There will be photos that were taken today and yesterday.
It has been a couple of calm days here, mostly grey and dull, some rain and even some sunshine, around two minutes of it 🙂 🙂
We were lucky that those minutes happened while we were out walking but we need more of it now when days get shorter and it’s still around two more months of that until it finally turns around again. It does however help that I am unemployed because I never had enough daylight when I had a job so I guess that’s positive 🙂 🙂 It was the same last year and to be honest I really didn’t get sick last year so I’m hoping for the same result this year, as soon as that cold that seems to love me finally leaves 🙂 🙂
The hunters were here today and had brought hunting dogs, I didn’t hear a sound from them so I guess that’s why they left early. There has been unusually few deer , hares and other animals around lately and I guess that can have to do with the wolf/ wolves being here. Well I didn’t think we would have a chance to tale a walk in the forest today so I was pretty happy when I noticed that they all had left.
Because of the rain we haven’t been out in the garden much either so I’ve mostly watched the dvd collection of A Town called Eureka and I’ve also been drinking a lot of coffee so it is time to make that cup of tea instead before I continue with watching dvd’s 🙂
The old rose covered all space behind the chips I made from the branches in my compost grinder, around 4 square meter (I think it’s more or less the same in square yards)
This could have been a really nice day if it wasn’t for the wind that has been blowing all day long, a cold biting wind that made it hard to stay outside for any longer period of time. Not even the dogs wanted to stay out for especially long and kept coming to the door to go inside again.
Cold and frosty in the morning and despite the sun hitting my car I still had to scrape ice from the windows at 9:30am, not a favourite thing to do 🙂 🙂 Still the morning walk was quite nice because the wind hadn’t arrived yet and the sun still giving some warmth. We walked out to the bog and while we stood at the end of the peninsula we could hear something walking towards us. We never saw what it was but it did sound relatively big, like a red deer or perhaps a moose.
The dogs didn’t really react to it more than that they stared in the direction the sound came from and looked curious 🙂 It was impossible for anything to walk silently in the forest because of all the frozen leafs on the ground, it sounded like we all were walking on cornflakes spread on a hard floor 🙂 🙂 🙂 I went to the supermarket after we had come home because I had very little to eat in my fridge.
It was a costly trip, much more than I had expected 🙂 I did buy everything on the list but I also went in to the pet shop (can one say it’s a pet shop supermarket because it’s really big that store?) I found a prefect food for my aquarium fish and it costed a fortune but then again the fish are few and will eat very little so it might last for the rest of my life 🙂 🙂 Also I bought two new ceramic food bowls for the dogs, Malkolm seems very unwilling to eat from his old one made from some kind of metal. Those weren’t cheap either but oddly enough didn’t cost more than the fish food 🙂 🙂 🙂
After that I went to the Dollar store just around the corner and bought seeds for the wild birds in the garden. They also coast a little fortune but compared to any other store they were cheap 🙂 🙂 I don’t want the birds to stop eating what they can find in the nature so I’ll only feed them when I know nights will be frosty. They still need to know how to find food if I for some reason can’t help them. They have noticed that birds who live in areas where lots of people feed them forgets how to find food elsewhere and even what things they can eat. I also only give them seed mixes even though they all most likely would love to just have sunflower seeds for much the same reason. We have very few sunflowers flowering here since those who do comes from either what we sow in our gardens or from bird seeds that birds brought with them from the feeders and dropped them on the way to where they can eat them safely.
It is time for a cup of coffee I think, it’s way too early for that last cup of the yet. I actually bought peanuts for the bird feeder by my kitchen window, I know mice climb up and eat those peanuts but that was before the little monster moved here 🙂 She’s outside most nights and I’m pretty sure the mice soon will stop eating the peanuts because she’s a really good mouse hunter 🙂
I have now two bigger and four smaller apricot trees in my garden and this is the only one giving me autumn colours.
Despite we’ve had so many really cold nights here now the moose fly still flies, very few others show themselves even when the sun shines now but moose flies just refuse to give up. I do wonder why we even have them now since we have almost no moose left around here.
