Category: Fog.

It’s melting but too slow.

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The photos today are old because I didn’t take especially many today since it was slippery and wet everywhere.

I think that the interview went well yesterday so now I’m waiting for an answer that I’ll get on e-mail. If I then would come to the department where the one talking to me work at there’ll be lots of heavy lifting so I hope it helped that I once walked up ladders with 25Kg (55,1pound) boxes  filled with powder paint 🙂

This morning however I realised that I must have Malkolm neutered before I start to work so that I can stay at home while he’s healing. I guess that if I get a job I won’t start working next week but the week after, so I called the vet as soon as they were going to open. Naturally they were closed today (could have been a longer time because they didn’t even have the emergency vet at the moment, So I had to call another vet in Falköping. They have good reviews but it always feel better to go to the usual one. Anyway it’ll happen on Tuesday morning.

This place was cheaper and that doesn’t hurt. I’ll ask what they charge for Alma, my usual wet takes over $ 2700 US and that is at the moment way too much and even if I do get the job it’ll take some time before I dare paying that much money, I really want to have some savings if there’s an emergency of any kind. Perhaps Alma would calm down some when that surgery is done, it can happen but it’s no guarantee that happens.

It is warmer here now and the snow is melting but not fast enough for my liking 🙂 The problem is that the ground is frozen so the water has nowhere to go. I now have a little lake growing on both sides of my gate 🙂 🙂 It will start to get colder again this weekend and on Monday we’ll have below 0C (32F) both day and night again. I do hope it won’t get as cold as last week but February is usually our coldest month. I have at least started to notice that we do have longer days now even though it perhaps is just half an hour or so.

Have a great day!

Nice thick fog :-)

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We woke up to a foggy world and the weather reports said fog all day long. I knew the hunters wanted to hunt for hare today but guessed since it was so foggy that they wouldn’t. It is really difficult to cook hare so it actually is edible so to sit in fog not being able to see what they hunt would be a waste of time and also if they would shoot anything it could just as well be their hunting dog. It happens way too often and beside traffic it is actually hunters that are responsible for killing more dogs than any wildlife would do.

Still they came for some reason and stayed for much longer than normal so I was quite annoyed the whole time 🙂 🙂 They sort of destroyed our morning just by coming here and make us have to stay at home. Yes I could go out but why risk ones life for not being able to take a walk in the early morning 🙂 🙂 🙂 They did however leave before the sun set so we did manage to have a walk anyway. For a couple of times it even looked like the sun would make an appearance anyway, it was close but never happened.

I sat  in front of the tv watching Tangled and suddenly remembered that when I was a child we had all those storied the Grim brothers had written down (and H.C. Andersens stories as well) I read them so often that they in the end fell apart. So I went online and now a book with all stories written down by the Grim brothers is on its way home to me 🙂 Those stories usually don’t have the happy endings Disney show us and it’s the same with H.C. Andersens books, the little mermaid has a horrible ending but I guess it wouldn’t be a great thing to show in a children’s story now days 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really need to find Andersens stories too 🙂

I’ve had lots of christmas leftovers today and still managed to squeeze down lots of rice porridge 🙂 I’ll have the rest of the porridge as breakfast tomorrow. Now however I’ll have that last cup of tea for the day and later on watch On the Tracks on tv. They say we’ll have fog in the morning tomorrow but most of the day will be sunny and warmish 🙂 By the way! Do You remember that I told You about finding two kernels/ seeds in the Kaki fruits (the Asian relative to the Persimmon fruit)? I put them in plastic bags in damp paper and then in to the fridge. Both have managed to germinate! So now I’ve planted them in pots and placed them by the kitchen windows 🙂

Have a good continuing of Yule!

The next best weather, fog.

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Yesterday they said on tv that we would have fog all day today and usually they’re wrong 🙂 Not today however, fog all day and some time the sun even managed to shine through. No hunters out either so we managed to have rather nice walks today.  It is supposed to stay well in to the afternoon tomorrow but the temperature will drop below 0C (32F) so the roads will be slippery.

I’ll drive to my old workplace tomorrow to wish those few that will be working a merry christmas. Most people in the industry and offices will take a winter vacation now, most likely two whole weeks so even if I’m out on the roads before it gets bright and the roads most likely will be slippery I’ll probably drive on them alone 🙂 I guess the worst traffic before christmas is done by now so perhaps not so many people will kill themselves in the traffic due to stress.

