Category: Flowers.

I had to apologize to Alma :-)

May 8, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

Today I’ll show photos I’ve taken on my way to work so some can be a few days old but also some from today.

So it wasn’t Alma who had stolen the meat, it was all my fault even though it actually happened because of keeping it away from her 🙂 🙂 I was going to do something and it wouldn’t take long so I thought I just place it high. Like always things that won’t take a long time usually does 🙂 I have two window sills in every window and in this window I have one rather high up but at the moment no plants there. So I reached up and placed the meat there 🙂 🙂 🙂 One can’t see that window sill because the drapes hang low so even when I looked “everywhere” I couldn’t see it and had forgotten that all those pots now stood outside on the north side of the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂

One the other hand today I once again got a call from my neighbor, Alma was outside the dog yard again and this time Malkolm had followed. My neighbor told the two of them to follow him to my garden and blocked the gate. He then called me and when he had he noticed that Malkolm sat beside his feet 🙂 So he let him in again and made sure the gate was properly blocked. Alma wouldn’t leave Malkolm all alone so he thought he could relax a bit before he had to go away for a while.

I came home not long after that and heard Malkolm in the garage and thought he must have told me wrong where Malkolm was because Alma was outside the dog yard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I placed them both (and Nova even though she would have been happy to be anywhere as long as Malkolm was busy with Alma. So I went to check where she had escaped through and turned around and there he was, Malkolm, by my feet 🙂 🙂 I had the same thought as my neighbor so I took him back to the garden again. For some reason I looked back towards the gate when I was going to fix the fence, she had managed to remove a huge log that I tied to the fence with thick electric cables, she had worked hard on those from the morning when I checked everything in the dog yard until my neighbor called.

So when I turn around I saw that Malkolm knows how to climb over a fence 🙂 🙂 🙂 When I saw that I remembered that I said that it was so nice to once again have a dog that loved to use his brain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So how long will it take when he’s grown up to be able top climb over the well over two meter (much the same in yards) high fence around the dog yard 🙂 🙂 🙂 The log by the way is now #tied” together with the fence with a really thick steel wire so now we’re guessing how long it will take until she manages to remove that, should be impossible but if any dog can it will be Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well what ever I sowed there last year will most likely never see the light of the day unless it in some way has managed to be covered with enough wet sand and then grow up elsewhere.

I think it might be a joined work between these two 🙂

Otherwise it’s been a rather wonderful day, not hot but not chilly either. Lots of sunshine but also lots of clouds. I’ve re-potted some of the Guava seedlings, they are now placed outside as well. I had planned on mowing the lawn tomorrow but they’re guessing it will be a bit rainy. I have however a long weekend now so no more work until Monday. Malkolm will also get his second vaccine shot on Friday and I’m already worrying about Alma 🙂 It will not be especially warm so I might have to bring her with us and then Nova can relax here at home without being disturbed by wild playing between Alma and Malkolm, she deserves that the old Lady 🙂

I managed to break off one of the small branches on the Apricot tree I bought this year. I have no idea if this works but I put it in moist soil and put a plastic bag over it. I have done this with an apple twig once and it grew roots on its own. Those apple trees becomes very weak and usually dies with a few years. The Prunus family is know for spreading easily with their roots so who knows it might work. I’ll keep You updated weather it goes well or not.

Have a great day!

Food missing.

May 6, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

So yesterday I brought out a piece of meat from the freezer, I was going to make dinner for work this week. I naturally forgot it until it was too late in the evening so I went in to the kitchen to put it in the fridge and I just couldn’t find it!! I’ve looked everywhere, even in the pantry but it is nowhere to be found 🙂 🙂 🙂 So the only one that could have reached it is Alma, I’m not saying she’s a food thief but she is my prime suspect 🙂 🙂 🙂

