Good thing I still have lots of photos from earlier 🙂 So this is the same fox I showed yesterday.
I know I’ve said that I really liked that it had cooled down a lot but I didn’t mean it should cool down so much that I almost have to start the radiators again! 10C (50F) outside today, heavy showers on and off plus really strong winds really isn’t what I want in June. On the other side all these clouds that covers the sky does keep the night frost away and we normally have our last night with frost around June sixth. So nothing bad that doesn’t bring something good as well but to be honest we could have had the same weather but at least 20C (68F) so we at least could go outside in between showers 🙂 🙂
Sorry about yesterday, first I visited my friend at the garden center and I can proudly tell You that I didn’t bring home and plants this time 🙂 I had been tired since the moment I woke up and when I came home I took a nap for well over an hour but was just as tired as before so I went to bed and slept all night long. I guess that I actually am having a cold because after our morning walk today I napped well over two hours but this time I’m not that tired again 🙂
So I was going to write something about our national day and why we celebrate it. There are two reasons for it, the first is that June sixth Gustav Vasa became king here in Sweden. Sweden was at that time occupied by Denmark and their king (we call him Christian the Tyrant 🙂 ) made a blood bath killing lots of the nobility in Sweden including Gustav’s father. He wanted revenge and fled north to gather the support of the people in Dalarna (a region in Sweden that sort of have become the picture of what Sweden is when it comes to traditions). No one really did support him but he did eventually get their support and he of course promised them a lot in return. The Danish king was driven out and when the good people in Dalarna actually expected to get what he had promised he happily slaughtered them.
Before him the nobility here always chose the next king but after him it became an inherited title. He had three sons all more or less insane and all became king over Sweden and Finland (which was a part of Sweden for centuries). The first one I guess had schizophrenia, married his non nobility mistress which wasn’t liked at all so his brothers put him in prison and eventually poisoned him with arsenic. They spared his wife and children though but she had to move to Finland, promising never to claim the throne for her children and what I know they had a great life there.
The second reason is that we got a new constitution 1809 that removed most of the Kings power, that I see as a really good reason to celebrate though but very few know about it here. The king by the way was a French buddy to Napoleon which he then turned against and we helped to win over him. Denmark’s capital Copenhagen was heavily bombarded by the Brits so that Napoleon wouldn’t be able to use their harbors so they sided up with Napoleon instead. So after Napoleon lost Denmark was punished by giving Norway to Sweden. There was however a big problem with that because Norway had already declared they were now independent of Denmark. So they were pissed of by this (in my opinion they rightfully were so) but back in the days You really couldn’t do anything unless You were prepared to go to war with the big powers in the world. To be honest we really didn’t want Norway because we wanted to get Finland back from the Russians who had taken it from us by winning a war against us but Russia was also on the winning side so Norway it was. Lasted until 1905 when they finally became a free country. Not that the Swedish king wanted that but he was wise enough to not start a war. To be honest I don’t think we ever have won a war against Norway, the last time we tried our own troops finally shot our king with a big button.
So anyway we haven’t had a national day for that long anyway, until 1983 it was the Swedish flag day (the next oldest country flag in the world, only the Danes have an older one) and it didn’t become a holiday until 2005. So since most people don’t know why we celebrate and to be honest Gustav Vasa was a horrible dictator, we never have sort of understood how to celebrate it (and to be honest they removed another holiday that we wanted to have much more so that sort of dampened the cheers 🙂 🙂 ) They do try to make it more festive but so far it is sort of a meh celebration we’re having 🙂 🙂 🙂
The morning walk was really pleasant, cool enough to keep flies and mosquitoes away but still sunny and no wind. We met two foxes and the deer doe was outside the garden once again, she doesn’t even react when we go out now days. Now however the rain is pouring down and it is quite chilly and we might get thunder later today. The weather will be much the same tomorrow, sunny morning and rainy before noon and with lots more rain. I don’t mind even though it would have been nice if we could have reached 20C (68F), we’re not even close today.
