the pain starts again, so it’ll be fun to try and go down stairs after writing this 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll put the rice bag in the micro and towards my back and hope for the best. No use in staying home from work either because if there anything I do at work while painting is to move around and stretch my body in all kinds of strange angles 🙂 🙂 🙂

  It was rather warm when we were out walking.  

Wonderful weather here today though, even though the wind is even stronger today. I need to water those trees I planted yesterday and after that fall down in to my recliner. If the back gets too bad and I can’t get up a recliner is amazingly nice to sleep in 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll make sure to bring an ice cream on the way there 🙂 🙂 🙂

In my garden right now. Marsh marigold in the root zone.
My two Nanking cherry bushes now have loads of buds
and even some open flowers. I do hope I’ll get loads of berries this year 🙂
White Checkered lily.
The Yellow wood anemone is starting to spread, normally the white one is stronger and push a lot of other flowers away but this yellow one have pushed away the white one 🙂
This one looks like a failed experiment to be honest but give it a week and it’ll look very different. Also a Yellow wood anemone.

Have a great day!

It finally arrived :-)

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The warm and sunny weather sure took its time to arrive today, the morning was chilly and rainy so we didn’t go out for our morning walk until just before noon and it was still really cold. Then suddenly it changed and the temperature has risen to 20 C (68 F), the sun is shining even though there are big clouds in the sky and, of course, there is now a strong wind blowing.

     

That has helped the laundry to dry in five seconds so I really can’t complain too much 🙂 I don’t think it took fiver minutes after the sun started to shine through the gaps in the clouds before I heard the first mower 🙂 Yes the grass has grown pretty much but why can’t they just relax at least for one day before they start 🙂 🙂

     

I didn’t care about mowing the lawn, instead I’ve brought up almost all plants from the cool cellar. I only have four cacti down there still because I need to get more plants outside before I have enough space by the windows 🙂 I even brought the pawpaw seedlings I had down there outside, three of them but decided that the three I have indoors by the kitchen window can wait for a while. One never knows when we’ll get a nasty cold frosty night again.

The Camellias started to flower in the cool cellar.

 

I bought a hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) and it too was touched a bit hard by frost, like the trees I also got delivered late this week. So I decided to take a few cuttings that can over winter in the cool cellar neat winter. I took a few photos of how I do that that You can see here below. The Hardy Fuchsia doesn’t survive like a big bush here though but the roots survives and starts all over next year. It’s always best to put dry leafs over it all just in case we do get another cold winter. One can of course also have it as a pot plant and keep it light but cool during the winters.

The best soil to have while planting cuttings are usually sowing soil. I didn’t have any so I mixed ordinary soil with some sand from my garden, mix it well.
As You can see the cuttings did look a bit sad after the frost so I don’t know if they’ll work but it’s worth a try. I can take new ones later in summer.
One only need a short stem, just make sure that at the bottom there have been leafs. Take away those because that’s where the new roots will start to grow. This one didn’t have any leafs at all but they usually work anyway.
This one looks better. Two leafs taken away at the bottom and two leafs at the top. Most people think this is too short but it’s actually just enough.
Plant the cuttings along the edge of the pot, more oxygen will reach where the leafs will grow and the risk of them rotting because of too much water is lesser. Normally I don’t put a see through cover,, like plastic, around the pot but since there were hit by frost I thought it might help. Place the pot by a window that doesn’t get any sunshine and wait for them to grow to new plants 🙂

Tomorrow will be a bit cooler than today but still above 10 C (50 F) and then on Tuesday it’ll go back to more what we’ve had this afternoon, I do hope this was the last cold period until autumn arrives again, I’m really tired of the cold weather we’ve had lately. I wonder how Malkolm think about warmer weather, so far all his life has been pretty cold, all three months of it 🙂

Alma and Malkolm have been playing all day long so they are both now snoring loudly 🙂

Have a great day!

