A slow day, windy and cloudy and some drizzle in between. I did almost see the sun for a second though 🙂 Not especially cold but not close to be warmish either. Mostly a meh weather day with other words 🙂
So close to actually see the sun shine 🙂
Thankfully for me the only sport I like to follow, Biathlon, season has started so I could at least watch that for an hour or two. It’s too early to start the winter sowing for those plants that either need a cold period to germinate or a longer warm one for the same reason. This year I have seeds from two different bananas 🙂 Both will have a slim chance to flower and give edible fruits so why not try them 🙂 I also have seeds for two different passion fruits and since they tend to start growing quickly it’s way too early to sow them.
I have however slowly started to fill the new aquarium with water and today I moved three smaller plants from the bigger tank to the new one. They have plenty of time to grow big before any fish will live in the aquarium but it does look a little poor at the moment 🙂 🙂 At the moment I can only find an extension cord with only one socket so at the moment the filter is doing its job and later on I’ll have the light on instead. Without any fish in it there really is no use for a filter running. I can of course find the extension cord I know I have somewhere so I can have both on at the same time but I think You all now know that I will not find it when I look for it, it sort of must happen by chance if it ever will turn up again 🙂 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea and after that I’ll most likely fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂
Have a great day!
I used my headlamp to be able to take this photo 🙂 The water looks a bit hazy so that’s why the filter is running instead of the light but I sort of like how it looks 🙂
Mixed weather here today, anything from misty rain to drizzle and then showers but also a lot of sunshine and it was so nice to stand in it feeling the warmth from it. Tomorrow it’ll be 4C (39,2F) all day, both day and night but with no chance of seeing the sun they say.
There was almost no vegetation growing in the bog (except for the pines) when I moved here 25 years ago but long draughts have made sure that birches thrive. The idea was that they weren’t allowed to keep the ditches so that the water level would rise but nature has another idea. So now when animals walk here I can’t see them, just hear them.
It was a joy to have our morning walk today, Alma behaved all the time and Malkolm pushed the leash much less, I guess the smell from what ever it was that the ravens ate made them more focused 🙂 🙂 🙂 This time of year the birds don’t make a lot of sounds, the occasional tweeting but they are so focused at finding food that they really don’t have the time to do other things. That makes it easier for us to hear other things, like wild hogs trying to move as quietly as possible .
We had lots of them around us today and as long as they keep trying to avoid us I don’t care about them 🙂 there were lots of ravens in the air and Great tits flew between the trees looking for insects hiding in the moss and lichens. No woodpeckers today though and oddly enough I didn’t hear any Jays arguing, normally those are the ones one mostly can hear 🙂
I also went to the supermarket today. I didn’t need especially much but came home with more than I had written down on my list 🙂 They did have whole chicken on sale so why not and I found this cereal that was supposed to taste like apple pie (and it was also gluten free) and I thought I really needed to try that one. Well it didn’t taste anything like apple pie and one could think that since it was made from oat that it possibly at least would taste like oatmeal cookies but no. So sit was like eating hard bread in a bowl of yogurt 🙂 🙂 🙂
Then I thought I should buy sand for the aquarium so I walked in top the pet store just beside. They now have a license to sell fish so they actually had a few aquariums with fish but they were so expensive that I doubt anyone will buy any fish from that place. I did eventually find aquarium sand but I couldn’t find how much it weighed but took it anyway, I would need around 10kg (22 pound) and it looked like that bag would way something like that. I did think that I must have lost a lot of muscle because it was so heavy. It was expensive too but since the fish was expensive I didn’t think much of it. Turns out that I bought a 20kg (44 pound) bag 🙂 🙂 so now I have around 22 pound of sand just standing in a corner 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think this might be the last leaf still hanging on in the entire area, it’s on my peach tree 🙂I really should cut of this big branch on the apple tree but I like all the moss that’s growing on it 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea I think. Perhaps I should have some of that apple pie cereal as some kind of cookie 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can always pour some cinnamon over it all and pretend it’s a Christmas cookie 🙂 🙂
I can’t for my life remember the name on this little bird but they are adorable when flying around looking for insects on the trees. Quite small but with long tail feathers. They only sit still for a second or two so I’m glad I managed to get this photo. Now I remember 🙂 It is a Long-tailed bushtit.
The days have been warmish now with a bit of sunshine yesterday but with mostly drizzle today. Not cold enough to feel that it’s ok staying indoors all day but not warm enough to actually wanting to do anything outdoors 🙂 We’ve been out on our walks but nothing more really.
