Category: Cool.

I’ve failed the only goal I had :-)

a (1)
These photos are from yesterday.

I’ve failed the only goal I had for this vacation and it was such an easy goal to reach to be honest. I had decided that I should take a nap every day all four weeks but I’ve only really done it since last Friday 🙂 🙂 🙂 (I don’t count dozing off in front of the tv though).

a (2)
.
a (3)
.
a (4)
.

a (6)

It wasn’t the nicest weather when we woke up today, not especially chilly but the rain was pouring down. I really didn’t mind the rain but I had to force the dogs outside so that they would do their businesses 🙂 🙂
The rain has come and gone every now and again the entire day and it stayed on the cool side, it was quite nice being outside to be honest. Then the sun suddenly showed itself and when it did it suddenly became rather
warm and with the high humidity it went from nice to rather nasty. I looked at the weather sites and yesterday they showed that it would stay on the cool side today but now they suddenly show that we’ll have temperatures
up to 27C ( F). It’s just for on day thankfully, already tomorrow evening a cold front will pass by with lots of rain and most possibly thunder as well.

a (8)
.
a (11)
.
a (12)
.

a (14)

It does look as if the anti tick spray works pretty well. Neither Nova nor Alma have had more than a couple of the nasty buggers walking on them. The lemon scented collar on Albin is harder to say anything about. I have
found a couple on him but he rarely have any walking around or biting him anyway. Flies are biting them all though so neither the spray or the collar helps towards them I’m afraid. I guess it’s the same insects that bite me when I walk
barefoot on my lawn. It itches for a short while and the red markings that show also disappears pretty quick but it had made me not walking barefoot outside before going to bed 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (17)
.
a (18)
.
a (20)
.

a (21)

I went to buy groceries and pick up a package as soon as the stores opened today. I had ordered a new filter for my aquarium. The fish I have (platyfish) likes it so much that they are too many and it takes no time at all before I need to change the water. It is nice that they like it there but the joy of changing the water quickly fades off 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do use that water in my vegetable patch though so at least I have some good use for it. I haven’t picked it all together yet though but it will be up and running at least tomorrow 🙂 I really would like to have a 600 liters ( 158,5 gallon US) like I once had but I doubt that the over 100 years old floors here would managed to carry that kind of weight 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (22)
.
a (23)
.
a (25)
.

a (26)

It is time to have something to eat and after that most likely fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂 I haven’t checked but I doubt they’ll show anything interesting on any channel, summer is re-run time.

a (30)
.
a (37)
.
a (38)
.

a (40)

Have a great day!

DSC_0012 (1)
My Black Walnut tree looks pretty good. It seems to fight the tree cancer with good results, I haven’t seen any new damages from that disease.

DSC_0023 (1)

So many ticks.

k (2)

Nothing much has happened here. Yesterday morning started out much like the previous one, cold and sunny, so the morning mist was just starting to build up when some clouds came and destroyed it all. They prevented the heat from the sun to evaporate the cold morning dew so no morning mist.

DSC_0032 (6)
.
DSC_0034 (7)
.
DSC_0036 (7)
.
DSC_0037 (7)
The Chamomile still flowers.

This morning had no clouds but it was too warm (over 10C (50F) ) so no mist today either. I really didn’t want to take a walk because of the constant war between me and Alma but I had noticed yesterday that the new harness actually does make a difference. I can attach the leash on the front and since it’s fairly low every time she pulls the leash she turns around because the leash moves towards her front leg and disturbs her balance. So far she hasn’t figured out a countermove but I can see that she’s trying 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0038 (8)
.
DSC_0040 (5)
.
DSC_0042 (8)
.

DSC_0043 (5)

It was warm enough for flies to fly around but not especially many did. I’m not sure if the fly season now is over, which I hope, or if they were busy elsewhere. It could be that they all are in my garden though because there’s no lack of them here 🙂 🙂 🙂 There’s absolutely no lack of ticks though. After we came home I combed Nova and took two from her. None was caught from Albin or Alma but then suddenly I saw plenty walking around on Almas head and also one on Albins. I don’t know where the one on Albin hid because he has plenty of white on him so it’s hard for a tick to hide. All in all I picked seven more from those two.

DSC_0044 (8)
.
DSC_0046 (7)
.
DSC_0047 (7)
.