They say it’ll be warm next week but I’ll believe it if it happens :-)

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This day took its time to become reasonable warm and nice, mostly it felt like winter was coming back and the clouds up in the sky looked like solid led. But it did eventually become warmer and the drizzle we had before noon stopped to drizzle and then the sun finally showed itself.

     

Now new clouds have arrived and tomorrow will eventually become pretty warm, almost 20 C (68 F) but first we’ll have to go through much the same weather we had today but with lots more rain. It will however not be freezing cold during the night and it looks like nights will stay like that for the ten coming days. Then again we all know how our weather forecasts are so it can be the opposite as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We walked down to the creek in the morning and Alma finally was calmer than she has been lately. Malkolm walks really well leashed and Nova is never a problem so for once I didn’t have to put 90% of both my energy and time on keeping control of Alma. She behaved much better when we later in the day walked to the bog so there might be a tiny bit of hope that she’ll calm down eventually 🙂 🙂 🙂 She didn’t even scream when we saw four deer in the fields and that’s really unusual.

     

I’ve managed to make my brother slightly obcessed by cameras too now 🙂 Sometimes he buys something, then regrets it and ships it to me 🙂 🙂 So today I have some times used an Olympus E-420. Like all old cameras it has a mind of its own so every now and again it just changes all settings I’ve just programmed so I have to do it all again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Overall for being such an old camera I think it was pretty good and will most likely use it every now and again when I want to have a very light camera with me, my Nikons are not heavy but compared to this one they are heavy weight 🙂

   

The Maples are in bloom.

I’ll go out in to my garden tomorrow when it is raining and sow grass seeds because 24 years with dogs really wear the grass down but I’ll also sow annuals in the old vegetable patch. I have already done that but then the winter came back so I suspect some of what I sowed might have frozen to death during that time. I’ll pick up most of what’s left in my cool cellar and place it on the north side of the cottage.There really isn’t any place here now where the sun doesn’t reach at any time of the day. Soon the sun will rise north- east (north north-east to be honest) and it is already setting at north-west and soon at north north-west. It is always best if the sun can’t reach those plants because just like us humans that will get burned by the sun easily in the beginning so will leafs too.

All the following photos are from the Olympus camera.

I’ll also plant some of what’s already standing outside, I was going to figure that out today but time flew so I’ll have to do that tomorrow instead. I’ll also go through the dog yard to check after weak spots and fix them so that Alma can’t escape 🙂 🙂 🙂 We’ve been up since 4 am because Malkolm woke me up after he had pooped beside my bed. I see that as a good sign because he didn’t tell me at all just a few days ago 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest though, he hadn’t have to wake me up because that small was so bad that not even a dead person would have missed it 🙂 🙂 🙂 If this had been a working day this accident would most likely not have happened because 4 am is the time the alarm starts so I can go to work.

     

It is time to bring them all out for a last time today and hopefully he will soon understand that it always is best to wake me up before he does anything because if he does he will get a treat and he does like a treat. His appetite comes from the Golden Retriever in him, the barking indoors comes from the English Cockerspaniel so I wonder what will show from the Border collie? He doesn’t seem to herding at all but loves to stop at every spot where animals have walked, I’ve never heard that about Border collies 🙂

Lung worth.
Leopards bane.
White Wood Anemone.
Yellow Wood Anemone.

Have a great day!

Dogs, sometimes I wonder :-)

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One of my Camellias has been standing outside when the nights were so horrible cold and it hasn’t looked this healthy in many years.

The day started well but it was well below freezing point outside so I had to scrape the car windows before going to work. We had wonderful morning mist, the kind where one could see the fog roll away like big waves over the ground, so I picked up the camera I had in the car and of course the battery was dead 🙂 🙂  The morning mist was even better down by the lake so I was a bit annoyed by myself for not checking the camera after I used it last week. So lets hope it’ll be much the same tomorrow morning.

