Category: Cranes.

There’s at least no snow here now.

April 13, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

March 17, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

Chaffinches have arrived at the feeder with sunflower seeds in it. Some stay here over winter but most fly south. Now when they return the forest has changed and they need easy to get food until the insects starts to hatch. I’ve seen the second butterfly for this year today by the way.

Winter has come back but it won’t stay for long. Snow fell yesterday but not more than a centimeter (two fifths of an inch) so most of it melted away since we have had sunshine all day long 🙂 Now there’s snow in places where the sun couldn’t reach it.

The night was a cold and so will the coming nights so I guess that we’ll have snow on the ground until Wednesday comes with warmer weather. Now the Cranes are so many by the lake that I can hear them when I go out in the early morning. It’s the sound of spring 🙂

I have so little laundry that I skip to do it today but I have made dinner for next week and I’ve baked a bread. I could only find frozen gluten free bread in the german grocery store and it wasn’t a yummy kind but it worked really good when toasted. So I tried a new recipe today but had to have it in the oven for much longer time because it had a hard time to be baked all the way through, so I guess I won’t try that one again 🙂 🙂

I was told I should talk with the optician with an referral to an eye specialist about the cataract, so I’ll have a talk with them when I get my new glasses on Maundy Thursday. Better to be early than late. Not much else has happened this weekend beside me sowing some seeds that I have had in the fridge in damp paper towels in plastic bags. I filled up an old balcony flower box and placed another broken one over it so no birds or mice can reach them. Also I bought another Ginkgo tree that I planted in an big old clay pot but that one I need to have indoors until it’s farther between rather cold nights than it is now.

It is time to watch Biathlon on tv, the season is ending and the last competitions is held in Canada so for once I’ve had all mornings free to do other things 🙂

Have a great day!

Cataract in my right eye.

March 16, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

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!

Just a normal Sunday.

August 13, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (1)

Sometimes, well quite often actually, I wonder if our meteorologists actually get paid for their weather predictions or if they just are drunk and having fun every weekend 🙂 🙂 🙂 I must admit that they did get the raining we’ve had but today they said that we would have a cloudy day all day long. Is anyone surprised when I say that we had sunshine almost all day with the exception of the early morning? 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (2) — We didn’t even get a good fog, just this meh fog.

a (7) — Lingonberries. I think lingonberries are the most important berries for us Swedes, we have lingonberry jam to anything and everything 🙂

We were out in the early morning and when we came home I tossed everything in the washing machine, I was a bit behind so I really didn’t have any clean clothes left. So as soon as the machine started working the sun broke through 🙂 🙂 Well since I didn’t have any clothes I really couldn’t mow the lawn so I’ll have to do a little every day after work next week instead.

a (14)

We’ve just come home after another walk and the weather was much nicer and the wind had helped to dry the high grass we walked in so for once my shoes are dry! They were soaking wet when we came home in the morning so I placed them in the sunshine so they could dry. They have been constantly wet the last week so it was a nice change 🙂

It feels like I’ve done very little today but I have actually been pretty active. I’ve done the laundry as I said, I’ve made dinner for next week at work. I’ve re-potted a lot of plants and checked the sowings of perennials I have outside. They’ll grow big enough to survive winter outside if it stays as warm as they say it will, just above 20C (68F). They’re guessing that we won’t get much sunshine but that it at least will stay warm. The hunting season starts on Wednesday and they’ll be out in the forest the week out so I hope that the pasture outside my cottage is open and animal free so we at least can take walks there.

I think the Sarracenia flower will open up tomorrow 🙂

Have a great day!