DSC_0048 (4)

I had hoped the pet store would be open today but during summer he tends to have Saturdays closed. He sells a anti tick spray that is made only with scents ticks hate and it works pretty well. Albin is allergic to it but I can use it on the other two. It is after all so much easier to have to go through only one dog with extremely short fur 🙂 🙂 I can also spray it on my trousers. Pretty expensive though but it is well worth it. I’ll go there first thing on Monday morning instead. They even get them here in the garden and that’s because a deer seems to be visiting us when it knows we’re all asleep. I do like deers but I wish they could wait to visit us until the tick season is over 🙂 🙂

DSC_0051 (4)
.
DSC_0053 (3)
.
DSC_0055 (2)
.

DSC_0056 (2)

I think it is time for a cup of tea and after that perhaps a nap. We’ve been up since before the sun rose and since I still am on vacation a nap sounds pretty nice 🙂 I do have some ice cream in the freezer and I think that would go nicely with a nice tea 🙂 Today I’ll only do one thing, every now and again I’ll go out to the vegetable patch to check the cabbage for butterfly eggs and caterpillars. It is amazing how fast even the tiniest caterpillar can eat those leafs!

DSC_0058 (1)
The new harness, it is called “Military harness”. I have no idea if they used something like this in the army anywhere but it sort of looks like it. The leash can be attached at her back but also in the front which the next photo almost shows 🙂
DSC_0059
.
DSC_0012 (9)
.

DSC_0025 (11)

Have a great day!

Terrible morning.

a (7)

So we went out for our morning walk and while Alma was quite calm yesterday she today had decided not to be. It went fairly well to be honest but as we were passing the beekeepers home I was more concentrated on keeping her quiet since she has a tendency to start shouting when we pass that place.

a (8)
.
a (9)
.
a (10)
.

a (11)

So suddenly Albin jumped to the side of me and went for Salmiak who happened to be in the grass beside the gravel road. This time it looked as if Albin actually managed to get to Salmiak. I managed to lift away Albin and Salmiak ran away. So I went home with the dogs while scolding Albin and then went back to the beekeepers cottage starting to look for Salmiak. I also phoned the beekeeper to tell what had happened. So we all walked around to look after Salmiak and it took some time before I could find him. He was of course not happy seeing me but he looked ok but went and hid elsewhere.

a (12)
.
a (13)
.
a (14)
.

a (15)

They did find Salmiak after a while but he didn’t have any bite marks and they have kept an eye on him all day and if Albin had managed to injure him he would have shown signs of that by now. Also I checked Albins mouth to see if there was any cat fur in there but couldn’t find anything. So either Albin never bit but instead just pressed poor Salmiak to the ground or Albin just missed. Anyway I’m so happy that Salmiak wasn’t injured!

a (16)
.
a (17)
.
a (18)
.

a (19)

Besides this rather awful start of the day the rest has been pretty calm thankfully. Windy and rather cool day with little or no sunshine. I must admit that I’m enjoying these cooler days because one never knows if we’ll get another heat wave before summer ends. It doesn’t look like it now but one never knows 🙂 Almas new harness has now reached the Netherlands so with a bit of luck it might reach us before Friday 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0016 (7)
.
DSC_0014 (8)
A Marigold with a Berry fart resting on it 🙂 Berry farts are relatives to Stink bugs.
a (4)
The Venus flytrap will soon flower 🙂
a (5)
Something has been eating my carnivorous plants! It might be the deer that Alma scared away from just outside the lilac hedge.

It is time for us all to have something to eat. Tomorrow morning Albin will have a short leash so he can’t jump anywhere, I’ll still try and keep Alma calm and Nova can walk without leash, she never does anything stupid so I don’t have to worry about what she wight do 🙂

DSC_0001 (8)
Finally the rose on Teodors grave is in bloom.

By the way, I think we had well over an inch of rain yesterday 🙂

Have a great day!

I thought they had some in stock :-)

DSC_0001 (6)
Yesterday morning.

We’ve had a rather nice day here. According to the weather sites it should have started sunny and pretty early on slowly turn towards cloudy, so I wasn’t the least surprised when it started cloudy but then slowly turned towards sunny 🙂 🙂 🙂 We had a few hours of sunshine and the temperature rose to around 20C (68F) quite perfect really 🙂

DSC_0002 (9)
.
DSC_0004 (9)
.
DSC_0005 (8)
.

