Category: Flies!

T-shirt weather.

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I woke up in the middle of the night because too much tea I guess 🙂 🙂 and naturally I couldn’t fall asleep especially quickly leading to me sleeping unusually long and when I looked out the window I could see the ground was covered in unusually thick fog. The dogs and I rushed to go outside, took perhaps as most ten minutes and by that time almost all of it had vanished. I was a bit annoyed to be honest but then the sun shone and the leafs in the trees looked like they were burning, so I stopped being annoyed 🙂 🙂

I wouldn’t say it was cold but I can say it wasn’t warm so even if we went out to the bog only one moose fly showed any interest in us, meaning me 🙂 Deer were barking so something out there were scaring them but I doubt that it was a wolf, deer have a tendency to think anything is scary as long as it moves. Could have been a fox or perhaps wild hogs passing by. Lots of small birds flying between the trees, Jays arguing further up close to the tree tops and ravens flying towards the bigger roads to see if breakfast was served (meaning something gotten hit by a car or lorry during the night).

the temperature never rose above 12C (53,6F) in the shadow but the sunshine was so warm today that I had to change from a sweater to a t-shirt. It was impossible not to enjoy it so we spent a big part of the day outside in the garden. I really didn’t have anything to do so I decided that those roses I had cut down and would put in the compost grinder next year (mostly because of the thorns) would be better if I did that today 🙂 This rose has millions of small but awfully sharp thorns but they soften a lot if being wet for a longer period of time so the branches can be handled without too much problems. The problem is that not all become soft so now I have lots of tiny thorns in my hands because why would I use gloves 🙂 🙂 🙂

The old vegetable garden looks a bit odd now when the fence is gone. I didn’t remove any weeds after I had harvest all but some leeks and the potatoes so half is green and half brown where the potatoes grew 🙂 There are still some tiny leeks in there though 🙂

Since I now have found my jigsaw I thought why not cut those barrels open so I finally have those extra rainwater barrels I’ve been talking bout to do as soon as I found the jigsaw 🙂 I do like to play with machines but I must admit I’m not good at it 🙂 🙂 So I cut one open at the top and placed it by the entrance door. Then I thought that it is actually impossible to have too many rainwater barrels and I knew I had two more barrels I could use (blue plastic ones, I’m not much for the aesthetics to be honest. Yes a rainwater barrel in oak do look good but costs a fortune especially since we don’t have any distillery where one can get them for free anywhere near 🙂 So blue plastic ones will do great 🙂

So I made one more to the greenhouse and realised I have at least one extra barrel in the old garage (so two more instead of one more) but by then I’d started to look at those thorny branches so I might do another rainwater barrel tomorrow and place it  on the other side of the greenhouse 🙂 🙂  in between I went indoors to have some tea and ice cream 🙂  Now it’s dark outside and I could hear rain hitting my window so tomorrow I’ll check how much water has fallen in to the new barrels 🙂 At the moment however my biggest concern is to try and remove as many tiny thorns I can from my hands, they itch like crazy right now 🙂

I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day, it is much nicer to be able to sleep all night instead 🙂 Also if I go up the dogs go up as well and if they go up they want to go outside and if they go outside I’ll have to go first to check there’s no badger walking around looking for food and since it’s chilly at night I’ll have problems falling asleep again 🙂 🙂

My big apple tree is actually only half a tree, the other half fell one summer because that side grew too big.

Have a great day!

I already have too many seeds for next year :-)

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The moon yesterday evening.

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 🙂

Have a great day!

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It felt much colder this morning even though it actually was slightly warmer, or less cold is better because there was no warmth what so ever 🙂  It was a bit cloudy when we went out on our morning walk so the cold air stayed and the moose flies weren’t near.

Bittersweet berries.

At least one moose fly did wake up when the sun finally showed itself, that fly is no more 🙂 I think it walked over to my hand while I was lifting some branches to pick a mushroom, still cold so it was pretty easy to get rid of it. We walked down to the creek and followed it up-streams and there’s definitely a beaver living in the creek again. The water level was pretty high and since we’ve had little rain it shouldn’t be possible to have that much water there unless the creek is blocked. They have placed materials to build a trap so I guess it won’t be long until we have no beavers here again.