All the Apricot trees have been standing outside those cold nights as well and they too look good.
I was sure the Himalayan Cedars were more or less dead after this winter, I forgot to water them, but now one can see that new needles are growing out 🙂

Even the grape vine cuttings look good and they barely have any roots yet.

I came to work a bit early but started to work almost directly because today there was one more that didn’t come to work, high fever this time, so I had to check the huge washing machine that cleans all the things we’re going to paint. None of those being at home yesterday turned up today either. So today we were five short at the painting department but that would be worse later on.

     

Because I suddenly had a phone call from my neighbor telling me that Alma had escaped the dog yard once again. This time she had managed to rip off the fence from the ground. The gap wasn’t more than 25 cm (10 inches) wide and perhaps 15cm (6 inches) high. I have no idea how she, who is quite big, slightly bigger than a German Shepherd, could squeeze through that hole. My neighbor told me that he had tried to make her go back but when he came too close to Malkolm (they were both rather stressed by this), still in the dog yard, she changed the sound of her voice so he would rather call me 🙂 🙂 🙂

He’s going for her stick.
He’s catching up really good.
He loses his balance though.
Well it is nice to lay down in the grass as well 🙂

I have no idea why she keeps on doing this because she doesn’t go anywhere and she never manages to go back which is what she always wants to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I had to leave work and go home to fix the problem and then go back to work again. I really couldn’t be angry at her but now I think she has learned that if she does like this I’ll come home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 The only time that dog use her brain for more than fifteen seconds is when she calculates how to get out from the dog yard. She must have worked on this place in the fence for quite some time before she finally could squeeze out from that hole 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Red leafed Elderberry tree.
Leopards bane, seems to survive any condition 🙂

On my way home the Beekeeper also sent me a text message that Alma was outside. She’s the kindest there is but one day she’ll do this when someone comes driving, then again everyone knows she can turn up anytime so everyone drives really slowly on this gravel road 🙂 At least the dogs were happy to see me even if it only was for a few minutes 🙂

Have a great day!

The table has finally arrived.

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It wasn’t a lucky day for my work place today. One was at home with migraines, one was at home for back pain, one managed to injure himself so his eyebrow was torn up and he started bleeding like crazy and had to be driven to the hospital and then I went home because I had to sign for a package that they just refused to leave outside my door.

   

Gooseberry bush in the wild. Those gooseberries are delicious but very small and the bush is the thorniest one can find. I did the mistake to bring in one to my garden once. As soon as a branch hits the ground it creates roots and spreads insanely quick. Those thorns are horrible to be stung by and they tend to stay inside the foot as well 🙂

The package, my new table for the living room, was going to be delivered some time between 11 am and 3 pm. I was also going to pick up a package at the grocery store in Gudhem today and managed to do that before 11 am. That package was the Tea bush I ordered for quite some time ago. I was really stressed by the time I came home so naturally the table arrived almost exactly at 3 pm 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is starting to green up 🙂

 

Yellow wood anemone.

So I managed to fall asleep in the recliner and the two big dogs in the sofa and Malkolm in the dog igloo 🙂  The weather could have been worse today, not especially warm but sunshine every now and again plus almost no wind to speak of. So we had a quite nice walk after the table had arrived. It will be slightly warmer from now on but we’ll also get rain and on Friday even some snow.

Her favorite spot on hot summers days 🙂 Also works when it’s cold in the air but the sun is shining 🙂

   

The new table is much smaller but have a shelf under the table top (which is made of glass), so I placed one gardening book there, one crime novel and the book Doctor sleep written by Stephen King if You for some reason didn’t know that 🙂 I love that book but I have no wish what so ever to see the movie, I have a tendency to get in to horror movies a bit too much and that’s not good when living at the outskirts of the world where imagination can carry You away a bit too much 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We’ve already had our dinners but I feel that I might have the last orange or perhaps an ice cream or why not both 🙂 I’m going to the store tomorrow anyway 🙂

Alma can become a bit jealous if Malkolm spend time with Nova, she just place herself between them until either of the two other leave 🙂

Have a great day!