DSC_0006 (10)

I didn’t need to water anything today because yesterday night we had some rain falling and since it was as cool as it was the ground still was pretty wet. I do however need to check anything cabbage because now is the time that both the Cabbage butterfly and Cabbage moth lays their eggs on anything that is cabbage or in that family. I just scrape off the eggs laid on the undersides of the leafs and I also spray water mixed with soap so that any egg that I might miss will be covered and therefore will suffocate because the soap won’t let any oxygen through.

DSC_0002 (10)
.
DSC_0003 (10)
.
DSC_0004 (10)
.

DSC_0005 (9)

We walked sown to the creek and a bit up stream but stayed away from the high grass and bushes because this is a tick year. Albin rarely have any but both Nova and Alma are tick magnets, so the first thing I do when we come home is to comb through their fur with a very dense comb almost like a louse comb. None today but there’s always one or two that I miss so I’ll do it again later today. Nova is back to normal again after the ear infection but I must admit that I was worried there for a while.

DSC_0009 (6)
.
DSC_0010 (9)
.
DSC_0013 (9)
They’ve now removed almost all branches and twigs after the deforestation.
DSC_0012 (10)
There’s still some logs left but the big pile will become pellets and briquettes fore fire heaters.

We’ll have a couple of days with below 20C (68F) temperatures and tomorrow we’ll also get lots of rain, if they are guessing it right but one never knows about that. They have risen the amount of rain for every update but right now they’re guessing we will get an inch of it. I don’t mind at all but I do hope it starts out gentle so that the ground gets moist first and therefore can let the rest of the rain actually sink down into the ground and not just run away in to creeks and ponds/ lakes (or in my case the bog/ swamp behind the garage).

DSC_0017 (8)
.
DSC_0021 (10)
.
DSC_0029 (8)
.

DSC_0038 (7)

I ordered a new harness for Alma, she’s becoming too big for the one she has and I did it the 17/7. Normally it will take five days or so to get it delivered but this one takes its time. I can check the status of the order and it turns out that the one I buy it from buys it from Canada. They however order if from China. So I have now been following it as an order from Sweden to Canada, then the order went to Shanghai where it finally was packed. Now it looks like it’s shipped to Canada and after that to Sweden and hopefully me 🙂 🙂 🙂 It says something about it arriving in seven days 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest I thought that the seller at least had a couple of each size in stock but oh how wrong I was 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0042 (7)
I’ve found even more grapes to be 🙂
DSC_0045 (6)
.
DSC_0022 (5)
This is a kind of Lime tree where the fruits doesn’t give wedges but instead it looks like some green kind of caviar 🙂 I almost killed it last winter so I’m just happy that it has survived 🙂

DSC_0054 (1)

Have a great day!

DSC_0048 (3)

Finally cooling down!

DSC_0002 (9)
The hot weather has not been kind to the flowers in the old wheel barrow 🙂 Not to self, don’t have too high flowers in it 🙂 🙂 

Yesterday was horrible. We didn’t set a new heat record but it was still the hottest day in 73 years. Here in the village it reached 36C (96,8F) before it slowly, slowly started to get less hot. I really don’t want to go through that kind of heat again but most likely I will because of the climate change.

DSC_0003 (9)
.
DSC_0004 (8)
The Creeping Bellflower is quite beautiful but seen as one of the worst weeds one can get in the garden. The roots grows so tight and it becomes too dense for anything else to survive with it. The roots are edible though so why not eat it to death 🙂
DSC_0005 (7)
.

DSC_0013 (6)

One hot summer isn’t any proof of the climate change but when this happens frequently year after year, when it perhaps happened once every tenth year before it is one of the evidence of that the climate is changing. There were areas of rain and thunder all around this area but none reached us, the same today and I really wish it would come to us as well because the flies are soo annoying as they always are when thunder is about to arrive (well or at least it’s nearby). It is much cooler today though, 18C (64,4F) and hopefully dropping. This village is more or less in the eye of a low pressure so the rain just keep circling around us but it does at least cool us down.

DSC_0006 (9)
Potato flowers are quite beautiful. I hope that these gives fruit, looks like small green tomatoes (rather poisonous so don’t eat them). One can sow those seeds and get all kinds of different potatoes from those seeds. Be aware of that those new potatoes might get all kinds of diseases they’ve managed to get rid of on those one took the seeds from. Best to grow in a big bucket if one tries.
DSC_0014 (6)
.
DSC_0008 (8)
.

