Category: Cold.

I truly, truly hate winter.

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So I was sitting here by the computer yesterday evening and everything looked fine. Not outside because the temperature had fallen down to -21C (-5,8F) and I was worried that we might get back those horribly low winter temperatures we had just 20 years ago (-30C (-22F) ). It didn’t look good because the sky was clear and I could see all the stars. Well that looked good but the temperature dropped so fast that it didn’t look good 🙂 🙂

I walked downstairs and thought it looked a bit dark, I had left a couple of lights on but none of them were shining. I started to try anything electrical and realised that a fuse must have died. The thing is that when they renovated this cottage long ago they sort of made a new electrical system for the new parts. So I have  six main fuses instead of the normal three. I have one of the systems outside and the second part down in. the cool cellar. Here is when things get strange because even though the cellar belongs to the new part it still is tired through the old part 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I have so many fuses that it’s ridiculous 🙂 🙂 🙂 So half the kitchen had no power, no power in the living room and no power in my bedroom except for one outlet and thankfully the radiator was connected to that one 🙂 🙂

I had no power in the living room at all or the hallway and in the part of the kitchen that didn’t have any power I still had it in one outlet and that’s the one my incinerator toilet is connected to 🙂 🙂 besides that no power in the bathroom. So I was at least lucky that all but one radiators still worked so I brought an extra radiator to the living room and connected it to an outlet on the new part of the cottage. I’m so glad I never throw any kind of electrical cord away 🙂 🙂 Most people around here have the switch kind of fuse box but I found one place here in the village who still had the old kind of fuses. I really didn’t want to dig out the car from the snow so I had to walk to them to get a fuse. So I’ve learned that even if no fuse have given up the last twenty years it’s still good to have a couple of extra at home 🙂

The temperature dropped down to -22C (-7,6F but then thankfully clouds arrived and this morning it almost fell warm even though it still was -7 (19,4F) Even the dogs liked it when we went out for our morning walk and I do hope they’re wrong when they say the clouds will go away and that it’ll be nasty cold tonight again. I usually get tired of the clouds but right now I want them to stay 🙂

Have a great day!

Nasty cold!

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So last night was cold, the temperature dropped down to a bit lower than 19C (2,2F). The sky was clear so there was nothing stopping what was left of the heat from going straight out to space. Tonight will be even colder they say and it is already -16.4C (2,48F). The weather sites says it’s only -13C (8,6F) at the moment and won’t fall that much more 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did go out for a morning walk when it was slightly less cold but the dogs changed their minds after a while. Malkolm refused to walk where there was less snow for some reason so his paws got really cold and I did warm them up but that did only help for a short while. Thankfully my neighbours had to buy food so they helped me with a few things because I had no wish what so ever to be out driving when it was that cold 🙂 🙂 🙂

They say that it will be much warmer the coming week and even above 0C (32F) from Wednesday and for the rest of the week but since they can’t get what temperature we have now right why would I believe them about what might happen later in the week 🙂 🙂 🙂

So it has been a lot of tea drinking most of the day, so I have already had that last cup because what goes in must come out 🙂 and so far not all has come out 🙂 I think I’ll make myself some warm sandwiches  and try to stay close to the radiators for the rest of the day 🙂 🙂 I truly hate winter!

Have a great day!

It does at least not snow.

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Nothing much to write about today, the wind is back and is nasty cold but for most of the day it didn’t reach my cottage or reach in to the forest. Now it clearly reach the cottage and the kitchen feels a bit chilly. Now both big weather sites says cold during Sunday and Monday but one says -13C (8,6F) and the other says -16C (3,2F) I really don’t like either of those options 🙂 🙂 Two days after they say above 0C (32F). cold roads with melting water will be fun to drive on.

I could almost see the sun but those blue gaps in the clouds were never in the right place 🙂

No mice have been caught in the cool cellar but the monster has been very interested in going down there and of course I let her do it. She tells me when she think it is enough 🙂 Lots of people are sick here now, lots of coughing and nose dripping 🙂 So far I’ve been spared but I do feel tired all the time but that can also be because the lack of sunshine.

