Category: Flies!

· Leave a comment ·

Today my neighbours oldest daughter (I think she’s six years old or perhaps five) gave me three eggs from their chickens and for a second or two I was thinking if I should by one of those cheap incubators to let the eggs hatch. Then I realised that I in that case had to fix a hen house and net so I could make a yard for them to all around in. They are a mix of a rather rare Swedish breed and a Japanese silk hen so they aren’t big but still. Also how would I do during winter if it gets really cold? I know some people actually have them in big cages but those are nasty expensive and does hen small? 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I’ll probably use them when I’ll make pancakes next time but it was a fun thought for a while 🙂 Here in Sweden, well in the entire Europe, the rules says if You want to call Yourself an organic farmer (we call it ecological farmer) hen must go outside and always have a rooster amongst them. So they say that seven out of ten eggs from those hen is fertilised and if one put them in an incubator they’ll hatch. Perhaps better to buy those eggs the day I feel I can take care of them properly.

It’s a bit warmer today and between the sunshine and clouds we had a huge shower passing by. Gave me a little more water in my rainwater barrels but didn’t do much for nature and my garden. I have a few flies flying around in the cottage. They are big ones and really don’t want to be here so I tries to let them outside without getting the annoying other flies inside. Not easy because every Tim I try to help them outside they fly the opposite direction and the annoying ones then can come indoors. Not that there are many hanging around anyway but one annoying fly in the cottage is many to many 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I brought it with me to the computer and I absolutely forgot about it 🙂 I’ll get my new mattress pad next Tuesday and I do hope it is as good as I think it is. Now when I’m not working staying at home waiting for it it won’t be as annoying as it usually is, I mean it will be delivered some tome between 8 am and 5 pm and when working that’s just so irritating, if it comes early should I ten go to work after? Well I wouldn’t but anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Misty morning and spider webs.

· 8 Comments ·

We had a wonderful morning here, just below 10C (50F), morning mist and a sun slowly rising. If I hadn’t just woken up I would have taken our morning walk there and then. however newly awake, quite tired and both I and the animals needed some food before we went out. So by the time we were ready the mist was gone but it was still sunny and cool.

We walked the same way we’ve done lately since the grass is way too high in the forest since it’s only us walking there and we haven’t been there for a while now. Plus the grass was really wet after the rain we had during the night so it would also most likely be full of ticks. Only two flies were out to pester us but as soon as we walked in to shadow it was a bit too cool for them to follow 🙂 🙂 We did however see two Roe deer on our walk and we haven’t seen any when we’ve been out walking in all summer I think.

We actually had several showers today, not heavy and not long lived but if we’ll get more as they are guessing we will the ground is now a bit softer so that the water has a chance on sinking down into the ground instead of just running down through the garden and down to the bog that starts more or less behind the old garage and dog yard.

No need to mow the lawn yet so instead I dug out some space to plant the rhubarb seedlings I sowed in spring. The sand beneath the grass was so dry that one c an find more water in a desert 🙂 🙂 I also mixed in some compost from my smallest compost, a black one that stands n legs and can be rotated and should be rotated once a day I think. The fun thing is that since one is rotating it the compost becomes sort of round and to be honest all those round pieces looked like dog poo 🙂 🙂 🙂 I need to empty at least two of the three other composts I have, the third one I think still has a family of mice living in it 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I’ve already eaten so I won’t have anything with it. The summer apples are now falling of the tree so tomorrow I’ll buy things I need to make an apple pie 🙂

I have two small Ginkgo trees growing in my garden, this one has huge leafs and the other one quite small.

Have a great day!

· 4 Comments ·

So I’m again unemployed and since I can’t write anything about what happened since I signed the paper that says I’m not allowed to write anything about the company that can show it in a bad way all I can say is that it wasn’t any fault from my side. I really liked all the employees and will miss them. I feel fine about it all though so now I’ll be searching for a new job, well I’ve done that for a while but now I’ll intensify the search.

I won’t be able to see the haunted tree next year when they’ll get green again.