Magpie younglings photographed through mosquito net and window 🙂
Looks like it has rained over my car but it hasn’t, lots of morning dew here so this is normal every morning.
Remember I told about how easy it is to propagate tomatoes? Some tomato plants grow like a bush and others like vines. The vine ones are supposed to be pruneed by removing all shoots that grow out and those are easy to just put in soil.
Take those shoots and remove all but the to leafs and put them in a new pot.
They will create new roots along the stems and then You have new tomato plants. Normally our summers are too short to get any tomatoes on them but these had already flower buds so perhaps I’m lucky 🙂
The mornings was quite cool here today, so cool that no mosquitoes or flies were pestering us even though we went out to the bog. Nova wanted to go down to the creek but since she has been a bit off since the last walk there I’d rather have her walking a shorter distance but at least come out so she could sniff on every track she found. Good appetite though so she’s not ill. She did get grumpy though so she dragged her feet all the way until she realized we were on our way home again, then she suddenly could walk really fast 🙂 🙂
It has been less cool than what they were guessing in the weather sites and so far we’ve had a couple of small showers but that’s it. Lots of sunshine between the clouds as well. After we came home we had a little nap, well I tried to but Malkolm decided he would play with a nasty sounding plastic bottle so he woke me up every now and again. I guess the good thing was that I still just relaxed and most of the time even Alma stayed with me and Nova 🙂
I only found three ticks crawling around on the dogs when we came home, cool mornings keep those calm as well 🙂 The deer was outside in the cow pasture again this morning, I still haven’t see her young one but I’m pretty sure it’s out there with her. My neighbor, the Beekeeper, saw a doe with two young ones a couple of days ago. I guess that Alma and I are just too loud so that they can hear us from a long distance, Alma shouting and whining like always and me scolding her for it like always as well 🙂 The thing with Alma is that if she can keep calm until we pass the Beekeepers she’ll stay reasonable calm for the rest of the walk as well, if not we’ll have a constant war between us all they way 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m thinking of buying some fish to have in my water barrels again, there are so many mosquito larvae in them and I can’t find the fishing net so that I can bring them to the fish i my aquarium. The problem is that they now have so tough rules for pet shops to be allowed to sell aquarium fish that most just don’t care to do it, I’ve heard that the license to be able to sell fish just costs too much. Good thing for the fish, annoying for us humans. Well I can always go down to the creek and see if I’m lucky fishing there 🙂 🙂 🙂
Bryonia alba is nothing You want in Your garden, it can cover a tree during one summer, smells nasty and I have had lots in my garden. Thankfully I’ve got rid of most of them.
I have lots of wild flowers mixed with garden flowers in my garden. Some would say I’m lazy not weeding them out and some would say I think of the pollinators 🙂 🙂 🙂
This is the male flowers on the Hardy Kiwi. My female plants are always freezing during winters (this one did in the beginning as well) so I’ve never seen those flowers but I think they look much the same.
This is a Geum urbanum, grows everywhere here and beside it a wild pink Geranium.
It grows a Sand cherry tree is that old flower bed so I can’t mow the area or remove all flowers we tend to call weeds 🙂
Another shower is just passing by and when they do the temperature drops a lot, then again it gets really hot when the sun shines instead so it evens out during the day 🙂 I forgot to write about our National day and what we are celebrating (most people doesn’t know why to be honest. So most just take this day as a day free from work and if the weather is nice they’ll barbecue something and just relax. I’ll try to remember to write about it tomorrow instead!
Clouds are fascinating, I’m pretty sure this will grow up to a thunder cloud.
Thunder and rain again, at work the rain poured sown and thunder passed just outside the village. It doesn’t look as we had much rain here though and only the sound from the thunder reached this village. The rain did arrive shortly after I came home though and now we get the occasional shower passing by. They’re guessing we’ll have rain on and off all evening but tomorrow and Saturday will be rain free, well with our weather services that can mean anything but I do hope snow is out of the question 🙂
This is how a Gardenia looks like in nature, the same smell but the flower lasts less. One of my seed sown ones.
A Camellia flower that fell of the potted plant.