We walked down to the creek this morning and as long as we walked on the gravel road everything was fine but then we followed the creek and only had our old tracks to walk in and the wind had blow a lot of snow in those tracks so it was like walking in potato flour, I never knew what way I would slide 🙂 🙂 It was even worse in the fields because the perfectly smooth snow surface didn’t show where the wild hogs had been digging 🙂 :-)Sometimes the snow barely reached the sole of my shoes, sometimes I stood in knee deep snow 🙂 🙂 🙂

Not a sign in the snow where the wild hogs have been digging 🙂

It was even a bit too much for the dogs in the end and the walk took much longer than normal. I didn’t mind the longer time especially but I did mind the wind that hit us all the time. I could barely feel my hands when we came back home. It was so nice to be able to sit down and have a cup of tea just doing nothing after we had come back.

I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and to fall asleep in the recliner. I’ll have to have the alarm on though because today it’s On the Tracks on tv, something I actually like to watch 🙂

Have a great day!

Cold and sowing bananas.

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WordPress is really slow today and has been for a while but I hope it will allow me to post something. We had a warning about heavy snowfall today but barely nothing extra had fallen when we went out on our morning walk. I could even see some blue spots up there in the clouds.

We walked out to the bog and I must say that Alma has become much better now, ok she still have these high pitch whining that drives me crazy but they are fewer now days and Malkolm has really learned how not pulling the leash makes my mood so much better :-)There was some new snow on the ground but it was still pretty easy to walk in the tire tracks the hunters had made two days ago.

So it wasn’t until we walked in to the forest that walking became a bit harder, it is like walking in potato starch, two steps ahead and one back so to speak 🙂 but then the sun broke through and we had a huge blue opening in the clouds and that made life so much easier, even the walking in the snow 🙂 🙂 When we reached the end of the peninsula roe deer were jumping around everywhere 🙂 I did manage to get photos of one that stood still but the rest were like bouncing balls 🙂

It tried to stand so still that we wouldn’t see it.The sun kept shining almost the entire way home and when I had closed the door behind us the snow started to fall and it was a lot of snow falling. It didn’t last for long that time but it came back several times and enough of it for the guy that plows our road to get out working. Now the weather sites seems to have lined up and says the same thing, just a little more snow but nasty cold instead, especially during the weekend. I’m not happy about that at all but can’t really do anything else than to except it 🙂 Well they aren’t too good in guessing the weather so it can be just the opposite instead 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have a sandwich or two at the same time. I baked a couple of loafs yesterday and they turned out really good, no I can’t make the same again because I just tossed in what kind of leftover flour I had at home 🙂 🙂 But to be honest, I think that it actually is the cheese I put in that make all the difference 🙂 I’ve also started with the sowing today, two different bananas, Oriental raisin tree and Chinese dogwood.

These are the seeds to the Pink Banana. I soaked them in hot water over night.
I then placed them in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic bag. Now they hang over the kitchen radiator so they will be as warm as possible.
This is the seeds for the Ethiopian Banana. Ten times bigger but will be treated the same but soak in that water for a couple of days.

Haste great day!

A day free from snowing.

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Bullfinches looking for food.

No big difference today compared to yesterday but it didn’t snow for once. It will start to snow again tonight but after that the two big weather sites once again have different opinions. Yesterday it was the Norwegian site that said nasty cold during the winter and the Swedish just bitter cold, today it’s the opposite and according to the Swedish site we’ll have snow falling for two days while the Norwegian says one.

Yesterday evening I thought it would be very cold here because my brother living on an island by the sea had it much colder than here and so was a friend living by our biggest lake, Vänern. That never happened here, it was just the normal cold temperature so I feel like that was a sort of win for us here because it’s always much colder here during winter. We get it back when summer comes though because it’s always a couple degrees warmer here. An old garden enthusiast said it’s because of the big bog, it is so big that it makes its own miso climate. Big lakes and oceans evens out the temperatures while big bogs like this one do the opposite and so far I’ve never been able to prove him wrong 🙂

No mice in the box trap this morning but later in the day when I had let the monster down there, she sits outside and looks at me until I open the door so that she can walk down, I heard a rumble that can’t be anything else than she chasing a mouse.  I haven’t checked if I can find any victim but she usually eat up her victims so I’m not sure I would even find any signs of it.

