Category: Cool.

Cooler days and soon long weekend :-)

June 4, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

Old Nova, she's 18 years old now and still going strong :-)

It is finally a bit cooler outside. Not so much when being in the sunshine but a lot when staying in the shadow. I had to water everything when I came home yesterday and suddenly it was evening and time to go to bed, so that’s why I didn’t write anything. Today the ground still was damp so I only watered the trees and bushes I’ve planted in the garden this spring. Well to be honest we haven’t had much of a spring this year, it went from winter to summer in a day or so 🙂 🙂

More and more wild flowers flowers now. Cooler and nicer in the forest but oh so many biting insects. The Swedish name for this flower is Hags' tooth. On our way out on the peninsula out to the bog.

Something is chewing on the new beans, have no idea what it can be but oddly enough only the ones sown in a straight line, I had a few beans left so I just put them down close to the fence and those are untouched. I also had a few peas left so I sowed those in the old broken wheel barrow, they seems to grow even better than all other plants I’ve sown this year 🙂 🙂 Lots of potato plants showing up in the vegetable patch I don’t use this year, I have instead sown seeds (not too successfully I might add) I haven’t had potatoes there for three summers and they still pop up 🙂 🙂 Can I cal them hardy now? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Despite the harw wind this place was packed with mosquitoes, that sort of dampens the joy of having a walk even in plsces where one loves to walk otherwise. The bog is now full with Hare tail cotton grass. They are already releasing their seeds now.

Yesterday we had a strong wind and walked out to the bog, normally that ,means the mosquitoes and flies will stay away from us, now we have so many mosquitoes that we were attacked badly when we arrives at the Birch woodland. So today with less wind we stayed at home, Nova is once again so badly bitten all over her head that I thought it would be cruel to bring her out to even more biting insects, it’s bad enough here at home to be honest. It’s a price we have to pay for having so many trees and bushes in this little garden of mine.

Malkolm grows so fast now.

Alma reacted as if she had injured the ball when it started to squeak, I don't think she'll touch it again until I've removed the squeaker :-) — Alma with the new toy, she loved it until it in, her ears, started to scream 🙂 It’s a squeaky thing in that ball and neither she nor Malkolm liked that 🙂 🙂

I had a little walk in the garden before the mosquitoes chased me indoors. The Black Walnut is flowering, the English is living and now have two branches. The trees I plated this year all look great and the Pawpaw from last year now have green small dots all over the branches, even the ones I thought had frozen. The green dots are tiny, tiny leafs. Also the Persimmon hybrid that dies but where the Persimmon root (Diospyros virginiana) now creates at least eight new branches 🙂 I’ve read that it’s fairly easy to take some of those branches to create new trees from. Well they will. technically all be the same tree but I did also buy a new real persimmon this spring so I hope that at least that I’ll get both male and female trees from this.

This is a favorite in parks and everywhere really, Rose rugosa. It is now seen as invasive and I have no idea how they'll be able to remove them all, especially since it does spread like wildfire :-) — Rosa rugosa, the Swedish name for it would be something like Grumpy rose 🙂

We call this Iris for Swords lily. — Yellow flag.

See all those new branches the Persimmon tree creates now when the hybrid is dead :-) — Lots of new growth from the roots of the Persimmon tree 🙂 The inoculation dies during this winter but the Persimmon root survived and now gives lots of more branches 🙂

I found Morning glories, peas, poppies and Californian poppies growing here now. The poppies refuse to grow in my garden but always grow well in the wheelbarrow for some reason and no summer without Californian poppies at my home :-) — The old wheelbarrow will look good this year 🙂

Tomorrow will be the last working day this week, we have our national day on Thursday and I took Friday off. The weather will be cooler as I’ve already said and they are guessing we’ll get rain as well. I don’t care as long as we at least have sunshine when we’re out on walks, the rest of the time will be good napping times 🙂

Have a great day!

Close but still no thunder or rain.