Now I hope I can start what I planned to do during my vacation, lots of napping :-)

July 9, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So yesterday was mowing day and today it was filling the holes, or perhaps ravines is a better word, with gravel. We were four people with shovels and rakes and one with a tractor with a huge scoop. So we worked quite fast and effective to be honest. We might have worked for forty minutes but after we stood and spoke for at least an hour and a half 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was a bit worried about my back because it felt really bad this morning when I woke up but it didn’t bother me especially much at all to be honest. I am however a bit worried about my back right now because it really bothers me and I know this is nothing compared to how it will be tomorrow morning 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway now the job is done and now I hope I can start with how I planned this vacation to be, lots of napping and doing nothing 🙂 🙂

It was cool in the early morning when we went out on our morning walk and not a fly could be seen or heard but as soon as the sun started to heat up the air things changed rapidly. I’m glad I brought my mosquito hat because I think there were a gazillion flies just waiting to annoy us, no biting ones though, they all seems to have moved to my garden and the cows in the pasture beside. Lots of butterflies where we walk but none in my garden. Lots of bees though but to be honest they aren’t as beautiful as butterflies.

Tomorrow will be hot as well but the rain will arrive in the evening and with northern winds it will cool down quite a bit. The guessing about how much rain we’ll get varies quite a bit but at the moment the Norwegian site says almost an inch and the Swedish one four fifths of an inch. This morning they guessed we would barely get anything. One could say that we’ll know for sure about how much rain we’ve gotten afterwards but to be honest they usually says we’ve had a very different weather than we’ve actually have had 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s what happens when they trust computer programs instead och checking the real world 🙂 🙂 🙂

A perennial sunflower. It took ages for it to start spread and when it finally did it spread to a place where I don’t want it 🙂 🙂

This is a rose that has been here in this part of bthe village for well over 70 years. Have no idea what it is called though.

I’ll get ten Sand cherry cherries this year. This one is really drought tolerant but this early summer managed to make them let go of their berries.

I will need to go to the supermarket soon but I think I can wait until Tuesday when the weather won’t be anything else than rain anyway. I have enough to eat, I have enough with milk and I have enough with ice cream so I’m pretty sure my planned napping will happen tomorrow 🙂

Catmint and it loves dry and sandy places and spreads happily but I’m not swarmed with cats 🙂 🙂

The worst parts of the road was upp the slope here but I didn’t want to walk up there to photograph it because of all the biting flies.

Have a great day!

So we won.

May 14, 2023 · 6 Comments ·

DSC_0009 (1)

It is raining. We weren’t supposed to get rain today but this comes from thunderstorms nearby and it is very dry in the ground so I doubt that anyone is complaining about it. It isn’t dry in my garden though, like in winter when the cold temperatures flow down through my garden so does the water that still is in the ground until there’s none left. It does help a lot to live beside a huge bog too, there’s still water in the swamp behind my garage so the ground water is just two meters (much the same in yards) down.

My little Red oak is opening up its leafs. I can’t say that it grows especially fast but it is at least alive 🙂 I’ve always wanted a North American oak since I was a kid and noticed that the leafs looked different than our oak leafs when I watched Chip and Dale at Christmas 🙂

DSC_0004 (2) — The oaks are getting green in the forest as well.

I slept until 5 am today (and so did the dogs) because I watched the finale in the Eurovision Song contest. Our song won because it got almost twice as many votes from the juries around Europe. The peoples votes however went to Finland so he ended up as the silver medalist. So like in the US elections a president can win the popular vote but still lose the election 🙂 For me it didn’t matter who won of those two because I didn’t get the Finnish one and I still couldn’t hear what our singer sang 🙂 🙂 🙂 I hoped for France to wind and like always my favorite ended up somewhere in the middle to last 🙂 🙂 🙂 So here’s a link to YouTube to the french song: Evidemment It should open up in a new tab.

DSC_0017 (2)

I could hear cranes trumpeting when we went out on our morning walk today and when we reached the open fields they stood not far from the gravel road we were walking on. They didn’t care much about us (and both Albin and Alma behaved really well). They were communicating with other cranes so i didn’t think more about it. Just as we were about to cross the creek two more landed in front of us. They too trumpeted a lot and to my very big surprise three big flocks of cranes then flew towards us, circled a bit and landed in a neighboring field 🙂 Must have been around 40 cranes in total. I think those are the ones that still doesn’t have a place of their ow since they arrived in couples. If they were nesting only one would have come while the other one wrmed and defended the eggs in the nest.

