Category: Fog.

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 🙂

There was a tinge of peanuts.

November 10, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

It has been raining so much lately that I slid on flat ground yesterday and fell to the ground like an axed tree , it’s so wet that the grass no longer can keep the soil together. The fog arrived already yesterday afternoon, sometimes it was so foggy that I didn’t know where I was 🙂 🙂 To my big surprise we still had fog when I woke up so I hurried the dogs and myself so that we would have a chance to have at least a part of our walk in it.

Turns out that I hurried unnecessary, the fog stayed all day even though it became less thick just before the sun was on its way down 🙂 🙂 The cold that never breaks out really worn me down this week, so as soon as we had come home and had had something to eat I decided that I should have a nap in my recliner. Just as I had covered myself in a blanket Albin decided that he should join me in a nap, on the recliner 🙂 So for an hour and a half I had a 60-ish pound pitbull sleeping on my chest and stomach 🙂 🙂 I can tell You that I really didn’t need that blanket 🙂 🙂

I bought myself an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) this week. I haven’t had one in over a decade if I remember right. I just picked one up without checking what color it will have on its flowers, turns out it is going to be white. That surprised me a bit because around here white flowers means death since they only have them when it’s a funeral. I have nothing against white flowers though but those labels are quite often wrong, so to be honest it can look very different to what the labels shows. I’ll put it out in the garden when spring arrives and with a bit of luck I’ll remember to bring it in again when autumn arrives, I tend to forget and that’s the reason I haven’t had an Amaryllis in over a decade 🙂 🙂 They are easy to sow though but it takes at least three years before it’ll give You a flower.

I’ve baked some french rolls today. They didn’t turn out like rolls though, they sort of flattened out instead 🙂 🙂 Instead of rice flour I used oat flour and it turns out that one need much more oat flour than rice flour, otherwise the dough gets too sticky and soft. I haven’t tried them yet but they smell really nice and I’m pretty sure they’ll taste really nice as well. Last week I hung out a net with peanuts for the birds outside my kitchen window. It tok a while before the birds found it but it became pretty popular after a while. One morning the net was gone and I knew they couldn’t have finished it so fast. At first I thought it was Magpies that had removed it but I think it was too heavy even for them. Then suddenly one of my dogs (I won’t say her name but she’s big and looks like a German shepherd) farted really loud and there was a tinge of peanut in the smell that followed 🙂 🙂

It is time to try that bread and after that I’ll most likely fall asleep in the recliner in front of the tv. I do hope this is the end of that cold, it has stayed for way too long now.

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!

17 years old, quite impressive.

September 3, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

Nova is 17 years old today and since she isn’t much for toys these days I instead mixed in some of her favorite blue cheese in her breakfast and then some boiled chicken in her dinner. She really liked both her meals 🙂

She decided that we would go out to the bog in the morning and we followed her like always. We had a thick fog as well so I hoped that we would have some out over the bog as well. We could hear cranes somewhere out on the bog and two big ravens flew above our heads.

We couldn’t stay for long out there because the mosquitoes were attacking us every time we stood still for more than a couple of seconds. I also picked away a couple of moose flies walking on both Nova and Alma while we were out there.

We must have scared away some wild hogs because the road had new parts that had been ripped up and we could also see signs of badger activity. A woodpecker was frantically searching for insects on a pine or should I say in a pine. It did sound as if someone used the tree as a drum 🙂

I picked some apples for my neighbors yesterday and today they gave me a jar with apple sauce 🙂 I’ll try it next Saturday when the dogs and I will have a pancake day again 🙂 I’m waiting for the fruit picker thing I’ve ordered, You know the kind one has on a long pole so one can pick the apples further up in the tree. I’ll try and preserve some like the pears one can buy preserved (well peaches and other fruits as well of course), I’ve only seen apples in that way once before and I think I liked them. I have no idea why they don’t do that more than they do.

Tomorrow is the first day I’ll work evening shift so I need to stay up until at least midnight today, yesterday I managed to stay up until eleven and today I woke up just before six thirty. If there’s sunshine tomorrow as they’re guessing it will be I’ll start mowing the lawn, the grass is actually dry enough now but it’s soon seven pm and that’s no time to mow any grass 🙂

Have a great day!

Morning mist.