June 1, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

The path down to the creek is bordered with Dog biscuits. — The path that eventually leads down to the creek is full of Dog biscuits. I’m glad they have driven four wheelers there, otherwise we would have been drenched in water from the rains and morning dews.

Hot again today so it was really nice that we were able to have our morning walk in the early morning while it still was cool. Not cool enough to keep the mosquitoes away but cool enough for them to not attack us to hard 🙂 Malkolm woke me up at 3:27 am today but after he had been outside we all went back to bed and slept for another hour.

A Roe deer buck is eating in the field. — This wasn’t the only animal we saw this morning. It is a Roe deer buck.

Still lots of water in the creek. — There’s so much vegetation along the creek now that it is hard to see it 🙂

All the dogs are at the moment a bit wobbly in their stomachs so today I boiled rice and fish for them. Nova loved it, Alma loved it and Malkolm put his nose in the air and refused to eat anything until he realized they all had the same food 🙂 He did eventually eat all of his food but I can clearly say that he’s not a fan of boiled fish 🙂 Too bad for him because he’ll get this tomorrow as well 🙂

The path along the creek is very narrow now days. — The path along the creek is now so narrow that we need to walk in a line, something Alma have big problems understanding 🙂

There's a little brige at the both ends of the creek where we alk so I had to stand on one of those to be able to see more than a couple of meters of it.

My camera refused to do as I wanted so here are two rather bad photos of fox cubs running away from us. — Some previous owner of my camera thought it was a good idea to adjust the camera to being able to go through the photos when turning the shutter speed wheel. Idiotic since if I need to adjust the speed after just taking one photo instead of changing the shutter speed I then started to go through my photos already taken. So instead of actually capture these two fox cubs so it would be easier to see them I instead took several photos that an editing program then tried to make at least some better. We met the mother later on but it happened so fast that I wasn’t able to take any photos of it.

Thunder and heavy rain is nearby again but it looks like it’ll go either south or north of us. I wouldn’t mind if we at least got the cool air that always follow thunder but even if we don’t get it today it will cool down considerable next week. It’ll drop from today’s 26C (78,8F) to 14C (57,2F). It will stay that cool during the entire long weekend and I think I’ll enjoy it a lot, cool weather plus what they are guessing rain as well sort of forces us to just relax all the time 🙂

Nova didn't like that I wanted to go down to the creek, she wanted to go out to the bog. So she dragged her feet all the time until I let her go un leashed, then suddenly she had all the energy in the world :-) :-) :-)

Malkolm decided to not follow Nova and instead kept himself close to me and Alma.

Nova did stop and look after us every now and again :-) — Nova checked after us on and off, last time she walked away like this she too a wrong turn and it took some time until she finally found us. She’s more or less deaf so no use in calling after her 🙂

I moved the lawn, well most of it, when the grass had started to dry up some. I drank too little water while doing it so now I have a slight headache. What’s left will be moved tomorrow and it’s on the north side of the cottage and beside the woodland where the Pawpaws are growing. I do hope we’ll have a wind blowing because that’s where all the mosquitoes are and I have already been bitten quite a lot. I was bitten by a horse fly this morning as well, they’ve started their season a bit early unfortunately. Last month was unusually hot here and I guess that kickstarted them.

I do like the European Hornet, a gentle giant unless one comes too close to their nest. If one do one must run fast :-) — The European Hornets are back, favorites ogf mine :-)

Alma and Malkolm playing in the garden :-) — Alma and Malkolm had a few minutes to play before it became too hot.

It looks like both the thunder and rain will miss us so I better put together the new hose and spray gun so I can water the vegetable patch. Something is eating the beans I sowed but the rest looks untouched, the carrots however hasn’t shown them selves yet so I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll have to sow something else in that spot. I’ll give them a couple of more days before I do anything.

Have a great day!

Doing everything while it is cool.

May 19, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

Another warm day here, My thermometers aren’t to trust when it comes to how warm it has been since both are hit by the sun. But I think that 25C (77F) is most likely. So everything I had to do today had to be done before it went too warm. So I watered vegetables, trees and a rose while it still was fairly cool, after that we went out for our morning walk.

