Category: Flowers.

Winter is on its way I’m afraid.

October 27, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Two peaches,three Guavas and a mango tree. The mango tree still looks fine, better than any of the old ones that died ever did and it now have two top branches.

The weather is rather meh but it is at least not windy. We can’t expect any nicer weather except for tomorrow when we might get to see some sunshine. Around two hours of it they’re guessing and then it’ll turn to meh again and on Sunday it will start to snow. Apparently we’ll also get lots of rain in it and mostly it’ll stay just above 0C (32F) but since we’ll get up to almost 8 inches of it it might stay for a while anyway.

The only track we saw today was this kind, we have lots of horses in the village now.

They change how much snow we’ll get every hour or so and they’ve confessed on tv that they actually don’t know how far south the snow will be so they’re just guessing more than normal 🙂 🙂 🙂 The morning walk was really nice though, since there was no wind. Birds were tweeting, we saw a deer in the distance and Alma almost behaved the entire walk 🙂 Nova however does as she please when we’re walking homewards. Today I wanted to leash her the last three hundred meters (much the same in yards) but she figured out why I called her so she just turned around and walked away even faster than before 🙂 🙂 🙂

I really don’t like planting bulbs or tubers, I can’t say I know why but I just don’t. Still every autumn I do buy bulbs and tubers 🙂 🙂 So today I planted 20 wild tulip bulbs, ten Dutch Iris bulbs (close to not being hardy enough but they are beautiful if they survive the winter) and 15 Croci, yellow ones. I planted them at the back of my garden because almost all spring flowering bulbs and tubers in my garden grows in the little space around my cottage and in to the woodland. I thought it could be nice to see something in spring when I look out the kitchen window and door.

I’ve also baked some bread today. I sort of half failed because they didn’t really rise especially much but they are still soft and tastes really good, only they are half the size I thought they should be. I’ve failed much worse with other breads, like eating concrete so I only call this half failed 🙂

Mostly however I’ve felt tired today. I have a cold that won’t break out, instead I’m constantly tired. Of course it’d nice not top be sick with fever but the colds that doesn’t break out are almost more tiresome 🙂 If not for anything else because they tend to stay for longer instead. The last (from what I can see when looking up the tree) walnut is still hanging on but I have now sown the first one I took out. If it germinates it will be slightly hardier than its mother tree and would be more adapted to what the climate is like around here. Now I must say that the tree I have is very well adapted to this area as it is, it has after all survived fifteen years here now (well twelve I had it in the cool cellar its first three winters). So I do hope it’ll start to grow, one way or another I will find a place for it to live either in my garden or close to it 🙂

My Japanese quince still believes it’s spring 🙂

Edible but the dogs pee everywhere in the garden 🙂

I think it is time to make another sandwich and then check if there’s anything worth watching on tv tonight, I doubt that though 🙂

Have a great day!

It did.

October 8, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

Yes the frost did arrive last night and just as I was on my way to bed I remembered that I had the rest of the cacti and the orchid to move indoors. So out I went at around midnight with a light on my head to find all of them and to bring them indoors. I brought in all of them except for the thorny one and one more. I placed them in the patio because early frost almost never gets in there.

I brought those two indoors today when the sun shone and it looks like they are ok. I did wake up a bit late for once so most of the frost was gone but I found a few plants that still were more or less covered in frost. I don’t know how cold it had been but my cousin who were by the ocean had -6C (21,1F), so I’m pretty sure it must have been much the same here.

The hunters arrived early I guess so I knew we couldn’t take a walk in the forest and since I’ve never managed to make neither Albin nor Alma to behave when we meet joggers or bikers or anything remotely moving we no longer can take walks in the village. One screaming dog I can handle but two is just too much. Plus to be honest there are now days a couple of dogs more that really can’t behave either 🙂 🙂

To my big surprise however all the hunters left quite early so we did manage to take a walk out to the bog anyway. Guess if I was happy because both Alma and Albin had so much energy that they started to become pretty annoying 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t think it reached 8C (46,4F) today so I wore my bright yellow winter jacket. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing so if any mosquito had survived the night they were at least not flying around. There was one moose fly though and it fell down behind my t-shirt on my back. It took some time to get it but it did at least not bite me.