September 2, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

I’m trying to change the hours I’m awake and I must stay up at least two more hours but I’m really tired right now 🙂 That’s why I write this post as late as I can today. We’ve had a rather nice day, chilly morning and with morning mist and sunshine as well. It was actually enough chilly to keep even the mosquitoes calm.

The dogs and I have had our pancake Saturday, I’ve done the laundry and I even made a apple crumble pie. I have loads of apples in the big tree and most of them that hang low are eaten by wasps but I found enough to give to my neighbors and also to make that pie. It was a new recipe and of course gluten free. I would have loved to recommend it but it is actually so sweet that I can’t taste any apple taste in it at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 I love custard though so even if I’ll toss the rest of the pie away tomorrow I still can use the rest of the custard 🙂 🙂 🙂

Two or three nights ago Alma and Albin started to bark like insane while standing (well most likely running and jumping along) the fence. My guess is that it most likely were deer walking on the other side or that it could be badgers. They’ve removed the lynx safe electric fence that was there before so now it’s only the old, rather low fence there again.

So I looked after my new wildlife camera and just couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere, even where I later found it 🙂 🙂 I don’t think my kitchen has been this clean in ages 🙂 🙂 🙂 The camera had slid down from the kitchen table on to a chair and then been covered with a sweatshirt 🙂 🙂 Anyway I’ve now put the camera on the old fence so if I’m lucky I’ll know tomorrow on what walks around in that field at night.

Still one and a half hour left before I can go to bed so I think I’ll play mahjong solitare until it is time.

Have a great day!

Just a normal Sunday.

August 13, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (1)

Sometimes, well quite often actually, I wonder if our meteorologists actually get paid for their weather predictions or if they just are drunk and having fun every weekend 🙂 🙂 🙂 I must admit that they did get the raining we’ve had but today they said that we would have a cloudy day all day long. Is anyone surprised when I say that we had sunshine almost all day with the exception of the early morning? 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (2) — We didn’t even get a good fog, just this meh fog.

a (7) — Lingonberries. I think lingonberries are the most important berries for us Swedes, we have lingonberry jam to anything and everything 🙂

We were out in the early morning and when we came home I tossed everything in the washing machine, I was a bit behind so I really didn’t have any clean clothes left. So as soon as the machine started working the sun broke through 🙂 🙂 Well since I didn’t have any clothes I really couldn’t mow the lawn so I’ll have to do a little every day after work next week instead.

a (14)

We’ve just come home after another walk and the weather was much nicer and the wind had helped to dry the high grass we walked in so for once my shoes are dry! They were soaking wet when we came home in the morning so I placed them in the sunshine so they could dry. They have been constantly wet the last week so it was a nice change 🙂

It feels like I’ve done very little today but I have actually been pretty active. I’ve done the laundry as I said, I’ve made dinner for next week at work. I’ve re-potted a lot of plants and checked the sowings of perennials I have outside. They’ll grow big enough to survive winter outside if it stays as warm as they say it will, just above 20C (68F). They’re guessing that we won’t get much sunshine but that it at least will stay warm. The hunting season starts on Wednesday and they’ll be out in the forest the week out so I hope that the pasture outside my cottage is open and animal free so we at least can take walks there.

I think the Sarracenia flower will open up tomorrow 🙂

Have a great day!

Thunder and lightning and bank ID.

August 4, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (28)

We had fog again this morning and I think fog must be my favorite kind of weather, especially when the sun can shine through every now and again. Nova decided that we were going out to the bog again. We didn’t see or hear any animals except for the birds and only one bird still sung its spring songs. There were no wolves around either since the dogs were happy and calm. Alma has calmed down so much that it’s hard to believe she’s the same dog that tore my shoulder apart a couple of time last year 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (32)

My Bank ID, a digital ID that I must have if I want to buy something online now days (I’m sure You have it too but one never know what it can be called), had to be updated, and I asked people and they said I had to do that in the online bank. I tried but the online bank said I had to either have an absolutely new passport or an international ID card where I could scan something to proof that I am who I am. My new drivers license wasn’t ok enough to use. I know we are several people who are quite upset about that because it will cost around $40 US to get an international ID card and why should I have to have that? I’ll never use it.

a (36)