The sun really made the day so much nicer so I’ve finally planted the last two Quince tree seedling, I now have six of them but this is a bit tough climate wise so I’m not even sure if any of them will manage through winter. It all depends on if winter will continue to behave as it has for several years now or if we’ll get a “normal” winter again, very cold and very long. Most likely it won’t be like the old days though but we’ll not know until next year.

I’ve also continued to cut down that huge rose with all the small but plentiful thorns. It’s not because I don’t like it, I do and it gives the birds lots of rose-hips to eat during winter. It is because this rose is seen as an invasive species and it might soon be illegal to have it anywhere. I actually have two of it and both have become huge during the 25 years I’ve lived here. So I’m slowly cutting it away but will leave some so if it isn’t banned it can grow back again 🙂 I might remove the other one totally because even if it is big it still has problems because of other invasive plants I have 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’m waiting for a bread to be ready to be picked out of the oven. I might have a slice or two with the tea but I really should eat the last piece of the bread I still have, then again a warm slice of newly baked bread with strong cheese is a good excuse to wait and use the last bread tomorrow morning instead 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Thunder and rain.

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The morning started out much the same as they have been lately, a bit chilly and sunny. We walked out to the bog even though the grass was pretty wet with dew. No ticks on us today but I had to kill quite a lot of moose flies instead. I had hoped it would be a bit too cool for those flies but unfortunately not.

I hadn’t planned to do much in the garden today, just watering the dry sensitive plants I’ve kept on watering all summer and those I’ve just planted but found a few dead branches in the big apple tree that I used the new saw to remove. I also trimmed the Golden rain, Laburnum, and then I got the idea to start cutting down the wild plum tree. Its branches are full with big thorns and I have been a bit worried that those would injure us badly if one of those branches hit us so I had to plan every branch I would cut down so it wouldn’t fall the wrong way.

It almost went as I had planned except for one big branch that fell down over the strawberries and rhubarbs. No big damage but it made me even more careful with the rest of the branches. I guess it was just before 1 pm and I only had the top left to cut off when the thunder and rain arrived. So at the moment I have a rather long and thin and very thorny tree standing there looking really sad 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll use the chain saw to remove the rest as soon as the grass dries up.

I also planted the last Perennials I had in pots, well I hope they were but one never knows what is hidden in the flowerbed close to the entrance because there are so many self sown flowers there now that they can be hiding some pots I’ve forgotten about 🙂 🙂 🙂  So now all I have to dig down are two pawpaw seedlings and two quince trees, I think I know where the pawpaws will go but still can’t figure out where I should plant the quinces, I’m not even sure if they will survive the winter here.

It is still raining here, it’s so much that it looks like they have fog on the other side of the village, we need it so I’ll not complain. We might get a foggy morning and then towards the evening we might get more rain. In between we even might get some sunshine. I have that last cup of tea by my side and at the moment I’m waiting for the loaf of bread in the oven to get ready and so do the dogs 🙂 They always get a piece with cheese on it when the bread still is warm 🙂

Have a great day!

I’ve been working hard today :-)

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A rather grumpy little monster 🙂 She wanted to go outside but we weren’t at home. I don’t know how she does it but she managed to pass the mosquito net that is put up on the inside without breaking it 🙂

Another really nice day here. It started grey and dull though but still rather warm and no wind. I didn’t feel like doing much at the beginning but then the clouds left and the sun reached us so I thought that I really couldn’t sit indoors all day doing nothing, so instead I went outside and started to prune the last apple tree, the one I once sowed and that gives delicious apples. The problem is that most of the apples get bad already on the tree.

To keep potted plants low they tend to use hormones that stop them growing and this fuchsia is an example of that. It hasn’t grown all summer and almost no new growth of the roots either. These plants usually die after a short while unless one wash out all soil and replace them with new. Sometimes that’s not enough either.

It is the same with this coneflower but this one is also quite often run over by the dogs and that doesn’t help 🙂 🙂

Already from the beginning I shaped it as a fan, You know those we hold in our hands and not the electric ones 🙂 🙂 The reason I did this was because it is planted just beside the fence so half of it would be growing out in the cow pasture and most likely be eaten on by the cows. The problem is that I had done very little with it for a few years now so it was so dense that no air really could reach the apples growing behind the leafs and therefore were much easier hit by fungus.

My fan shaped apple tree. This should help a lot with fungus attacks.
Before I started to cut down the grape elder so now it’s much brighter under the big apple tree.
Lots of air and light will have a chance to get down to the ground under the summer apple tree.
and I hope that will benefit my Pawpaw trees.