We’ve had our pancake Sunday and I’ve also made lots of rice porridge. This cold weather sort of demands that 🙂 I did forget to do the laundry though but I’ll do that tomorrow before going to work. Hunters will be out in the forest again so I’ll have plenty of time to do it then. Now I have to stay awake until at least 11 pm so I don’t wake up way too early tomorrow and mess up my working day 🙂

Have a great day!

The frost will arrive tonight.

October 7, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The feeling on Monday the week I know I’ll also work on Friday is actually far worse than it feels to work on that Friday 🙂 🙂 Still it isn’t fun but when things works as they should it’s quite ok. Still I would rather not have to so I’m holding my thumbs for the lottery today 🙂 🙂

It has been a rather nice day even though a bit too chilly and a storm that arrived yesterday also continued for quite some time today. The winds were north north-western so arctic cold has cooled down our days rather a lot, we’ll have our first frost tonight so the radiators are working downstairs. I’ve also ordered a new radiator because Alma and Albin were playing so wildly one day a couple of weeks ago that the sofa fell straight into the radiator. The plastic “feet” to the radiator broke into thousands of pieces.

I guess I could have tried to just order new “feet”, if that’s even possible but since the radiator hit the floor pretty hard I do want to try it while I am at home to see that the hit hasn’t broken it. It is one of those oil filled ones and since no oil has leaked I’m pretty sure it still is ok and one can never have too many radiators. I have one old radiator left of those who were here when I moved here and one never know for how long that one will keep going.

The morning walk was really nice, despite it being a bit too chilly. The wind was so strong that no insect that values its life would fly around in it 🙂 The sun shone from early morning and did its best to make the day nice but it had huge problems with that 🙂 We walked in the forest though so most of the wind was stopped by the trees. Nova wanted to go out to the bog again but I persuaded her to walk down to the creek and there she could decide whether we should follow it up or down-stream. She chose up-stream and the older forest. We did however go out to the bog in a later walk when the wind had calmed some so she did get her way eventually 🙂

The moose hunt starts tomorrow so we won’t be able to have any walks for most of next week. The hunting leader did however say that there will be times when they won’t be out there and he will text me when that happens. Personally I would have liked to take a walk in the village again but since I’ve never managed to make Albin and Alma behave when they see something moving, like a jogger or biker or a dog that is happy to see them, we really can’t take a walk there any more. Also there’s still cattle in tye huge pasture so we can’t walk there either.

So I can look forward to a week when I don’t have to leave the cottage at all before I go to work every day 🙂 I’ll just relax close to a radiator, perhaps reading a book or so 🙂

Have a great day!

She’s a bit picky now days.

September 29, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

The old wheel barrow is finally starting to look nice again. Still not even close to having a night with frost here so now we’re 23days late of having that, I’m not complaining though 🙂

We’ve had a sort of meh weather today, sometimes rain, sometimes not but always a humidity that ate its way through the walls so I had to turn on the radiators. Warm though so they didn’t have to work for any longer period of time to dry out the cottage. Still we never went out on a walk but I did go to Falköping to get some light bulbs for the car.

The Common Spindle always has a nice color on its leafs.

My November cactus or Christmas cactus, back in the days they hadn’t mixed the species that much so one could still call them after the month or date they were flowering. Nowdays they’r so mixed that it can be anything really 🙂

This one is supposed to be a Selenicereus grandiflorus, we call them The Queen of the Night. It changed how it looked when I planted a cutting from it though so now I doubt that it is the queen. I sowed it myself for at least ten years ago.

It’s quite complicated to actually get the right light bulb now days, or perhaps not at all 🙂 🙂 I was pretty sure I should buy one called H4 but the computer in the petrolstation said H7. The woman working there said that one can have the same light bulb no matter which of the different lights one wanted to use. Back in the day it was one kind of bulb for low beam and another for high beam. So I bought the H/ but guess if I was surprised when I found a bulb in the car called H1 🙂 🙂 🙂 So to be honest I have no clue what so ever if I actually have the right ones or if it actually is the H4 I should use 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is the original plant, a nasty one that truly hates me and when ever I get close to it it throws one of those stems out and hits my arm. Last time I sat and tried to get those nasty little thorns out from my skin for oven an hour.