I thought this was a hole in the tree but it isn’t. For some reason the place where the branch once sat has gone completely black 🙂
The morning walk was nice though, despite the moose flies, and since we had a cloudy sky and on and off rain it was fairly warm. There are still some leafs hanging on the trees but every day get less colourful and a bit more dull. Some Yarrow still flowers but very few other flowers.
Most people stay in their homes as well, only the tractors are still active, farmers rarely have some time over to do other things. Even the hunters seems to have given up this year, I’m not complaining because that means I’ll be able to be in the forest without getting disturbed 🙂 🙂
I just found the wildlife camera but so far nothing have shown in the garden. The only thing it has taken photos of is the dogs and I 🙂
These are the best tasting tomatoes I’ve eaten in years but I have no name so I’ll save some seeds and sow them next year again 🙂
The little cold I’ve had for some time now just refuses to give up and today I was freezing all the time so nothing much has happened here but I’ve had a lot of ice cream 🙂 I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll most likely will fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂
So only photos taken from my garden or in my garden today. This is the pasture the wild hogs like to walk around in.
We’ve had a warm, sunny and wind free day today, so warm that I could turn off the radiators and have the kitchen door open until the sun decided to leave the southern wall it hit all day. Today is the start of the annual moose hunting season so we haven’t been able to walk in the forest and will most likely not have any morning walks there until Monday.
On the other side they usually leave quite early in the day after a few days so we can have walks there anyway. I would have loved to walk in the village but Alma is like she is and the last time we tried, must be a year ago now, she was so impossible that I’ve given up the thought of ever go there again. I love that dog but she has her ideas about the world being dangerous, so I’m happy we at least have the forest we can walk in.
Tomorrow will be a fun day I think, First I’ll pick up my “new” phone and then I’ll drive to a friend I used to work with. His son has caught a new cold and my friend has to stay at home with him. As You probably know parents get paid if staying at home with a sick child here in Sweden. Better to stay at home than going to work spreading what ever disease children have. Since I already have a cold as well I’ll have a day out 🙂 Also I’ll buy some fish for my aquarium because he’s a neighbour to a pet shop 🙂 Now days it’s difficult to find someone selling aquarium fish here because they need to have a license  that gives them the right to do so and it costs a small fortune.
The hunters always put up a sign when ever they are out hunting. You can see it here in front of the dark caravan.
Well they need a license to sell any other animal as well like rodents or reptiles or what ever it is they want to sell. Pet stores here have never been allowed to sell dogs and cats though. So now I have to decide what kind of fish I want and it can only be a few since I now days only have the aquarium filled up to a third and plants soon will grow in the upper third, I think I might find the right kind of plants for that too because this pet store also sale terrariums.
It is time for that last cup of tea and I bought a rice chocolate bar when I was at the supermarket this morning, it’ll go perfect with some tea 🙂
They are slowly ripening 🙂 I had to take this photo with a flash so the colours aren’t quite right. They are turning towards a very dark red colour.
For a while in the early morning it looked like we were going to have sunshine while we were out walking and we did for around twenty seconds 🙂 Then the rain arrived, no heavy showers but either a steady but calm rainfall or misty rain. It wasn’t until just after noon the sun made a come back and now three hours later I can see that the rain is falling again.
The rain on the mountain missed us but another one came a short moment after.
So I haven’t done a lot today, mostly drinking tea and watching tv, well I wouldn’t be able to tell You what it was I looked at because mostly it was pretty boring and nothing I really wanted to see. When the sunshine finally arrived I’ve mostly been throwing away what I’ve had in pots and poured it all out close to where the plum tree stood. I dug up all the dahlias and for the first time in my life only one can be saved till next year, I have no idea why they didn’t create root lumps like dahlias always do. Could be that I’ve watered them too little.