Lots of water still and the reason for all the mosquitoes we have around our cottages.

It could have been much nicer if it wasn’t for all the mosquitoes and the first of the oh so annoying forest flies. Forest flies don’t bit or anything like that, they annoy! They come in big swarms flying around our heads and do their best to try and fly in to nostrils and ears. They are usually quite calm in the very early morning when it still is cool, almost chilly, after that I need to wear a mosquito hat while walking in the forest because they drive me crazy! On one hand I truly hate them on the other it is amazing we have so many and that they are food for lots of birds and other animals. Now days when driving during summer there’s no need to wash off all crushed flies on the windshields because there are no crushed flies any more. I guess they all moved to this bog 🙂 🙂 🙂

The laundry is done as well and everything dried within 20 minutes 🙂 despite the lack of wind and hanging in the shadows. We will get stronger winds again the coming week they’re guessing and I won’t mind, strong winds means no mosquitoes or forest flies, they will do what they can to hang on to vegetation and not blow away 🙂 More wind however mean more watering. The ground is still damp but the surface will dry up and since I’ve just sown seeds that mustn’t happen until the roots have grown deep to more reliable water sources. The ground water is just 2,5 meters (much the same in yards) down here.

Ash tree. The first to drop its leafs in autumn and the last to get new ones in spring.

I’ve also re-potted most of my orchids. I’ve now placed them all on the north side of the cottage and after a week or so I’ll place them in the trees and leave them there doing nothing (unless we’re having a drought, then I’ll water them but not otherwise). I’ll also place my Christmas and easter cacti there as well. All I have left to do now is to make dinner for work next week and take a look at my notes for the road association meeting next week. We’ve already had a long nap but I’m still just as tired, pollen season does this to me. Then again the warm weather arrived so fast that the heat does this to me as well but I refuse to complain about that 🙂 🙂

I do need to check the melon vines I planted this morning as well. I think I better cover them with something now when the wind will arrive, they really can’t manage dry soil especially well. I haven’t seen many Cabbage butterflies yet but I better start to think about covering the little cabbage seedlings as well. The sun is coming back from behind the clouds we’ve had for an hour or so so I better go out and check those melon vines!

The extremely hardy Rosemary. It is said to survive -25C (-13F).

I have to protect the young Tree peony so the dogs don’t break it 🙂

One Ginkgo and most of my smaller citrus seedling plus all of the Guava seedlings to the right.

Three of the first kind of pear tree seedlings survived winter in the cool cellar

Here are the bigger citrus trees, they all need more iron, hence the yellowish leafs.

Have a great day!

I have a few Sand cherry trees in my garden, I love the berries but birds are fast.

There isn’t any big difference between the subspecies but the first one seems more easily hit by mildew.

My new Persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana).

Old Nova was outside too before it was too hot even for her.

The snail had a long shower while I was watering the vegetable patch 🙂

She will drive me crazy one day :-)

May 17, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

The morning was quite wonderful today, sunny but also cool enough to keep the mosquitoes calm. I had to go a bit early because I needed to fill up the car with petrol. I had worked perhaps ten minutes when I noticed my neighbor had called me six times! It is a very noisy job to clean the paint box so I hadn’t heard the phone.

She asked me if I had arrived at work and if so said I better come home again because Alma and Malkolm were in her garden. I really can’t be angry at Alma but god knows she does test my patience a lot 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully no hand painting for the two coming jobs so I left to get home again. My neighbor had tried to find where Alma had escaped from but couldn’t find any place and it was the same when I looked the first time as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

We went out to the bog again. It was a bit warm but a wind was blowing so I didn’t think it would be too warm for the dogs.

Well I think now that it was, so it’ll be nice to have walks in the cool morning air this weekend.

