Category: Gardening.

I could have mowed it all.

July 22, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

DSC_0003 (1) — I didn’t think we would have any sunshine when we went out on our morning walk but these clouds vanished pretty fast.

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning and it was so cool that even mosquitoes kept to themselves until we were almost at home and the sun had warmed up the air. Very few ticks again when we came home and I hope it will continue like that from now on. Alma behaves better for each day now, she still has a tendency to pull the leash but it isn’t as hard as it used to be and now days she doesn’t scream that much when she wee wildlife either. I don’t think it ever will go as far as she walking without a leash but no pulling is good enough for me.

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I’m waiting for the rain they said would start to fall a couple of hours ago 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now they say it’ll start raining in about two hours from now. They also say that all the rain we would get tomorrow won’t come at all, it’ll be sunny all day. I will not mind if we actually get sunshine because then I can finish the mowing I started today.

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I mowed the garden and when that was done I saw heavy dark grey clouds slowly approaching so I thought it was best to stop, I have an electric mower with a cord and a couple of extension cables so mowing in rain isn’t something I would like to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well those clouds came and passed without letting go of any rain and after that the sun started to shine most of the time. So I did some laundry instead and it dried nice and quickly in the sunshine.

DSC_0030 (2) — Perhaps I should bring a bucket on our next walk and pick wild raspberries, lots of them this year and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to pick some blackberries as well later on.

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I’ve picked all the gooseberries that were left, all the lower hanging ones has been eaten by the dogs 🙂 so it wasn’t that many left. I also picked all the redcurrants (same story there plus birds love them) a few garden raspberries and two! strawberries 🙂 🙂 There will be lots more strawberries though, I’ve never seen my strawberry plants bloom this much before. Normally the season should be over by now but these just started and as long as they get sunshine they’ll be just as yummy as if they had started earlier. I think I got enough of berries to make a jar of jam but I’ll put these in the freezer and add the coming berries to make more jam later on.

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Lots of apples on the big apple tree, I’ll try and preserve some just like one does with peaches and pears. I’ve only seen preserved apples once in my life and they tasted really nice. I wonder why they don’t do that more often? I’ll get some cherries and this year I’ll get plenty of plums. I like eating plums straight from the tree but I think I’ll make jam or plum ade from most of these. I will get some blueberries as well but they are still far from being ripe. I can add them to the berries I picked today and make a nice mixed jam 🙂

This is an edible flower that I think is called Shunguku. I’ve tried the leafs but can’t say I think they tasted especially much. I’ll try a couple of flowers next time.

DSC_0055 (1) — I’ve finally made a way in to the English walnut. This spring it was just a stick with a weak root system. Then it started to grow but a late frost destroyed it so I didn’t think it would survive at all. Now it has at least four new branches, so lets hope we’ll get a mild winter so it survives 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and I’ll give the dogs their dinner at the same time.

Have a great day!

Much the same weather all week long.

July 21, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We haven’t had much rain this week, a shower now and again. The weather has been very much the same each day though, lots of clouds, sunshine in between. Rather chilly when cloudy but really nice when the sun shone. One day it did reach above 20C (68F) but mostly it has been lower than that. Sunshine in the early and cool morning so not many flies or mosquitoes annoying us while having our morning walk.

The Norwegian site says it will be warmer than the Swedish one but then again they say we’ll get more rain. I looked at the weather sites early this morning and none of the sites said rain tomorrow, they do now. So I sort of regrets that I didn’t mow the lawn today while it was quite windy and the grass was dry. Well we know how great they are in predicting the weather over here so it might be sunny and warm all day 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have gotten the carpet/ furniture cleaner but I haven’t tried it yet. So I guess I’ll try it tomorrow if the rain actually arrives. I think I’ll start with something not as thick as the big cushions I have on my sofas, they will after all have to dry up before I can put them back on the sofas. I have a couple of those thin mattresses on my bed, I can easily sleep one night without one of them.