No signs of any wolf still staying around, they rarely do to be honest. I did see some tracks from moose though and they looked really fresh, if they had been old the rain would have wiped them out. To my very big surprise I finally found my jigsaw!! and it was pure luck because I can’t really understand why I had placed it there, beneath the entrance stairs??!! It must have been that a shower passed by and that was the closest place I could find, otherwise I have absolutely no idea 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully it is in a sort of plastic suitcase so no water from the latest rains had managed to get to it. So it still works and soon I’ll be able to have that third rainwater barrel 🙂
Well the weather doesn’t seem to become any nicer again so I guess I better make a pot of tea and perhaps doze off in front of the tv 🙂 🙂
Tomatoes hanging to ripen on both sides of the window.
Really nice day, weather-wise that is, cold in the morning but we’ve had sunshine all day so even if the temperature didn’t sky rocket it still was very pleasant in the garden.
Fir the first time in ages I saw three moose running across the fields, one bull, one cow and one calf.
What did stress me out quite a lot is that my mobile suddenly went in to secure mode so lots of important apps stopped working (oddly enough I still could go in to Bluesky 🙂 🙂 ) I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world but over here we need our Bank Id every time we buy anything online or even just need to visit authorities online. So if that doesn’t work (it was shut off by the phone) we can’t do anything really. Also we have a pay system called Swish so we can pay via that in stores or just send over money to other people, could that be the same sort as venmo perhaps?
No matter how I followed instructions the phone just refused to let it go. So I checked online via my computer and then I saw the problem, if the volume button is in any way stuck (mine was since that day I dropped my phone and it hit a stone, so I always had maximum volume 🙂 🙂 ) so after spraying 556 and sort of twisting the phone, don’t know how to describe it in another way, the volume button finally loosened up and all apps came back 🙂 Now however the volume changes depending on what mood the phone is in, sometimes really loud and sometimes no volume at all 🙂 🙂 🙂
So with a slight anxiety I went online again and to my favourite site when it comes to used electronics and bought a “new” phone. I really didn’t check what it was but it was the first phone that said it works on 5G 🙂 🙂 I went back after and I have bought a Samsung Galaxy 53 and payed with shipping $235 US. A lot of money but still not compared to what any new phone would cost here. It is in pristine condition the ad says and this site has never lied about anything before so I doubt they have started now. Anyhow before all this happened my new hedge trimmer arrived today, not as expensive as the phone but not far behind, arrived today. Not many safety instructions but a few were crystal clear. If one is a pregnant woman, drunk, a child or a mental health patient one isn’t allowed to use the trimmer 🙂 🙂 🙂 Really where do they get these ideas from? Also shortly after I had ordered it I got a mail where they told me they had approved of me buying one? 🙂 🙂 🙂 Sort of like accepting me in to a cult or a very exclusive club 🙂 🙂 🙂
Also I haven’t seen the Monsterkitten today and that worries me, she’s usually working like a clock. I do hope she’s just out on an adventure and will come back tonight or tomorrow. The dogs are looking for her as well. I’ve checked that I haven’t locked her in anywhere and also been to my neighbours garage just in case she’s been there. They are now saying a wolf might hang around here again, my dogs haven’t shown any signs that they’ve noticed any wolves but if we’re unlucky the monster might have met it.
This flower covered the entire flowerbed outside the kitchen and since I didn’t see more than one bumblebee all day I ripped them up. They spread like weeds so I’ll have plenty next year again.I found three more pots with plants in beneath them today (yesterday I found yet another potted quince seedling) It is two roses and one hardy hibiscus. They are now the first habitants in the greenhouse 🙂
It is time for a cup of tea and a slice or two from the just out of the oven bread 🙂 Tonight I’ll nit just check for badgers in the garden, I’ll also check for wolves 🙂 🙂 🙂
It smell a bit of burning dust at the moment, I had to start two radiators today because we had frost and -2C (28,4F) when we woke up this morning and it never became warmer than 13C (5534F) during the day. We’ve had lots of sunshine though so during the day it almost was too warm indoors. The kitchen door has been open until the sun moved over to the other side of the cottage.