So finally the tide has changed, days will finally start to be brighter, well at least longer because so far the winter has been long, grey, dark and murky. To be honest our winters usually are all those things and I can just say that I’m happy that we at least haven’t had any snow to speak of. It looks like our winter comes later and later every year, now it starts sometime in late February and usually ends around late March. I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t come at all 🙂 🙂

It took two days until another mouse was caught in the box trap. I released it early this morning, came home and set it up only to find a new one sitting in the trap after an hour 🙂 🙂 🙂 My neighbours kids think I’m so exciting because they are allowed to look at the mice in the travel box 🙂 Today their friends were over for a visit and those kids loved to see the little mouse too 🙂 🙂 🙂 The ones caught now are a different species though, the previous ones were the yellow necked mouse but the latest ones are a slightly smaller close relative the Wood mouse.

What I don’t want to catch in then trap is the Bank vole, perhaps even more cute than the mice but it can also carry a nasty disease called vole fever. It starts like a slight cold but if one is unlucky it can kill humans. This year there’s a warning for people living in the northern parts of this country that it might be vole fever they have instead of a cold because these last years have been good for bank voles (well every little rodent one can find actually) so the risk of getting vole fever is really high now. We do have them here as well but they are more common further north.

It is time for that last cup of tea and later on I’ll make some rose-hip soup as well. Nothing on tv to watch besides the news so I’ll probably read a book or surf the net for the rest of the day 🙂

Have a great day!

I almost missed it :-)

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We woke up to a cold and foggy world today which, despite the cold, is one of my favourite weathers 🙂 So as soon as it was light enough the dogs and I walked out to the bog. If I had known the fog would stay all day we would have had a longer walk down to the creek and out on the bog there. Days like these are quiet days, not only does the fog dampen sounds from the big road but also no birds make any sounds at all. Well there was these two ravens flying above us who made their metallic sounds a couple of times but that was it.

Alma behaved so well so if there had been any animals out on the fields we would have been able to see them, at least if they were close enough because the fog was so thick sometimes that the camera couldn’t find places to focus on 🙂  we walked out on the peninsula and when we stood there looking out over the bog we could hear something moving around but it never came close enough for us to see it. It was most likely one or two wild hogs because if they know we are around they really don’t care if they can be seen 🙂 and really doesn’t care if we hear them. I always thought the wolves would hunt them but I’ve learned that wolves aren’t especially interested in wild hogs and I guess that’s why they don’t care about being heard or seen.

I sat in my recliner after we had come home and started to think about what time I was going to x-ray my hips tomorrow and after that see my doctor. I have experimental hip implants in my hips since I was too young to get hip prostheses since they would wear out way to fast. Turns out that these implants mostly were quite horrible to those getting them. They leaked lots of heavy metals in to the body and both the bones, muscles and tendon attachments could start to dissolve because of that. The doctor I had for my first surgery however is a snob 🙂 🙂 🙂 so he chose the most expensive kinds there was and therefore I have no such problems 🙂 My “new” doctor of course chose the same kind for my other hip 🙂 They do check my blood and take new x-rays every five years now (before it was every year) just in case something goes wrong. So if they can’t find any heavy metals in my blood I’ll do this again after five years 🙂

Anyway it turns out it was today I would go to the hospital 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still had lots of time going there so no panic 🙂 Normally I don’t mind driving around in fog unless it is dark outside or that it is colder then 0C (32F) since fog is water and when it hits the road it starts to freeze. Most of the way was fine though but it had started to freeze on my way home. No traffic at that time though so I could drive in the speed I felt safe, also it helps if one drives behind a tractor the last 500 meters before driving in on the village gravel road 🙂 

It started to become dark again as soon as I had come home otherwise we would have had another walk to the forest but since we have hogs, moose and eventual wolves here I didn’t want to meet any of them when it was dark 🙂 🙂 🙂 I haven’t figured out what to have for dinner so I guess it’ll be warm sandwiches with meatballs and sausages and lots of cheese 🙂 Plus I*ll of course have that last cup of tea for the day 🙂

Have a great day!

So this is my Korean spruce. Its top was destroyed long ago and it took may years before a branch decided to become the new top 🙂 So it does have an odd shape.
So the lights also have an odd shape 🙂 🙂 🙂

Still waiting for that snow.