We were on our way out and the monster wanted to go indoors and she showed really well what she thought of me when I continued with our walk 🙂
I’ve put together the table for the aquarium I bought, looking at the descriptions on how to do it it looked complicated but to be honest it wasn’t. It was like putting together something from IKEA but for some reason nothing was missing and for once they had put some extra screws and other things in the package and that was a good thing because I did need them. They had also put in lots of other screws, nuts and rubber things I think should be around some of the screws but not to this table 🙂 🙂 🙂
Here’s a raven gulping down something. This and the next photo were taken yesterday and since Alma is the dog she is these were the only ones I managed to take 🙂 🙂
This and the next one was taken today. Ravens are very aware of what is happening around them so if they see a camera they fly away.
Then I had to find somewhere to place it. I have had an old fridge in the kitchen that stopped working long ago but that I for some reason never moved out, I’ve used it as a storage unit more or less 🙂 🙂 The thing is that after a while it just collects dust and dog hair so I decided to move it out to the garage, (nowadays an indoor dog yard for the dogs since they dug their way in so I couldn’t have the car there any more 🙂 🙂 🙂 ). I tied and taped together the door because if dogs are determined to get inside they will and the risk of them getting in and the door gets closed so they suffocate isn’t something I would like to experience. One day I’ll move it to the scrap yard 🙂
A Magpie in flight.
It isn’t a big one but get it outside and in to the old garage wasn’t easy, especially when I dragged across the gravel road 🙂 🙂 Well it is done and I was surprised over how much dust and things had managed to get in under it 🙂 🙂 So now I’ve put it all ups and now It’ll stay empty for quite some time since I really don’t need it until next autumn when the goldfish I’m planning to have in the little pond and three water barrels need to go inside during winter. I can of course fill up with sand and plants and have some kind of fish in it until then it all depends on when I can drive to the pet store that still sell aquarium fish. The rules to sell aquarium fish are so hard now days and the licenses they need are so expensive that fewer pet stores sell fish now days. Cats and dogs have never been allowed to sell in pet stores here.
Either we have hunters here during nights or the lynx or the wolves hunt here at night because we came really close to ravens yesterday, They were clearly eating either leftovers after a hunt or what’s left after something a predator has killed. Yesterday they were sitting in the middle of a field and today they flew up from the ground in the forest. A raven would never be on the ground in the forest unless they had something to eat. The dogs were a bit stressed when we followed the creek up-stream but not like they usually are when we have wolves around so if it is an animal my guess is on the lynx.
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I haven’t really eaten anything since noon so I guess a couple of sandwiches would be great to have at the same time. Nothing interesting on tv to watch as usual so perhaps I’ll watch a dvd or read a book
Even darker today even though it did light up some every now and again.
Rain all day except for in the morning plus strong winds blowing so we’ve mostly been indoors today. Still rather warm for this period of the year but what good does that make when we can’t be outside enjoying it 🙂 🙂 Still, the morning walk was nice since the wind hadn’t reached us yet.
The aquarium I had ordered arrived yesterday and as soon as I saw the package I guessed that it was broken. Too bad I was right. No real damage to it but one could see that they had placed other heavier packages on it because that is what one does when the package is more or less wrapped in red Fragile stickers, well that is at least what the Swedish postal service think is the right way to do it.
Lots of glue and tape and it might become a mini greenhouse 🙂
So I mailed the business I bought it from and they shipped away a new one as soon as they saw the photo of the damages and it will arrive tomorrow!! They didn’t want the broken one back so with some glue and tape I guess I will be able to use it as a mini greenhouse 🙂 I do wonder about our postal service though, back in the days even if a letter had the wrong address they still managed to get it to the right person but that a package marked fragile isn’t supposed to be placed at the bottom with other packages on to of it seems to be a mystery for them 🙂 🙂 🙂
Also a couple of years ago the constantly placed my packages at the wrong places even though they said they used the GPS. In the end I had to threaten to report it to the police as a harassment if they missed one more time. Haven’t had the slightest problem with that since then 🙂 🙂 🙂
It is so muddy now in places we walk all the time in the garden that I started to pour out those wood chips I got after I’d cut down all those branches from the trees. It works really well and I have more chips to use in other places 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea and after that I’ll watch a dvd I think. I have so many but no place for them 🙂 🙂 Storage units is nothing I really have in this small cottage. I have one closet and mice went in there and chewed on all my clothes 🙂 🙂 🙂
It is amazing how many different kinds of rains there are because we’ve had all sorts of it today. Misty rain which I think is the worst but it does at least look like thick mist or fog. The drizzle, not that annoying, light autumn rain and showers. The clouds were so thick that I needed to use ISO 3200 and 4000 to be able to take any photos at all.