So a bit chilly when we went out on our morning walk, not as much frost as I thought we would have but fly free so I forgave nature 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma walked really well today but instead she want back to that high pitched whining she’s so good at and after four years that sound cuts in to the brain like a dull knife creating a pain I just can’t stand. I doubt that she’s a fan of nature at all. She is getting better though but I really can’t stand that sound any more.
We went out to the bog and since it was as chilly as it was not a fly moved so I could pick the mushrooms without constantly make sure any of those nasty moose flies were crawling around on my head or elsewhere as well of course. I only picked the mushrooms I could find on the forest road so I’m pretty sure that if we had taken one step in between the trees I would have found plenty more. I think we might walk there again tomorrow if it is chilly enough and take that extra step and no moose flies can fly around and find us 🙂 🙂
I mowed the lawn when we had come home, the grass was still a bit wet but it didn’t clog inside the mower. Can one hope that this was the last time I had to do it for this season? After that I brought out the compost grinder or wood chipper as I like to call it. I had all these thorny branches from the wild plum to take care of plus a lot from the other plum tree and the apple tree. I actually also have lots of grape vines. The grape vine almost never gave any grapes and to be honest, grapes are really just weeds to be honest and grows like crazy 🙂 🙂 So I tried to entangle all the vines but that’s an impossible job so I’ll do them another time.
I wasn’t done until rather late, around 3 pm, so after that I haven’t been doing anything to be honest 🙂 I have had coffee and also tea but can say I’m just as tired as if the caffeine had run out of what ever it is that livens one up 🙂 🙂 🙂 The cows in the pasture on the other side of the gravel road outside my cottage has been rather loud from yesterday afternoon and still is,  I think they removed their calfs and it’s heartbreaking to hear them call for their babies.
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have a bowl with ice cream at the same time. Elsbeth is on tonight so I’ll need to go outside to check for badgers in the garden before letting the dogs outside so I can watch tv without having to do that during the program 🙂 🙂
The pawpaws grow in the most protected place I have in the garden and the frost had not reached them at all, not even the smaller ones were touched by it.The tomato plants were protected and only the tops were slightly hit but the unripe fruits are still fine 🙂
I have been a little bit stressed today, suddenly the entire internet connection died. I called my phone and internet company and the AI voice said I needed to identify myself with my bank Id, well can’t do that when the internet is gone 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway I was told someone would call me when it was my turn and there were a lot of people before me. Well everything suddenly started to work again so I guess that all those before me in line had the same problem. The Russians? have targeted our telephone/internet companies quite often lately so I guess it was the same again.
It was rather chilly last night, 4C (39,2F) when we woke up. But it might have been even colder in the garden because some plants looked rather sad today. Good thing though is that not even the moose flies fly around in those temperatures 🙂 As soon as we had come home again I drove to the grocery store in the village I used to work. After all I’ve been shopping there since the day I moved to this region and only because I moved elsewhere and don’t work there any more doesn’t mean I never would go there again 🙂 They are like old friends at that place and that’s more important than going somewhere closer or cheaper 🙂
I came back so early that we managed to squeeze in a second morning walk 🙂 This time out to the bog and I kept my eyes open for mushrooms and found plenty so we’ll head out there tomorrow morning again 🙂 It was still chilly enough to keep the moose flies calm 🙂 I’m not sure if there are especially many of them out there to be honest but one moose fly is way too many anyway. The wild hogs had dug up big parts of the path to the bog, it seems it doesn’t matter how many they hunt because it just takes a few days and then they’re back again. Well as long as they stay calm I’m happy.