So today was sort of my first vacation day for the summer and even though it mostly has been cold and a bit warm it still has been rather nice. We’ve had thunder passing by north of us but not especially close and for a few seconds the wind grew strong and some rain fell. Not as much as they had guessed but at least something. I had been out watering an hour before it arrived so the water from the sky should at least on those places have sunken down in to the ground. We might get more rain but the odds are low that it’ll fall around here.

I went to grocery shop at the store in the village where I used to work so now I think I won’t have to do it again until late next week, it depends on how much milk I use, I hate being without any milk in my home 🙂 🙂 On my way there I saw that they had sown corn in a big field, not especially common here since it needs more warm weather for a longer period of time than what we usually have here and it also needs way too much water, so I wonder how it could look as great as it did since we have had a drought here for quite some time.

These two bumblebees were sleeping on the thistle and when Malkolm came a bit too close one of them raised a leg as to say don’t come to close 🙂

Once again I was surprised about how little flies we have here now, I could walk the entire morning walk without being annoyed by any. At the same time I heard someone say that he wondered why they suddenly had so many flies since they didn’t have any before 🙂 🙂 So I guess that all our flies must have moved to them instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t mind though 🙂 🙂

I’ve bought seeds to this flower, Lythrum salicaria or purple-loosestrife, one doesn’t want seeds from the wild because it can be really invasive I’ve heard but the garden varieties should be calmer. I’m going to have it in the root zone if I’m successful with the germination.

It’s time to go downstairs because I have a bread baking in the machine. I’m already longing for that first slice with some cheese on 🙂 The dogs can smell that it is close to be done so as soon as I move my feet they’ll run to the stairs 🙂 🙂 They know they’ll get both a piece of bread and a slice of cheese like they always do and it is a good thing I already have a pot of tea waiting 🙂

My little Red oak (or so I believe anyway, could be some other kind of hardy north american oak).

Have a great day!

Just as hot today but with a cool wind blowing.

· 4 Comments ·

I can hear thunder in the distance but I’m not sure if it will come our way or not. I wouldn’t mind if it did. It’s just as hot here today as it was yesterday and the dogs only wants to stay outside for short moments before they give up. Today my neighbours little dog decided to take a walk by himself so I was about to go out and help searching for him but just as I was on my way out a villager had found him and called my neighbours 🙂 He had just walked the same way they always walk in the village 🙂 🙂

We were out on our morning walk the same time as we were yesterday and it was slightly cooler today, still no flies oddly enough. I don’t miss them but they are important for all the birds so I do wonder what has happened to them. I wish this was a sign of the coming maps fly season but I’m pretty sure those nasties will be as many or more than usual 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was so cool and nice but like yesterday the heat arrived before we reached the cottage, the difference today is that a cool but weak wind is blowing and it helps a lot. Even if the ground still is slightly wet after the thunder day I still watered the plants I planted this spring plus I gave a little extra to those I planted last year.  Almost all plants that were damaged by the last frost now have new leafs, all but one red mulberry tree. It’s alive and well but just refuse to grow new leafs and I have no idea why.

I’ve also started to look at seeds now for next year. Some businesses have already started with the sales but the ones selling the seeds I want haven’t 🙂 They might be offering free shipment but that isn’t much. Then again if I wait for too long the seeds I want might be sold out before I can order them 🙂 Damned if I do, damned if I don’t situation 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also picked up my first potatoes today, quite a few but mostly small, those are on the other hand the best and I like frying them hole. I had some for dinner today and the rest for dinner at work during next week.

So I’ve done the dinners and also the laundry, like always but I really should have vacuumed upstairs as well but it is so hot now that I really need to put a limit to how much I should do in the heat so I skipped the vacuuming 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The younglings have left the nest. I hope the doves comes back again next spring.

This time it worked.

· Leave a comment ·

It was much cooler this morning when we woke up, so we had our breakfast and at 6 am we went out for our morning walk. I wore a hoodie again because flies usually fly around even in the early morning if it isn’t 10C (50F) or cooler and it wasn’t that cool unfortunately.