So I drove to the bank today and my bank is in a neighbor county 50km (31 mile) away. I was quite annoyed when I arrived because after all my bank is well known for helping Russian oligarchs laundry their money and I doubt that those people would have to have an international ID card 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it turns out that I really don’t have to have anything new because all I needed to do was to update the app in my phone 🙂 🙂 🙂 The young woman who helped me had gone through this a lot of times 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still have no idea why the online bank said I had to have those things but I think that it had to do with newcomers to this country who aren’t citizens.

a (40)

I came home just before one of the angriest thunderstorms we have had here in years arrived. The Lightning app said that we had well over 800 lightning hits in and around this village during 30 minutes! I can’t remember that heavy showers falling either and the sound from the rain was so loud that I couldn’t hear the thunder at the same time. I loved it, Nova and Alma slept through it and Albin was so angry because I didn’t allow him to go outside to check what it was that made so much noise 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did open the door for him when the thunder had moved away some but the showers still were just as heavy and then suddenly it wasn’t that important to go outside after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (45)

After that we’ve had sunshine for a while but now it’s just as cloudy as before and the lightning app has warned about lightning in the area again. I think the worst is over but perhaps it’s best to close doors and windows again just in case.

a (16)

Have a great day!

Lots and lots with rain.

July 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So after this weekend I’ll only have one week of vacation left, well until Christmas time when I’ll use my last week. We have no holidays at all until then so I really hope I’ll like working evenings again. AI’ll at least get fewer hours to work with slightly more in pay but I still don’t look forward to work evenings. Still I’ll have a job so I won’t complain too much.

This week had been rather chilly and we’ve had so much rain that I haven’t had to water anything out in the garden. I really didn’t mind that much but some of those showers were so bad that I thought much of what’s growing in the garden would break. That didn’t happen but I still hope that the coming rain next week will be less heavy 🙂

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning. She went out to the peninsula in the bog and I hoped that there would be lots of fog because we had fairly thick fog everywhere else. I was sort of disappointed because there was almost no fog at all. We hadn’t been out there for especially long when the dogs suddenly wanted to walk home again and they seemed to be in a hurry. We hadn’t walked far when we heard the deer “barking” around the place we had been at so my guess is that a wolf must have arrived.

It was while standing here the dogs suddenly wanted to hurry back home.

I read an article that most dogs when smelling a wolf nearby reacts just like that, they want to leave unless they are terriers because they want to attack 🙂 🙂 but as the article said since they were so aggressive towards wolves the wolf would most likely run away even though they were so small. Well one terrier didn’t react like that and that was the Amstaff, Albin really doesn’t like other dogs and would love to be able to attack but as soon as he smells wolf he reacts just the opposite 🙂 and I’m glad he does 🙂

I haven’t been able to do much because of the rain but I have weeded (well to be honest that sounds a bit lame because I used spades and secateurs to get rid of what was growing there. I used to have blueberry bushes there but all the sand that I dug up while doing the root zone had to go somewhere and that was the best and closest place to put it. I did find three blueberry bushes still in there amongst the high grass, wildflowers and grapevines though 🙂 I let the blueberries stay and added some peat around them. After that I placed all the pots with the apricot seedlings and some citrus trees there but couldn’t stop myself from planting the seedlings I had this year. I have even sowed some seeds from perennial Hollyhocks and they’ll look good already next year . I also found lots of things I forgot I had placed there before the weeds and grass started to grow in the sand 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is the after photo. The angle of the photo make the place look smaller than it is but it is around 4 square meter (much the same in yards).

a (4) — I also placed the rubber sheet from my old pond over all those shoots from the thorny sloes, roses and the false spirea.

I’ve “pruned” (with big and heavy tools 🙂 🙂 ) the Rowan tree that grows beside the plum tree. It sowed itself and I like it but it was starting to push away the plum tree plus it was so dark and dry on the ground that almost all ferns that grew there had died.

No all the plums will get sunshine and ripe nicely 🙂

It is time to have something to eat and after that I have no idea. Nothing worth watching on tv so perhaps I’ll start reading a book?

Have a great day!

Finally a mango tree in my garden :-) :-)

June 24, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We’ve had a hot day here even though it started with fog. Still it wasn’t especially cool in the morning so the flies and mosquitoes were a bit annoying but since it did rain a couple of days ago the ticks were really happy. I picked away at least twenty ticks from the dogs, six from Nova and Albin and the rest from Alma, she’s a real tick magnet but fortunately they are easily spotted when they walk in her fur.