I can’t find any traces of the plastic wrapping or the plastic tray it was lying on either 🙂 🙂 🙂 My neighbors will look for evidence in their garden when they go outside for a walk with the dogs and I’ll go down to the pond behind my garage to morrow when we’ll go out for a walk 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was enough to make her stomach a bit wobbly I think but she’s better than ever 🙂 🙂 🙂

Anyway I was planning on bringing sandwiches instead but it turned out that I only had had bread at home so this morning I went to the grocery store in the village I work in and bought some grilled ribs and a small package with potato salad. It was delicious and thankfully so much that I’ll have it again tomorrow 🙂 In a way I hope it is Alma that has taken the meat because otherwise it’ll soon start to smell pretty nasty in my cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂

Alma reminds me of one of the old dogs that used to live with me, her name was Viran. More or less the same size, just as much energy but Viran had the ability to be relaxed on walks as well. I have so many stories with Viran that it could fill a book 🙂 🙂 🙂 She, for instance, managed to destroy three fridges during one year, one could say that she was highly food motivated 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally Friday.

May 3, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

IT has been a lovely day, lots of sunshine, 20C (68F) warm and no wind. Thin clouds cover the sky at the moment but that’s ok. I was thinking of wearing a hoodie on our walk but decided a t-shirt would be enough and I’m so glad I decided that 🙂 It was more than enough when walking in the shadows but almost too much in the sunshine, after all it wasn’t that long ago we had snow here so we aren’t used to warm weather yet. Even the dogs thought it was a bit too warm in the sunshine.

The wild hogs have really concentrated to dig up all roots on one side of this field. It’s just 20 meters (much the same in yards) away from the Beekeepers cottage.

A new tree growing up from an old tree stump.

My back is worse today but as long as we were walking it felt quite ok. I opened the kitchen door when we came home so the dogs could go in and out as they pleased. Went to the toilet and while sitting there my neighbor called and told me that Alma was walking around in the cow pasture up the slope 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I was in no position to do anything about it, just trying to stand up would take quite some time 🙂 🙂 🙂 So my neighbor helped me to get her back home. That dog is going to give me problems if she continues like this 🙂 🙂 🙂 She doesn’t like cows so I have no idea what made her think walking around close to them while having several new calves would be a good idea 🙂 🙂 🙂

Lots of butterflies flying around today. If this one had opened its wings they would be bright sky blue.

Well my neighbors had a good laugh anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was thinking of planting more trees and bushes today but I felt it was enough to just water what I’ve already have dug down. I couldn’t find my rice bag to warm in the micro but I did find my old electric heating pad. I’m always a bit worried to used that one because it’s so old that if the insulation inside it is broken it might start to burn while using it 🙂 🙂 So far so good though. It does help a lot though.

I have several blue-berried honeysuckle bushes and the bumblebees love them. Unfortunately for me I didn’t know one needed at least two different varieties of this to get berries so I hope this will be the year I’ll get berries because last summer I bough two other ones 🙂

More flowers are opening up now and the grass is growing so I’m afraid I might have to mow the lawn tomorrow because we might get both rain and thunder during the night and mowing wet grass is a nightmare. I’ll just have to put together the new mower that I bought last autumn, I haven’t even removed it from it’s box yet so I do hope nothings wrong with it because who has a receipt left after a long winter 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is an oddity because it’s a natural crossing between the white wood anemone and the yellow wood anemone. It’s sterile but spreads happily via its roots. I’ve never bought one so this crossing is from my own white and yellow ones.

This is the yellow one and it has a much deeper yellow.

It is time to go down to the recliner and the heating pad again and I will have ice cream but perhaps also a cup of tea?

Have a great day!

We have at least nice weather.

May 2, 2024May 2, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

A short one today because my back is killing me. I have rheumatism in my spine and mostly it’s ok, well I always have back pain but it is bearable. Today however it isn’t. I once destroyed my stomach with an anti inflammatory medicine, it was amazingly good but also pretty aggressive towards my stomach, so now days I can’t even take anti inflammatory medicines for kids.