You see those white tipped leafs? They come from the male hardy kiwi vine. This one is so big that it almost has grown to the top of the apple tree behind it 🙂 The female ones froze this winter and has started to grow again. It’ll take many years until I get any kiwi fruits 🙂 🙂
I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t have energy to even write a blog, must be pollen because I did sleep like a that night and again last night. Alma hasn’t escaped the dog yard in a couple of days now but I did noticed that she had searched for a weak spot in several places. I fixed those and today there were no signs of her trying again. It’s just a matter of time though 🙂 🙂 She and Malkolm plays all day and now when they can’t be outside because of the rain they play just as wild indoors. No problems really unless Malkolm suddenly needs to pee because when he notice that he doesn’t have much time, if I don’t understand that immediately he will pee on the floor 🙂 🙂 I was just about to haste down to the door when he returned with one of my woolen socks 🙂 I traded it with an old handkerchief instead 🙂
Isn’t it strange how plants no matter how much one water and fertilize them always grow much better when it has rained? I looked at my small apricot trees and I have been watering and given them fertilizer all the time and nothing much has happened, they a couple of days with rain and they grow like crazy!Personally I feel it wouldn’t do much difference but the plants show it does. We almost always have a very high humidity here so that shouldn’t do any difference but rain and high humidity together might be so much better.
This is how a Gardenia looks like in nature, the same smell but the flower lasts less. One of my seed sown ones.
A Camellia flower that fell of the potted plant.
Yellow day-lilies. I used to have four different but only the yellow ones are still here, so by that I mean I have two different yellow ones 🙂
The residues of my woodland. Few flowers left but now it’s home to the Pawpaw trees, a Ginkgo and the rhododendron Catawbiense.
The little green dot grows bigger from the root of the Hybrid Persimmon that died 🙂
The surviving Pawpaw now has several small green dots which means leafs and new growth 🙂
The first Mock orange flower.
The Yellow flag also have buds now.
You see those white tipped leafs? They come from the male hardy kiwi vine. This one is so big that it almost has grown to the top of the apple tree behind it 🙂 The female ones froze this winter and has started to grow again. It’ll take many years until I get any kiwi fruits 🙂 🙂
It is time to go downstairs to watch the news, not much else to watch tonight. Well the Diamond league, competing in athletics might be something to watch because we do have a couple of Swedes competing, if boring it’s perfect to fall asleep to 🙂
Whitebeams are quite popular to have in towns and cities around here, hardy enough and rarely get sick.
It’s so nice to have summer tires on the car again, it’s so much more quiet in the car now. I also asked them to check if there is a hole in the exhaust pipe because sometimes it does sound like there is one and sometimes as there isn’t one 🙂 🙂 🙂 The exhaust pie is really good they say but there is a place where two parts of the pipe connects and it doesn’t fit properly, when the pipe is cold so it sounds as if there is a hole 🙂 When it gets warm the heat make the two parts expand a bit and when they do the sound goes away 🙂 Nothing to care about they said so I won’t 🙂
Falköping is placed on two mountains and in the valley in between. If one is interested in status one should live on the other mountain called Mösseberg, Ålleberg as these photos are taken on is for some reason not as fancy to live on 🙂
The football stadium in Falköping. Not big but they are and should be proud of it. If their football team ever should come to the higher divisions this would be way too small.
A little guy woke me up at three thirty five this morning, he needed to go outside to do his business. There wasn’t any use going back to sleep after that 🙂 So I’m really tired tonight. He and Alma aren’t though, they are playing wildly here in the cottage because it is raining outside. It started when I drove to the garage and has continued more or less the entire day. Most seems to have missed the village though but it rained enough to make the dogs prefer to stay under a roof. Still I noticed that Alma had started to work her way out of the dog yard again so I’ve been working on that place as well 🙂 🙂 🙂 I hope it at least will keep her in there for a couple of days before she tries again.
Apartment building s and one family household houses are mixed quite well in this town.
Murals are popular here.