We walked down to the creek since the grass now is too high and still wet after the thunderstorm that it has become a tick paradise. I did rub Yarrow all over the dogs, it is said that ticks dislike the smell of yarrow, just to at least improve the odds 🙂 To my very big surprise we had almost no flies flying around us even though we walked down to their favourite spots at the creek?! I’m not sure where they were but I doubt they will be gone for long, I’m not lucky enough that they’ve all died away 🙂 🙂 plus the birds need them still.

A few birds are still singing here, normally most of them would have stopped by now because it shouldn’t be enough time left to get more babies. Things have changed though and now it’s rather warm way in to November and perhaps some birds have noticed that and try for it one more time. By the way I only found two ticks on Alma after the walk so perhaps the Yarrow really works? It had become pretty warm by the time we arrived at home and it got worse the longer the day passed. We reached 30C (86F) before it finally slowly turned towards cooler. Call it cooler feels like a joke it has only dropped down 1 degree centigrade yet 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is unfortunately one of the few Bluebells that isn’t invasive 🙂

The bread I baked yesterday should have stayed in the machine a bit longer, I guess the cheese in it was a bit too much for the machine, it tasted really good though. So to check if it was the cheese I’ve now baked a loaf again today, the loafs are rather small so I’m not drowning in bread 🙂 🙂 and this time it worked perfect! So if I want cheese in the bread from now on I’ll use a bit less and also let the loaf stay in the machine a bit longer since it takes its time to cool down.

Even though we’ve had a long nap, well all the animals have had several long naps, I feel too tired to do anything so I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea. I doubt it will keep me awake since I’m pretty sure the heat will instead 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

· 2 Comments ·

We woke up quite early today and it was very and gloomy outside. Rather warm but still not especially nice, I can’t say why though because it was one of those things one just feel but can’t put a finger on to understand why. So we didn’t do much in the morning but took a nap and when we woke up the sun started to shine. So our morning walk was quite late 🙂

The first of the wild raspberries to ripen 🙂 They are delicious and so much tastier than the garden varieties. Used to pick loads back in the days but biting flies tends to stay away from them now days.

The wind had also gained strength so that helped with the flies on our walk but then I noticed that those flies we had around us were the biting kinds but I managed to chase away those landing on the dogs and I wore a thick hoodie so they couldn’t do much to me either thankfully. I hope we won’t have especially many around the cottage this year because they prefer more wet areas and we don’t have any cattle around us at the moment and by the looks of it not for the rest of the summer either, the grass is high in the field surrounding most of the cottage so they’ll most likely use it to make silage.

Lots of butterflies here now though and many different species as well, they won’t sit still for long though so they’re hard to get photos of but I managed to get a few anyway. I started to re-pot my citrus plants and other plants that has needed to be re-potted for a long time now 🙂 Almost all citrus plants and my tea bush were badly hit by the last frost we had soothed have mostly only had branches so far but now new growth shows. One is even giving me flowers 🙂

The weather guessing weather sites have now changed what they think we’ll have for weather next week but the different sites can’t agree on much, some say lots of rain and even warmer than before, yay we’ll be living in a steam bath and some says no rain at all but really Scandinavian hot, I’m not sure I like that either 🙂 🙂 🙂 So now I must remember to water all the re-potted plants before I go to work in the morning. Newly re-potted plants need a lot more water than before to survive. I’ve also picked those berries that have ripened in the garden, not much so far, one strawberry, a few red gooseberries, the red currants and five! (out of five bushes) honeyberries. I’m glad I even had some because I need two different varieties to get berries and it only took me ten years until I finally figured that out 🙂 🙂 🙂 they do taste like blueberries now of my favourite berries.

It is time for that last cup of tea and then wash and freeze the berries and then wait for the rest of the berries to ripen so I can make some jam.

This citrus tree, a Kalamodin ( I think it might be spelled Calamodine in English) never fails to flower, no matter how bad it has been treated. New flowers despite it almost died in the last frost. It gives small bittersweet fruits perfect for jam and I guess it could be good to make kalamodin ade as well.

Have a great day!

· Leave a comment ·
Todays test photo shows our garbage bins. The green ones if for normal trash and the browns are for food. I almost never throw away food so I’v placed min the wrong way so they don’t have to try and empty it.