This is, I think, a Giant Bell Flower. It does however grow in almost darkness now days that it is pretty small instead. I’ll thin out the Laburnum so that the ground can get more light again.

The hips are more common now though and almost like a second bloom.

I’ve had the kitchen door open quite a lot despite the weather so the dogs have been able to go in and out as they’ve pleased but they haven’t pleased at all, so I guess they disliked the weather we’ve had as much as I have 🙂 🙂

The Jerusalem artichoke with what looks much like a lot of adult aphids on it.

I bought a small Chrysanthemum a week ago and now I’ve planted it. If winter is mild enough this one will be much higher next year and most likely have slightly smaller flowers as well. I really wanted another flower but this was all that was left.

Nova has become more and more picky with her food and since she is 17 years old she really needs to eat, which she doesn’t if it isn’t perfect according to her taste. So I’ve been mixing in what ever she has preferred at the moment, mostly some rather expensive blue cheese 🙂 🙂 That worked until a few days ago and then she just wouldn’t eat. So now I’ve bought some of those truly expensive tiny packages with luxury wet dog food and now she’s eating again 🙂 🙂 This one is called Ceasar and contains so little food that I doubt that even a Chihuahua would think it was enough. She loves when I mix it in to her regular food though so who am I to complain. I have however told her that this will force me to continue to work long after I really would have been able to retire 🙂 🙂

My Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) still looks fine and it looks like something has eaten some of the leafs.

I won’t bring in this orchid until it is hit with the first frost, after that I hope it’ll flower in late winter again.

The perennial Sunflower and what looks like a hoverfly resting on it.

So the photos You can see today are all from the garden. They are guessing that tomorrow will be sunny though (and even on Sunday as well) so we’ll see what road the old Lady will chose to walk in the morning 🙂

Have a great day!

They play dare :-)

September 23, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

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Today started rather nice, it was slightly cloudy when I woke up but the sun started to shine between the clouds while we were out walking. Also it was cool enough to keep most mosquitoes and moose flies away and that makes any day a good day 🙂 🙂

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I know I can’t have fallen asleep before two am and I woke up at six thirty am and I’m still less tired today than those days I’ve slept around seven to eight hours 🙂 🙂 I know the tiredness will come later but so far it feels pretty good. It si raining now and thunder just passed the village pretty close and I can see that more is on its way. There is at least no risk what so ever that any lightning will manage to start a forest fire, at least one thing we can than all the rian that has been falling for so long now 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Also I was thinking of using my new lawn mower for the first time today so I guess I should than the rain for not being able to do that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today and tomorrow will be a bit cooler but we’ll have more sunshine tomorrow ands no rain, after that it’ll get cooler again but there really is no use in looking at those guessings since they have problems guessing the weather that will happen in two hours 🙂 It does at least look like we won’t have any frost nights the coming ten days. Normally the frost arrives around September sixth but so far it hasn’t even been close to happen.

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We’ve had lots of fog during nights though, sometimes I haven’t been able to see the road at all when driving home 🙂 🙂 Deer has probably had a competition about who’s the bravest and can run out in front of my car as close as possible, also a badger must have been competing about that as well. The winner however was a bird that actually was sleeping standing on the road, He can’t even have been more than an inch from getting hit by my car.

The mum I bought. I would rather had bought a rust colored one but this was the one they had 🙂

The rest of the photos show what’s in bloom right now .

I managed to get some photos in my garden before the rain and thunder started. Not much in bloom right now. I bought a Chrysanthemum yesterday. I’ve actually only seen this one for sale in the grocery store in Kvänum but they’ve had Asters instead and i didn’t want that. It is the wrong color and filled flowers but I wanted one so I bought it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll plant it in my garden and if winter is mild enough it will survive until next year. It will look quite different (much higher than now) and might not flower in time before frost but I still want to try it. The only problem now is that I really don’t have any space for it 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

September 16, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We’ve had a really nice day here today. Yesterday evening I watched when the fog slowly rolled in and became rather thick, all dogs outside in the village was barking like crazy at the time so I think a wolf or a couple must have been walking around here. This morning I woke up just before the fog was disappearing again. After that we’ve mostly had sunshine and a weak wind blowing which made the day rather wonderful.