I went against all the recommendations I have when it comes to pruning apple trees (or any trees for that matter). Normally I say that when pruning apple trees only cut of a third of what You really want to cut and do it in autumn, preferable when the tree is about to lose its leafs. I The tree is then preparing to slow down and really doesn’t care about losing the leafs because it would anyway. By doing this it will not grow as many new branches as it would if You prune it in spring. The next year take half of what is left for the same reason and the third year the rest. After that there’s really not much to cut away. Today however it felt like I cut away half the tree 🙂 🙂 I realised that some branches now were so big that I would get a much harder job next year if I only took a third of what I wanted but I did at least do the job now when it is autumn 🙂 🙂

The Kankakee mallow is really high now 🙂 Taller than I am as well 🙂 I still have a few potted ones that needs to be planted before it gets too cold.

I do hope the frost will wait a long time because if it does I might have ripe tomatillos 🙂

After that I collected all of what I had cut off from all the trees and started up the compost grinder. This took almost half a day to do but it was well worth it. Now there’s lot of open space in and under the trees so air (well wind) can dry up the air as much as possible and funguses get harder to destroy so much fruit. I also cut down the grape elder bush that are the fence just under the biggest apple tree. There’s still much of the trunk left but I’ll take that with the chain saw later on. It has been fighting for space with a Japanese climbing rose and none of them would give up, The rose has also been prunes by the cows in the pasture outside for a long time 🙂 🙂  I’ll cut it dow as well and then let it grow back up again. I’ll try to keep it low though because it isn’t called climbing rose for nothing 🙂 🙂 It has one advantage though, it has almost no thorns 🙂

They are guessing we’ll have the same kind of weather for a few more days and then it will be cooler and I guess autumn will get a grip on us. Not looking forward to it but then again back in the days today had most likely been the day when we had our first frost. It always happened around September sixth. Normally I liked that because that killed off the last annoying flies but since we almost have none of those (still lots of other flies but they really don’t care about annoying either humans nor animals) I think frost can wait for a month or so to arrive 🙂 On another note, today they had the annual dachshund parade in our capital and 900 had said they would be there 🙂 Also the heavy rains we were supposed to have happened further north. Roads have been flushed away, a train derailed and people were warned no to drive anywhere. So I guess I really shouldn’t be annoyed over the fact it didn’t fall here 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally lots of rain (but still not enough :-) ).

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They finally got it right, we have rain. Most of the time it’s nice summer rain but every now and again heavy showers and we’ve even had thunder passing to the west of us. I’m so annoyed that I haven’t found the jigsaw because if I had I now would have had three full water barrels, all containing around 300 litres (79,3 gallon US) each. They’re guessing we’ll have rain all weekend so if I just find it I’ll be able to open up the third barrel that’s just waiting to be opened up.

From the window beside the computer upstairs.

The morning walk was quite different though, slightly cloudy but with huge gaps between the cloud masses and enough cool top have morning mist, something I really like to see. t was more or less vanishing by the time we went out but there were places it still lingered. Jays were arguing loudly but besides them it was quite quiet. Alma and Malkolm behaved so well and it was cool enough to keep even the moose flies calm. So far I haven’t seen many of the moose flies and I do hope the drought has killed most of them.

We woke up rather early, even for me, at 4 am so I opened the door for the dogs so they could do their business. Well that didn’t happen because Alma found some animal in the garden and started to bark like insane. It was so dark that I couldn’t see anything but I’m pretty sure it was the badger again 🙂 🙂 🙂 It has now dug a hole beneath the fence to my neighbours, I found it yesterday. She (I think it’s a she because of the size) hadn’t been able to get in to my garden for a while, instead she has dug her small holes in the ground around my garden just beside the fence. It does seem I have lots of things she likes to eat here, frogs, slugs and snails (and fallen apples on the ground) so she decided it is worth the risk of meeting fierce Alma 🙂 Malkolm was smart enough to stay by my side instead of joining her 🙂 🙂

So I think it might be time to put up that wildlife camera again. I hope the batteries still work because I really don’t want to have to drive away just to get batteries. If it catches any nightly visitors I’ll of course show them here. I know the fox tends to visit us as well and lots of cats of course 🙂

It is time to have that last cup of tea for the day, after that I don’t know what to do. I actually have lots of things I can do but for some reason I don’t want to do them and I don’t mean chores but old hobbies I used to have. I guess I still have those hobbies but at the moment I just can’t get myself to start with any of them 🙂

Have a great day!