Storm again.

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I could find five House sparrows in the wild rose, can You find them 🙂 I had at least the big original photo to look at 🙂

If You don’t think about the rain that fell or the storm strength winds all day this has been a really nice day 🙂 🙂 🙂 We have actually had a lot of sunshine as well so the laundry dried up really fast 🙂 I had some extra laundry today because Malkolm the little monster decided it would be nicer to stay in bed and pee than to go out to the rainy world 🙂 I really have no good place where thick fleece blankets can dry so I was at that moment and only then quite happy about the strong wind and sunshine 🙂

     

I was a bit hesitant about having a walk today. We did eventually go out and walked to the bog, I really didn’t want to get caught in any eventual shower passing by, then again walking in the forest when the winds were as strong as they were today wasn’t a good idea either. The trees swayed a bit too much and at one place big branches fell off a pine just after we had passed it.

     

After our walk not only did I do the laundry I also baked a bread and tried to make a pizza base. I left some of the dough from the bread, added some more flour (today I added rice flour since it doesn’t taste much in it self) and spread it really thin on the baking sheet. It was ok but rose unevenly and it was over all a bit too thick. I have at least now tried it and will try something else next time.

     

After that we all had a long nap. Alma and Nova in one of the sofas and Malkolm and I in the recliner. One really sleep well in a recliner 🙂 Then I realized that I had forgotten to wash my working t-shirts so I had to do that as well. This time I just put them in a bucket and washed them by hand, they are easy drying, sort of feels like wearing some kind of plastic but always feel dry no matter how much one sweats 🙂 Just as I hung them outside to dry in the wind and sunshine a hail storm passed by followed by some rain, something the weather sites said didn’t happen (they also show what kind of weather we’ve been having) 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

After the willows the Grape elder is always first to flower.

To be honest I would love to have another long nap, I’m just as tired as I was before. It’s pollen time so I guess that’s why. Runny nose,eyes that feels old and always tired, life is wonderful sometimes 🙂

Have a great day!

There’s at least no snow here now.

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The Crane couple that nests not far from the cottage walked around in the cow pasture when we went out on our morning walk. They are used to me and my dogs going out there every day so they didn’t really care about us.

I can’t pretend that we had a wonderful weather here today but the temperature rose above 10C (50F), there was no wind in the early morning when we had our morning walk but it did rain. First mostly drizzle but the closer we got to home the more it rained. It stopped shortly after we were in the cottage again 🙂

 

The ground is saturated with water now, there’s only sand in the ground so when the water stays like this there isn’t any more space for more water.

We went out to the bog even though Nova wanted to go down to the creek. I wasn’t sure about the rain and if it would become worse so I preferred to not walk too far from home. She was a bit grumpy at first but since now both her and Malkolm stops to sniff on the ground every second meter she sort of looked satisfied after a while. Alma went insane like always so I really can’t say what she thought about it 🙂

   

The wild hogs are slowly but steadily destroying the roads here now.

All the birds seemed to love this weather though, they’ve been singing all day but I think that 99% of the House sparrow and Field sparrow population around here stayed beneath the roof on my patio 🙂 The Cranes in the pasture definitely liked the rain, I guess it brought out all the frogs so they could have a big breakfast 🙂

     

Two days ago, after work, I was going to have something to eat in front of the tv, just as I was about to sit down a puppy suddenly stood between my feet so I lost my balance. It all went really slowly so I just leaned towards the table and to my big surprise I continued slowly towards the floor. One of the table legs broke so both the table and I continued down to the floor in a very slow speed 🙂 🙂 🙂 So yesterday I ordered a new table that will arrive most likely on Wednesday or Thursday.