DSC_0038 (1) — Parts of the three flocks that came after.

DSC_0045 (1)

I’ve sown iceberg lettuce, chard and salsify in the vegetable patch today. I’ll sow much more later but these are quite safe to sown now since they can manage a chilly morning and we might have just that on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The temperatures will drop considerable for two days and then go back up when our long holiday starts. Ascension Day is on Thursday and I took Friday off as well. Not all at work could do that unfortunately but since no one actually celebrates holiday like they did back in the days they’ll instead work on Thursday and take Friday off instead. I think that if they had done that when I was a kid they would have been flogged 🙂 🙂 🙂 Not that we Swedes were especially religious back then (and even less now days) but one just simply didn’t do anything like that then.

DSC_0065 (1)

The dogs have had their dinner and now I’ll go down to the kitchen and make dinner for work tomorrow. After that I too will have something but I haven’t figured out what I want to eat 🙂

Have a great day!

Not as uneventful as I wish it had been :-)

April 14, 2023 · 6 Comments ·

WordPress have lowered the amount of gigabyte I can use for free, from 3 GB to 1Gb and that would mean I would have to start a new blog so often that I finally caved in and bought more space. Now I have 6GB per year but I’ll have to pay for it. So from now on this is the place I’ll stay at.

A15265_001A — From the Agfa Ambi Silette.

A15265_004A

We’ve had a cloudy week but rather nice temperatures but since it has been so cloudy I’ve taken very few photos so all photos today are older ones. I would have liked to say that the week has been totally uneventful but that would be to lie a bit 🙂 Twice this week I’ve had calls from neighbors telling me that Alma had escaped from the dog yard 🙂 🙂

A15264_005A — From the Voigtländer Bessamatic.

A15264_011A

I have no idea why she does it because she’s miserable when she can’t get back in again 🙂 🙂 I do hope I now have secured the fence enough to make it too difficult for her to get out again until I can fix the dogyard properly again. It is a good thing my neighbors like her a lot 🙂 🙂 but we are all a bit worried that she might get hit by a car, not many comes here to be honest but if anyone who doesn’t know about her habit of escaping comes here I really don’t want her to be hit by them. A good thing though is that she doesn’t approach strangers.

20220827_060429 — From my phone, a Samsung something.

20220827_062845

They are now guessing that it will be really warm towards the end of next week so now people are planning to fill up their outdoor bathtubs and all kinds of things one can do in warm weather. They really shouldn’t since it’s over a week and at best our weather forecasts are slightly worse than bad 🙂 🙂 I’ll be happy if the sun shines, if nothing else it at least makes it feel warmer 🙂

a (12)

Have a great day!

Happy Easter!

April 7, 2023April 7, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0002 (2) — I stopped by the lake Wednesday morning. The sky looked amazing so I took a few photos. Later that evening a new sow storm passed by but all of that latest snow melted away already on Thursday 🙂

So easter has begun, well at least the holidays because I guess one really should say that easter started on Monday. Weather has been so nice the week that no big amounts of cranes has gathered by the lake. twelve thousand as most but there’s still a wall of sound from the lake while they all trumpet like crazy. Instead they have now started to fly to the fields and meadows around the village. For some reason I think it’s more fun to see them here than standing by a fence down at the lake looking at them walking a couple of meters away and loads of them as well.

DSC_0008 (2)

This week another neighbor than the usual gave me a call at work telling me that Alma had escaped the dogyard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really don’t understand why she keeps on doing that since she’s miserable when she can’t get back in again. She is however very happy to see me coming back home again though 🙂 🙂 I stayed at home a bit longer this time, the weather was so nice so I made myself a pot of tea before I drove back to work. Alma has been pretty impossible on our walks this week, that is until this morning when she suddenly remembered how to behave. Well at least until we came close to some cranes and she started screaming like obcessed for a while.

a (3) — I looked up in the sky yesterday to see if I saw any witches up there but all I could see was more cranes on their way to the lake.