It was even nicer this morning, the temperature had dropped down to 7C (44,6F). We did have some morning mist but not as much as yesterday. It is quite common for us to have cool and mostly cold nights and mornings here and that’s why we get all that morning mist when the sun rise and heat up the ground.

It never became that hot as they had predicted thankfully 🙂 but that just made it less hot in the factory and we also had a rather strong wind, so I hoped that the wind would blow away all the flies when we were out walking but oh how wrong that was, the wind blew from the wrong direction so the forest stopped it. Still I don’t think we had a single biting fly pestering us, only the forest flies, so that was a great plus. We didn’t see the fox cubs but they are still hanging around because they had left some poop on the road 🙂 🙂 So if we’re out early tomorrow we might have a chance to see them if they still are here.

It might be impossible to see if You look at this photo on Your mobile phones but on top of that dead tree trunk sits a blackbird with larvae in its mouth.

Nothing much has happened here otherwise. I’ve ordered a memory foam pillow today, I’ve never had one so I hope it is as good as it’s said they are. I’ll also order a duvet, a warm one for the winter. I like it to be warm when I fall asleep but always lower the temperature on the radiator when going to bed. My last duvet was treated the same way as my mattress so at the moment I just have a fleece blanket and that won’t help much when the temperature drops on a winters night 🙂

One of my favourite wild flowers just because the flowers are so tiny. The Swedish name for it is Forest lettuce but it is definitely poisonous so they could have chosen a better name for it 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is supposed to rain on and off the entire coming week but the temperatures will be high, it’ll be like living in a steam bath 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then again I think all of You know by now that it isn’t often they are right in their guessing 🙂 🙂 It could just as well be cold and sunshine or what ever else will pass us on its way 🙂 🙂 Despite all the rain we’ve gotten lately it still is rather dry in the forest, good if one doesn’t like slugs who need wet grounds to grow and lay eggs, bad if one has a shallow well because it will most likely soon dry out if this continues. My well is deep so I don’t have to worry thankfully.

It’ll be an apple year this year. This apple hangs on the tree I once sowed and my neighbours said that it was the most delicious apple they’ve ever eaten. The problem is that it is prune to be hit by different fungus diseases so I never get many apples from it. If I get lots this year I’ll try them in a pie 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a sandwich or two. There’s nothing worth watching on tv, mostly reruns or things I don’t like. So I’ll be in the garden with the dogs and monsterkitten, they’ll take turn is chasing each other 🙂

Have a great day!

It was easier than I thought.

· 6 Comments ·

According to the weather sites we’re having sunshine right now, we don’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 but it is at least not raining. It rained so much last night that I had little lakes in my garden even though it’s just sand and no soil. I do hope that there won’t be any long living puddles anywhere because that would most likely become a mosquito explosion because that’s what they like, small long living puddles where the eggs can hatch.

For me it’s enough with the forest flies 🙂 🙂 So many now and even though they are quite harmless I still can’t stand them. I went to the bank yesterday to see if they could help me to renew my bank id because when reading their info about it I would need either an international id card costing around $ 45 US or a new passport and both would take several weeks to get and we use our bank id for everything here. Turns out that somewhere in the text it tells about another way, I should just open my banks app, press the button to renew my bank id and then ok it by using the bank id I have now 🙂 🙂 🙂

Why don’t write that first of all??? I wonder how many have gotten a new id card they don’t need just to fix the bank id and for money they might not have? Anyway it made my day so much better so I really didn’t complain 🙂 🙂 After that I made a visit to my old work friends and then stopped by at the grocery store to shop and also pay them a visit since I’ve been shopping there since I moved to this region, 28 years ago, I still shop there every now and again even though I really have no reason to go there since it’s further away from my cottage than most other stores but they sort of are my friends too 🙂

I’ve ordered a new bed mattress online (well it’s actually a thinner mattress that one put over the mattress for the sheets to be folded over but I have no idea what that can be called). I know one really shouldn’t but instead go to the store and try them out but to be honest I wouldn’t know anything more after trying several since it takes a few days or more to actually know if it is a good mattress or not anyway. I was close to buy a Hastens (for You who don’t know about Hastens bedd, it is a luxury brand that mostly rich people buy, like sheiks 🙂 ) but they didn’t have the size I need. They had bigger and they had smaller but not the size to my bed. No I’m not rich but they had a sale with very reduced prices.