I can take some of the ointments (not too much though because then I get stomach problems) but I don’t have any at home so the only thing that helps is to move around, it’s when I’ve been still for a minute or two that the pain starts again, so it’ll be fun to try and go down stairs after writing this 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll put the rice bag in the micro and towards my back and hope for the best. No use in staying home from work either because if there anything I do at work while painting is to move around and stretch my body in all kinds of strange angles 🙂 🙂 🙂

It was rather warm when we were out walking.

Wonderful weather here today though, even though the wind is even stronger today. I need to water those trees I planted yesterday and after that fall down in to my recliner. If the back gets too bad and I can’t get up a recliner is amazingly nice to sleep in 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll make sure to bring an ice cream on the way there 🙂 🙂 🙂

In my garden right now. Marsh marigold in the root zone.

My two Nanking cherry bushes now have loads of buds

and even some open flowers. I do hope I’ll get loads of berries this year 🙂

The Yellow wood anemone is starting to spread, normally the white one is stronger and push a lot of other flowers away but this yellow one have pushed away the white one 🙂

This one looks like a failed experiment to be honest but give it a week and it’ll look very different. Also a Yellow wood anemone.

Have a great day!

Always that wind.

May 1, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

We’ve had a really nice day here today. Mostly sunshine and almost 20C (68F). The only thing that sort of made the day less nice was the wind, the gusts were too strong and dried out the trees I have and had planted these last day. It’ll stay warm and so will the wind but I guess it is good all those wind power plants produce all that electricity so the price stays low.

We had a pancake day today so now I need to buy more jam, the one I had made myself is long gone 🙂 Nova has been unusually picky with her food lately. I know she liked it because they sometimes get that dry food as a treat so I just couldn’t understand why she refused to eat it. I always boil up water and pours it over the food and then cools it down with cold water so it isn’t too hot. Turns out that this food instead of swelling just falls apart and becomes some kind of porridge and that’s what she hates. So later in the morning I gave it to her dry and everything went down in a hurry. So I wasn’t sure if she would eat much pancake shortly after that but she gulped it down and did the same with her afternoon meal. It’s nice when problems are so easily solwed.

I have as I mentioned planted most of the trees I had delivered the other week. No matter what place I found it would mess with other plans for the future 🙂 🙂 🙂 Plus having two walnut trees makes it a bit harder. Walnut trees tend to spread a toxin called juglone in the ground to keep other plants away from them, but to be honest I have the Black walnut which is said to be the worst of them and so far everything around it is just as healthy and happy looking as they were the day the walnut was planted and that was well over 15 years ago. Still it is a bit risky to plant anything that might be sensitive to it too close and in my little garden everywhere is a bit too close 🙂 🙂 🙂

Also all good places are already having trees growing there 🙂 I do have a plum, gives tiny yellow plums but usually flowers too early so frost takes both flowers and fruits that I’ve planned to remove so I did plant my Persimmon tree close to it. The tricky thing with cutting down all kinds of Prunus (plums, cherries and so on) is that they tens to spread a lot via its old roots so the best thing one can do is to ring bark it. That means one will remove a ring of bark around the stem so that no water and nutrients can move up the tree. it tales two years before one can remove the dead tree but it will not start making new stems from the roots. I really don’t like to cut down trees but there will at least grow a new tree just beside where the old one stood.

The early flowering plum tree has lots of flowers and buds right now.

This and the rest of these photos show the newly planted trees and are actually quite useless since it’s hard to see the thin stems and needles 🙂 🙂 🙂 This is the Apricot.

This is the best looking Himalayan Cedar, There are new needles growing in between all the dead ones.

This is the Persimmon hybrid and peach tree I planted last year. Both are alive anf
d healthy.

This is the Cedar I think might be doomer already but there are green needles even towards the top so I thought I would give it a chance.