I had to pick up a parcel in Gudhem today. I have a couple on the way and all have different delivery companies so I was a bit unsure what it was I was going to pick up 🙂 Today it was all the stories that the Grimm brothers had collected. All these stories comes from different origins and to get one story, like Cinderella, they had to combine several local stories to one. Some of those local stories were so bad, even for that time, that the brothers actually had to censor them 🙂 🙂 It’ll be interesting to see if they are anything different to what I read when I was growing up because those stories shouldn’t be read to children (but they were because I grew up in the stone ages 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and if they were censored I can’t imagine how bad the original stories were 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll start reading those stories when I have that tea ready 🙂

Have a great day!

More snow will come or perhaps not :-)

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Hunters were out in the forest this morning because it didn’t snow, they wouldn’t have if it had snowed they said 🙂 So I drove to the supermarket while they were out there. I actually woke up pretty late today, at least the last time 🙂 The dogs needed top go outside just before four am and afterwards we went back to bed for a while 🙂 I woke up well after eight am 🙂

The smaller roads were no fun to drive on but the big one to Skara was pretty good actually. The reason I drove today was because of snow warnings the coming days. Now when I look at the biggest weather sites they really can’t agree. The big Swedish one says snow and the same temperature as today (around -6C (21,2F) but the Norwegian one, the one I trust the most, says no snow but bitterly cold. I don’t want it even colder but then again I don’t want more snow either 🙂

Wild hogs had been working on the forest road before the hunters arrived 🙂

I used a big brush when I went out to remove all the snow in front and on the car. It was so fluffy that it only took a few minutes but the snow on the car had melted to a thick ice sheet.It was more or less impossible to remove that on the car roof but the ice on the windows was sort of fragile so I didn’t even have cold fingers when I was done 🙂

I’m so glad that our hunters are a bit lazy because instead of walking to where they are supposed to be they take their cars. To be honest I can understand them because it is so hard to walk on this fluffy and dry snow because nothing can get a good grip while walking in it. Anyway that helped me a lot when we finally could have a walk because the cars are so heavy that I could walk in the car tracks and actually get a grip. Only when walking on the road of course but still. I walked in their foot steps in the forest and that didn’t help at all 🙂 🙂 🙂

There were lots of tracks from mostly wild hogs and roe deer and the occasional fox as well but this weather make the animals stay where they are. I guess it’s just nice to get out and get fresh air and saying they’ll hunt is just a good excuse to get out of their homes 🙂 Well it is time for that last cup of tea for the day but I think I’ll instead have a last cup of coffee. Waking up so late as I did today sort of mess up my day, I don’t have a headache as I usually get when that happens but my brain is sort of a few seconds behind if You understand what I mean 🙂

Have a great day!

Tomorrow we’ll get even more.

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I think we now have gotten three dm (12 inches) of snow and more will come tomorrow. at the moment the flakes are tiny and few though. It did still snow a lot when we. went out for our morning walk and it looks like both Alma and Malkolm loves it 🙂 🙂 The monster however is not a happy cat at the moment, she did go outside but wanted to go in again after just a few minutes. She hates it so much that she even use the cat litter box 🙂 🙂 This is really her first real winter when she can go in and out as she pleases, last winter I stopped her from going out in the snow and I think she liked that 🙂 🙂 🙂

I saw this generator outside the now empty neighbour cottage (and heard it but it is fairly quiet). I think the owner has been so cheap that he cut off the electricity when the last couple moved away. Apparently the water pipes froze!! Of course they will when there’s no heat in the building!! This time he wanted even more money for the place but no one showed any interest what so ever and now it has been taken away from the biggest web broker. So like always with some people, they rather let it fall apart than sell it for a price someone wants to pay.

We walked down to the creek and I was lucky that hunters had been out during the night because I could walk where the wheels had pressed down the snow. It is a fluffy kind of snow so the shoes, even studded ones like I have, really can’t get a good grip. That only lasted until the creek and after that I had to slid around hoping to get some kind of grip so I wouldn’t slip down in to the creek 🙂 It is all covered in ice and snow but not even the lighter animals have tried to walk on it yet.