It was quite nice when we were out walking early this morning. No wind but cool enough so that most flies stayed calm, at least until we came closer to home and the sun had warmed up the air. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek again. We have lots of morning dew here right now and there’s a lot of relatively high grass along that way so we were soaked by the time we came home. What surprises me each time we’ve walked there is how few ticks I need to remove from the dogs. It should be tick paradise there and lots of animals full of ticks walks there as well but each time I go through the dogs there are just a few. Well I can’t say I feel sorry about that 🙂

Nothing much is happening in the garden right now. My Persimmon seems to do very well, my Pawpaws grow and look healthy and so so my Ginkgos. The English walnut still grows but it is hard to see it since the plant in front of it is so big that I barely can see it 🙂 🙂 🙂 The last two Nectarine kernels that I’ve had in and out of the fridge finally started to germinate this week. Mostly it’s enough with one round to the fridge to make them start but these two needed several times in and out. I think that means that they come from a tougher area (climatewise) and that their spring can be as treacherous as ours, like really warm and sunny in early March but then full blown winter in April 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Apricots are growing fine and the biggest ones are now over 30cm (one foot) high.

Finally, the Nectarines germinated. They are now planted in two small pots so cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck 🙂

I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea even if it is well after 4pm. I have vacation, it doesn’t matter if I can fall asleep normal time or not 🙂

I’ve planted one of the Cherry plums on the north side of my cottage, close to the gate. I’ve put a bottomless tub around it so that the roots can’t spread and give new Cherryplums. I’ll plant one on the other side of the gate when I can find another tub I can remove the bottom from.

The Hazelnut bush has also found a place not far from the Cherry plum.

The House sparrow fledglings learns how to fly under the roof of my old patio, which I haven’t used in over twent years. Now some are daring enough to fly outside it, a whole meter (a yard) out to my Apricot tree 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The weather is anything but boring today :-)

July 16, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

The Chinese Catalpa isn’t happy about the wind.

I’m not sure if we’re having a storm but the winds are strong and the gusts roar through the forest. The winds even reach my garden and that’s unusual. We had rain almost all morning, except for when we were out on our morning walk, it started shortly after we had come home so I took a long nap while it continued to rain for a couple of hours 🙂

a (3) — Some of its flowers have opened up now.

I don’t know why but the strawberries are finally in bloom, very late and the Magpies takes all the berries 🙂 🙂

I’ve bought two Hardy Hibiscuses. They should be planted in early spring so it has time to establish itself. They aren’t that hardy to be honest so they also need the best spot in the entire bgarden to survive the winters here.

After that we’ve had sunshine, some showers and grey skies so one can’t say that the weather has been boring 🙂 More rain is on the way and it’ll pour down tomorrow plus the wind will stay they say. I really don’t mind to be honest, I can’t do anything outside so I’ll nap instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma is bored though, especially since the little girl next door also stays indoors during this weather.

Nova wasn’t allowed to walk along the creek this morning because we would have been soaking wet after just a couple of steps, so instead I told her that we would continue on the gravel road. She didn’t like that at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 and when I noticed that her knee support had broken and I wanted ti fix it she just refused to come to me, even started to run away from me when I tried to fix it. So the little lady is pretty cranky, has been that all day 🙂 🙂 🙂 Albin on the other hand is sad because I scolded him. If was after we had come home and I had to clean his ear.

I know he hates that but I really needed to do it since he shook his head all the time. I poured in the cleaning fluid and started to massage the ear when he just had to shake his head violently. I really tried to hold him still but he’s strong 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now my entire kitchen is full of oily drops and his entire head is too. He always get sad if I scold him and has continued to stay that way all day. So one angry old lady, one sad old man and one really bored girl have been rather annoying all day 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think I will take one more walk around the garden before the next rain arrives. The coming week will have some rain but it’ll mostly be sunny and around 19C-20C (66F-68F) and that sounds rather nice 🙂 It looks like we’ll have a normal Swedish summer for once 🙂

I was trying to photograph my Persimmon tree when Alma thought she would be in the photo as well 🙂

The Persimmon tree to the right seems to like where it’s growing. It stands too close to the peach on the left and it does so because I was pretty sure the peach tree would die already this summer. I sprayed the peach tree with sulfur before the leafs started to grow because peach trees are always hit with curled leaf disease and sulfur is said to be the only thing that can kill that fungi. So I was disappointed when all leafs it had started to curl. To my big surprise the tree started to grow and get new leafs instead of slowly dies as they always do. I have no idea if it is because of the sulfur or anything else but now I’ve started to believe it will survive anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂

Something that didn’t survive the drought was the App,e rowan. It was sad already after last years drought and this time it couldn’t manage it any more. So now I have a new spot for another tree 🙂

Have a great day!