     

I’ve placed the broken table leg so that I still can use it as long as none of the dogs run in to the table 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really should have bought another table at the same time I bought my sofas but even though the old table was pretty ugly it still worked and I thought I just as well could use it until it finally gave up 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Winter decided we shouldn’t think spring was here :-)

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So this week has in many ways been rather terrible when it comes to the weather. On Tuesday we had around 40 cm (16 inches) of snow falling. I really didn’t like it at all, especially since it also went pretty cold. Easter was warm and friendly, it was fun to have a puppy in the house, You already know that a new puppy is living here again and during Easter we could stay outdoors all day. Then winter came back and I really couldn’t leave a puppy in the dog house/yard with that ammount of snow plus cold weather because a puppy wouldn’t understand that he would have to stay in the nice dog house all day long.

     

He would be playing with Alma and even though she would most likely have stayed in the garage it still wouldn’t be especially warm there. I really didn’t want to come home to a puppy with pneumonia. So thankfully they understood at work so I have been at home this week hating the weather because we really couldn’t take any walks while it snowed and was so cold. To make it even more fun it snowed again on Thursday, this time just a little but it was already impossible for a puppy to go anywhere. Well we were out but I had to carry him almost all the time.

     

Today however it’s warmer, tomorrow will be even warmer than today and on Sunday they’re guessing it’ll really warm and that we’ll have warm weather the entire next week. So back to work on Monday it is 🙂 So the new guy is nine weeks old on Monday and his ancestry is Border collie (50%) , English Cockerspaniel and Golden retriever (25% each). He didn’t look like any of his parents to be honest and was the most long haired of them all. My guess is that he most likely will look something like a wrong colored Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever 🙂 At first I guessed that he might look like a smaller wrong colored Golden though.

If You wonder why I don’t have any photos of Nova it’s because she tends to prefer staying indoors sleeping 🙂

 

Thankfully my neighbor works in a super market so I have been able to get what I need when it comes to food 🙂 I have a few tins in the cool cellar just in case something would happen so I mostly use them now because their dates are closing in. A couple are too old but can one eat them? they’ve been stored cool all the time so would it be ok to eat them? Two tins with ham are spoiled otherwise and that would be a shame. Well I just remembered that I’m on the internet right now and I micro biologist said no problem to eat but the taste might have become less tasty. Just put the tin in boiling water for a couple of minutes or more and it’s quite edible. Well I’ll do that with one of the ham tins and if it smells ok I’ll take a tiny bit and hope to survive 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Male Chaffinch.

Alma has finally understood that it is ok to tell Malkolm when he goes to far, like chewing on her hamstring with his sharp teeth or chewing on her tail while she’s walking away 🙂 🙂 Nova does what she can to avoid him when he’s too much (which is almost all of the time 🙂 ) I’ll have to make her a raised bed so that he can’t terrorize her while I’m at work, she’s after all almost 18 now. He’s not a cuddly dog at all, he is very much Nova in that way. He usually sleeps on the floor on my slippers beside the bed. he has once or twice wanted to be in the bed but only for a few minutes. He’s very much Alma when it comes to energy though.

     

He did however sleep for hours after our walk this morning, despite him not walking much at all. So much new things to see, hear and smell so that was what tired him out. Many people believe that they need to run around and spend energy all day to be tired in the evening but it is actually using the brain that tires them out. So Alma wouldn’t have become a calm dog if I could have been running with her every day, she would just have become a dog with even more energy but with the same problems and I’m pretty sure that would have killed me 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It is time to have something to eat and when I leave the computer Malkolm will wake up so I better pick him up and take him outside so he doesn’t pee in the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂

Then he decided that he didn’t want to sit on the tree stump
but didn’t realize how deep the snow was 🙂
So I had him in a backpack when we went out and had it hanging on my front side so I could have an eye on him and make sure he wouldn’t try to jump out 🙂

Have a great day!

Cataract in my right eye.