It was as worst when walking over the field where the wild hogs had dug up it all. The snow lay nice and smooth disguising where all the pits were, thankfully Malkolm walked first so I I followed him and only stepped down in a few pits the entire way 🙂 The wind has calmed down quite a lot thankfully but only for a few days they’re guessing. Also when looking at the weather sites yesterday the temperature would drop down to nasty cold but today they’re guessing it will just be bitterly cold 🙂 🙂 With some luck it’ll stay more or less like it is now because to hope for even warmer weather seems to be pointless at the moment.

Have You ever heard about Baba Vance? it was a blind Bulgarian woman that predicted the future. I haven’t read about any of them to be honest but her followers said she amongst other things predicted the Covid hitting us and last years economic predicaments. I guess like always in these cases her predictions is just enough vague so it can fit anything and therefore come true 🙂 Anyway for this year her predictions, according to her followers of course, says the third world war will start and involves Russia, The USA and China. Also this is the year we’ll meet aliens from space for the first time.

One touch and all that snow falls down on the passer by 🙂

After the last days events the world war doesn’t seem to be too strange but will the Aliens arrive before or after Trumpty Dumpty starts the world war? I sort of hopes it is after because who would want to be embarrassed by having any of those leaders welcoming visitors from space? Senile Trumpty, insane Putin or Horrible calculating Xi (the man who forbid Winnie the Pooh because they look so much alike 🙂 )? and make them think we all are like that? Well if they come after they’ll know for sure that we weren’t the sharpest knives in the universe 🙂 🙂 🙂 Perhaps they can restore the planet again but not any kind of ape because the same thing would most likely happen again if any of us were still here. Well the Bonobo could stay, they are anything but violent to be honest.

It is time to make a pot of tea and just relax for the rest of the day doing nothing 🙂 Perhaps I should try the old pencil again, I found the three drawings I’ve for some reason saved from back in the days and remembered how much I liked to draw, then again a good book isn’t bad either 🙂

Have a great day!

I really don’t like winter.

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It has been snowing since last night and it will continue to do so for at least two more days. The flakes are smaller though so it only builds up rather slowly. I really don’t like winter! It does look like people are taking it easy in the traffic though, so far I’ve only read about one accident involving two cars and a bus.

I don’t think I would have hated it this much if it wasn’t for the wind, it reaches all the way in to the forest as well and since I wear glasses it only takes five seconds before I can’t see anything 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t have moved outside the garden at all if it wasn’t for the dogs 🙂 They didn’t seem to be bothered at all and they followed tracks not visible because of the new snow that covered them. I must say they did behave really well today and I didn’t hear especially much whining from Alma, perhaps she has finally understood that it isn’t necessary to make sound all the time 🙂 🙂 Well I doubt it but I value the times she actually is quiet 🙂

I wished that I had something sweet to have with my tea but had nothing at home and no matter how much I wanted something I sure wouldn’t drive anywhere in this weather, so I baked a sponge cake (the Swedish name for it would be sugar cake and thinking about how much sugar there is in a sponge cake I think our name is more appropriate 🙂 🙂 ). I checked online for gluten free ones and as always I didn’t follow the recipe especially much 🙂 🙂 Most of those recipes says to use a flour mix and those flour mixes are usually just some kind of starch and usually taste horrible. So I took what I had and I must say that it turned out so well that I wish I could remember what I used 🙂 🙂 🙂

There was a tiny forest mouse in the trap this morning and since I thought it shouldn’t sit in that tiny space I moved it to the travel cage I bought. When I came down to fetch it and walk to the forest with it the little bugger had chewed its way through the plastic!! I hadn’t even gone an hour! so from now on they’ll need to stay in the trap and have a much more uncomfortable journey to the forest. I can hear it in the walls and I think it is laughing at me 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll have what’s left of the sponge cake 🙂 I did put half a banana in it but to be honest I couldn’t feel any banana taste. I guess it wasn’t ripe enough and perhaps I should have used the entire banana and not just half of it. I’ll know better the next time this happen 🙂

Have a great day!