So I went in and checked in the dog yard and even then I first couldn’t figure out how she had managed to get out. There are two tree trunks lying along the fence and they are both attached to the fence with steel wires and both were still there 🙂 She had managed to squeeze her self beneath the trunks and the ground and then managed to bend up the fence and if she had managed to get out properly before Malkolm understood what was happening he would never had the chance to follow her but Malkolm is where Alma is.

The Lingon berry bushes are full of flower buds now 🙂

We call this little flower for Forest Star.

If it only had been Alma I just wouldn’t have cared to go home, everyone knows she’s either out of the garden or the dog yard and never walks anywhere all the time 🙂 🙂 🙂 My neighbors two daughters had had really fun playing with them both until I came home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 and everyone at work loved to see the photos my neighbor sent me showing that even an almost two year old kid can have lots of fun with both the big Alma and the puppy Malkolm 🙂 🙂

Clematis ‘Propertius’ has a weak but nice scent.

One of the Himalayan Cedar trees is alive and gives new needles now 🙂

We call this flower Troll Grapes. Gives very poisonous deep red berries in autumn.

I’ve made sure that those two trunks can’t be moved again and during the weekend I’ll check the rest of the fence, again 🙂 I will soon start to repair that fence properly but even then I’m pretty sure Alma will find a way to escape, I know Malkolm will be able to since he now can climb up net fences 🙂 🙂 My neighbor tried twice to put him in my garden but gave up since he pretty quickly sat by her side again 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Even nicer today :-)

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

I think today has been even better than yesterday, we woke up to a blue sunny sky and fairly chilly morning, it had dropped to 0C (32F) during the night. This is not unusual for this area, the last frost usually arrives at June sixth and after that, normal summers, nights regularly have temperatures down to 3C (37,4F). Well if the days are sunny, cloudy days the temperature usually don’t sink especially much, the clouds keep the warmth from escaping upwards.

We went out as soon as we woke up and that was way too early really because I watched the Eurovision last night and I think it stopped just before 1 am and we woke up just after 5 am 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well even after napping I still think I’ll sleep very well tonight 🙂 I, Nova and Alma didn’t see any animals this morning but Malkolm did so he started to growl. That of course made Alma running around looking for what threat we might meet and after that she couldn’t relax at all 🙂 🙂 Malkolm stopped caring about it as soon as we had passed where he saw what ever it was.

I’ve started to move the citrus trees I have from the less sunny north side of the cottage out to the sunny garden, even if we would get frost now and blazing sun during the days they’ll manage it. I’ve also sown iceberg lettuce, squash, chard and some kind of Japanese cabbage today. Iceberg lettuce is hard to fail but both the chard and squash seeds were a bit old so I’ll better start to look for what I can sow in those places nothing germinates. Peas and beans will be sown later when the temperature is more reliable. I’ll sow most of the potatoes in buckets this year so as soon as I buy more soil I’ll start with them.

The rest of this day I’ve mostly just watered the trees I’ve planted and I’ve had a couple of short naps 🙂 The dogs have been rather calm since it has been so warm. The wind can’t reach us down here so when it becomes warm it’s always a couple degrees warmer here and the opposite when it comes to cold weather. It’s almost never cold weather that kills plants here during winter, it’s because we have such a long time when it is dark here. So if we have a warm and sunny summer most of the less hardy plants make it till next year, is it cool and rainy most of those will die. They need that warm and sunny weather to collect so much energy that it lasts all winter through. It’s the same with how good plants flower and how much fruit/ berries they give, it all depends on what last years summer was like.

The big dogs are sleeping beside me but by the sound Malkolm is chewing on a stick in my bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve done dinner for next week at work and the laundry so for the rest of the day I’ll do as little as possible 🙂

Have a great day!

The vet visit.

May 10, 2024 · 9 Comments ·

Salmiak, the beekeepers cat. He’s getting old now, I think he’s 17 years old by now and have used lots of his nine lives because he’s too friendly towards dog that aren’t friendly towards him.