Fog.

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To my surprise I woke up to a slightly foggy world, not a great fog but still foggy enough 🙂 No wind, a few birds tweeting and I could hear cranes flying south west towards the coast and the ravens of course. Alma behaved so well today that it surprised me, yesterday she did anything but that 🙂

Yesterday I also learned that the moose fly season has started over a month to early. I caught one of these nasty insects while it walked up my hoodie towards my neck. I truly hate them, even more than I hate ticks. So I actually texted friends I know are out in the forest a lot so they can make sure the flies can’t get in beneath the clothes in any way. No nasty one today though. Instead we didn’t even have a single annoying fly either despite it being rather warm and that sort of made me happy 🙂 🙂

I was going to get two packages from the post office in the grocery store in Gudhem today. I had ordered a saw that one puts on a long shaft so I can saw off dead branches on my trees higher up and I have bought a “new” lens to my camera. You’ll not notice anything though because it’s the same brand as the one I have but a bigger telephoto lens. The lens works perfect but when I took a look at the saw I noticed I’ve bought one with another coupling than what I have to the rest of the garden tools I have from the same brand. It’ll take longer to ship it back than to actually buy a new shaft 🙂

Anyway now days it’s almost impossible to get the package if You don’t have a mobile phone and just as I drove in to the parking lot I realised I had forgotten the phone at home 🙂 🙂 So I had to drive back home, upset my dogs since I didn’t let them out from the dog house and drive back to the store before going back home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I felt so annoyed about it that I forgot to buy ice cream and I do long for ice cream right now. I do however have custard at home and apples in the trees so perhaps I’ll bake a pie instead 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and a slice or two from my newly baked bread, it’s cooling off down in the kitchen right now 🙂

Have a great day!

It worked after all these years.

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+1 C (33,8 F) this morning but since there was no wind what so ever it actually didn’t feel that bad. I’m glad I covered the sensitive plants last evening. I don’t trust those temperatures the weather web sites show though, they say around 10 C (32 F) so I’ll cover them again tonight.

Perfect weather during the morning walk though, the sun was mostly shining, there were a few clouds that managed to hide it a few times, so it was nice in the sunshine but still so cold that the flies didn’t fly around. No cranes in the air this morning but four song swans (like Your trumpet swans) passed on their way to the little lake in the bog. I also saw a Jay fly away but that’s it when it comes to wildlife. All that rain we had last week has already dried up and very little dew as well but I managed to pick the three ticks that were climbing on the dogs. When we have lots of dew the grass is too wet for the ticks to stay there since there’s a risk they actually drown.

I also mowed the outside of the garden grass but the mower barely trimmed the tops 🙂 That’s the positive part with a long drought 🙂 🙂 🙂 I then remembered my compost grinder that has been standing beneath the roof of the patio for I don’t know how many years. So I brought it out on the lawn and took a look at it. The grinding parts were covered in rust and it was impossible to see how it looked inside the motor. I plugged it in just too see if it showed any signs of life anyway and to my very big surprise it started!!

So today I have started to work away the two big piles with all the branches I’ve cut away lately from most of my trees and bushes. I managed to grind down a lot even though it doesn’t show to be honest 🙂 🙂 and the mound of grinned branches isn’t especially big either but I thin I’ve actually done half that pile oaf branches today. I’ll continue tomorrow and I hope that I’ll at least worked through the rest by tomorrow evening. After that I’ll start with the second pile.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then I’ll watch a show on tv called Elsbeth, It has gotten good reviews so why not 🙂

Have a great day!

Every fifth month.

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Looks like the cold weather scared som cranes to move south, usually they don’t do that until mid or late September.

Another cold night so I’m glad I covered the more sensitive plants. Yesterday we had several thunderstorms passing by and we had hail falling in at least three of them, there was even some hail left when we went out in to the garden when we had woken up.

The rest of the day has been really nice though. It was so cold on our morning walk that not a fly or anything but migrating cranes were moving in the air. Well a couple of Jays flew around screaming, most likely warning about us walking down the gravel road. The sun shone almost the entire walk and has continued to do so with the exception of a few clouds passing by. The clouds weren’t big but manage to pass the sun in a place so the sunshine couldn’t reach us. It has actually been enough warm to have the kitchen door open almost all day.