I had planned to wait to bring in the last potted plants to the cool cellar, they can usually manage the first frost night really well and even more after being outside all summer (totally different in spring when they are brought out again, then they can’t take any frost, that’s why mu citrus trees are rather small this year 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) but I noticed that some have new shoots and they looked a bit sad after tonight so I brought in almost everything I still have out there. I can’t however not bring in my tomato plants. So I’ve just been outside covering them. I want at least one ripe tomato before frost can take the rest 🙂 🙂 🙂
I made rice porridge yesterday and today I think it is time for rose-hip soup, perfect a chilly day or evening when it is a bit too chilly outside. So I think I’ll skip that last cup of tea and have rose-hip soup and some ice cream instead 🙂
I found this and the next one for sale at the grocery store, less than US 3$ each, so I bought them 🙂
We had a beautiful sunrise today and I think that have might been the only beautiful thing happening today 🙂 🙂 The rest of the day we’ve been in and out of the cottage. The sun shone and we went out and suddenly rain arrived and we went indoors again 🙂 We’ve also had a strong wind blowing so even if we were outside while we could see the sun up there in the sky it still wasn’t especially nice.
I had hoped I cut take down the trunks of those plum trees but I really didn’t want to be caught outside with an electric chainsaw with a cord if it rained. So since most machines and tools I own is just the same I really couldn’t do much else either 🙂  So I have mostly, in between going in and out again, sort of half napped in front of the tv 🙂
Edible and really tasty mushroom.Don’t eat, You’ll get really sick.
It won’t do much to You but they don’t taste a thing 🙂
I’m starting planning to bring down some plants down to the cool cellar already, mostly my Peruvian ground cherries, they have lots of small fruits but are far from being ripe and their relatives Tomatillos for the same reason. By the way I’ve never grown or eaten tomatillos but understand that they should be cooked, what do they taste like? 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m getting lots of them so it would be sad if the frost takes them before they are ripe.
Never ever eat this one!
Or this one, the Swedish name for it is forest salad or lettuce might be a better word. I doubt You’ll die but …
It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll eat an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream. They sell gluten free ones from the ice cream lorry so I bought a package yesterday 🙂
I have no idea why but today I slept until six thirty am. Just in time to see the sun rising. So the dogs had their breakfast and I a cup of coffee and out we went. Lots of birds tweeting, a few song swans flew by and we even saw a Roe deer. Alma behaved so good today that I was really surprised, we passed the new neighbours but soon to be moved away neighbours she actually didn’t scream or whine at all. Isn’t that nice, just as they will move she has become calm about them being here 🙂 🙂 🙂
Despite all the rain we’ve had lately I still continue to water the more dry sensitive and newly planted plants in the garden. One can see that the water has started to sink down in to the ground but only perhaps 30 cm (12 inches) ad that’s not enough. The sun kept on shining so I placed my garden shoes, meaning old shoes that no longer can be used while being out walking, to dry in the sunshine. They are full with soil and sand and now days constantly wet so my feet are packed in with that mud as soon as I have worn them 🙂 🙂 Suddenly we had two rather heavy showers passing by so now they’re more wet than before 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve been looking at my aquarium for a while now, I emptied it to one third oaf how much water it can hold because I worked evenings one week a month and had to have the dogs in the cottage because they bark at anything moving when it is dark outside. So after some thinking I said to my self why not making it to a sort of aquaterrarium? A third of water and two thirds of open air where one can plant small plants and so on. No I won’t have any replies or frogs in it just a sort of land part. So I checked the water quality and most parts were ok but not the nitrate levels, that means there’s too much waist after the fish I had and decaying plants.
So I think I have around 35 litres of water in it at the moment. So I thought I have plenty of rainwater now so why not use that? The water I have to drink has a lot of lime and most fish and plants don’t like that. I think I’ve changed over 60 litres (15.9 gallons US) and finally I can see the water getting a bit better 🙂 🙂  I really cleaned the sand while getting the water out but it is clear I have to do more 🙂  So now I know what I’ll do tomorrow 🙂 🙂 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and today I’ll have an ice cream as well. the ice cream lorry drove down on our road  for the first time this season, turns out the driver had been hit by a brick wall hitting one of his legs and had been on sick leave until now. The one replacing him never cared to come to us on my little gravel road. We are very pleased to see him again 🙂
Most of the plum tree is gone now. All I need now is a day or two with weather that dries up the ground so I can cut the rest with my chainsaw. After that I need to start thinking about what else can grow there instead 🙂
Lots of rain has been falling here today, from before I woke up until now at almost seven pm. I don’t mind the rain but it has stayed on the chilly side all the time.