I’ve also planted an Apricot ‘Hargrand’, one of the hardiest there is and a white mulberry tree (can’t remember the name of it). The white mulberry tree usually gives berries that tastes somewhat like grass 🙂 🙂 but this one will have pretty tasty berries they say. So now and for at least a week ahead I’ll have to water everything I’ve planted with at least ten litres of water every day and continue to help with water all summer long if we’ll have a dry summer. Good thing I don’t have to pay for my water 🙂 I still have two Pawpaw trees to plant but I want to buy more peat because they like a slightly acidic soil.

All the Apricots and pears I sowed last year and have survived will have to stay in the cool cellar for two more winters, well except for those two Apricots I’ve already planted, I thought I would test how they manages a winter already that young, I have after all four more Apricots and very little space in the garden 🙂 🙂

Just look at Alma’s eyes, she’s not impressed 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

A really nice afternoon.

April 30, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

He stops at every spot he can find something to sniff on 🙂 Drives Alma insane because she wants to walk and walk and walk 🙂

We’ve had two really nice days here. Yesterday was a bit cooler but after having a long cold winter and a few weeks where the temperature didn’t rise above 5 C (41 F) anything above that feels like summer temperatures 🙂 Even the dogs were panting when we were out walking 🙂 🙂 We had frost last night though and that can keep on happening until the first week in June. June sixth is usually the last night we have frost here.

None of us wanted to get out of bed when the alarm started this morning, it seems that Malkolm loves to stay in bed after we’ve woken up, that I like 🙂 but not even Alma wanted to leave the bed today and that was surprising. No need to hurry up tomorrow morning though, it’s May first, the workers day in big parts of the world. So I guess we’ll all get up at normal time just because we actually can stay in bed 🙂 🙂

Today however is Valborgsmässoafton, Walpurgis night which is celebrated here. No one actually knows who Valborg or Walpurgis as her English name was, is. She was actually an English princess I’ve read. She became a nun (and a couple of her brothers became monks) and was apparently really good in making pagans christians. She later became a saint and is the patron saint for those being infected with rabies. So as I said no one here knows who she was 🙂 🙂 Perhaps she does hold her hand over us because we haven’t had rabies here in this country since 1886.

So today they’ll start huge bonfires, choirs, usually men only choirs, will sing when the bonfires burn and singing spring songs. Today is a bit unusual because we have nice weather, all too often I’ve been standing is rain and / or snow freezing my b..t off not feeling the warmth from the fire because I had a tendency to always be placed on the other end far away from the fire 🙂 🙂

Tulipa tarda, spreads happily in my garden.

Lung worth. I was trying to photograph the Bumble bee that You can almost see at the bottom in the middle.

So this will be a short working week but next week will be even better because next Friday is what we call a squeeze day. Thursday is Ascension Day and a holiday here so no one wants to work on Friday. Unfortunately most must but I applied for being free the right way so I won’t work 🙂 I’ll also stay at home on Friday the seventh of June because our national day is on Thursday. To be honest very few know why we celebrate our national day that day, we just don’t care that much as long as we don’t have to work 🙂 🙂 No it isn’t because of some war or something like that, we haven’t been to war since we helped to beat Napoleon. There’s actually two reasons but I’ll tell You all about it then.

The dogs are sleeping all over the cottage. Nova because she’s old and tired but Alma and Malkolm because they’ve played wildly in the garden just before clouds covered the sky. I think I’ll join them in a while. The best tomorrow though is that the Ice cream lorry comes, I’m out of Ice cream and it’s stay warm a while they say so I’ll but more than I usually do 🙂

I really like this photo, just look at Alma 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

It finally arrived :-)

April 28, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

The warm and sunny weather sure took its time to arrive today, the morning was chilly and rainy so we didn’t go out for our morning walk until just before noon and it was still really cold. Then suddenly it changed and the temperature has risen to 20 C (68 F), the sun is shining even though there are big clouds in the sky and, of course, there is now a strong wind blowing.