We had meh weather here when I woke up this morning, misty rain and a bit too cool and since we were going to the vet in a few hours I said to the dogs “Going for a walk or sleep again?” To my very big surprise they all went indoors again 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I was wondering if it would be best to let Alma and Nova stay at home in the dog yard while Malkolm and I went to the vet for his shot or should I bring them and when we come home have that walk? Last time I left with one dog he never came back (Albin) so knowing Alma I thought it best to let her follow and Nova would be there to keep her company for those five minutes we would be indoors. It sounds good doesn’t it 🙂 🙂 🙂

I fasten my dogs in the seat belt when they’re with me on the roads, I could have had them in the back but the thought of getting hit from behind and what that would do to the dogs has always made me use the seat belts instead. So I thought everything would be easy when letting them in to the car. Malkolm and Nova were no problems, Alma started screaming as soon as I tried to get her in 🙂 🙂 After that she kept on screaming all the way to the vet and also tried to come to the front seats, so I had to push her back with one hand 🙂

So we arrived at the vet and thankfully it was still rather cool and cloudy outside so I lowered the windows and as soon as we started walking to the entrance door Alma screamed like insane and tried to dig her way out of the car. I shouted at her that no digging is allowed and oddly enough she stopped. No such like when it came to the screaming though. We came in and were shown to a room on the other side of the building and while we were waiting I could hear Alma very clear, it sounded like someone stabbed her over and over again 🙂 🙂 The vet hadn’t arrived yet so I hurried out, shouted at her to calm down and went in again.

I arrived at the room at the same time the vet did. Malkolm thought that when I was gone it would be a good time to both poop and pee on the floor 🙂 So the first thing the vet had to do was to clean the floors 🙂 He kept on smiling and laughing to himself because Alma was so loud by now that anyone hearing her could have called the police reporting animal cruelty 🙂 🙂 🙂 As soon as I and Malkolm were back in the car she went silent and slept the whole way home 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s a wonderful girl that dog but sometimes I think she will be the reason for my death 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

They play dare :-)

September 23, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

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Today started rather nice, it was slightly cloudy when I woke up but the sun started to shine between the clouds while we were out walking. Also it was cool enough to keep most mosquitoes and moose flies away and that makes any day a good day 🙂 🙂

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I know I can’t have fallen asleep before two am and I woke up at six thirty am and I’m still less tired today than those days I’ve slept around seven to eight hours 🙂 🙂 I know the tiredness will come later but so far it feels pretty good. It si raining now and thunder just passed the village pretty close and I can see that more is on its way. There is at least no risk what so ever that any lightning will manage to start a forest fire, at least one thing we can than all the rian that has been falling for so long now 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Also I was thinking of using my new lawn mower for the first time today so I guess I should than the rain for not being able to do that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today and tomorrow will be a bit cooler but we’ll have more sunshine tomorrow ands no rain, after that it’ll get cooler again but there really is no use in looking at those guessings since they have problems guessing the weather that will happen in two hours 🙂 It does at least look like we won’t have any frost nights the coming ten days. Normally the frost arrives around September sixth but so far it hasn’t even been close to happen.

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We’ve had lots of fog during nights though, sometimes I haven’t been able to see the road at all when driving home 🙂 🙂 Deer has probably had a competition about who’s the bravest and can run out in front of my car as close as possible, also a badger must have been competing about that as well. The winner however was a bird that actually was sleeping standing on the road, He can’t even have been more than an inch from getting hit by my car.

The mum I bought. I would rather had bought a rust colored one but this was the one they had 🙂

The rest of the photos show what’s in bloom right now .

I managed to get some photos in my garden before the rain and thunder started. Not much in bloom right now. I bought a Chrysanthemum yesterday. I’ve actually only seen this one for sale in the grocery store in Kvänum but they’ve had Asters instead and i didn’t want that. It is the wrong color and filled flowers but I wanted one so I bought it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll plant it in my garden and if winter is mild enough it will survive until next year. It will look quite different (much higher than now) and might not flower in time before frost but I still want to try it. The only problem now is that I really don’t have any space for it 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally a chilly night.