DSC_0016 (4)

Nova was the one taking the heat best of us all. She didn’t seem to care especially much and even slept in the sunshine on the kitchen stairs 🙂 🙂 Albin can’t take any heat at all, then again he can’t take any cold weather at all either, he truly is a lukewarm weather guy 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma and I took it in much the same way, not as well as Nova but lots better than Albin. The night was horrible, the fan worked at maximum speed but I can’t say it felt much better. Also a fly had found my bedroom and did its best to annoy the heck out of us. The sticky fly paper has been full of flies so that was another thing I really needed to buy today. They didn’t have it in the big store I went to and the one I asked said Do You have flies? We all working here were just discussing about the lack of them! I said they all could come home to me but none seemed too interested to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0011 (8)
Perennial sunflower.
DSC_0019 (7)
Finally big buds on the rose planted on Teodors resting place.
DSC_0020 (7)
It’ll look like this when opening up.
DSC_0022 (4)
Some “weeds” are quite beautiful and since they are easy to grow I’ve always wondered why they don’t try to grow these to give bigger flowers so we can have them in flower beds? Well I have them everywhere but I was thinking of those who are more meticulous about their flower beds than I am 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was out watering the vegetables and a few other plants and small trees already at 5 am 🙂 I went to the store quite early too since I wasn’t sure if it actually would calm down or not, one never knows with our weather services 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had almost nothing left to eat for breakfast and I also needed to renew my lottery tickets. I know the chances of winning the big lottery winning (today around 1,265 billion swedish kronor (around 126,5 million US dollars) is slim to none but it is a bigger chance to have a couple of tickets than to have none at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wonder if I would go insane if I won that much money, it’s so much that I really can’t understand how much it really is 🙂 🙂 🙂 I would never tell You if I did win but then again You would most likely notice that I had taken an early retirement 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0025 (7)
.
DSC_0026 (5)
.
DSC_0028 (5)
.
DSC_0001 (7)
The Chinese Catalpa really need some rain now.

The coming ten days they’re guessing that it’ll stay around 20C (68F), give or take a degree up or down and also some rain. I will not believe it until it happens but I do sure hope it’s right and that we’ll get even more rain than they are guessing 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

I really don’t like to change phone.

DSC_0012 (4)

Another rather nice day, at least after a while. The morning was quite chilly but we had sunshine and the flies were still hiding in the vegetation trying to stay warm. We went out on a short walk because Nova didn’t seem to want to go at all. She isn’t as alert that she once was 🙂 She really didn’t want to eat much either so I was a bit worried.

DSC_0001 (4)
.
DSC_0002 (7)
.
DSC_0005 (6)
.

DSC_0007 (6)

Turns out that if she can eat my food she can eat rather a lot 🙂 🙂 🙂 It does look like the ear drops finally have made her feel better though because she, after eating a lot of my food, also ate most of her own food as well. She didn’t even have any problems gulp down lots of dog biscuits either and they are pretty hard 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also she is, to be honest, not a big fan of Alma so she’s either walking a big distance behind or in front of us when she can 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0008 (7)
.
DSC_0010 (6)
.
DSC_0013 (5)
.

DSC_0014 (5)

So I’ve finally started to use my new phone. I really don’t understand why I need to go through zillions of questions and decide zillions of things how to manage my phone every time I need to change phone? They already know everything about me, it should be enough to just log in to Google and after that I shouldn’t have to do anything more. There was something called quick switch I could have used if I had downloaded that on my old phone (don’t think I could get away from all those questions and settings anyway) and even though it said that I could get that on my old phone even if I started to use my old one it still didn’t work. At least all my contacts followed the phone this time. I am very grateful that I can call my work friend, who’s much younger than I am, any time I need to ask how to deal with new technology 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0013 (7)
.
DSC_0017 (6)
.
DSC_0018 (6)
.

DSC_0020 (5)

I’ve now baked a bread in the slow cooker. I looked at the recipes ina cook book that followed with the first one I had and it’s more or less regular bread but there’s one thing I didn’t understand. They never say that the bread should rise before putting the dough in the cooker. Shouldn’t it taste horribly much of yeast if one do it like that? I just did like I always do and let it rise once outside the cooker and the second time I just started the cooker when it was supposed to rise the second time. Worked perfectly! However no matter how much towel one puts beneath the lid the top of the bread will not become brown but that’s no problem since the rest of the surface towards the cooker will be. Just turn the bread upp side down and one will have a nice brown surface 🙂 I had a bit too much basil in my bread though, I like basil but this time I learned my limit for it 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0022 (5)
.
DSC_0023 (6)
.
DSC_0024 (4)
.