No wind though so that was a big plus, so the dogs weren’t too disappointed when they had to go for a walk in the morning, well morning is the wrong word because it was pretty late before it was light enough to be able to see where we were going 🙂 We might get a chance to see the sun on Thursday if we’re lucky. Now it’s so muddy that even the dogs and monster dislikes to walk on the “grass” outside the entrance door but I’m pretty sure that if we had walked out to the same place as yesterday it still would be just as dry in the ground there.
My neighbours are all having a cold and I met my neighbour when we went out for our walk and just seeing her made me want to stay far away from her 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not sure if it is a common cold they’re having or this years influenza. What ever it is I’m sort of glad I already have my little cold because if one already has one kind of cold virus one can’t get any other at the same time, learned that last year when a doctor explained that on tv.  At least one good news when having one of them while several other viruses is hitting the rest of the population 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m going to the supermarket tomorrow so I guess I’ll be safe from getting a new one since this little cold I’m having refuses to leave 🙂 🙂  Well it is time for that last cup of tea for the day but today there’s a science program on tv so I’ll watch that instead of a dvd.
Very little has happened these last days and that’s how it should be 🙂 The weather has changed loads of time, lots of just cloudy, a fair amount of sunshine and some rain as well, especially today will be rainy, they’re guessing it will rain all day long.
The dogs just look at me when I open the door for them to go outside 🙂 🙂 The little monster however will not be stopped by some rain, my guess is that she’ll go straight to the woodshed because she’s rarely especially wet when she comes back home again.
We have been lucky with the weather when we’ve had our walks though and yesterday morning was so chilly that I could see frost on the ground here and there. So no moose flies to deal with 🙂 It should be the end of their season anyway so from now on I shouldn’t have to wear the hoodie to avoid getting those nasty flies walking in my hair. It is a horrible feeling to wake up to at night 🙂 🙂
Today I’ll go to a job interview. The job is in a town called Skövde but the interview will happen in another town called Lidköping. Apparently they have two factories (I’m not sure it should be called a factory but I don’t have a better word for it), the job is about sanding objects before it is going to be painted and eventually later on also paint the things. To be honest I have no idea what kind of things we’re talking about but a job is a job and since I don’t tend to win the lottery I hope I’ll get this job 🙂 🙂
I have come to like staying at home all day though 🙂 🙂 but getting payed is better than hoping for that lottery winning after all 🙂 🙂 This time at home have however made me realise that I will love to retire when that day comes 🙂 🙂 🙂
I haven’t had any tea yet so I better make some before it is time to drive to that job interview. Since the weather is like it is I guess I’l spend the time until then in front of the tv or perhaps watch an episode or two of a Town called Eureka 🙂
Not the happiest weather today, cloudy and boring when we were out on our morning walk but on the way home the rain arrived and it continued to rain half the day or so. Even though the garden is rather muddy (and also my home) we still need more rain so the groundwater level finally rise to more normal levels. I’ve cleaned the bottom floor so much now that it feels that there isn’t much left of it 🙂 🙂
I’ve now made an appointment for when my car will go through the annual vehicle inspection, December 29th. We used to have it every twelve month but we’ve it every fourteen month because that what they have down on the continent. I can’t see the logic in that but since we’re member of the EU we do what they do. I usually have it the last day I can because if there’s something that needs to be fixed I have one more month to drive before it is illegal 🙂  I really don’t like to have to do it when it is winter but next year it can be done as late as late February to early March 🙂 All problems are so much nicer when it is warmer and nicer outdoors 🙂
It is Persimmon season now and it is one of my favourite fruits. This time however they sold Kaki fruits, a relative to the Persimmon, they taste much the same but You can eat the Kaki even though it isn’t fully ripe. These are always seedless but every now in a blue moon some have a seed in them and I’ve been lucky twice already 🙂 Both Persimmon and Kaki fruits are just as cranny as Pawpaw seeds to germinate but I’ve done as I always do, put them in a moist paper towel and inside a plastic bag and placed them in the fridge so I’m hoping for good luck. I doubt these will be especially hardy though but I can have them in pots for several years before they grow too big. The problem I can see is that those pots will be nasty heavy and difficult to bring down to the cool cellar during each winter 🙂 🙂
All the chickens have moved, I’ll miss them.