That has helped the laundry to dry in five seconds so I really can’t complain too much 🙂 I don’t think it took fiver minutes after the sun started to shine through the gaps in the clouds before I heard the first mower 🙂 Yes the grass has grown pretty much but why can’t they just relax at least for one day before they start 🙂 🙂

I didn’t care about mowing the lawn, instead I’ve brought up almost all plants from the cool cellar. I only have four cacti down there still because I need to get more plants outside before I have enough space by the windows 🙂 I even brought the pawpaw seedlings I had down there outside, three of them but decided that the three I have indoors by the kitchen window can wait for a while. One never knows when we’ll get a nasty cold frosty night again.

The Camellias started to flower in the cool cellar.

I bought a hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) and it too was touched a bit hard by frost, like the trees I also got delivered late this week. So I decided to take a few cuttings that can over winter in the cool cellar neat winter. I took a few photos of how I do that that You can see here below. The Hardy Fuchsia doesn’t survive like a big bush here though but the roots survives and starts all over next year. It’s always best to put dry leafs over it all just in case we do get another cold winter. One can of course also have it as a pot plant and keep it light but cool during the winters.

The best soil to have while planting cuttings are usually sowing soil. I didn’t have any so I mixed ordinary soil with some sand from my garden, mix it well.

As You can see the cuttings did look a bit sad after the frost so I don’t know if they’ll work but it’s worth a try. I can take new ones later in summer.

One only need a short stem, just make sure that at the bottom there have been leafs. Take away those because that’s where the new roots will start to grow. This one didn’t have any leafs at all but they usually work anyway.

This one looks better. Two leafs taken away at the bottom and two leafs at the top. Most people think this is too short but it’s actually just enough.

Plant the cuttings along the edge of the pot, more oxygen will reach where the leafs will grow and the risk of them rotting because of too much water is lesser. Normally I don’t put a see through cover,, like plastic, around the pot but since there were hit by frost I thought it might help. Place the pot by a window that doesn’t get any sunshine and wait for them to grow to new plants 🙂

Tomorrow will be a bit cooler than today but still above 10 C (50 F) and then on Tuesday it’ll go back to more what we’ve had this afternoon, I do hope this was the last cold period until autumn arrives again, I’m really tired of the cold weather we’ve had lately. I wonder how Malkolm think about warmer weather, so far all his life has been pretty cold, all three months of it 🙂

Alma and Malkolm have been playing all day long so they are both now snoring loudly 🙂

Have a great day!

They say it’ll be warm next week but I’ll believe it if it happens :-)

April 27, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

This day took its time to become reasonable warm and nice, mostly it felt like winter was coming back and the clouds up in the sky looked like solid led. But it did eventually become warmer and the drizzle we had before noon stopped to drizzle and then the sun finally showed itself.

Now new clouds have arrived and tomorrow will eventually become pretty warm, almost 20 C (68 F) but first we’ll have to go through much the same weather we had today but with lots more rain. It will however not be freezing cold during the night and it looks like nights will stay like that for the ten coming days. Then again we all know how our weather forecasts are so it can be the opposite as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

We walked down to the creek in the morning and Alma finally was calmer than she has been lately. Malkolm walks really well leashed and Nova is never a problem so for once I didn’t have to put 90% of both my energy and time on keeping control of Alma. She behaved much better when we later in the day walked to the bog so there might be a tiny bit of hope that she’ll calm down eventually 🙂 🙂 🙂 She didn’t even scream when we saw four deer in the fields and that’s really unusual.