Any way, I had a little walk in Falköping while I was waiting for my car to be ready, it’s just a small part so it doesn’t really show how the town looks, I’ll walk elsewhere the next time. Falköping is at least one thousand years old but it is köping and not a city or town to be honest. It had all to do with taxes and what rights the King gave the place. We have a similar town north of Falköping called Skara and Skara is a town so they celebrated Skaras one thousand year birthday as a town some years ago but that can never happen in Falköping even though it is just as old 🙂 🙂 Today we call everything towns or cities even though most of them aren’t 🙂
The sign on the flower shop says: Show that You believe in love. I guess they mean they want us to buy their flowers to show that 🙂
To be honest Falköping is a nice little place but quite boring 🙂 I think it once was voted to be Sweden’s most boring town 🙂 🙂 It’s a bit odd because it has two town centers. One is by the railway station and one is on the other side of the town. The one on the other side of the town is where I walked today and it is more like a real town square while the other one is open space, a grocery store, the station and very little else.
This looks like headstones from a grave yard to me. I guess it’s some kind of art they now are placing in the town square.
I was a bit lucky while walking around, even though it rained most of the walk the thunder that arrived kept its distance and didn’t arrive until I had my car and was back at work. It missed this village but was quite ferocious everywhere else. It hit somewhere close to the factory just as I was leaving for the day and the last thing I heard was the paint box alarming and it looked like they weren’t able to re-start it again. Well I’ll know better tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t have to work by the paint box tomorrow, it’s a pain in the a..e when that happens because it can take forever to make it start again.
Plenty of art galleries in this town.
Well if You want to but small action figures from Two different English football teams this is the place to go 🙂
This little place used to be a thrift/ antique shop just a year ago.
It is still raining outside but little enough so that dogs can play outside. They are running in and out in full speed, up the stairs and down again and I can only hope they won’t break anything on themselves. I do hope it also means that Malkolm will sleep until the alarm starts tomorrow morning 🙂
The plastic bag You can see is covering the handle on my old lawn mower, mostly because the birds ten to poop on it.
When I looked at the weather sites yesterday they said really warm all next week with almost only sunshine, today they say almost no sunshine and quite a lot of rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So Your guess to how it will be is as good as mine 🙂 I won’t mind some rain just as long as it doesn’t continue for too long plus the farmers need it so at least they will be really happy when it starts to fall 🙂
The last peat in the yellow plastic bag was so dry that this rain really helped 🙂
It is hard to catch the rain drops when taking photos.
Today they were almost right though, they guessed cloudy all day but no rain. It has been cloudy all day but just before I arrived here at home after work the clouds opened up and the rain started to pour down. My water barrels that were almost empty are now three quarters full. The ground here is still very wet so we here really don’t need the rain but it is nice to see that the barrels are full of water again.
Buds on the Amur grape vine.
Can’t remember the name on this weed but it does look harmless enough. It isn’t though because it becomes so dense that nothing else can grow up from the ground. Really good to stop water evaporating from the ground though, never dry beneath it.
The rain however stopped us from taking a walk and now there are so many mosquitoes flying around that it’s a bit nasty to have walks. Well they are guessing we’ll have sunshine and hot weather tomorrow again so we’ll just take an extra long morning walk before it gets too hot. This rain has unfortunately brought out both slugs and snails so some of my sowings (in containers) has been eaten. Tomorrow I’ll see if anything can be saved.
Alma hadn’t escaped the dog yard today either 🙂 This morning I took all small plastic bottles I could find here at home and put dog treats in them, I tried it with Malkolm at first and when he saw what I did to get those treats out he understood it. I don’t think Alma has a clue still because some of those bottles were heavily chewed so that the treats could come out 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well at least she has been busy 🙂
This container has not been visited by slug or snails so I moved it temporarily to a table on the other side of the cottage.The biggest leafs to the right are from Morning glories, beside them are Hollyhocks. Then comes False Dragonheads followed by Alpine Aster and Siberian Larkspur.
My little Red oak, it grows so slow here. I need to remove the vegetation around it so that it gets some sunshine.