We walked down to the creek just after the fog had vanished, lots of animals had been running around because the dogs had to sniff all the scents on the ground every second meter or so 🙂 Birds were tweeting but we didn’t see any animals at all. We had come all the way down to the creek and started to follow it up-stream when the dog suddenly walked close together and a bit faster than before.

As You can see no Nova in front of the rest of us, I could see that they weren’t happy about something around us.

They kept on walking like that until we had passed the creek and was on the other side again. I have no idea if wolves were close or not but they must have been there shortly before we arrived. It’s when wolves have been around that is the only time Alma is quiet and actually does what I tell her to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did put out the wildlife camera, I hung it on my gate but the only thing it caught was a car and a cat passing twice. Well I’ve just looked at the screen so far, it could have been a fox as well but I’ll know better when I’ve downloaded those photos. I’ll have the camera there again tonight.

Otherwise I’ve had a rather calm day. I took a long nap and after that I mowed the lawn. I think I need to buy a new lawn mower, once again I managed to hit something, this time the teeth of a rake hidden in the high grass 🙂 , so now the rotation disk is so tilted that the entire mower shakes like it has some kind of disease 🙂 🙂 🙂 We have also had our pancake Saturday like always. The dogs get one pancake each and I get the rest that I make 🙂 Today I had apple sauce with my pancakes. I gave my neighbors some of my apples and got a jar with applesauce made from them. Tomorrow I’ll use my new fruit picker so I can reach the bigger apples higher up in the tree. I’ll have some myself but the rest will go to my neighbors. They are the best neighbors one can have 🙂

The sun is setting and it is time for something to eat. The dogs will have their food later tonight, slightly earlier than when they would get it on a work day because if I’m not working it’s impossible for me to stay awake for that long 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally a chilly night.

September 15, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The temperature had dropped down to 5C (41F) when I drove home after work last night and we all loved it 🙂 After staying in a way too hot factory for so many hours the cold air made us less tired. Good thing it did because when I drove homewards I had to break hard three times. Two times because deer was passing the road and once for a hare. There was a fox passing to but from a place much further down the road.

Nova wanted to go out to the peninsula at the bog today but I managed to make a turn andd walk down the path to the island we like to walk at.

I wasn’t sure it would be dry enough to even walk that way but it was just enough dry and hard to walk there.

The big creek is still full of water but this creek was actually less full than I thought it would be.

So because of the cold air last night was the first time in a very long time I wasn’t attacked by mosquitoes when I went out of the car, this morning was cool as well but a few mosquitoes didn’t care about that, so now I have a new itching spot on my right hand. So far it looks like this isn’t a moose fly year. We went down to the bog this morning and not a single one landed on either me or my dogs. I really wouldn’t be sad the least if those nasty things just died out 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have been really tired today though even though I slept really well and just enough hours. So after I had been at the grocery store in Gudhem to pick up a package I took a two hour long nap in my recliner. To be honest, two hours sleeping in a recliner is a bit too long. Yes it is comfortable but since one doesn’t move at all the body really aches afterwards 🙂 🙂

It does look dry enough to walk there but I won’t do that mistake again. The mud is knee deep and jumping from one grass tufft to another is great as long as one doesn’t loose ones balance 🙂 🙂

The package I was picking up contained an old Kodak SLR camera. I really didn’t want the camera but I wanted the two lenses that followed with it (I haven’t checked if the camera works, to be honest I haven’t even looked at it yet 🙂 ). The only problem now is that I actually can’t find the camera I wanted those lenses for 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it’s here somewhere so sooner or later I’ll find it.

Next year I’ll plant the Gladiolus along the east wall of my cottage, there’s less wind there so it’ll be easier to keep them standing up.

The Nasturtiums are finally taking over the old wheel barrow.

The Red leafed rose still gives a flower or two.

This year we even get a chance to see the Jerusalem artichoke in bloom.

Besides that very little has happened here. I do get more hours awake with the dogs working evening shift and it looks like I’ve managed to change the hours I sleep to fit my working hours but I also know that if I stopped working I’ll go back to my old self within a day 🙂

Have a great day!

Wild hogs.

August 27, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

It was a nice and cool morning but those mosquitoes are just awful.