Today I got a message that it will be delivered week 32 directly from the factory even though it said they had them in stock. Also on sale by the way but still rather expensive but when one need a new mattress one must buy it, night sleep is so important so if one can afford it one better buy it.The monsterkitten did horrible things to my old duvet last winter so I need a new one when winter arrives but I better order one since I’m getting a mattress and perhaps buy new pillows as well. I want firm pillows but still to be able to shape them as I want 🙂 🙂 I do that when I sleep I’ve noticed 🙂 🙂

Also my remote to the tv has died, not a huge problem except for that it’s really hard to see what one is doing when trying to do it on the tv itself. It’s made to look invisible and they’ve been quite successful in doing that so I need a flashlight to be able to see even where I can do it 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

· 4 Comments ·
Outside my kitchen window.

We have thunder in the area, not especially close at the moment but one can clearly hear it. The day started sunny and cool though so we were out on our morning walk around 7 am. It was unfortunately not  cool enough to keep the flies calm so we had a black cloud flying around us. I wore a hoodie though so they never got the chance to visit inside my ears and for some reason wearing a hoodie also prevents them from trying to go inside my nostrils as well 🙂 🙂

It didn’t take long before the rain arrived again so we have mostly stayed indoors and went outside when the rain had a temporary stop. So I did the laundry and baked a bread in between 🙂  I also took a long nap in the sofa and this time both dogs decided they should sleep beside me in the sofa 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma by my feet and Malkolm by my side with half his body over my stomach. I’m surprised that I managed to fall asleep but it could have been the lack of oxygen since it was a bit hard to breathe that was the cause 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did have sunshine for a while but now we’re back to rain and thunder is not far away. It is much warmer than they guessed it would be so I hope the thunder passes by and cool things down a bit. It’s rather quiet in the village, some birds sing and one dog is yapping a lot. Normally that starts most other dogs as well but I guess they don’t have the energy now when it is so warm 🙂 I think someone on my gravel road is trying to repair an old moped because I could hear how they were trying to start it up the road but then just slid down the slope quietly. It has happened several times this week so I guess they aren’t especially successful 🙂

I have the day off tomorrow because I need to go to the bank to see if they can help me renew my digital bank id without me having to get something called an international id card or get a new passport. A new drivers license doesn’t help at all for some reason. So I’ll also buy a couple of big bags with soil and on the way home make a visit to my old workplace and the grocery store in the same village. it will most likely rain anyway so it’ll be a nice little trip to do.

It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps something to eat as well.

Have a great day!

Lots of rain and I like it :-)

· 6 Comments ·
I always take a test photo when we’re going out for our walks and it is usually this one 🙂

It has been raining all night and almost all day since I went to bed yesterday night.but there was a moment when it didn’t early this morning so the dogs and I went out for our morning walk. Didn’t last for long though before the misty rain arrived and later on just before we arrived at home we had heavy showers 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did at least have a walk and despite Alma trying to rip off my arm while passing the new neighbours she behaved really well 🙂 🙂 No screaming at all and only a quiet whining 🙂 I had hoped to see the fox cubs again so I brought a bigger lens but had no such luck plus the misty rain stuck to the glass on the lens like it was velvet  🙂 🙂 🙂 it was a nice walk though because it looks like misty rain is a mortal enemy to flies as well, almost no flies fly around when we have misty rain, I guess their wings just sticks together when those small droplets fill the air.

I had to save a lot of the potted plants from the rain water today, normally it’s saving them from not getting water but today I had to remove all the plates they stood on because the rain just kept filling them up. I always feel a bit torn placing pots directly on the ground because small red ants tends to move in, small red ants with a good ability to sting and the pain is quite gruesome. Also lots of other animals move in as well and as long as they are outside and those animals can come and of they do no harm but when I bring them in during winter they tend to start eating on the plant because they have no other place to go.