I’ve managed to make my brother slightly obcessed by cameras too now 🙂 Sometimes he buys something, then regrets it and ships it to me 🙂 🙂 So today I have some times used an Olympus E-420. Like all old cameras it has a mind of its own so every now and again it just changes all settings I’ve just programmed so I have to do it all again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Overall for being such an old camera I think it was pretty good and will most likely use it every now and again when I want to have a very light camera with me, my Nikons are not heavy but compared to this one they are heavy weight 🙂

I’ll go out in to my garden tomorrow when it is raining and sow grass seeds because 24 years with dogs really wear the grass down but I’ll also sow annuals in the old vegetable patch. I have already done that but then the winter came back so I suspect some of what I sowed might have frozen to death during that time. I’ll pick up most of what’s left in my cool cellar and place it on the north side of the cottage.There really isn’t any place here now where the sun doesn’t reach at any time of the day. Soon the sun will rise north- east (north north-east to be honest) and it is already setting at north-west and soon at north north-west. It is always best if the sun can’t reach those plants because just like us humans that will get burned by the sun easily in the beginning so will leafs too.

All the following photos are from the Olympus camera.

I’ll also plant some of what’s already standing outside, I was going to figure that out today but time flew so I’ll have to do that tomorrow instead. I’ll also go through the dog yard to check after weak spots and fix them so that Alma can’t escape 🙂 🙂 🙂 We’ve been up since 4 am because Malkolm woke me up after he had pooped beside my bed. I see that as a good sign because he didn’t tell me at all just a few days ago 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest though, he hadn’t have to wake me up because that small was so bad that not even a dead person would have missed it 🙂 🙂 🙂 If this had been a working day this accident would most likely not have happened because 4 am is the time the alarm starts so I can go to work.

It is time to bring them all out for a last time today and hopefully he will soon understand that it always is best to wake me up before he does anything because if he does he will get a treat and he does like a treat. His appetite comes from the Golden Retriever in him, the barking indoors comes from the English Cockerspaniel so I wonder what will show from the Border collie? He doesn’t seem to herding at all but loves to stop at every spot where animals have walked, I’ve never heard that about Border collies 🙂

Have a great day!

Dogs, sometimes I wonder :-)

April 24, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

One of my Camellias has been standing outside when the nights were so horrible cold and it hasn’t looked this healthy in many years.

The day started well but it was well below freezing point outside so I had to scrape the car windows before going to work. We had wonderful morning mist, the kind where one could see the fog roll away like big waves over the ground, so I picked up the camera I had in the car and of course the battery was dead 🙂 🙂 The morning mist was even better down by the lake so I was a bit annoyed by myself for not checking the camera after I used it last week. So lets hope it’ll be much the same tomorrow morning.

All the Apricot trees have been standing outside those cold nights as well and they too look good.

I was sure the Himalayan Cedars were more or less dead after this winter, I forgot to water them, but now one can see that new needles are growing out 🙂

Even the grape vine cuttings look good and they barely have any roots yet.

I came to work a bit early but started to work almost directly because today there was one more that didn’t come to work, high fever this time, so I had to check the huge washing machine that cleans all the things we’re going to paint. None of those being at home yesterday turned up today either. So today we were five short at the painting department but that would be worse later on.

Because I suddenly had a phone call from my neighbor telling me that Alma had escaped the dog yard once again. This time she had managed to rip off the fence from the ground. The gap wasn’t more than 25 cm (10 inches) wide and perhaps 15cm (6 inches) high. I have no idea how she, who is quite big, slightly bigger than a German Shepherd, could squeeze through that hole. My neighbor told me that he had tried to make her go back but when he came too close to Malkolm (they were both rather stressed by this), still in the dog yard, she changed the sound of her voice so he would rather call me 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well it is nice to lay down in the grass as well 🙂

I have no idea why she keeps on doing this because she doesn’t go anywhere and she never manages to go back which is what she always wants to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I had to leave work and go home to fix the problem and then go back to work again. I really couldn’t be angry at her but now I think she has learned that if she does like this I’ll come home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 The only time that dog use her brain for more than fifteen seconds is when she calculates how to get out from the dog yard. She must have worked on this place in the fence for quite some time before she finally could squeeze out from that hole 🙂 🙂 🙂

Leopards bane, seems to survive any condition 🙂

On my way home the Beekeeper also sent me a text message that Alma was outside. She’s the kindest there is but one day she’ll do this when someone comes driving, then again everyone knows she can turn up anytime so everyone drives really slowly on this gravel road 🙂 At least the dogs were happy to see me even if it only was for a few minutes 🙂

Have a great day!