Even though the sun has been shining all morning and that it is fairly warm I still can feel it in the air, autumn has arrived. There’s a sort of bite to the air that I only can feel in autumn. Still the morning walk was really nice even though the mosquitoes doesn’t understand that they now just should fall down to the ground and die 🙂 🙂 🙂

Alma was just as annoying this morning as she was yesterday morning. She were all over the place and in the end she entangled both me and Albin in her leash. Both she and Albin also sniffed in the air all the time. Nova didn’t but instead of walking far ahead of us she walked by our side. I thought it was because I possible had taped her knee in a bad way. As soon as we had come to the long straight road towards the creek she resumed to her normal position, far ahead of us.

I saw something but couldn’t really say what kind of animal it was.

Then a much smaller one came out to the road too. Then I saw the ear of the bigger one.

I didn’t think more of it than that she perhaps didn’t feel that bad in her knee anyway. We walked up-stream the creek but neither her nor I wanted to walk in the high grass and in to the more dense old forest, so instead we went back the same way we came and I thought that we perhaps would walk in the forest where we walk out to the bog. I didn’t look especially much ahead of us but when I did I saw something I first couldn’t figure out what it was, an animal that I could guess but not what.

I think I could see seven or eight piglets.

Turns out that where Nova suddenly walked ahead of us again now stood a rather big wild hog sow 🙂 Thankfully far away from us but I am annoyed at myself for not bringing the right tele photo lens. Then suddenly a piglet came out from the trees and then one more and suddenly I think it was seven or eight piglets in total. This is the moment when Alma actually decides to stand still and be quiet. There’s something with wild hogs that makes her do that, never otherwise but always when we see hogs.

My spring flowering Clematis has restarted 🙂

The Sarracenia sure is slow to open up. I do hope that at least one of the four buds will before frost takes them all.

One can hate or love the Big Dragon flower (Nepeta sibirica) but bees love them and they flower from early summer till frost take them all.

The wild hogs crossed the road and in to the forest where I had hoped we would walk so no chance on doing that 🙂 🙂 I started to talk loudly to the dogs because I didn’t know where the boar could be or if there were more sows waiting to cross the road. Both Alma and Albin did look at the direction they had come from but that doesn’t mean there were any more out there. I don’t really like to come close to wild hogs but it is fun to see them from a safe distance 🙂

No more sightings of hogs though. I took a tour in the garden when when we had come home again. There are still flowers in bloom, even potatoes flower still. This is the time the Hardy Kiwi decided to finally start growing and I do hope it calms down before the frost arrives. I’ve re-potted all but one of my apricot trees and also the cherry plum tree seedlings I have. I’m not sure what to do with those cherry plum seedlings to be honest. I really don’t need any more but have no place to plant them and since they tend to spread like wildfire via their roots I’m not sure I can give them away either. Well I do live beside a forest 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have three Hardy Kiwi vines planted towards the fence around my vegetable garden. They have finally put some speed in their growing.

I managed to break the top of this vine when I tried to pull it through the loops in the fence. I have no idea if the top will grow new roots but I’ve put it in a pot and either it dies or it starts to grow new roots.

The third one is a sad one. It does grow but slowly and when it finally put some speed into it something ate the top of the vine 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

A15398_016 — Time flies and it won’t be long until we’re back to snow again 🙂 Taken with the Agfa Ambiflex.

We had a rain free day!

August 20, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

Yesterday we had a rain free day!! Not any sunshine but still rain free so we all did those chores in the gardens and on the farms that has been impossible or too hard to do when the rain is falling. I was the one who started the mowing, a couple of hours before the rest. The grass is growing like crazy now and even though I do like my electric mower it sure doesn’t work especially well when it is filled up with long and wet grass 🙂

I think we actually have a couple of real Wild apple trees (their Swedish name is actually Wild apple) Malus sylvestris.