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View from my kitchen window.

Still waiting for that snow to arrive. Well to be honest we have actually had some but so little that it’s hard to find 🙂 🙂  They are threatening us with more later on though so I guess we’ll get it sooner or later. There has been snow chaos in other places though and I’m so glad it never came to us.

We have had fog though, so thick in the early morning that it was hard to see anything and then it slowly started to thin out just to come back again later. I do like fog so I didn’t complain but it did make the day a bit dark to be honest. The eyes didn’t notice it that much but the camera did 🙂

I had prepared for a snowy day so I made lots of rice porridge and learned that it worked just as well on a foggy day 🙂 Rice porridge is not something one make unless it is cold and snowy because it takes a long time to make, easily gets burned and if it is burned one has to toss it away because it tastes awful. Making it on a stove is hot and boring since one must stir it around pretty often. I however make it in the slow cooker so even though it takes almost three hours to make one only have to stir it a few times.

I put on a new collar on the monsterkitten yesterday and she wore it for almost half a day before she lost it 🙂 🙂  This time I wrote my phone number on the collar so I got a call just minutes ago, she had lost it at the farm just up the slope 🙂 So I’ll get it tomorrow when I’ll check if I’ve gotten any mail. I guess that’s the place she mostly walks to because she does tend to smell like a cow  now days. I’m pretty sure her mother was one of the feral cats living there and that’s where the cat looking almost identical to her lives at as well 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. It is pitch black outside and the temperatures will drop considerable so tomorrow morning might be the coldest morning so far this winter.

Have a great day!

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It has been a meh day weather-wise. The sun didn’t show itself until now when it is about to set for the day. Ok it has been around 10C (50F) all from morning to now so at least there was no need for any radiator to be working.

Malkolm is now refusing to eat anything in the morning but after a walk there’s no problem what so ever to give him the exact same food from my hand 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess this has to do with the chemical neutering slowly is giving up, he’s also normally a sensitive dog but at the moment he’s even more so, so if I sound the least annoyed he looks like the world is ending 🙂 poor guy. No problem what so ever to eat his food in the afternoons though.

I’ve removed the fence around the vegetable garden now and it looks quite funny with a circle with no vegetation (well there are my tiny leeks, they never grew to anything really since I mistreated them from the start but I can say they taste really good) and a sort of border with higher grass growing around it 🙂 🙂 I’ll take a photo of it tomorrow. I also moved the chrysanthemums I had planted outside the fence to new and hopefully better places for them climate-wise. They aren’t as hardy as autumn asters are.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. The sun is down and I can see ground fog slowly flowing out in the pasture I can see from my window here by the computer. They say we’ll have fog again tomorrow and I hope it stay for longer than it did this morning.

Have a great day!

Cold night again.

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-2C (28,4F) this morning and a wonderful morning mist bordering to almost thick fog. The sun rose and we did have a rather nice walk, the only thing that disturbed was that my hands became just as cold as the air around us 🙂 We didn’t see any moose or signs of any wolves but we did see a roe deer in a field.

The rest of the day has been either nasty cold and cloudy or rather nice and sunny. Too bad the rather nice and sunny was a bit rare compared to the cold and cloudy. Tomorrow will be, if they’re guessing it right, the last day of sunny and nice before a storm hits us on Saturday. I am a bit worried about the green house even though I now have secured it with wires and storm anchors because the winds will come from south east and it will hit it right on I’m afraid.

I will pick up those tent pegs for greenhouses tomorrow though so I can secure it even better. So hold Your thumbs and cross Your fingers for good luck because it would be so boring if it flew away even before I’ve had a chance to use it even once 🙂 🙂 🙂  otherwise we’ve done very little today since it has been so chilly, we did have a nap for an hour or so and after that I made pancakes for dinner 🙂

It is time to make a pot of tea and find a good book I think because as so often I can’t find anything worth watching on tv. I’ve heard a rumour that the foreman at the coffin factory finally was kicked out, no sad feelings for that 🙂 So perhaps I should go back and see if they have a job for me 🙂 I really liked all the people but I didn’t give much for him to be honest 🙂

It is time too start making that tea so have a great day!

Both fog and morning mist.