September 15, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The temperature had dropped down to 5C (41F) when I drove home after work last night and we all loved it 🙂 After staying in a way too hot factory for so many hours the cold air made us less tired. Good thing it did because when I drove homewards I had to break hard three times. Two times because deer was passing the road and once for a hare. There was a fox passing to but from a place much further down the road.

Nova wanted to go out to the peninsula at the bog today but I managed to make a turn andd walk down the path to the island we like to walk at.

I wasn’t sure it would be dry enough to even walk that way but it was just enough dry and hard to walk there.

The big creek is still full of water but this creek was actually less full than I thought it would be.

So because of the cold air last night was the first time in a very long time I wasn’t attacked by mosquitoes when I went out of the car, this morning was cool as well but a few mosquitoes didn’t care about that, so now I have a new itching spot on my right hand. So far it looks like this isn’t a moose fly year. We went down to the bog this morning and not a single one landed on either me or my dogs. I really wouldn’t be sad the least if those nasty things just died out 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have been really tired today though even though I slept really well and just enough hours. So after I had been at the grocery store in Gudhem to pick up a package I took a two hour long nap in my recliner. To be honest, two hours sleeping in a recliner is a bit too long. Yes it is comfortable but since one doesn’t move at all the body really aches afterwards 🙂 🙂

It does look dry enough to walk there but I won’t do that mistake again. The mud is knee deep and jumping from one grass tufft to another is great as long as one doesn’t loose ones balance 🙂 🙂

The package I was picking up contained an old Kodak SLR camera. I really didn’t want the camera but I wanted the two lenses that followed with it (I haven’t checked if the camera works, to be honest I haven’t even looked at it yet 🙂 ). The only problem now is that I actually can’t find the camera I wanted those lenses for 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it’s here somewhere so sooner or later I’ll find it.

Next year I’ll plant the Gladiolus along the east wall of my cottage, there’s less wind there so it’ll be easier to keep them standing up.

The Nasturtiums are finally taking over the old wheel barrow.

The Red leafed rose still gives a flower or two.

This year we even get a chance to see the Jerusalem artichoke in bloom.

Besides that very little has happened here. I do get more hours awake with the dogs working evening shift and it looks like I’ve managed to change the hours I sleep to fit my working hours but I also know that if I stopped working I’ll go back to my old self within a day 🙂

Have a great day!

17 years old, quite impressive.

September 3, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

Nova is 17 years old today and since she isn’t much for toys these days I instead mixed in some of her favorite blue cheese in her breakfast and then some boiled chicken in her dinner. She really liked both her meals 🙂

She decided that we would go out to the bog in the morning and we followed her like always. We had a thick fog as well so I hoped that we would have some out over the bog as well. We could hear cranes somewhere out on the bog and two big ravens flew above our heads.

We couldn’t stay for long out there because the mosquitoes were attacking us every time we stood still for more than a couple of seconds. I also picked away a couple of moose flies walking on both Nova and Alma while we were out there.

We must have scared away some wild hogs because the road had new parts that had been ripped up and we could also see signs of badger activity. A woodpecker was frantically searching for insects on a pine or should I say in a pine. It did sound as if someone used the tree as a drum 🙂

I picked some apples for my neighbors yesterday and today they gave me a jar with apple sauce 🙂 I’ll try it next Saturday when the dogs and I will have a pancake day again 🙂 I’m waiting for the fruit picker thing I’ve ordered, You know the kind one has on a long pole so one can pick the apples further up in the tree. I’ll try and preserve some like the pears one can buy preserved (well peaches and other fruits as well of course), I’ve only seen apples in that way once before and I think I liked them. I have no idea why they don’t do that more than they do.

Tomorrow is the first day I’ll work evening shift so I need to stay up until at least midnight today, yesterday I managed to stay up until eleven and today I woke up just before six thirty. If there’s sunshine tomorrow as they’re guessing it will be I’ll start mowing the lawn, the grass is actually dry enough now but it’s soon seven pm and that’s no time to mow any grass 🙂

Have a great day!