Today I saw what we call song swans and in America is called Trumpet swans.

Yesterday evening all witches flew to Blåkulla to have a party with the devil. There are a few places that is supposed to be Blåkulla and I think all of them are remote islands out in the ocean. More close to the ground however yesterday is the day when kids dress up as witches (and now days warlocks) and walks from home to home begging for candy. It is sort of our Halloween. This custom almost died out but has become popular again. But since yesterday was a work day for most of us they might do it on easter eve instead. I don’t think anyone will come here since I have Albin here but perhaps I should buy some candy just in case, it won’t last for long if no one should come anyway 🙂

We came pretty close, they didn’t care about us at all. That is until Alma started screaming as if she was possessed.

I’ve a bread in the owen and the smell has spread in the entire cottage. The kitchen door is open because the sun shines and it gets so warm towards the south heading wall that the radiator in the kitchen is turned off. We’ll have another walks as soon as the bread is out of the oven because they’re guessing we’ll have a cloudy afternoon. From tomorrow we’ll have 10C or over (50F) during the days and a day after or so we will also have above 0C (32F) temperatures during nights 🙂 It does feel like spring has sprung after all 🙂

A15266_007 — Two taken with the Flexaret VI.

A15266_009

Have a great day!

I do hope the time of snowstorms are over!

April 1, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Another snowstorm passed by yesterday, must have been the third in four days, so ow the world is covered in white garbage again. I do have to say though that the days has been rather wonderful with sunshine and above freezing temperatures. The photo shows the morning mist we got and it was better than nothing 🙂 🙂 🙂 They’re guessing that we’ll continue to have this weather until at least Thursday, with cold nights but sunny and warm days, after that the cold nights most likely will give up and most likely the sunshine as well but to be honest they aren’t that great in guessing the weather over here so a new ice age might start before the week is over 🙂

We now have a pack of wolves that made my county their territory. Their sort of home area isn’t that far south of the town Falköping so I guess we’ll have many more visits from them in the future unless hunters do what they usually do and poach them. Hunters can be nice people but they really don’t like competition about the wild life they themselves wants to kill. I do know however that the hunters in my village wouldn’t shoot them, they are usually the first ones to see the wolves and then spread the news to us in the village so we all can keep our eyes open and see them ourselves. No such luck for me yet but I know that at least one followed us, out of sight, at at least one of our walks because the dogs clearly showed me that something was close to us for quite some distance and they really didn’t like it.

a (15)

More and more cranes arrive now and so does the crane tourists. long time since I saw that many caravans and mobile homes down by the lake. Lots of other birds arrive here too of course and I do hope that I one day will see at least one of the very few Black Storks that comes here every year. I know that they one year actually nested here but that’s very rare. They are usually more at home on the other side of the Baltic sea.

A15265_015A — These were taken with my Agfa Ambi Silette.

A15265_017A

Last year I bought a pair of shoes that were nasty expensive but they were the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever walked in. Unfortunately the price didn’t show that they were a high quality shoes, I guess they lasted a month or so and the reviews of the company showed that there was no use in trying to send them back or get a new pair. Turns out that the soles just were glued on and with a low quality glue as well. So I’ve been looking at the shoes with some kind of disgust 🙂 until I realized that if I tore the soles off they would work very well as slippers instead 🙂 So now I instead have really comfortable slippers 🙂 🙂 Still to be honest they weren’t worth the price but now I can at least use them again.

a (3) — Sixteen and a half years old, with a bad knee and still has no intentions on walking at the same pace as the rest of us 🙂 🙂 🙂

It’s time to make dinner for the dogs so see You tomorrow again.