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The morning was really perfect today. It started with rather thick fog but moved in to morning mist when the sun rose just to turn back to fog when the rising fog made clouds so it blocked the sun again 🙂 Also chilly enough to even keep the moose flies calm. What made it even better was that Alma actually behaved almost the entire walk 🙂

The sun stayed until just after noon I think it was so I decided I would cut down the other plum tree as well, it never gives more than six or seven plums and always get hit by some kind of disease. I did de-bark in in early spring but it has stayed green all summer so I thought it best to do something about it. I know I now will have lots of root shoots but I’ll deal with them when they arrive. No thorns on this one thankfully 🙂 There was some damages on those other things living in that area but I think they’ll survive. It was where that plum tree is growing I had my old pond but since the ground now is filled with loads of roots I won’t be able to use it for that any more, I really don’t want to hire a digger to get those out 🙂 🙂

I also cut of the top of the thorny wild plum, the strong wind we’ve had today helped me to bring it down 🙂 I really don’t like cutting dow my trees but there are other trees I can plant there next year instead.  As long as I keep fertilise the ground all summer, for quite a lot of years, because there will be nothing left when it comes to nutritions for another tree and it can’t be another tree in the same family since diseases easily can stay in the ground and attack the new tree.  It didn’t take long after that when the rain arrived. Mostly a nice autumn rain but also a couple of heavy showers.

The sun came back after five so I planted the two remaining pawpaw seedlings just behind the Laburnum. It has been very dry there for quite some time but I’ve thinned out the branches a lot so now when it rains it actually reach the ground as well. So cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs so they survive the coming winter, all five of them 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll watch a science program on tv. I think I’ll actually have some ice cream with that tea, orange ice cream with chocolate strings in it 🙂

Have a great day!

One more nice day tomorrow, after that the rain comes.

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Sunshine again this morning but it didn’t last for long, a meh fog arrived and after that it stayed cloudy for quite some time. It wasn’t really until late afternoon we had sunshine again but it was at least warm and nice.

So the kitchen door has stayed open most of the day and if I’ve said that we haven’t had especially many wasps (Yellowjackets) here I changed my view about that today. This is the time of year the new queens have left the nest and the workers therefore has nothing to do. That makes them confused and pretty angry and it doesn’t get better when they’ve eaten fermented apples on the ground. They can be pretty nasty and attack without any reason at all. This is the only time in the year I kill them if they start to be nasty towards me. They do so much good all summer but now they have no purpose since the queens are gone.

Since I hadn’t planned to do anything special today I finally used the chain saw. As I’ve mentioned earlier grape elder wood aren’t good for much after they’ve been cut down, not even in life the wood is especially tough, so even though they were quite thick it just too 15 seconds to cut those stumps off. I did go out on the net to see if it can be used to anything and it did say one could use it as fire wood but it wasn’t recommended since the wood (the entire plant actually) is poisonous.

The bog is yellow now, autumn is here.

Besides that I really haven’t done much today. I’ve planted one of the quince seedlings, there was sort of a space vacant when I had cut down the grape elder. Well I cut down two grape elders to be honest and should therefore be able to plant one more but the other one grew beside the huge rose I still am cutting down and also there grows an English walnut not far fro it so in the long run, if the walnut keeps on surviving it will be too much shade there. My black walnut on the other side of the garden is now higher than the cottage and grows way too close to it. I never thought it would survive here but oh how wrong I was 🙂 🙂 I will have to cut off the branches that soon will be long enough to slam hard on the roof when it is windy.

It will be nice weather tomorrow again but after that they say it will go downhill, lots of rain and lower temperatures. I really don’t need to go to the supermarket yet but if I go on Saturday as I’ve planned it will be a bit nasty weather to drive in. On the other side I’m waiting for a parcel with a LED light bar that I need to have down in the cool cellar and it might arrive tomorrow but on the opposite way to the supermarket 🙂 🙂 Well the lighter can wait until the weather gets a bit nicer again 🙂 I’m sitting here with my last cup of tea for the day and today I’ll watch Elsbeth on tv 🙂

My little meadow is still full of flowers.

My Black walnut. I wish that I had planted it just a meter (much the same as a yard) to the right but I guess in the long run that wouldn’t have helped anyway 🙂

Have a great day!

Fog.

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

Foggy and cold.

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I woke up to a thick fog this cold morning, it was so thick that there wasn’t any idea to take a walk in it 🙂 at least not if I wanted to be able to take some photos. So we had a calm morning where all the animals took a nap on the sofas and I watched something on tv.