Thunder and lightning and bank ID.

August 4, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (28)

We had fog again this morning and I think fog must be my favorite kind of weather, especially when the sun can shine through every now and again. Nova decided that we were going out to the bog again. We didn’t see or hear any animals except for the birds and only one bird still sung its spring songs. There were no wolves around either since the dogs were happy and calm. Alma has calmed down so much that it’s hard to believe she’s the same dog that tore my shoulder apart a couple of time last year 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (32)

My Bank ID, a digital ID that I must have if I want to buy something online now days (I’m sure You have it too but one never know what it can be called), had to be updated, and I asked people and they said I had to do that in the online bank. I tried but the online bank said I had to either have an absolutely new passport or an international ID card where I could scan something to proof that I am who I am. My new drivers license wasn’t ok enough to use. I know we are several people who are quite upset about that because it will cost around $40 US to get an international ID card and why should I have to have that? I’ll never use it.

a (36)

So I drove to the bank today and my bank is in a neighbor county 50km (31 mile) away. I was quite annoyed when I arrived because after all my bank is well known for helping Russian oligarchs laundry their money and I doubt that those people would have to have an international ID card 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it turns out that I really don’t have to have anything new because all I needed to do was to update the app in my phone 🙂 🙂 🙂 The young woman who helped me had gone through this a lot of times 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still have no idea why the online bank said I had to have those things but I think that it had to do with newcomers to this country who aren’t citizens.

a (40)

I came home just before one of the angriest thunderstorms we have had here in years arrived. The Lightning app said that we had well over 800 lightning hits in and around this village during 30 minutes! I can’t remember that heavy showers falling either and the sound from the rain was so loud that I couldn’t hear the thunder at the same time. I loved it, Nova and Alma slept through it and Albin was so angry because I didn’t allow him to go outside to check what it was that made so much noise 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did open the door for him when the thunder had moved away some but the showers still were just as heavy and then suddenly it wasn’t that important to go outside after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (45)

After that we’ve had sunshine for a while but now it’s just as cloudy as before and the lightning app has warned about lightning in the area again. I think the worst is over but perhaps it’s best to close doors and windows again just in case.

a (16)

Have a great day!

The rain has given back what the drought took away :-)

July 30, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (2) — We were caught in a heavy shower this morning and all of us,except for Nova took shelter beneath big trees. I understand why she didn’t want to go there because that was the place most biting flies decided to stay as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

The weather has really been mixed today. Steady rain in the early morning but after that it has been mixed between heavy showers and sunshine. One minute sunshine and one minute showers just to go back to sunshine again. The dogs refused to go outside until rather late for being us so when we finally went out on our morning walk the flies were already there waiting for us. I can happily say that there now are fewer biting ones than there were before we went out on our walk 🙂 🙂

a (4) — I wasn’t expecting to find any mushrooms on our walk since I guessed that Nova would chose to walk down to the creek today. So I could unfortunately not pick this rather delicious mushroom because I had nothing to carry it in.

a (7)

I’m glad I mowed the lawn yesterday because it would have been impossible to do it today. My neighbor however mowed the last parts along their hedge and that mower can’t have been fun to clean up afterwards 🙂 🙂 But I haven’t been lazy despite the weather. I’ve trimmed away lots from the lilacs (and some of a mock-orange) that now made life hard for my Chinese catalpa. I’ve also ripped up some weeds around one of my ginkgos and I realized that I also ripped up a stinging nettle. I now have that burning sensation in my finger on my right hand.

a (11) — Lots of water in the creek now, so I would say that what the drought removed when it comes to water the rain now has given back.