When there are like two or several individual mist clouds we’re saying that the Elves are dancing. Normally we see this in fields and usually in a ring formation. One doesn’t want to interfere in it because it usually means the end of life is here. These two however let us pass without being punished 🙂 🙂

It should have been open all the time if it hadn’t been because of Alma, she is now in heat. Malkolm is still chemically castrated so no such problems but he still behaves like a bewitched teenager 🙂 🙂 🙂 Almost all female dogs that have been living with me has done that every six months, not Alma though she does it every fifth month 🙂 which is at the time rather good because I was unsure for how much longer the chemicals would work on Malkolm.

Most spiderwebs had been destroyed by the heavy showers of rain and hail.
Some had however managed to build new ones.

I’ve planted most of the sown coneflowers (Echinacea) today. I really like them but for some reason I have never had one, bought or sown, surviving the winter here and that’s not because they aren’t hardy enough and the sand in the ground here should be perfect for them. The only one that I actually had for several years was the pinnate prairie coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) but those were slowly pushed away by some wild roses I used to have 🙂 🙂

This is a rather nice tasting mushroom and it grows in my garden.

My bigger citrus trees, smaller this year due to frost and my four Pawpaw seedlings. Two from last year badly damaged by mice and two from this year.

The coming three days will be much like today they’re guessing but after that we’ll get clouds and rain but at least not as cold as it washes last days. The tea is waiting and perhaps I’ll have a sandwich or two 🙂

Malkolm looking slightly ashamed all the time now 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Thunder and hail.

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We didn’t have any frost yesterday night, clouds arrived just in time so instead we had a rather warm night. Today however the temperature had fallen down to 3 C (37,4 F) and mostly we haven’t higher temperatures that just below 10 C (50 F). It dropped down even more when the first thunder approached.

We did manage to have a rather nice morning walk. It was pretty chilly and cloudy when we started, rather late for being us, and on the way home the sun showed it self and in the forest it became warm enough where the sun reached so that some flies started to annoying us. Just a few though but sometimes those can be even more annoying than if there were a whole bunch of them 🙂 🙂

It didn’t take long before we heard the first thunder lazily rumbling from a distance. It never came especially close but we did get the rain. It was too cold to be outside in the garden and after a while I became bored so I baked bread (turned out great and when it was done I let the heat out from the oven and it filled the cottage together with the smell of newly baked bread :-). I had just tasted the first slice when the second round of thunder arrived and this time we had both rain and lightning and with a bonus gift as well, hail 🙂 No damage from it thankfully.

I’ve gotten a couple of warnings from the lightning app later on but by then the sun finally showed itself again and it did at least feel warmer. I even put on two radiators to keep the cold humid air outside. I’ve already covered the most sensitive plants outside, the web sites doesn’t show that there’s a risk of frost but if it is 6C (42,8 F) here at 10 pm and we don’t have any clouds the temperature most likely will fall down below 0 C (32 F) before the sun rise the day after.

I must admit that this hanging pot hasn’t impressed me this year. It is now finally starting to grow in it.
The butterfly bush is so close to open its flowers, I do hope there are plenty of especially butterflies left to visit it, normally there should be.
I’ve started to cut down the Grape elder and cutting back the rose behind it. So many thorns 🙂 🙂
There’s a hint of orange in the dahlia flowers so I hope that if I save the seeds I’ll get more orange or perhaps even red flowers from them.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and since I don’t think there is any re-run on tv that I want to watch I’ll reed a book instead 🙂

Looking at the cat.

Have a great day!

Hot and dry.

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So I got my new mattress pad yesterday and really looked forward to test it for the first time. So this was the first night I wasn’t tired 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did sleep really good when I finally managed to go to sleep though 🙂 🙂 I’ll know better after tonight I hope 🙂

We went up to the mailbox before going out to the bog.

We went out on our morning walk around 6:30 today but it was already enough warm for the flies to be active. To be honest it wasn’t that bad compared to how it use to be but one annoying file is way too many for me 🙂 When we reached the bog mosquitoes took over instead and they usually never tries to land in my face or ears so they didn’t bother me that much. I do have a few mosquito bites on my right ankle though but those I got yesterday while watering the plants I really want to survive the summer.