It was still pretty cold when we went out but no wind so it was quite  enjoyable walking around. Alma behaved pretty well for the first time in a long time so that made the walk even better. It was almost totally quiet in the forest except for some quiet tweets from small birds called Long-tailed tit. It is more or less a ball of white feathers and a tail just as long as the body. In my opinion the cutest bird there is. Unfortunately they never sit still for any longer period of time so I never got a good photo of them.

We were almost at home when suddenly tiny snowflakes started to fall around us. They must have been created in the fog somehow and it was an odd sight seeing that it snowed in the fog 🙂 🙂 We were supposed to have sunshine all day but since I like fog I for once didn’t think bad thoughts about our weather service 🙂 🙂  We did get a few hours of sunshine from around noon and till the sun set so we were out in the garden a couple of times, I don’t dare leaving Alma and Malkolm alone for more than a minute or so so even I was outside 🙂 🙂

I was going to do a simple meat sauce today and then boil some rice noodles but then I saw this opened package with frozen vegetables, so I tossed those in as well. I also bought white baked beans from a brand I’ve never tried before. To be honest they don’t taste bad at all but they don’t taste right and by that I mean Heinz baked beans 🙂 I had one package left so I tossed in those as well 🙂 and I do like mushrooms so why not have that as well 🙂 I was looking at it slowly boiling when I realised that I could put in the noodles as well and let them soak in some taste. I now have dinner for at least five day I think 🙂 🙂 🙂

Since I was going to be by the stove for quite some time making dinner I also baked some bread. Normally I always put grated cheese in the dough but I didn’t have any at home but they turned out quite well anyway. We were in the garden in between and I could see that both the apricot trees and the peach tree looks really well, not even the thinnest twigs had frozen, the same on the red mulberry tree, the white and the black one is badly damaged though. The persimmon has damages and so do the pawpaws but as it looks right now the pawpaws have just frozen at the tiniest twigs.  It is however the early spring that do the most damage here, when the air is warm and waking up the vegetation but the ground is frozen so the plants can’t get the water they need, so there’s still time for them all to die 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day but I still feel full after that dinner so I will not have a sandwich to eat. Almost sad since the bread is as its best while it still is a bit warm and it isn’t the same to heat it upon the oven I’m afraid.

Have a great day!

The flu.

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So I have the flu or something very similar, every single fiber  in my body has been aching, especially in my thighs and it really hurts while walking in stairs 🙂 🙂 Not so great when the computer and bedroom is upstairs 🙂 🙂 It still would most likely hurt really bad but I’m putting on anti inflammatory ointment and it helps enough so that I can hav walks with the dogs and get to the bedroom without wondering if it wouldn’t be better to just sleep in my sofas 🙂 🙂

To be honest it also helped a lot by walking the dogs, terrible in the beginning, got easier the more we walked and it felt almost normal when we arrived back home again. However an hour or so later it felt worse than before 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m freezing like a doge every no and again, not especially sour in my throat but almost no coughing, so far that is. So this could have been far worse to be honest.

Between walks very little has been done though, lots of resting and tea drinking and watching tv programs I haven’t enjoyed and I’ve also read a lot. I only wish I’ve had some rose-hip soup at home so I’ll make sure to buy some next time I’ll go to the store. Warm rose-hip soup with tiny almond biscuits/cookies (when asking google about the name it suggested almond macaroons but to be honest I don’t think that fits at all) they’re only 1cm (two fifths on an inch) big and not in two pieces as macaroons always seems to be. They more or less only works with rose-hip soup or as a sort of snack to be honest 🙂

Yesterday we had a nice thick fog almost all day and today we’ve had a grey and dull weather bit with frost instead. We were supposed to have fairly much snow but only had a dusting and that’s just enough. Still a long time till spring but I don’t mind if it comes early and I really don’t want a snowstorm like we had last April, the snow melted away after a week and then spring sprung but I still didn’t like it even though it happened when Malkolm just had arrived and I was forced to have a week of vacation since I couldn’t leave a puppy in the dog house/ yard in there while I was working.

I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then find that book again. I think I finally have found a way to move the photos from the editing program to the blog, I’m crossing my fingers and holding my thumbs for good luck 🙂

Have a great day!