They are becoming rare, we don’t even know if there are any real left because they cross pollinate with our garden apples. It’s always great to have a real Wild apple tree close by especially if one only have one apple tree because the Wild apple will help pollinating the garden apple. The ones we have a shoots from the old one that grew here when I moved to this place and that tree were old enough to actually be a real Wild apple tree. The apples are really small and mor sour than any lemon 🙂 🙂

The mowing too three times as long because every thirty seconds or so the mower stopped because there was just too much grass glued to its inside. I now have loads of small mounds with wet grass all over the lawn. I started to spread out the grass so it would dry up better but since it is pouring outside there’s no use in doping that any more. The farmers were out fetching those white balls that contains the silage they’ve made from earlier this summer. Also one neighbor was out cutting the grass and flowers along the gravel roads. They normally do that earlier in the season but since everything went late they waited long enough for most of those flowers to release their seeds.

These are the seven Apricot trees from seeds this winter. Growing well.

The pears however was hit by mildew and some died but they are finally growing again 🙂

I doubt that the hunters had any luck yesterday because of all the noise, I doubt there was a single animal even remotely close to the village 🙂 I don’t think they’re out there today either since it is pouring down and I really would like to take a walk today but then again my dogs refuse to step outside while it is raining so here we are, quite restless to be honest 🙂 Well I can do the laundry, bake bread and make dinner for next week at work but then again I’m not sure I’m restless enough to do more than the bare minimum 🙂 🙂

A15398_008 — Four photos from the Agfa Ambiflex.

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Have a great day!

e (8) — Well, I do at least get grapes 🙂 🙂 🙂

I ordered two batteries.

August 18, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The hunting season started this week and the hunters has been out in the forest since Wednesday morning and will be out all day until Sunday evening. It’s the Roe deer buck hunting that starts but they will also hunt wild hogs. We have so many wild hogs here now and they’ve started to destroy the roads in the forest so I won’t complain if they shoot lots of them.

In my garden right now. The Venus Flytrap is in bloom.

The Sarracenias do take their time to open up their flowers, it has looked the same for almost a week now 🙂

That however means we’ll not be able to take any walks until Monday. We could have if I had been able to stop Albin and Alma screaming and pulling the leash every time they see another animal, especially if it is moving but it’s just impossible to reach them when they are like that and if we’ll walk in the village we’ll see plenty of animals moving around and also a couple of joggers. I do have to say that Alma now days is much calmer than she used to be, actually so much that it’s hard to believe she’s the same dog.

Hedgerow cranesbill, Geranium pyrenaicum.

It is fairly warm here now but a thick layer of clouds is covering the sky and they’re guessing it’ll be like that until Monday. The occasional shower will pass by as well and now I’m getting really tired of that rain. Why can’t it just fly to those places in need of rain instead of locking towards us all the time 🙂 🙂 Then again that’s better than to have that heatwave they once again will have in southern Europe, just as bad as the ones they’ve already had.

My Eastern Redbud never grows any higher than this because every spring and late frost keep on killing most of it every year.

Kirengeshoma palmata, the Yellow waxbell.

I really should use my brain when ordering something online. A couple of days ago I ordered two batteries to my old Nikon F75 camera. I could either have them delivered to the grocery store in Gudhem or shipped to my cottage. Well I really didn’t want to drive up there again just to fetch two batteries, each half the size of an AA battery, so I clicked that they should drive it here. It wasn’t until I already had clicked ok to the order that I realized that the shipping cost were three times as much as what the two batteries cost 🙂 🙂 🙂 What really annoyed me was the size of the package, You can see it in the photo below.

So they came in a box one foot long and they didn’t put anything else in the box than those two batteries 🙂 🙂 Why didn’t they just send them in a padded envelope?

A15659_006A — Three photos from the Agfa Flexilette.

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It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll most likely doze off in front of the tv 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally a day without rain.

August 11, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

We’ve had a day without any rain!! It feels amazing but that will change already tomorrow evening. They’re now guessing that we’ll get more than an Inch of rain from tomorrow evening until early Sunday morning. So no matter what, tomorrow I’ll have to mow the lawn before the rain arrives 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have survived the first week after the vacation, yay. The one who decides what I should paint and when was still on vacation so I did things I normally doesn’t, like grind down paint where there were dirt or someone had damaged the paint in some way. We were a bit behind on that job so I could do that the entire week 🙂 On Monday I’ll be back painting things again and I’ll continue to do so until September fourth when I must start to work evenings. Can’t pretend I like that but I will at least have a job.