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I’m thinking of perhaps having an ice cream at the same time but I have already had two today 🙂 🙂
It is raining, sort of a nice spring rain. Ok I know it’s autumn but that’s the feeling I get when being outside and not even the dogs seems to dislike it. We walked down to the creek this morning unlike yesterday when we walked out to the bog. It is strange but those moose flies survives lots of night with frost and they love it out by the bog so I didn’t want that to do that mistake again 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve noticed that there are lots fewer moose flies if we walk on the wider gravel roads even though they do sometimes even turn up here in my garden. Also it is seldom that any of them stays close to the creek, I have no idea to why though and it could just be coincidence but it’s like that every year. I think the moose passed just outside the garden yesterday evening because Alma was in guarding mood the entire time we were outside when it started to go dark. I could see some big tracks in the grass just outside my fence. If it had been a wolf she wouldn’t go outside at all 🙂 and the wild hogs walks closer to the forest on the other side of my home.
Our squirrels are quite shy so it’s always a joy when one can see them.
I always go out on seed sites this time of year and to be honest I already have many more seeds than I can sow next year 🙂 🙂 Then however, a couple of days ago I found seeds to something called Litchie tomato. It isn’t a tomato but a relative in the Nightshade family and even though I could see in photos that it must have been made in hell because it has zillions with really sharp small thorns I thought I have to test it 🙂 🙂 I’ve now been out on Youtube and watched a few videos and it is clear that it can’t grow in a place I have to pass at all because those spikes will hit me 🙂 🙂
Also I’ve learned that it is quite hardy, not that it will survive a winter here but night frost isn’t a problem at all. So it is either growing in the back of the greenhouse or it’ll just grow up there and later planted outside. Anyway it will be fun to try it 🙂 An odd thing happened when I tried to order it via my phone, for some reason I couldn’t get the seeds I bought by mail? Really strange since those packages I ordered hardly would even be noticed in an ordinary envelope. I could however go and pick it up at the seed firm not too far from where I live. That annoyed me so much that I cancelled the order 🙂 🙂 However I regretted it and did the order via my computer and then I didn’t even get a choice to pick it it, I could only get the seeds by mail 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thos are the problems we have in the village at the outskirts of the world 🙂 🙂 🙂
Well it is a long time until spring so I’ll place these seeds together with all the other seeds I already have in a plastic lunch box until it is time to start thinking about it again. It is time to feed the dogs and the monster and I already have a cup of tea by my side. I have caught a small cold, nothing serious just stuffed nose, freezing a little and sneezing a lot 🙂 🙂 I still have honey that my old neighbours gave me so I’ll have some of that and hope this will pass quickly even though it isn’t that bad 🙂
They are slowly ripening 🙂 I had to take this photo with a flash so the colours aren’t quite right. They are turning towards a very dark red colour.
For a while in the early morning it looked like we were going to have sunshine while we were out walking and we did for around twenty seconds 🙂 Then the rain arrived, no heavy showers but either a steady but calm rainfall or misty rain. It wasn’t until just after noon the sun made a come back and now three hours later I can see that the rain is falling again.
The rain on the mountain missed us but another one came a short moment after.
So I haven’t done a lot today, mostly drinking tea and watching tv, well I wouldn’t be able to tell You what it was I looked at because mostly it was pretty boring and nothing I really wanted to see. When the sunshine finally arrived I’ve mostly been throwing away what I’ve had in pots and poured it all out close to where the plum tree stood. I dug up all the dahlias and for the first time in my life only one can be saved till next year, I have no idea why they didn’t create root lumps like dahlias always do. Could be that I’ve watered them too little.