My neighbor started to trim the grass close to their fences so I thought why not mow the lawn? Normally I wouldn’t have done that because big parts of the grass are still yellowish. It wasn’t so much the grass I wanted to mow though, it was all shoots from all the roses, sloe bushes and fals spirea bushes I wanted to get rid of. How come does never things like that suffer in a drought? 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did the rest anyway so now I finally could cover all the open soil between the potatoes in the potato patch. That’ll save lots of water and time spent on watering. Still I must admit that the cool water falling from the sky while I was trying to kill flies with the water hose felt rather nice when hitting me on these hot days 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve even done some laundry today. I was a bit behind so I washed half of what I had and I’ll take the rest tomorrow, one use lots of clothes when it is hot I’ve noticed 🙂 🙂 The prediction on us getting four fifths of an inch with rain on Tuesday is now forgotten, now we won’t get anything at all, instead we’ll get sunny and hot days the entire next week. Well those having their vacation right now are most likely quite happy about it though 🙂 🙂

Besides that I’ve done very little today and that is just as it should be 🙂 I haven’t even made any dinner or hardly eaten anything at all, it’s just too hot. Still nothing compared to how hot it can be on the north American continent and guess if I’m happy about that 🙂 🙂 I noticed that finally the vegetable seeds I sowed now slowly starts to grow. I think it just has been too hot and dry, even though I’ve been watering every day. Still plants know when it is real rain falling and when it’s just us watering. Even a light rain can do miracles even if it doesn’t give close to enough water. So tomorrow I’ll have to start weeding again, well I guess I should be happy about it but I will be an easy target for those horse flies. Same thing every summer and I’ll never get used to it, I’ll use my mosquito hat but that won’t help the rest of my body 🙂 🙂 🙂

In my garden right now. I finally have a mango tree in my garden 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’ll love it out there as long as it is as warm as it is now, the problems come during winter when it most likely will die due to dry air.

I still have two loquat trees. these two will continue to stay in my cool cellar during winter until they are three years old. They should be able to deal with the cold but I’ll never have any fruit on them, unless the climate change really speeds up because they ripe during winter and only if it is above 0C (32F).

The new Pawpaw thrives beneath the apple tree in the old woodland.

So does the old Ginkgo after I really cleaned up that place.

Have no idea what rose this is, the one grafted on these roots died and this one showed up.

The Japanese Climbing Rose, Rosa multiflora.

They are finally opening up in the old broken wheel barrow.

Have a great day!

Still nasty cold nights.

April 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0004 (10)

We’ve had rather nice weather here this week, a bit cold perhaps and with both snowfall and hail but the sun has been shining quite a lot as well. Today was even better because finally it became a bit warmer again, that is after a nasty cold morning though.Thick and hard ice covered the car, so thick that the rising sun didn’t have a chance to soften it up before I had to go to work. We also hade a rather thick fog so I brought the camera with me and stopped by the lake for a few seconds.

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Alma has behaved unusually well on our walks this week! She’s extremely stressed about having to walk in the same pace as the rest of us but I can see that she’s really trying. Every now and again she flips out though but I will not complain or get angry at her those times. Compared to how she has behaved these last two years this last week has been wonderful 🙂 So I’ve started to think that she actually might not come from hell just to make my life miserable after all 🙂 🙂 🙂 She even stopped screaming like insane after just a few minutes after she saw a hare running in front of us, before she kept on screaming like insane for the rest of the walk which could be as long as two hours 🙂

DSC_0014 (7) — Very few cranes by the lake this morning.