One of four piles with twigs and branches from my two plum trees. I’ve started to cut them in smaller pieces so the wood chipper (compost grinder) will have an easier job.
I dug up the hardy hibiscus and thought the buds would fall off but here’s the flower. It was filled with petals before but now it looks like this to my great joy 🙂
So we haven’t done anything really, napped a short while and watched tv. All of us is a bit bored now because rain makes the dogs stay indoors  🙂 They only run out for a few minutes to do what they must and then indoors again.  Yesterday evening, around eight pm it was anything but boring here. I let the dogs outside and then Malkolm came running back to the front door and Alma started to bark.
One of the five pawpaw seedlings. If winter doesn’t kill it I’m afraid the dogs will 🙂 🙂 They run fast and wild when they play and don’t even see trees in their way 🙂 🙂
I walked around the cottage to see if I could find out what it was she barked at. She stared towards a bush and growled so I told her to go back indoors and I pointed my headlight towards the bush and there it was, a rather big badger hiding behind it. Poor thing, it must have been so scared. European badgers has a reputation of being aggressive and dangerous but that’s just nonsense. If they can they rather run away than have to meet dogs and humans. Â The reason they are believed to be dangerous is because hunters. I think I also would become pretty aggressive if someone tossed down aggressive dogs in to my home and I too would attack the one doing it.
So tonight I’ll take a walk in the garden before I let out the dogs so it can be alone when it visits us. Badgers eat all those snails and slugs we hate plus a lot of other bugs and larvae we don’t want close to us. I think they also might eat apples from the ground and to me that’s positive since I have so many 🙂 It’s time for that last cup of tea and later tonight they show Elsbeth again 🙂
We were supposed to have rain all day today, not much though, so I’m not the least surprised that we until 5:50 pm had sunshine all day long 🙂 A strong wind has been blowing and that kept the flies away and it has been warm as well.Â
I didn’t look outside the window when we went up this morning and since I do have a rather high lilac hedge around big parts of the cottage I missed that we had morning mist. I did notice it before it evaporated though so there was still some left when we had our morning walk. A walk in a sunny, misty and cool morning is better than most things in life to be honest. Small birds were flying around everywhere, Jays argued somewhere in the tree tops and I could hear some animals trotting away from us.
The ground is drying up again so I still need to water the most vulnerable trees and perennials and I do that either just before we’re out on our walk or just after. Today I once again had to pick up a parcel, this time it was a LED light bar. The old fluorescent lamp I have down there is long gone, I’m not even sure if one can get parts to it any more. During winter I always have plant lights on but now one of those broke as well. I’ve put the new one up and almost regretted it because now I can see the mess 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll need to clean it all up before I start taking down the trees I must have indoors during winter.
I haven’t done much after that, we did take a long nap though but I’m not sure that can count as doing something 🙂 🙂 🙂 Isn’t it strange that the phone can be quiet all day but as soon one is falling asleep the entire world wants to reach You 🙂 🙂 🙂 and then as soon as the nap is over the phone gets quiet again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Mostly it’s telemarketers so I’m happy to say that they now are discussing a new law that forbids telemarketers to call privet persons unless we specifically have allowed them to 🙂 This is a law I’m really looking forward to!
The Dahlias I sowed had only bright yellow flowers in the beginning.
Then some showed some orange as well.
Yesterday morning I found this bud.
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And today it opened up bright red 🙂 Dahlias are supposed to have migraine-inducing colours according to my taste so this one I like 🙂
I is time for that last cup of tea for the day. To be honest I think I could drink an entire pot without having problems to fall asleep because I’m still just as tired as I was before the nap. 🙂
Then some showed some orange as well.
The Cottage by the crane lake. 