So far only columbines and Giant Sequoia seeds have germinated in this container. Still no Chinese dogwood, Dawn redwood, Tulip tree or Sea kale. This one did have a small slug in it so that container has also been temporarily moved.
It is time to go out to check where I can place my Pawpaw seedlings so that the slugs and snails at least have a harder time to reach them. I’ll do it quickly because those mosquitoes mean business when they start arriving, Nova is already scratching herself badly, the other two have only been outside when they really needed to.
The warm and sunny weather sure took its time to arrive today, the morning was chilly and rainy so we didn’t go out for our morning walk until just before noon and it was still really cold. Then suddenly it changed and the temperature has risen to 20 C (68 F), the sun is shining even though there are big clouds in the sky and, of course, there is now a strong wind blowing.
That has helped the laundry to dry in five seconds so I really can’t complain too much 🙂 I don’t think it took fiver minutes after the sun started to shine through the gaps in the clouds before I heard the first mower 🙂 Yes the grass has grown pretty much but why can’t they just relax at least for one day before they start 🙂 🙂
I didn’t care about mowing the lawn, instead I’ve brought up almost all plants from the cool cellar. I only have four cacti down there still because I need to get more plants outside before I have enough space by the windows 🙂 I even brought the pawpaw seedlings I had down there outside, three of them but decided that the three I have indoors by the kitchen window can wait for a while. One never knows when we’ll get a nasty cold frosty night again.
The Camellias started to flower in the cool cellar.
I bought a hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) and it too was touched a bit hard by frost, like the trees I also got delivered late this week. So I decided to take a few cuttings that can over winter in the cool cellar neat winter. I took a few photos of how I do that that You can see here below. The Hardy Fuchsia doesn’t survive like a big bush here though but the roots survives and starts all over next year. It’s always best to put dry leafs over it all just in case we do get another cold winter. One can of course also have it as a pot plant and keep it light but cool during the winters.
The best soil to have while planting cuttings are usually sowing soil. I didn’t have any so I mixed ordinary soil with some sand from my garden, mix it well.
As You can see the cuttings did look a bit sad after the frost so I don’t know if they’ll work but it’s worth a try. I can take new ones later in summer.
One only need a short stem, just make sure that at the bottom there have been leafs. Take away those because that’s where the new roots will start to grow. This one didn’t have any leafs at all but they usually work anyway.
This one looks better. Two leafs taken away at the bottom and two leafs at the top. Most people think this is too short but it’s actually just enough.
Plant the cuttings along the edge of the pot, more oxygen will reach where the leafs will grow and the risk of them rotting because of too much water is lesser. Normally I don’t put a see through cover,, like plastic, around the pot but since there were hit by frost I thought it might help. Place the pot by a window that doesn’t get any sunshine and wait for them to grow to new plants 🙂
Tomorrow will be a bit cooler than today but still above 10 C (50 F) and then on Tuesday it’ll go back to more what we’ve had this afternoon, I do hope this was the last cold period until autumn arrives again, I’m really tired of the cold weather we’ve had lately. I wonder how Malkolm think about warmer weather, so far all his life has been pretty cold, all three months of it 🙂
Alma and Malkolm have been playing all day long so they are both now snoring loudly 🙂
This day took its time to become reasonable warm and nice, mostly it felt like winter was coming back and the clouds up in the sky looked like solid led. But it did eventually become warmer and the drizzle we had before noon stopped to drizzle and then the sun finally showed itself.
Now new clouds have arrived and tomorrow will eventually become pretty warm, almost 20 C (68 F) but first we’ll have to go through much the same weather we had today but with lots more rain. It will however not be freezing cold during the night and it looks like nights will stay like that for the ten coming days. Then again we all know how our weather forecasts are so it can be the opposite as well 🙂 🙂 🙂
We walked down to the creek in the morning and Alma finally was calmer than she has been lately. Malkolm walks really well leashed and Nova is never a problem so for once I didn’t have to put 90% of both my energy and time on keeping control of Alma. She behaved much better when we later in the day walked to the bog so there might be a tiny bit of hope that she’ll calm down eventually 🙂 🙂 🙂 She didn’t even scream when we saw four deer in the fields and that’s really unusual.