A storm passed by this week, the Norwegians named it Hans and Hand was a trouble maker. There were floodings all over the southern parts of Sweden and in some places up in the north as well. One train derailed because the embankment was swept away by running water. Loads of water filled cellars everywhere, Roads were closed because they were more like ponds 🙂 🙂 but I didn’t hear anything about boats floating away like they always do during storms 🙂 🙂 It was much worse in Norway though, one house was swept away, mud slide all over the southern parts of the country and one smaller dam broke. They were just about to blow away a safety hatch when the entire wall beside it just broke down. No problems here though and like always I didn’t notice much of the wind because my neighbors cottage and garage takes all the wind 🙂

Nova wanted to take a shorter walk after work today but I managed to persuade her to take a slight longer one down to the creek and in to the forest there. Yesterday we most likely had a wolf following us because all the dogs were suddenly in a hurry to get out to the field on the other side of the forest. No wolf following us today but there were signs that wild hogs were close, especially the smell from them, so I talked loudly to the dogs because one really doesn’t want to surprise wild hogs, I rather have wolves following us than having to meet wild hogs or moose because those two are totally unpredictable when they get scared or surprised.

Two of my Sarracenias have flower buds now 🙂

I’m cooking chicken in the slow cooker for the dogs right now. They’ll get it as treats or in their food if they don’t want to eat (it is Nova I’m talking about 🙂 ). I think it’s ready now and I hope it is because the smell is a bit annoying right now. No spices and no salt make it smell less nice 🙂

Have a great day!

The rain has given back what the drought took away :-)

July 30, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (2) — We were caught in a heavy shower this morning and all of us,except for Nova took shelter beneath big trees. I understand why she didn’t want to go there because that was the place most biting flies decided to stay as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

The weather has really been mixed today. Steady rain in the early morning but after that it has been mixed between heavy showers and sunshine. One minute sunshine and one minute showers just to go back to sunshine again. The dogs refused to go outside until rather late for being us so when we finally went out on our morning walk the flies were already there waiting for us. I can happily say that there now are fewer biting ones than there were before we went out on our walk 🙂 🙂

a (4) — I wasn’t expecting to find any mushrooms on our walk since I guessed that Nova would chose to walk down to the creek today. So I could unfortunately not pick this rather delicious mushroom because I had nothing to carry it in.

a (7)

I’m glad I mowed the lawn yesterday because it would have been impossible to do it today. My neighbor however mowed the last parts along their hedge and that mower can’t have been fun to clean up afterwards 🙂 🙂 But I haven’t been lazy despite the weather. I’ve trimmed away lots from the lilacs (and some of a mock-orange) that now made life hard for my Chinese catalpa. I’ve also ripped up some weeds around one of my ginkgos and I realized that I also ripped up a stinging nettle. I now have that burning sensation in my finger on my right hand.

a (11) — Lots of water in the creek now, so I would say that what the drought removed when it comes to water the rain now has given back.

Some of the summer apples are ripe now, I don’t like them especially much unless they are slightly un-ripe because when un-ripe they’re slightly sour. When ripe they are more bland and sort of mealy. I guess they could be great for apple sauce though so perhaps I should pick some for myself, I give away most to my closest neighbors because their oldest daughter really likes apples and especially those. In September I’ll have too many winter apples so I hope they take lots of those as well 🙂

a (14) — Snails are now eating my melon vines. I removed this one before it ate those tiny flower buds 🙂

I sowed some cone flower seeds just a few days ago and they first one has already germinated 🙂

So tomorrow starts the last week of my summer vacation. I can’t say I don’t like my work place but I desperately wants to win the lottery anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just thinking of having to drive to work when the roads are slippery with ice again and most parts of the days will be dark again is depressing 🙂 🙂 Ok I’ll start working evenings in September so I will actually see daylight but still I really don’t look forward to winter again.

The Catalpa doesn’t stand a chance if I don’t do something about those lilacs and the mock-orange.

This is the result. I’ll leave the branches where they are and later on I’ll drive over them with the mower.

Finally buds on my squash plants. They really didn’t like the heat wave we had but grows better now.

The same with the chicory. They do look a lot like dandelions 🙂 🙂

The Catalpa is in bloom but the flowers are hard to find since they all are up at the top of the tree 🙂

Have a great day!