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Now when my closest neighbors have gotten a second child they’ve been talking about moving to a bigger house or make this one bigger. It looked like they finally had decided to move and I wasn’t happy about it, they are amazing neighbors! but when they sat down and started to write down things about the cottage to a realtor they suddenly felt that they weren’t ready to move after all so guess if I’m happy 🙂 I can never get that good neighbors again, I just don’t have that kind of luck to be honest 🙂 So now can Alma continue to jump over to the neighbor to play with their eldest daughter 🙂

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I know that I don’t have space for any more trees in my garden so I guess that’s why I ordered a new one 🙂 🙂 This time it’s a Persimmon hybrid (crossed with its relative Kaki Persimmon). It isn’t as hardy as the American one though but I can’t find any “real” Persimmons for sale over here in Europe. I already have a few smaller trees in pots waiting to be planted but I’ll prioritize this one and the Pawpaw that also is waiting for a place to live 🙂 🙂 🙂 (plus I have seeds for more trees so I guess I really need to win the lottery so that I can buy lots of land so I can plant all the trees I already have plus all the ones I know I’ll be buying in the future 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!

A15264_026A — One from the Voigtländer Bessamatic, taken around a year ago.

Have a good continuing of this new year!

January 1, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

So a new year is here and I doubt that it’ll be any different from the last one. Well there’s a risk that many will lose their jobs because of a recession but otherwise I’m pretty sure it’ll stay the same. I never have any higher hopes for a coming year and that’s why I never feel disappointed about how it ended up 🙂 🙂 🙂 Over here the year started grey and dull, some drizzle and thankfully some fog. If we won’t have any sunshine I think we at least should have some fog 🙂

It was around here where Albin suddenly started to look behind us 🙂

Yesterday when we were out walking in the morning we walked down to the creek. We walk a lot there now since the dogs still are a bit hesitant to walk out on the bog, even when we just walk out on the peninsula they’re a bit more attentive than usual. So anyway we were walking down the long gravel road to the creek when Albin suddenly started to look behind us. At first just a glance every now and again but then he stopped, turned around and took a long look behind us. I must admit that it feels a bit worrisome when a dog like Albin does something like that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nova rarely cares about what happens behind us and Alma, well Alma is like she is and rarely notice anything 🙂 🙂

It was just as dark yesterday and even though I looked around as good as I could I never saw anything.

We followed the creek out to the fields and then suddenly Nova too realizes that something is close to us and she starts to hurry. I wasn’t really worried until Alma reacted as well 🙂 🙂 but suddenly instead of looking behind us they all started to look towards our left side. I could never see anything but the dogs were all in a hurry to get home. Later when it had become dark and was going outside in the garden they went to the side of the cottage, sniffed some in the air and went back indoors. I was out there too, with my headlamp on but I still couldn’t see anything out there. We walked the same way today and none of them seemed to care about anything and behaved just like always. I must say though that Alma behaved really well yesterday and today she barely pulled the leash at all. That in it self is a very strange behaviour from her 🙂 🙂 🙂

Besides that very little has happened here. I wasn’t up when we went in to the new year, I rarely am to be honest. I did start to look at the film Murder on the Orient Express but I must admit that it wasn’t as good as I remembered it to be. Mostly I was annoyed about the man playing Hercule Poirot changed his accent from time to time, he’s supposed to have a french accent byt every now and again he did sound more like he came from Italy 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I never finished it but instead went to bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 There are never any fireworks here since we have lots of cattle and horses here so it was almost as quiet as it always is here. I could hear fireworks from a far distance but that was it. I still have a weeks vacation before I have to go back to work and I’ll enjoy every second of it 🙂

And it was here they started to look towards our left side. There’s an open field just after the end of the trees here but I could still not see anything special.

Have a good continuing of the new year!

Salmiak was sitting in the middle of the road when we returned back home. He doesn’t like my dogs at all but he sat there for quite some time before he decided it was best to move 🙂

I wish You all Good Yule.

December 24, 2022 · 8 Comments ·

We got a white christmas, or Jul as we call it, after all. Just a few days ago we had lots of snow and it was bitterly cold when suddenly a warm front arrived with some rain and melted it all away. Ok it also gave us freezing rain which made it rather exciting to drive home from work one day and to work the next 🙂 But with the warm weather the feeling that life most likely would go on arrived and it felt rather nice. The cold weather however hadn’t given up it seems, so suddenly the temperature dropped again and we also got a thin cover of snow. I must admit that it was beautiful this morning, when first the sun rose and then fog rolled in over the village. The fog didn’t last more than a few minutes before the cold light from the sun pushed it away again.