No signs of any wolf still staying around, they rarely do to be honest. I did see some tracks from moose though and they looked really fresh, if they had been old the rain would have wiped them out. To my very big surprise I finally found my jigsaw!! and it was pure luck because I can’t really understand why I had placed it there, beneath the entrance stairs??!! It must have been that a shower passed by and that was the closest place I could find, otherwise I have absolutely no idea 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully it is in a sort of plastic suitcase so no water from the latest rains had managed to get to it. So it still works and soon I’ll be able to have that third rainwater barrel 🙂
Well the weather doesn’t seem to become any nicer again so I guess I better make a pot of tea and perhaps doze off in front of the tv 🙂 🙂
Just a short one today. The greenhouse still stands, I went out several times to check how the anchors and pegs were holding up and they show no signs of even moving the slightest. The only thing that did was the broken golf club in front of the door, so I pressed it down in the ground in another place and much further down and it is still standing 🙂
The dogs barely went out to do their business because the wind was fierce and I must say I didn’t think a tree could bend that much as my Chinese catalpa, any normal tree bending so much would have broken in two 🙂 🙂
The badger visited us in the late morning, I was surprised it even had went out on a day like this. I was outside just minutes earlier to check the greenhouse and went back to let the dogs out. Took a bit longer than I expected so by the time we came out the badger had left us again 🙂 They dig mall holes searching for snails and larvae to eat and they weren’t there when I was out earlier 🙂 So everything has went well and we’re all sitting in the cottage enjoying not being outside 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that it feels like an early night is the right thing to do 🙂 Well I’ll watch the news first just in case something has happened in the world 🙂
We had a beautiful sunrise today and I think that have might been the only beautiful thing happening today 🙂 🙂 The rest of the day we’ve been in and out of the cottage. The sun shone and we went out and suddenly rain arrived and we went indoors again 🙂 We’ve also had a strong wind blowing so even if we were outside while we could see the sun up there in the sky it still wasn’t especially nice.
I had hoped I cut take down the trunks of those plum trees but I really didn’t want to be caught outside with an electric chainsaw with a cord if it rained. So since most machines and tools I own is just the same I really couldn’t do much else either 🙂  So I have mostly, in between going in and out again, sort of half napped in front of the tv 🙂
Edible and really tasty mushroom.Don’t eat, You’ll get really sick.
It won’t do much to You but they don’t taste a thing 🙂
I’m starting planning to bring down some plants down to the cool cellar already, mostly my Peruvian ground cherries, they have lots of small fruits but are far from being ripe and their relatives Tomatillos for the same reason. By the way I’ve never grown or eaten tomatillos but understand that they should be cooked, what do they taste like? 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m getting lots of them so it would be sad if the frost takes them before they are ripe.
Never ever eat this one!
Or this one, the Swedish name for it is forest salad or lettuce might be a better word. I doubt You’ll die but …
It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll eat an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream. They sell gluten free ones from the ice cream lorry so I bought a package yesterday 🙂
We are supposed to have loads of rain today, bucket fulls of rain. We did have rain during the night, a soft and gentle summer rain but after that mostly drizzle as best. I’m sort of disappointed to be homes 🙂 Ok the day isn’t over yet and the Swedish weather site says lots of rain or very little in the evening while the Norwegian says sort of what we had during last night, not enough at all. I’m afraid the Norwegian site use to be the one one can trust.
I haven’t been just idling around waiting for the rain though, I’ve made a pasta sauce in the slow cooker and I’ve baked bread as well. Also I decided that I would start the filter in the aquarium again. It is filled with a quarter to what it can take because  I thought the plants in it should survive just in case I would buy some fish again. I emptied since I had to work evening shift a couple of times and didn’t know how wild the dogs would be when I wasn’t at home. I would have liked to have them in the dog yard while I worked but since they bark at anything moving when it is dark outside they would wake up my neighbours and they are just too good to do something like that to.
It took me one hour to get the filter to actually work and not just sound as if it was working again 🙂 🙂 I did fill it with water as much as possible and it still refused to work. It turned out that even though it was filled it still had som much air inside that it couldn’t work. I’ve watered my tomato plants and tomatillo plants with the water that was inside the filter before I cleaned it. Aquarium water is an amazingly good fertiliser so I hope they will enjoy it 🙂 🙂
I was going to cut off the top on this barrel so I could have one more rainwater barrel. Didn’t happen because I can’t for my life find my jigsaw 🙂 🙂 I looked at it just a few days ago and can’t remember where it is 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I have in fact the cup beside me 🙂 The reason I made the pasta sauce is because I want to try and bake pierogies, something I’ve never done before. So I’ll put it in a lunch box and in the freezer until it is time to do it. For a while, long ago pierogies were the street food to eat but then the kebab came and now days very few actually seems to know what a real pierogi is. It’s actually raining outside again, still just a gentle summer rain though.
The Cottage by the crane lake. 