DSC_0026 (6)

The sun is still shining and it’s 21C (69,8F) outside. Clouds and some rain will arrive later today or just after midnight and by looking at how the flies are behaving even here in my garden I’m guessing we might get thunder as well. Tomorrow will be just as warm or cool depending on how hot it is where You live but after that we’ll have a three day heat wave. I’m glad it won’t last for longer but then again our meteorologists aren’t know to be the best in the world so it might just stay for much longer 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll go down to my friend with the garden center again tomorrow and I do hope that my brain will make me stop at the big store to buy that hose I’ve said so many times that I’ll buy 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t have much to put on sandwiches either, today I went outside and picked some dandelion leafs as lettuce (and i also thinned out some small iceberg lettuce to have together with some ham and cheese and tomato slices. All I have left for tomorrows breakfast (if I want sandwiches ) are a couple of boiled eggs and the last piece of cheese.

DSC_0041 (2)
.
DSC_0043 (2)
.
DSC_0045 (3)
.

DSC_0046 (3)

It is time to go downstairs and make a cup of tea and to have a couple of bon bons I think 🙂

Have a great day!

DSC_0034 (5)

There’s a heat wave on the continent, some places here had 8C (46,4F) as warmest today :-) :-)

DSC_0003 (7)

So I wrote a post here early this morning when suddenly the web site froze and refused to save any drafts. The odd thing was that I could continue to write without any problems. I also couldn’t post what I had written but clicked to save it so I just could update the site and then just paste it here again. For a reason I can’t understand I then couldn’t find the saved post again even though I did look at the right place. So I gave up and now I’m writing it all down again 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0005 (5)
.

DSC_0010 (5)

DSC_0009 (6)
.
DSC_0006 (7)
.

Sort of annoying but at the same time perhaps a good thing nothing worked as it should. Nova has been under the weather all day with a slight fever and an infection in her ear, again. SI’m pretty sure the infection make it hurt when she eats because she refused to eat in the morning. Still she would take some blue cheese, no need to chew a well ripe mold cheese 🙂 🙂 🙂 She also followed us on our morning walk so I wasn’t too worried. I started with her ear drops and already in the afternoon she ate a pancake 🙂 Ok she tried to lick it up while lying down 🙂 🙂 🙂 which really didn’t work but if I picked the pancake pieces up and gave them to her she happily gulped them down 🙂

DSC_0013 (4)
.
DSC_0021 (4)
.
DSC_0020 (5)
.

DSC_0018 (5)

When she got her afternoon food she still was pretty picky and still tried to lick up the pieces, it sort of worked but I decided that I would pick the pieces up and give them to her. Turns out that she only wanted the orange colored pieces 🙂 🙂 🙂 She just looked at me with disgust when I tried to give her any other color pieces 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do hope she will be much better by tomorrow morning because she is a bit of a drama queen to be honest. Then again at the age of sixteen she’s allowed to be 🙂

DSC_0022 (2)
.
DSC_0026 (3)
.
DSC_0028 (3)
.

DSC_0030 (2)

Besides that nothing much has happened today. I bought several different houseleeks this week because I have a rather big pot, low and wide, that needed something in it. Houseleeks are succulents so they don’t need much soil, to be honest wet soil during winter can make them rot, so I used the sand I have beneath the grass in my garden (I still have a lot around after digging my grey water root zone). I had bought eight and they just barely fit in the pot. I’ve watered a lot just so that all the sand will fill up the empty spaces between them because it’s almost impossible to do that while planting and having very dry sand 🙂

DSC_0031 (5)
.
DSC_0032 (5)
.
DSC_0034 (4)
.