I’ve managed to make my brother slightly obcessed by cameras too now 🙂 Sometimes he buys something, then regrets it and ships it to me 🙂 🙂 So today I have some times used an Olympus E-420. Like all old cameras it has a mind of its own so every now and again it just changes all settings I’ve just programmed so I have to do it all again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Overall for being such an old camera I think it was pretty good and will most likely use it every now and again when I want to have a very light camera with me, my Nikons are not heavy but compared to this one they are heavy weight 🙂
The Maples are in bloom.
I’ll go out in to my garden tomorrow when it is raining and sow grass seeds because 24 years with dogs really wear the grass down but I’ll also sow annuals in the old vegetable patch. I have already done that but then the winter came back so I suspect some of what I sowed might have frozen to death during that time. I’ll pick up most of what’s left in my cool cellar and place it on the north side of the cottage.There really isn’t any place here now where the sun doesn’t reach at any time of the day. Soon the sun will rise north- east (north north-east to be honest) and it is already setting at north-west and soon at north north-west. It is always best if the sun can’t reach those plants because just like us humans that will get burned by the sun easily in the beginning so will leafs too.
All the following photos are from the Olympus camera.
I’ll also plant some of what’s already standing outside, I was going to figure that out today but time flew so I’ll have to do that tomorrow instead. I’ll also go through the dog yard to check after weak spots and fix them so that Alma can’t escape 🙂 🙂 🙂 We’ve been up since 4 am because Malkolm woke me up after he had pooped beside my bed. I see that as a good sign because he didn’t tell me at all just a few days ago 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest though, he hadn’t have to wake me up because that small was so bad that not even a dead person would have missed it 🙂 🙂 🙂 If this had been a working day this accident would most likely not have happened because 4 am is the time the alarm starts so I can go to work.
It is time to bring them all out for a last time today and hopefully he will soon understand that it always is best to wake me up before he does anything because if he does he will get a treat and he does like a treat. His appetite comes from the Golden Retriever in him, the barking indoors comes from the English Cockerspaniel so I wonder what will show from the Border collie? He doesn’t seem to herding at all but loves to stop at every spot where animals have walked, I’ve never heard that about Border collies 🙂
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 🙂 🙂 🙂
Warmer than they guessed but also more rain, so we have mostly been indoors after our morning walk. It rained when we went out as well, sort of intense drizzle or light spring rain, I decided to only wear a hoodie and not the winter jacket so I was happy when Nova decided that we should walk in the forest today 🙂
They are still cutting down trees in there so the clean road was anything but today. Even though horses are used instead of heavy machines the ground, now saturated with water still gets worn down pretty bad. The grass will grow back fast as soon as spring springs for real though but at the moment we all get muddy while walking there.
I’ve done my chores mor or less today. I’ve done the laundry and is baking a bread at the moment and soon I’ll do a meat sauce so I’ll have something to eat at work next week, I didn’t win the lottery so I will have to keep on working 🙂 I’ll just add rice nudels each day and I can boil them while giving the dogs their breakfast 🙂
I’ve had this cold coming and going since christmas and it was back again this week. No fever to be honest but sour throat, runny nose, either coughing or sneezing and a tiredness that never goes away. We are plenty to have it and it is so annoying. Not enough fever to not go to work but not feeling good enough to go to work 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s a damned if You do, damned if You don’t feeling to it 🙂
The swamp is now a lake.
I don’t mind but I’m pretty sure this will be a nasty mosquito year.
The sun will of course show itself on Monday and Tuesday but then again we’ll get snow on Wednesday. It’ll be warm enough so the snow will melt away unless it comes at night because nights will stay cold. It feels like this weather is too good (despite the grey and dull weather) to be true. It is after all only the beginning of March yet and back in the days we could have winter here until late April and if it was really bad in to early May. I don’t miss those winters at all to be honest 🙂 🙂 I heard that California might get up to three yards of snow up in the high mountains today, that’ll be fun when it melts.