The table has finally arrived.

April 23, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

It wasn’t a lucky day for my work place today. One was at home with migraines, one was at home for back pain, one managed to injure himself so his eyebrow was torn up and he started bleeding like crazy and had to be driven to the hospital and then I went home because I had to sign for a package that they just refused to leave outside my door.

Gooseberry bush in the wild. Those gooseberries are delicious but very small and the bush is the thorniest one can find. I did the mistake to bring in one to my garden once. As soon as a branch hits the ground it creates roots and spreads insanely quick. Those thorns are horrible to be stung by and they tend to stay inside the foot as well 🙂

The package, my new table for the living room, was going to be delivered some time between 11 am and 3 pm. I was also going to pick up a package at the grocery store in Gudhem today and managed to do that before 11 am. That package was the Tea bush I ordered for quite some time ago. I was really stressed by the time I came home so naturally the table arrived almost exactly at 3 pm 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I managed to fall asleep in the recliner and the two big dogs in the sofa and Malkolm in the dog igloo 🙂 The weather could have been worse today, not especially warm but sunshine every now and again plus almost no wind to speak of. So we had a quite nice walk after the table had arrived. It will be slightly warmer from now on but we’ll also get rain and on Friday even some snow.

Her favorite spot on hot summers days 🙂 Also works when it’s cold in the air but the sun is shining 🙂

The new table is much smaller but have a shelf under the table top (which is made of glass), so I placed one gardening book there, one crime novel and the book Doctor sleep written by Stephen King if You for some reason didn’t know that 🙂 I love that book but I have no wish what so ever to see the movie, I have a tendency to get in to horror movies a bit too much and that’s not good when living at the outskirts of the world where imagination can carry You away a bit too much 🙂 🙂 🙂

We’ve already had our dinners but I feel that I might have the last orange or perhaps an ice cream or why not both 🙂 I’m going to the store tomorrow anyway 🙂

Alma can become a bit jealous if Malkolm spend time with Nova, she just place herself between them until either of the two other leave 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally less cold!

December 9, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

If You don’t already like apple products that company really doesn’t help You to start loving them, on the contrary because after trying to get an Apple account for half an hour I truly hated anything Apple related 😄😄😄 I’ve had one before but couldn’t remember what I wrote in the security questions so I had to make a new one. It is amazing how unwilling Apple was to cooperate with me. If they ask me for what my address was where I grew up it really should tell me just the street name and no numbers. Also I got codes from Apple that I should write and the numbers weren’t accepted!!!

I finally made it and went out to find an app with voice recording, just to realize that it wouldn’t work unless the Ipad was connected to the internet!!?? Why on earth do I need to be connected to the internet?? So instead I’ll use the voice memo that already excists n the Ipad. After all I can talk for hours, stop the recording but continue to record again when I have some time left. Doesn’t seem to have a loop though but I’ll just continue to read books for hours 😄😄😄 another problem I had was that I couldn’t find any place to change the volume so I had to go online to find that out 😄😄😄

Just around 0C (32F) here today. The snow is slowly, slowly melting but new one fell so not much difference in the snow thickness on the ground. We went out to the bog again and while being there I noticed some canine paw prints in the snow, made a couple of hours or so before we came out. Way too big and wrong shape for being a fox, also slightly smaller than Almas paw prints so I knew it wasn’t a wolf. Then again no prints from humans shoes so I couldn’t figure out what it was. On the way home I heard a hunting dog barking from a long distance, my guess is that it had made a visit to us before it went back to where it should be.