DSC_0035 (4)

The pot will stay outdoors all winter but I’ll make sure to place it so that no rain or snow will make it too wet for them. I used to have hardy cacti in my garden years ago but too many problems with thorns and dogs to make it worth while 🙂 🙂 🙂 Houseleeks also get pretty flowers but I doubt that I’ll see any this year. It is time for another cup of tea, some bon bons and to watch the athletic world championships. We’ve had a rather chilly day here today, it didn’t even reach 20C (68F). There’s a horrible heat wave down in Europe (even Britain is hit by it) but it doesn’t reach us, at least not yet. Some placed here in the middle of Sweden didn’t even get more than 8C (46,4F) and that is really unusual even up here in the north.

DSC_0036 (5)
.
DSC_0046 (2)
Some sprouts fell off when I was putting down the potatoes in the ground so I planted them in two buckets. I wonder how many potatoes I’ll get from them 🙂
DSC_0048 (1)
.
DSC_0052 (2)
I planted several different Houseleeks in a big clay pot this morning. Only sand and stone in the pot and I do hope they’ll thrive 🙂

Have a great day!

She talks a lot.

DSC_0056
I’ve tried to find out what kind of wild rose this huge one is. The closest I’ve come is Rosa setigera, Climbing prairie rose but the buds doesn’t look the same so I’ll continue looking.

It was drizzling when I woke up this morning and a bit cool as well. Soo nice to just step outside when I let the dogs out. I had my bedroom window open and was thinking that I should let it stay open it would stay cool in my bedroom. I’m so glad I closed it because it started to rain rather bad when I drove to work and after that it fell like it was a thunderstorm passing by 🙂 🙂

DSC_0002 (2)
It’s Geranium season 🙂 The photos today were taken both today and yesterday.

.

DSC_0009 (2)
.

DSC_0010 (3)

The rain stopped around noon and by the time I arrived here at home most clouds were gone and the sun was shining. Still pleasantly cool though with a rather strong north western wind blowing. So I wasn’t annoyed on myself when I forgot to bring the mosquito hat. I did regret that when we were on our way home again because we reached an area where the wind couldn’t reach us but the flies could 🙂 🙂 Only annoying forest flies thankfully and I do hope this is one of those few years when we have very few horse flies.

DSC_0013
.
DSC_0015 (2)
Stinging nettle.
DSC_0019 (1)
.

DSC_0020 (1)

A timber lorry was loading up some of the timber that they cut down not too long ago and I thought it would be hell to pass it with Alma and Albin. To my really big surprise both were quiet and Alma even tried to stay as far away from it as she could. No growling, no screaming, not even some whining happened? They always get really excited every time it pass outside the cottage so I really didn’t expect that it would be that easy 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0023
.
DSC_0024 (1)
.
DSC_0025 (1)
.

DSC_0027 (1)

Sometimes, quite often actually, I wonder if Alma might have some Husky in her ancestry. The howling when she isn’t allowed to meet other dogs (because of Albin hating other dogs), the constant urge to run around in the garden with Albin (whether he likes it or not 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and the constant talking which sounds very much like the way huskies do. This morning she had a long conversation with Albin, she wanted to play he wanted to nap until I went to work 🙂 🙂 🙂 I must admit that it would have been nice if she could lower her voice a bit but who can blame her, she was upset 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0028 (1)
.
DSC_0029 (1)
.
DSC_0031 (1)
.

DSC_0032 (1)

I’ll drive to Gudhem on my way home after work tomorrow, the slow cooker will arrive just before I leave from work. It arrives at the right time since my vacation starts tomorrow 🙂 I’ll have plenty of time to successfully try and bake a bread in it these four coming weeks 🙂 This is the first vacation in I don’t know how many years that I don’t have to go back to clean a paint box when everyone else is at home 🙂 I have no idea who will do that job now though because they haven’t asked me to teach anyone how to do it 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0043
.
DSC_0045
.
DSC_0046
.

DSC_0055

Have a great day!

DSC_0038
.
DSC_0037
.
DSC_0036 (1)
Insects have eaten the leafs but the last bud still stand.

Sometimes I’m glad they don’t like rain :-)

DSC_0001 (2)
The flowers in the wheel barrow have problems standing up after the heavy showers.

The weather is the most exciting thing happening here lately. Sometimes the sun shine, sometimes the rain fall and every now and again a rather wimpish thunderstorm passes by.

DSC_0002 (4)
.
DSC_0003 (3)
.
DSC_0004 (4)
.