I think this is a Coal tit. there are two other tits that looks almost identical though.
Thursday morning. On our way out to the island in the bog.
The weather this week has been really nice, lots of sunshine and no wind. I couldn’t enjoy it especially much though because the cold I had during the christmas vacation didn’t want to leave me. It has been an odd one. Sometimes I’ve felt rather fine just to minutes later freeze like a dog or boil like a kettle. Runny nose and lots of sneezings but thankfully less coughing. Also the throat couldn’t decide whether it should hurt or not so that has come and gone as well 🙂 🙂 🙂
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I have been on walks with the dogs though. Alma is in heat and she’s more annoying than usual, none of us can stand her for more than a few minutes at a time 🙂 🙂 🙂 She has been really annoying on our walks as well So at the moment she’s not the most popular girl here 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Our fox is very much alive thankfully, I managed to take photos of it in the cow pasture on the other side of the gravel road. The fun thing is that I didn’t see it while I took some photos on the frost covered trees in the pasture 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had the wrong telephoto lens on to be honest but then again if I had had the bigger one I might not have caught the fox at all.
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Today the weather sites first guessed that we would have fog in the morning, then they changed that to snow. So I wasn’t surprised that we had misty rain when I woke up, that changed to drizzle when we went out for our walk. Naturally it then turned to heavy rain for a short while to finally become snow. We did actually get fog too but well after noon. So I guess it would be hard to complain about those weather sites since we actually had both snow and fog plus the bonus rain 🙂 🙂 🙂
We walked down to the creek yesterday.
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From now on it’ll get nasty cold again and I’m not happy about it. Alma removes all covers I hang in the opening at the dog house, so all warmth in there goes away. Really annoying! So now I’ve ordered three Dog-Igloos. One really big for her and two smaller for Alma and Albin. So when Alma has removed and obliterated the cover once again they still can be warm and cozy when they go inside their Igloos. Alma will of course try to get in to the smaller ones as well since why wouldn’t she so I can only hope that Albin wants to stay in the bigger one so she can stay there at the same time as well. They are so big that she can’t drag them outside but I guess she will try to do that anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂
Today we walked out to the peninsula by the bog.
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All puppies and younger dogs tend to destroy anything that isn’t solid concrete, so especially things made from cloth will be teared in to zillions of pieces but I do hope she for once can stay away from destroying these Igloos, they were quite expensive. Then again, why would she.
No ice and now snow if I would have taken this photo today.
I was just about to put the harnesses on the dogs when I got a text message that a hunter was going out to the bog using one of his dogs, so no walk this morning. Then again it has started to rain so the dogs wouldn’t be happy about a walk anyway. I can hear the hunting dog bark a lot so there’s something he follows though and perhaps we’ll be able to go out before it gets dark.
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We were out yesterday though so that’s when I took the photos You see today. We’re having a strong wind blowing, it’s almost 10C (50F) outside and the rain falling so there’s a lot more snow in these photos than it is outside today. Even the ice seems to have melt away during the night and that makes life so much more easy 🙂
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We walked down to the creek and there I could see some paw prints in the snow that were slightly bigger than Almas and like Alma the animal spread their toes while walking in the snow and that’s what wolves do. It didn’t stress the dogs though so either there’s another big dog walking around here that spreads it toes like that or a younger wolf had passed by most likely during the night.
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Only four more working days before christmas vacation and I really long for that now. I didn’t win the lottery so christmas vacation is what I can look forward to 🙂 🙂 I have been thinking long and hard of what to buy myself as christmas present. I have now ordered a tin box with Quality Street Chocolate, 2500 grams (5,51 pound) 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’ll last a day or two I guess 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve also put a bid on a telephoto lens for my Agfa Ambiflex, they are rarely up for sale so I do have my hopes up. So far I’m the only one that have placed a bid and I do hope no one else will see this on our Ebay called Tradera. So hold Your thumbs and cross Your fingers for good luck!
The Cottage by the crane lake. 