I have also had a long nap, Alma and I took a long nap in one of the sofas and Malkolm decided it was a bit crowded so he had the second sofa to himself. Alma is rather big so I must say it was a bit uncomfortable but we shared that two people sofa rather well to be honest and since the air is a bit damp and cool today it helped me to stay warm 🙂

I really should bake some bread today but I just don’t have the energy to do it. I am rather glad I mowed the lawn yesterday because it would have been impossible for my mower to cut it the next time we have sunny or at least dry weather, it wasn’t exactly pleased to do it yesterday as it was, I hadn’t mowed the lawn in one and a half week and ad water to that and I think it would have died 🙂 I like this mower so I really don’t want to have to buy another one 🙂

Potato flowers are actually quite beautiful.

It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps I will read one of all the books I’ve started to read but never finished 🙂 They are all really good, I just haven’t had the energy to read for quite some time but it feels like that’s slowly changing now 🙂

Have a great day!

Then showers passed by.

· 4 Comments ·
Lots of the photos will be bait fuzzy today because the lens I used doesn’t have that anti-shaking thing.

It started to drizzle some while I mowed the lawn, I started as soon as I had come home and thought we could have our walk after I was done. But as soon as I stopped mowing heavy showers arrived So we stayed at home instead. The dogs did try to go outside during the rain but turned around and came back in instead 🙂

They say we’ll get plenty of rain the coming four days as well and we need it but it would be nice if it rained while I was working and the sun then shone for the rest of the day 🙂 So far we haven’t had lots of mosquitoes or other biting flies but I think this rain will change that. These last days I’ve had two mosquito bites and one from a horse fly I think. The horse fly bite is worst because the itching after stays for so long.

During the months when I was unemployed I never had any leg cramps but lots before when I had a job. Now they are  back. I drink lots of water at work and at home so I don’t think I can drink any more than I do so I wonder why I get them? I guess one thing could be that I stand up all day at work but then again shouldn’t every one who do get those leg cramps as well? It is ok if it happens during the day but I really hate when it happens when I’m deep asleep and quite often while I try to stretch the cramps away I get it in the other leg as well and that’s horrible because when I try to remove it from one leg it makes the other leg hurt even more 🙂 🙂 🙂

The survivor and the two seedlings from this years Pawpaw seed sowings.

I have a soft spot for Fuchsias but now days I only have this one and the Hardy Fuchsia.

I’m sort of glad it will rain a lot tomorrow because then I can’t do anything outside, so I’m already planning on having a long nap 🙂 🙂 🙂 well I might bake a bread but there still would be lots of time to take naps while it rises and when it is in the oven 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll see if there’s anything to watch on tv but I doubt that 🙂

Troll grapes.

Have a great day!

The laundry dried fast today.

· 6 Comments ·

Lots of sunshine, very few clouds and totally rain free today. Thankfully we have a strong wind blowing so all flies were blown away. I really should have mowed the lawn but the energy just wasn’t there in my body. For once I had problems falling asleep yesterday night, I guess because I had that long nap earlier in the day and perhaps that last cup of tea a bit late as well.

I did wake up early though, just before 5 am so not many hours of sleep to be honest. We went out on our morning walk quite early as well and walked down to the creek again. Alma was thankfully rather quiet when we passed our newest neighbours so their dogs stayed quiet as well 🙂 🙂 I think they too are morning people since they horses, dogs, cats and chickens but it is still nice that Alma could stay reasonable quiet 🙂

Nothing special happened during our walk until we were almost at home again, one of the fox cubs stood beside the gravel road and this time I could get a few photos of it. It didn’t notice us because it was looking at the other direction and we stopped rather early so we wouldn’t scare it away. Alma started to whine loudly but for once she listened to me and just looked at the fox. It still has its baby fur but has grown rather large so I guess it won’t be long before it is time for it to find its own new home.

Besides the cub the day has been rather uneventful, The food for next week at work is cooking at the moment, the laundry is done and it dried up really fast in the wind and sunshine. Also I’ve repotted my tomato plants in to bigger pots, one has flower so with a bit of luck I’ll have a tomato or two by the end of next month 🙂

I think it is time for a bowl of cornflakes and I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day. The dogs and I had pancakes for dinner and even if I gave them half a pancake extra I still feel a bit too full 🙂

Have a great day!