DSC_0008 (3)

I did order a new slow cooker. I looked at the best in test 2022 a Crok-pot  (4,7 liters, 1,24 gallon US) was the best one. So I went online and found one and it turns out they sold it for half the original price. It is still in packaging so I guess they’ll ship it tomorrow. To be honest there were other tests that had a slightly different result but of course the one I looked at was the right test 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0010 (3)
.
DSC_0012 (4)
.
DSC_0013 (3)
.

DSC_0015 (3)

Can’t say work is exciting but after wearing that air tight overall in the heat one work friend wondered if I had been outside in the rain because I was dripping wet 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s pure horror to wear that overall even when it’s rather cool, in the heat it’s indescribable. I drank more water today than I’ve done before in my life I think but I still never needed to pee 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0017 (3)
.
DSC_0020 (2)
.
DSC_0022 (3)
.

DSC_0027 (3)

That’s it I guess. It poured down when I came home so no walk, sometimes it’s really nice to have dogs that refuse to go outside when it is raining 🙂

DSC_0025 (4)
Soon we’ll see the colors of the rose planted above Teodor.

Have a great day!

We had thunder but I didn’t notice it :-)

a (2)

I knew that we would get both clouds and rain and most possibly thunder later today so we went out on our walk as soon as we had woken up because the sun was shining and it was cool and nice outside. Just enough warm for the forest flies to fly around but cool enough to keep the horse flies calm.

a (3)
.
a (4)
.
a (6)
.

a (7)

It was almost cloud free when we started our rather short walk but the sky was completely covered by clouds by the time we came home again, perhaps 30 minutes later. It didn’t take long after that when the first rain arrived. They had guessed that it would arrive after noon some time so I wasn’t surprised at all that it arrived rather early in the morning 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really didn’t mind though but decided to do the last of the laundry before any thunder might arrive. It did but I didn’t notice it at all. I just noticed that the app on my phone had warned for lightnings long after it had passed 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (8)
.
a (9)
.
a (10)
.

a (11)

They’re now guessing we’ll get more rain tomorrow and on Tuesday as well but after that it’ll slowly dry up and sunshine will return. I do hope the coming week will be cooler since I’ll be working in the hot powder paint department again. All other painters are on vacation so I’m the only one who can do it. We do however have other people who can paint with normal paint so what ever needs to be painted there will be painted by someone else. I think I’ll appreciate my comming vacation so much more after a week in that hot place 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (12)
.
a (13)
.
a (14)
.

a (17)

I haven’t found that add about bread baking machines again but while looking I remembered that it would be much better if I actually bought a new slow cooker since the ceramic pot in the old one broke. I do like the food we now can buy at work but the price is really insanely high compared to what it costs to make the food at home. So when I’ve finished here I’ll check for slow cookers instead. I managed to convince my work friend that it is one of the best inventions ever so he bought one and now he makes all his dinners in it 🙂 When I get it I’ll try to bake a bread in it too, I’ll still do all the work but I must try it 🙂

a (18)
.
DSC_0001
.
DSC_0003 (2)
.

DSC_0005 (2)

I planted two melon vines earlier today and watered them of course but it is time to water some more because I’m pretty sure the dry ground around them has stolen most of that water. After that I’ll fall asleep in front of the tv as usual 🙂

Have a great day!

DSC_0007 (2)

Almost cold in the morning :-)

a (1)

it was hotter than in hell here in the cottage yesterday evening, well outside as well to be honest. The fan was working hard to help us make slightly less cooler than melting 🙂 I did manage to fall asleep and wasn’t the least annoyed when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of heavy raining.

a (2)
.
a (3)
I saw something moving towards us on the road I wanted to take but it did look a bit hefty to be a deer of any kind.
a (4)
Turns out that a semi big calf had jumped out of the pasture.
a (5)
It wasn’t happy to see us so it walked back down the road again 🙂

Just hearing the rain made it feel cooler. Apparently we also had thunder passing by but I didn’t hear anything of that though. I wouldn’t hear if the world exploded when I’m sleeping 🙂 🙂 It continued to rain well in to the morning. I must admit that it did feel a bit chilly when the dogs and I went out for our walk but I enjoyed every second of it. It was unfortunately warm enough for the flies to fly around but it was almost only the annoying forest flies and very few if any horse flies.

a (6)
.
a (7)
.
a (8)
.
a (10)
The first Bumblebee beetle.