I wish You a good ending of this year and a good new year.

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So it is the last day of the year and it did at least end with beautiful weather but a bit too chilly for my taste. It was cloudy when we went out on our morning walk but as soon as we reached the cottage again the sun showed and continued to shine for most of the day. The sky is still clear and it is already much colder than they were guessing it would be.

The new year will not start as beautiful though, soon the temperature will rise, even above 0C (32F) and snow will start to fall and it will continue to fall for at least two more days. This time the snow will stay for a while because it doesn’t look like any warmer winds will reach us for the coming ten days. Also no sunshine either so I can’t say I like it at all 🙂 🙂

I usually try to plan my shopping for either Fridays or Saturdays if possible but they have put out a warning about extreme slipperiness tomorrow plus all the snow they’re guessing will fall but I didn’t realise that before I had put the ribs in the oven. I hate standing in line in stores so I let the ribs be almost done, shut the oven off, left the ribs in the oven and drove to the supermarket before too many people with panic because they’d missed some ingredients for the food tonight arrived or needed something to give to the host of the evenings party and I was lucky 🙂 🙂 They started to arrive when I was on my way out of the store 🙂 The ribs were perfect when I came home 🙂

No fireworks around here tonight, not a good idea to have when we have a big field filled with bulls in the middle of the village 🙂 🙂 🙂 I will be able to hear the fireworks from the towns around us, Like Skara and Falköping and perhaps some from the village Gum. It sounds like muffled thumps but I’ll most likely be asleep anyway so I won’t even hear that 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll most likely read something because tv isn’t what it used to be 🙂 🙂

I wish You all a good ending of this year and a good new year!

I’ve been sleeping so bad lately.

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I’ve slept bad for a few days now and the closer I came to today the worse it got. I haven’t had especially many hours of sleep to be honest and the reason? The annual vehicle inspection 🙂 🙂 🙂 It doesn’t matter how new my car has been and also knowing there’s absolutely no wrong with it, I still have a slight panic when it comes closer 🙂 🙂

These are taken through my kitchen window so they are a bit blurry.

I had the appointment at 7 am today and my first thought when I woke up was, why didn’t I take one later in the day 🙂 🙂 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, I really think we do need this since I want my car and the ones with me in the traffic as good as possible but I just can’t stand it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I knew it wouldn’t pass this year because there’s a clonk sound when I drive over bumps or potholes, I didn’t know why though. Turns out the spring to the front right tire had broken. At the bottom and just a little so it is still safe to drive it. I was also tole that the Lamda value, something to do with the exhaust fumes) was a bit too high. 1,03 is ok but my car had 1,05. My car had that problem last year as well but and it takes a few minutes to fix so no bigger deal.

They build “tipis” several years ago and it looks like they still use them, It’s for the grandkids to the forest owner.

So now it’s over for this time and I know I’ll sleep like a baby tonight 🙂 🙂  Well below 0C (32F) this morning but there was no ice on the car! I had it on the inside instead 🙂 The humidity here is almost always high so it creeps in to the car and when one doesn’t drive every day it builds up inside and I’ll have to dry it off as soon as the motor works and heats up the ice. I drive perhaps once a week now so I’ve just accepted it 🙂 The weeks before when I drove to pick up parcels however I had no such problems at all.

The horrible wind we had yesterday was even more so today, not even the forest managed to keep it away. So I’m now for the first time this winter wearing my winter jacket. The wind will calm down towards Friday but instead we’ll get snow!!! I had hoped we had seen the last of that white garbage this winter 🙂 I know it was stupid because if we’re unlucky winter can continue here until early May but it was a long time ago that happened.

If I had known if we would have an early spring this coming year I would have started the sowing now. Some I think I need to sow now, perennials, bushes and trees that needs a period with cold temperatures to be able to germinate. I also have some things that needs a long growth period before they start to flower, like tomatoes for instance, but it is way too early to sow them now, too warm indoors and too little daylight so they grow slow enough. Not even having a greenhouse now will help a lot with that.