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It’s snowing outside, still just tiny flakes but I’ve seen photos taken not far from here where they are much bigger. It has rained on and off all day and now when the temperature is dropping it turns to snow instead. Tomorrow will be sunny they say but above freezing temperatures (barely) so hopefully it will all melt away quickly.

     

More and more Cranes are arriving to the lake and today the nesting couple nesting closest to my cottage arrived, they started trumpeting loudly when they landed in the cow pasture on the other side of the gravel road. I know it’s too early to say winter won’t make a come back but those trumpeting Cranes made it easier to actually believe it won’t 🙂

     

I had an appointment with my optician yesterday, I need new glasses and they always do a eye health check when I’m there. Turns out I have cataract in my right eye. I have actually suspected something was going on, sometimes I feel like I have something in the eye that sort of make my eye sight even less good. He said that this can go quickly, six months and I’ll need a new lens or it can stay like this until the day I die, feels good that he could narrow it down that much 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I guess I’ll call my health center to see what to do next.

     

I’m not surprised because lots of people in my family have had it so I guess I would be the next in line. Two pair of glasses, progressive, and now $ 520 US poorer 🙂 It’s almost that I look forward to new lenses in the eye, just imagine how nice it would be to not having to wear glasses all the time, if for no other reason that it will be much cheaper  🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll pick them up on Maundy Thursday. She asked when in the day I would like to be there and I said that any time that I can leave work but not having to go back again that day, so I’ll be there just after noon 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

 

Winter weather again.

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The little lake behind my garage.

So the Swedish rounds of the Eurovision Song Contest is over for this year. Two Norwegian brothers, twins, won this year and their win was really big. Not my cup of tea but they can sing without taking a single false tune, can dance and seems to be genuinely nice guys so I’m pretty sure they’ll end up amongst the top five when the Final is in May here in Sweden. Malmö is hosting, our third biggest city just opposite Copenhagen in Denmark. My favorite came second and is very different to the winner but both the international jury and we Swedes wanted the twins to win and when both agree we usually end up amongst the top five.

     

I doubt we’ll win because down in Europe they’ve come to dislike our songs just because we tend to end up amongst the top five 🙂 🙂 🙂 We have after all now won the whole shebang seven times. Only Ireland has done that before. The weather has been indoor weather for two days now, cold, windy and some snow falling. Ok the snowfall was so tiny and so were the flakes that it was hardly noticiable on the ground but it was annoying anyway 🙂

     

I stayed home from work last Thursday and Friday because of an accident, nothing serious happened to me, bruising and a scrape. We were lifting things weighing 44Kg (97 pound) and we do that with a magnet. This thing is flat on the side I stood and has a sort of sharp edge all around. I was prepared with hooks when it was high enough to be hanged on the chain that transports the thing through the factory. Suddenly the magnet came loose and the thing fell down. I was hit on my right hand, then it hit my left knee, scraped my right shin and had it come just a half centimeter (a fifth of an inch) it would have cut off my toes on the right foot. Now it landed on the toe-cap instead so I didn’t realize that until I tried to walk away 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

No serious injury but I have been fairly sour until now. It’s still a bit tender but nothing worse. Even though it was very unlucky to be hit I did have luck with the weather those two days, no wind, sunny and warm enough to have the kitchen door open all day 🙂 But as I said today and yesterday were quite different. Winter jacket on and I should have worn mittens because the wind made it so cold that I couldn’t feel my fingers when we came home again this morning 🙂

     

I’ll be warmer again in a couple of days and I think the Cranes will arrive with the warmer weather and better winds. I’ve seen a few circling around high up in the air but that’s it. Lots of geese and swans here now though plus all the smaller birds already singing their spring songs. Still plenty of birds by the feeders though, especially many forest birds because they are now thinning out the trees, they’ll only take the biggest trees and leave the rest but before they started they also cut down almost all those smaller trees and bushes where the smaller birds nests and find food. We’ll I’ll continue to feed them for as long as they come here.

     

Have a great day!