Some of the summer apples are ripe now, I don’t like them especially much unless they are slightly un-ripe because when un-ripe they’re slightly sour. When ripe they are more bland and sort of mealy. I guess they could be great for apple sauce though so perhaps I should pick some for myself, I give away most to my closest neighbors because their oldest daughter really likes apples and especially those. In September I’ll have too many winter apples so I hope they take lots of those as well 🙂

a (14) — Snails are now eating my melon vines. I removed this one before it ate those tiny flower buds 🙂

I sowed some cone flower seeds just a few days ago and they first one has already germinated 🙂

So tomorrow starts the last week of my summer vacation. I can’t say I don’t like my work place but I desperately wants to win the lottery anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just thinking of having to drive to work when the roads are slippery with ice again and most parts of the days will be dark again is depressing 🙂 🙂 Ok I’ll start working evenings in September so I will actually see daylight but still I really don’t look forward to winter again.

The Catalpa doesn’t stand a chance if I don’t do something about those lilacs and the mock-orange.

This is the result. I’ll leave the branches where they are and later on I’ll drive over them with the mower.

Finally buds on my squash plants. They really didn’t like the heat wave we had but grows better now.

The same with the chicory. They do look a lot like dandelions 🙂 🙂

The Catalpa is in bloom but the flowers are hard to find since they all are up at the top of the tree 🙂

Have a great day!

I could have mowed it all.

July 22, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

DSC_0003 (1) — I didn’t think we would have any sunshine when we went out on our morning walk but these clouds vanished pretty fast.

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning and it was so cool that even mosquitoes kept to themselves until we were almost at home and the sun had warmed up the air. Very few ticks again when we came home and I hope it will continue like that from now on. Alma behaves better for each day now, she still has a tendency to pull the leash but it isn’t as hard as it used to be and now days she doesn’t scream that much when she wee wildlife either. I don’t think it ever will go as far as she walking without a leash but no pulling is good enough for me.

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I’m waiting for the rain they said would start to fall a couple of hours ago 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now they say it’ll start raining in about two hours from now. They also say that all the rain we would get tomorrow won’t come at all, it’ll be sunny all day. I will not mind if we actually get sunshine because then I can finish the mowing I started today.

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I mowed the garden and when that was done I saw heavy dark grey clouds slowly approaching so I thought it was best to stop, I have an electric mower with a cord and a couple of extension cables so mowing in rain isn’t something I would like to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well those clouds came and passed without letting go of any rain and after that the sun started to shine most of the time. So I did some laundry instead and it dried nice and quickly in the sunshine.

DSC_0030 (2) — Perhaps I should bring a bucket on our next walk and pick wild raspberries, lots of them this year and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to pick some blackberries as well later on.

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I’ve picked all the gooseberries that were left, all the lower hanging ones has been eaten by the dogs 🙂 so it wasn’t that many left. I also picked all the redcurrants (same story there plus birds love them) a few garden raspberries and two! strawberries 🙂 🙂 There will be lots more strawberries though, I’ve never seen my strawberry plants bloom this much before. Normally the season should be over by now but these just started and as long as they get sunshine they’ll be just as yummy as if they had started earlier. I think I got enough of berries to make a jar of jam but I’ll put these in the freezer and add the coming berries to make more jam later on.

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Lots of apples on the big apple tree, I’ll try and preserve some just like one does with peaches and pears. I’ve only seen preserved apples once in my life and they tasted really nice. I wonder why they don’t do that more often? I’ll get some cherries and this year I’ll get plenty of plums. I like eating plums straight from the tree but I think I’ll make jam or plum ade from most of these. I will get some blueberries as well but they are still far from being ripe. I can add them to the berries I picked today and make a nice mixed jam 🙂

This is an edible flower that I think is called Shunguku. I’ve tried the leafs but can’t say I think they tasted especially much. I’ll try a couple of flowers next time.

DSC_0055 (1) — I’ve finally made a way in to the English walnut. This spring it was just a stick with a weak root system. Then it started to grow but a late frost destroyed it so I didn’t think it would survive at all. Now it has at least four new branches, so lets hope we’ll get a mild winter so it survives 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and I’ll give the dogs their dinner at the same time.

Have a great day!