Besides fighting with my Ipad I haven’t done much today. We’ve had our pancake day but that’s it. It’s already pitch black outside, the sun set at 3:16 pm today and it doesn’t take many minutes before it is dark here. I’m so glad that there’s only a few days left before it goes towards more hours with daylight. One odd thing has happened here today though, the christmas lights in the christmas tree were shining when we came home after our walk, they are battery driven and the dogs can’t start them but I haven’t either 😄😄😄 I never lock the door so someone must either been here and lit those lights or there’s something wrong with both light chains because both were shining 😄😄😄 If someone was here why didn’t they also start cleaning my cottage because god knows that it needs cleaning 😄😄😄

The bees are sleeping and this year they have almost all the honey they produced because people don’t buy expensive Swedish honey when there’s cheaper foreign ones in the stores.

The Amaryllis I bought was a filled one and I don’t like it 🙂

It is time to start recording the first of the Harry Potter books for the dogs 😄

Have a great day!

More snow.

December 8, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

It’s usually tricky to capture snow flakes when taking photos but it worked in this photo, don’t know why though 🙂

I was waiting for the last package for the dogs and the dog yard to arrive, like always it said some time between eight am and five pm and with the roads looking like they do after all snow, we had more again yesterday, I didn’t expect it to arrive until late. So I didn’t think much of it and went to the toilet and just as I did what I had to do the van with my package arrived 🙂 🙂 Thankfully the guy who drove it here understood that I was at home and did his job a bit slower and I panicking indoors tried to hurry outside 🙂 🙂 🙂 It all went well and now the two lamps are charging under my kitchen lamp 🙂

It was foggy enough to hide the mountain but not sort of close up foggy like I like it.

The Ipad has also arrived and a moment ago I desperately tried to find where to put in the sim card, I was thinking of using my phones sim card just to download the app where I can read a book, thinking of the Harry Potter books, so that Alma can hear my voice while I’m away. I watched videos on Youtube and they all showed where the little hole to release the little plate for the sim car was and I still couldn’t find it!! So out on the net again, turns out that I can’t put a sim card in this one, I’ll have to use wifi to down load anything I want in it. The problem is that my wifi isn’t known for willingly recognize that there’s another computer that I want to use for the internet!! Neither as something belonging in the cottage nor as a guest. Worst case scenario is that I’ll have to ask my neighbors to see if their wifi will help me 🙂 🙂 🙂

So until that works do You know a good app where I can download me reading a book and then have it working on loop, it will take way too long to read all those books at the same time, no matter how much I like them 🙂 🙂 I’m on my way though and that’s a good sign 🙂 🙂 I’ll start my new hours next week so it would be great if I could have this thing working by then. Besides feeling like going insane because of the Ipad the day has been pretty nice. It snowed yesterday, way too much but it has turned towards slightly less cold weather, Just below 0C (32F) all day. It will not be as warm as they guessed earlier but for a few days it’ll be just barely above 0C (32F), after that they’re guessing that it will turn slightly colder again for a few days and then they’re guessing again that it’ll be way much warmer. I’ll believe it if it would happen 🙂

Today it showed that the air would become slightly warmer because we had a rather nice fog. Warm air and cold ground usually creates nice fog. Could have been a bit thicker according to my taste but I’ll take what I get since the sun won’t show itself anyway. Lots of tracks in the new snow, a fox, probably the one coming to visit my garden, had followed the road down to the creek and somewhere half way there it had followed a hare. The most surprising track though was that a moose had passed a few meters away from the beekeepers cottage. No wolf tracks but I think i saw some from a lynx but since Alma is everywhere at the same time I only had a second or two to try and figure out what it could be 🙂 🙂 🙂

I guess that the rest of the evening and night will be spent here by my computer and wifi to try to get the wifi to cooperate and then download the best app I can find, wish me luck 🙂 🙂 🙂

Turns out that this unfortunately isn’t a Wood Grouse but instead a melanistic pheasant. If it had been a rooster it would have been almost black with a metallic green tinge when the sun had shone on it. Still long time since we had any pheasants here either so I’m just as happy 🙂

Have a great day!

My orchid now has two flower stems and a third is on its way 🙂