They’re guessing that we’ll get lots of rain and thunder on Monday and the temperature will stay around 20C (68F) for the rest of the week and after this heat wave I’m really looking forward to that 🙂 My neighbor mowed the lawn outside our gardens today, I napped 🙂 🙂 I have been rather active today though. I’ve done most of the laundry and I’ve finally planted all the carnivorous plants in the big pot I bought.

a (11)
.
a (12)
.
a (13)
.

a (15)

I took a look through Instagram and I do like the few commercial adds I find there. I don’t know why but some of the adds show things only a big time farmer would by 🙂 🙂 I did however see one add from a business that seems to sell anything and today they sold a baking machine. I sort of would like to have that one. It wasn’t that expensive and had good reviews but do I really need a baking machine? Well perhaps maybe 🙂 🙂 I do bake a lot of bread in periods and this one had a timer so that I would wake up to freshly baked bread in the morning. To be honest I thought all those baking machines had such a timer. So I might buy it if that add shows up again.

DSC_0004 (1)
.
DSC_0005 (1)
.
DSC_0006 (1)
.

DSC_0007 (1)

I’ve also shaved off all hair on my head and it feels so nice 🙂 I did look fro my mosquito hat before I started because I would hate to feel tiny flies walking all over my head while walking in the forest, not to forget that horse fly bites must be nasty if they bite on the skull 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wonder if horseflies would be interested in visiting carnivorous plants? 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (30)
.
a (31)
.
a (32)
.

a (33)

It is time for something to eat and after that fall asleep in front of the tv. I have the window beside me open and I can hear that it is drizzling outside. I can also hear the rather annoying magpies in my garden. I wonder if they would react if I hung up a stuffed magpie toy upside-down in my garden? I know that if someone kill a magpie and then hang it in the garden the magpies will stay away. I like them too much to have any killed though so perhaps a stuffed one would work 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0012
.
DSC_0014 (1)
.
DSC_0017 (1)
Grapevines really grow like weeds 🙂
a (27)
I hope lots of flies visit these plants 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally!

DSC_0017 (11)
Cornflowers, poppies and Californian poppies now flower in the old wheel barrow 🙂

The temperature has dropped and the rain finally fell down the sky today and it fell a lot of it as well 🙂 It isn’t often everyone around You are happy about lots of rain and still want more to fall, especially during summer 🙂 🙂 Yesterday it was 32C (89,6F) today it stopped at 22C (71,6F). We’ll get more rain on Friday but how much varies between the different weather sites. I do hope the one with most is the right one 🙂

DSC_0002 (16)
They grow everywhere but in my garden. It might be that the dogs fertilize my garden too well for them to like it here.
DSC_0003 (12)
.
DSC_0004 (14)
Chamomile always grow beside the gravel road. I really should pick the flowers and dry them so I can have them in tea during winter.

DSC_0005 (14)

The factory was still nasty hot though. I guess that shows good insulation but also bad ventilation I’m afraid. The first one walking in to the factory days like these also opens all big doors so the cooler air can blow in, well at least days when there’s wind 🙂 No wind ever reach the powder paint department so the heat wave still went on in there 🙂

DSC_0008 (13)
.
DSC_0009 (13)
.
DSC_0010 (13)
.

DSC_0011 (13)

I was a bit worried that the flies would be horrible when we were out walking after work but they stayed calm almost all the way, only at the end of the walk they became nasty and tried to get inside the nostrils and ears. Must remember to bring the mosquito hat tomorrow. I don’t mind them buzzing around my head but I get really annoyed when they try to get inside it 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0012 (9)
.
DSC_0013 (13)
.
DSC_0015 (11)
.

DSC_0016 (12)

Almost all windows are open and it was really nice when the wind flew through the cottage but now there’s no wind but compared to yesterday it still feels pretty nice. I started to be a bit worried about my closest neighbors yesterday because they too got this cold/ covid? and I hadn’t seen or heard them for over a week. Then this morning I finally heard how one of them drove to work and today when we headed out on our walk I finally had a chat with them. The fever is gone now but they are still not feeling especially well to be honest, just like all of us that had this.

DSC_0030 (9)
Rubus odoratus, Virginia raspberry. The colors are a bit strong here, should have changed the settings 🙂 Beautiful weed that rarely gives any berries here and when it does the berries doesn’t taste anything. Tried to get rid of it several times but it always comes back 🙂
DSC_0034 (8)
.
DSC_0037 (8)
.

DSC_0039 (5)

Have a great day!