Christmas eve, or Julafton as it’s called in Swedish, is the big day here in Sweden. Today is trhe day when children will meet the Yule Gnome, or jultomten as we say. He usually arrives around noon and even though there will be lots of packages under the branches of the Yule spruce he still has a sack filled with presents. Well perhaps this year with the running inflation and high power prices it’ll be slightly less filled to be honest. Personally I hated to have to go to the yule gnome to get a present, he scared the c..p of me 🙂 🙂 and I for one never felt sad when I heard he wasn’t real 🙂 🙂 🙂 Most families then let the kids play with their new toys until three pm when they show Donald Ducks christmas on tv. This is a tradition that has been going on since 1960 here in Sweden. Every year they think less people will watch it because they rarely change any of the films during the years, still it is one of the most watched tv programs we have in this country 🙂

The eating starts after Donald Duck and the menu is much the same every year, a christmassy smorgasbord. Pickled herring in more variations You would ever guess there is. Salmon in one way or the other. The christmas ham of course and lots of sausages and meatballs. It varies depending on where one lives of course, some must have smoked eel. some baked brown beans, and perhaps oven made omelette covered in a chanterelle stew. Red cabbage or brown cabbage are big in some parts of the country and we always have beetroot salad which goes perfect with the sausages, meatballs and the ham. Preferable there will be lots of different cheese there as well. At least one made from cream which is impossible to get slices from but very rarely any kind of blue cheese or camembert. When everyone is so full that they want to puke the rice porridge is served and lots of it. Many make way too much so there will be quite a lot of the porridge left until christmas day when we make Risalamande from it. Just mix the rice with lots and lots of whipped cream and then use what kind of fresh fruit of berry You want to have with it. Some let the fruit and berries lay on the surface while others, like me, whisk it down into the rice and cream mix. Of course lots of sugar should be added as well, preferable vanilla sugar.

Back in the days our Yule Gnome looked slightly different than today, today he looks very much like Santa Claus to be honest. If one look at old christmas cards he usually was rather thin and most likely dressed in green (and of course on cards he usually was quite small but I doubt that was especially important). He also brought the presents in a small sled pulled by a goat or if it was a wealthy family a sled pulled by a horse. We’ve never had reindeers here and our gnome lives in Lappland, a huge and sparsely populated area in northern Sweden (where they funnily enough have lots of reindeers 🙂 🙂 ) Our Yule Gnome is of course based somewhat on our folk lore gnomes, some from Sinterklaas and also some from Santa Claus and I’ll come back either tomorrow or the day after to tell You a bit about our gnomes and perhaps a little about our other beings and folk lore.

I now am on a two week christmas vacation. I started yesterday by going home a bit early (most people had already taken the day off and we who still came went home a bit earlier than usual. As soon as I had come home and the dogs had gotten their food we all took a long nap. It looked like we all were just as tired after we woke up so we had an early night 🙂 Today I’ve had my rice porridge for breakfast, so easy now when I once again have a slow cooker 🙂 Befor that however we went out on our morning walk. The sun rose and fog rolled in over our little village. It didn’t last for long though because the sun, even though it didn’t give away and noticeable heat still burned the fog away. Today I used my “new” camera that I bought as a christmas present (julklapp in Swedish) to myself. A Nikon D7100. I bought it from our ebay called Tradera fairly cheap and they hade only taken around 8000 photos with it, in digital camera world that means it’s almost unused since a digital camera should be able to take 150000 photos before it starts to break down. We are still getting used to each other but I have figured out the basics.

I couldn’t understand why several photos were so blurry since I do have stabilization in the lens. Turns out that one can chose shutter priority or focus priority in this camera?! So either the shutter close no matter if one is focused or not or it tries to focus no matter what until the photo can be taken. I’ve now changed it to focus priority and I’ll see what happens tomorrow 🙂 The camera itself will of course not make my photos better (except for perhaps a bit sharper) because that’s all up to me I’m afraid 🙂 We’ll have below 32F temperatures until the night towards Monday and I can’t pretend I like that but knowing how horribly cold it has been and perhaps still are in big parts of the US I really shouldn’t complain. I also must admit that my home, especially the floors, are much cleaner when the ground is frozen. Still I really prefer above 32F nex week since that’s when they decide what my electricity will cost per kilowatt hour in January. A warm and windy last week in December will lower the price pretty much so hold Your thumbs for nicer weather for all of us 🙂

I wish You all a God Jul!