Have a great day!

We almost had spring for a while.

March 26, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (7)

It really was spring like here for a while so I thought I might start here again, then the rain came and now it snows. They tend to change the weather forecasts faster than a spinning wind power plants but at the moment it looks like we’ll get nasty cold nights and barely survivable warm days. That will of course change next second but that’s what I’ve read so far.

So what has happened since christmas? Well I’ve learned, after 58 years why I’ve always had a wobbly stomach. Turns out I can’t eat gluten. I was at the companies health care service and talked with a nurse there. She asked if I had tried to stop eating products with gluten and I said I had bought one of those rather expensive home tests and it didn’t show anything at all. So she said try and stop eat anything with gluten and see what happens. Well I can tell You that I really don’t use much toilet paper now days 🙂 🙂 🙂

Now days it isn’t that hard to avoid gluten since it has become fashionable to not eating it. however the bread one can buy is an abomination to anything living so I’ve tried different ways to bake bread with other kinds of cereal and now I have bread that is just like any other except I really can’t make a good French roll but I’ll keep on trying till I get close enough.

A15266_001 — I had a few rolls of film developed and these two photos were taken with the Flexaret II

A15266_002

The dogs are all fine and I must say that Alma has calmed down considerable. She would still be considered awful compared to other dogs but she has really tried to listen to what I tell her. Last time we saw a deer she only screamed for five minutes after she last saw it and that’s a huge improvement. More and more cranes are around now and now I can hear them trumpeting from the lake in the mornings. Well I can hear them for the cow pasture on the other side of the road as well but so far they’ve stayed behind a tiny mound so I haven’t been able to see them yet.

A15265_006A — These three were taken with the Agfa Ambi Silette.

A15265_010A

Well since the wetaher will be more wintery than what I prefer I’ll come back next weekend again.

Have a great day!

We’ll get anything from lots of rain to A LOT of rain :-)

August 27, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

a (1)

We might get up to 80 mm or three and one fifth inches of rain this weekend (or possibly even more, it all depends on where the showers will pass). At the moment we’re having a nice gentle summer rain and almost no winds to speak of. The dogs won’t go outside in it but it’s actually quite nice.

a (5)

The morning weather was rather different though. Just below 10C (50F), ground mist and a rising sun. There are no birds singing any more unless one counts the trumpeting from Cranes. When we first hear them it’s a typical spring sound but now when we hear them it’s a typical autumn sound. Lots of them are heading south now together with lots of geese. Some will stay for much longer but those who plays it safe move south already now.

a (9)

No flies were around to annoy us thankfully. Well most of the forest flies are gone but it is worrisome that the moose flies already have arrived. They will usually stay until late October or early November unless the worst night frost that will come is nasty cold. It isn’t that many years ago that we didn’t have those nasty flies here but warmer and especially shorter winters have helped them to survive till next spring. We do have lots of spiders this year though and since there has been plenty of annoying forest flies (but actually not especially many horse flies) they’ve had plenty to eat.

a (13)

This weekend is the last one with summer temperatures they believe, already on Monday it’ll fall below 20C (68F) and it will stay like that for at least eight days. I don’t want summer temperatures for too long so I’m ok with it but I sure don’t want winter to start early either 🙂 🙂 A perfect climate would be a very long and not too cold autumn followed by a not too early spring, I really don’t mind us skipping winter even though that most likely would mean more ticks, horse flies and moose flies 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (17)

I’ve just watched the latest Ghost Buster movie, afterlife I think it’s called. It isn’t that bad to be honest. Sometimes a bit slow between when things happens but otherwise I think it carries on the tradition rather well. Later today I’ll most likely watch Spiderman: No Way Home. I’ve seen so many trailers from it that I feel I’ve actually seen it 🙂 🙂 🙂 First though I’ll need to feed the dogs and force them outside to make their businesses no matter how much it might rain 🙂

a (25)

Have a great day!