It has been so warm that the dogs ran outside to play but never did because of the heat, instead they just laid down and ate some apples, the farting will be horrible tonight so the bedroom window will be open all night 🙂 🙂 So many apples are falling down now that it is impossible to get rid of them before the dogs starts eating them, I guess it’s because of the drought stressing the trees.

So we haven’t done much outside today besides the watering, I have however done some more laundering and baked a bread in the machine. I’ve learned that different kinds of flour acts really different with water and some doesn’t seem to swell at all in water while others do that a lot, so Teff for instance (a  cereal originally from Ethiopia) doesn’t swell at all so it’s just like a light flowing porridge and therefore must have a lot of more time in the heat. I do like it but it sure complicates baking in the machine for me 🙂 🙂 In the end it did turn out really good.

It is time for that last cup of tea and a sandwich from that loaf of bread. I think there was something I wanted to see on tv but I can’t remember what 🙂

My tea bush is actually hardy enough to survive our now milder winters but not especially tough if one brings them out of the cool cellar and frost hits. It survived and is finally coming back.
The same with my citrus trees but they do actually look much healthier this year.
If You want to sow Your own citrus tree and hopes for flowers it usually take something like 10 to 15 years before that happens. However if You sow Kumquat (or any kumquat hybrid like Lemonquats) kernels they usually flower much earlier and can also stand in a sunny window indoors all winter, just remember to shower them often otherwise pests will hit them. These come from Lemonquat kernels and eventual fruit will be anything from kumquats to lemonquats since it is a hybrid, also all fruits will be edible.

Have a great day!

It’s getting warmer again.

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We were supposed to have sunshine all day today but we only had glimpses of it until early afternoon. I didn’t mind since it now is so dry here that as soon the sunlight hits the vegetation it looks like everything is dying. Chilly nights with lots of dew seems to perk them up. It has been fairly warm though so to avoid the worst heat and most flies I mowed the lawn pretty early in the morning. The flies were there anyway and will most likely stay until they move the cattle again. We also now have a few biting ones and one bit Malkolm on the stomach and it bothers him a lot.

New shoots growing out on the Honeyberry bushes I cut down quite hard.

After the lawn mowing, which went pretty fast since the grass hasn’t grown especially much in the drought, I did some laundry. Not much but heavier things, I have a very small machine so the heavier stuff needs to be laundered by themselves. I have several sweaters that needs to be cleaned but as it is now I’m not really in a hurry to clean them 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also baked some bread and this time in the Owen because I wanted teacakes and the machine can’t do that. Also I had some strong cheese left and I’ve realises that cheese and the machine really doesn’t go together 🙂 🙂

I’ve also cut down another bush, some kind of Cotoneaster. They are seen as a bit of too invasive and since the birds love the berries (taste like shit to be honest 🙂 ) they then spread the seeds everywhere. So since the only reason I had it was because Hornets loves the nectar from that bush don’t show up as much because the Beekeeper has moved with all his bees I really didn’t have any reason to keep it. Hornets loves to eat bees of all kinds and now the honeybees are gone so no reason for them to visit the bush either. I still have most of the roots to remove but thankfully this one doesn’t spread via the roots.

Clarkia, one of my favourites in summer.
My Hardy Hibiscus finally showing buds.
I now have a new hardy Kiwi fruit vine and this one is said to be self fertile so as long as it flowers and there are pollinators around I will bet berries.
No summer without Californian poppies 🙂 Our name for it is Sleepy head in English 🙂

After that I planted three of the pear tree seedlings I have. Pear trees grow pretty big and I rather have something smaller but I know a way to keep them at a reasonable size. I planted them all close together and am planning on trade them together as soon as they are high enough. I have seen it done  but with other trees and it’s a bit too much competition so they will all grow slower and hopefully not as high as they normally would grow to be.

 tried to get a better photo of my English walnut but that didn’t happoen

I tried to get a better photo of my English walnut but that didn’t happen 🙂 🙂 🙂

The three pear tree seedlings now planted They need to become a bit more high before I braid them together.

Tomorrow will be really warm and the day after that will be nasty hot according to the guessing at the weather sites. No rain in sight the coming ten days but then again they do guess very bad lots of times, perhaps we at least can have a thunderstorm shower or two when and if that happens. We do have lots of dew though so that saves many plants at the moment. It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that we’ll spend the evening in the garden, I don’t think there’s anything worth watching on tv.

Have a great day!