There’s a newly dug hole in the old tree stump, I wonder what animal lives there. Could be a water vole, Ratty in the Wind in the willows are a water vole, I only see them as big aggressive monsters 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I baked two loafs of bread earlier today. I’ve already had a couple of slices but one can never have too many when they are absolutely fresh 🙂 I haven’t caught a mouse in two days now. I know there’s at least one still here, I could hear it earlier today. I hope they haven’t learned that they’ll get caught in the box trap 🙂 🙂 The monsterkitten has been down in the cool cellar so I’m pretty sure she’s after it and hopefully successful in taking it.

Have a great day!

A nasty biting wind.

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The day started rather nice even though it was -6C (21,2F) but there was no wind so it didn’t feel that bad when I let the dogs out after we’d woken up. The sun rose and it felt even better until the wind started to blow. A bitter cold wind that made its way in to the bones in my body.

Today the wind blew from north-east and it’s the only time it actually reach my cottage and garden (well it reaches from east as well). We were mostly in the forest while having our walks so in there it was quite a lot better. Still not an animal moved and not birds made any sound, not even the Jays.

So we’ve done very little today just because of the wind. The most exiting thing I did was to make pancakes 🙂 🙂 Also I ate the last of the christmas food and that’s always a relief to be honest. Holiday food is always great the first two days but after that it’s just annoying to have to continue eating it 🙂

No mice in the box trap today so perhaps I’ve now thinned most of them out 🙂 I will not shout hi before I crossed the creek though (old Swedish saying). It might just be that they now learned that no matter how tasty coconut flakes are it still isn’t worth trying to reach them 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I think I’ll read a book or perhaps surf the net. To be honest, how often do You get out on the internet without having something already planned? I rarely do because no matter how much info there is about frogs in Africa or monkeys in Asia or what ever I rarely just go out and search for anything unless I really need to know about something special. I could do like that back in the days we had dictionaries, just open a book and read the first subject on a random page and then just keep on following references in that text 🙂 🙂 It was actually quite fun and I did learn a lot by doing so 🙂

Have a great day!

Sunny and cold.

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Sunny and cold weather is back again. I do like the sunshine of course but the cold temperatures could stay away. Well at least we can see all the stars at night when the sky is clear and we do see a lot of stars here. I would be able to see even more if I went out to the bog where there’s very little light pollution but being lost when walking at a huge bog when it is cold isn’t that funny 🙂 🙂 🙂 plus the risk of walking in to wild hogs or moose is a bit too big I think 🙂

The wind blew like crazy yesterday but like so often it didn’t reach the garden and we were quite protected in the forest when being out walking. They weren’t that lucky in the northern parts of this country where , from what they say on the news, three people died, lots of trees fell and even some roofs blew away. Norway was hit even worse but I don’t know how much damage happened there. Our storms are usually much more worse when our winters are warm so I guess we should be happy about it getting a bit colder again 🙂

Nothing much has happened here but I’ve had my old Peugeot standing outside my neighbours garage, it was supposed to be a spare part car for the Peugeot they already have. Well he didn’t take much but instead started to wonder about fixing it instead because the huge Volvo they have drinks petrol like an alcoholic on a bad day so today we wrote the papers so that he now is the owner of it 🙂 One less thing costing money that I don’t have to think about 🙂

Lately some scientists have warned about the Gulf Stream will get weaker and that it would mean the climate up here in Scandinavia would change towards the extreme during winters. Well it turns out that it isn’t happening. They’ve studied the force of it for thirty years now and if anything is happening it’s the opposite. The melting ice from the northern parts of Greenland seems to drop earlier and therefore instead strengthening it. Reporters from Swedish Television made a visit to those studying the Gulf Stream and they said that they haven’t noticed any weakness of the stream and since I do truly dislike winter I really enjoyed hearing that 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have the last cup of tea for the day right beside me. It would be nice to have a cookie or something with it so I might make myself a mug cake after this. I have lots of fresh ginger so I might have some in it. I was quite old when I first tried fresh ginger and was really surprised over how different it tastes. I don’t have any citrus fruit otherwise I would have put some of that in it.

Have a great day!