Well that didn’t go as I had planned :-)

July 8, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

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So my plan was to do nothing today besides taking walks with the dogs. So of course I’ve now mowed the lawn 🙂 🙂 The reason I did that was because we now are going to fill the holes in the gravel road tomorrow. We will thankfully be several people doing it (me and my neighbors, we’re only doing our little gravel road) and we don’t have that many holes but the ones we have are big and deep. It’s a job that needs to be done even though it’s heavy and boring.

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Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning. We were out later than usual because I actually slept an hour and a half longer than normal, so it was warm enough for the flies to become active. No biting ones thankfully, just the annoying forest flies and it looks like the drought has done its job to stop the mosquitoes to become more, there’s not a single puddle anywhere and the water level in the creeks ar low or not at all. There was lots of biting flies in my garden when I mowed though.

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I put all the mowed grass in my vegetable garden in between plants or along them. I might have buried some because the flies, even though I also wore a mosquito hat, were driving me crazy. Plus it has been really hot today and that didn’t help at all. It’s only the weekend that will be hot and sunny, the coming week will be cooler and they’re guessing we’ll get lots of rain as well. I don’t mind the rain, I have vacation and can sleep all day to avoid it 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!

When the rain comes the grass will both stop the water from evaporatiung and at the same time fertilize the ground while it slowly decays.

My new neighbors. They were the ones bringing the biting flies I’m afraid.

The coolest looking beetle.

July 2, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (3) — The Venus Flytrap has also been growing rather slow. I still have two left from last summer and the second one grows even slower.

Really mixed weather here today, very windy, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy and a lot of the time rainy. Most of the times a nice gentle summer rain but every now and again heavy showers. It’s exciting to stay outdoors because one never knows what will happen 🙂 🙂 The weather was stable when we had our morning walk though. I did bring the mosquito hat but only used it once while we walked along the creek because the wind couldn’t reach us there. Still not so many flies anyway but they still have time to show up before their season is over.

a (19) — but Nova wanted to go this way instead.

Nova is the one who chose where we’ll walk every day and I had preferred if she had chosen only the gravel roads but she wanted to walk along the creek so that’s where we walked. The grass was wet and high so I feared that I would have ti pick ticks until late night but to my surprise I only found two in total!? It should have been perfect for them along the creek but who am I to complain about the lack of ticks 🙂 🙂 While we walked there I checked after dragonflies and damselflies. I did see one dragonfly but long before the creek and only one damselfly along the entire creek. Perhaps I’m too early to lok after either? I have seen both earlier but there are always a couple that show up early.

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My dinner for work next week is boiling in the slow cooker. I made it easy for me by making meat sauce and I’ll boil the pasta before going to work. I’ve also done the laundry and we’ve had our pancake Sunday as usual. I will however, unlike a neighbor somewhere, not mow the lawn. That persons lawn mower must be a mushy mess when it is over 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t think it is fun to clean the mower on a normal day but it is awful on days when the grass is long and wet.

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I’ve also planted two of the Chicory seedlings I have, a third is on the way but they can be slow to germinate. It’s a perennial and its leafs look surprisingly much like dandelion leafs so I better remember where I planted them next spring 🙂 🙂 I also had several bell pepper seedlings. It was so hot when I sowed them that nothing happened until it started to cool down and then it went hot again so they barely grew at all. I don’t expect to get any bell peppers from them but since I had the space in the vegetable patch I planted them there anyway. I’m pretty sure they’ll start to grow good now when it will rain until Thursday and stay cool as well. After that they’re guessing the heat will come back again on Friday, my last day before vacation starts 🙂

A golden fly, have no idea what it can be called.

This is one of the coolest beetle I’ve ever seen I think.

Have a great day!

Ticks and mosquitoes.

July 1, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The Beekeeper is trying to make an old fashioned flower meadow. Looking good so far!

The day started with some sunshine before very thin clouds covered the sky but that didn’t really change much since I could see the sun 🙂 I think the first “shower” I use ” because it wasn’t especially much or shower like but it did rain for a while. It has continued like that until now when we have misty rain and it will continue like this for the coming five days. I don’t mind at all and the temperature has dropped down to 16C (60,8F) and that I really like 🙂

Well I wouldn’t want rain and such low temperature for the rest of summer but for now it’s perfect. The ticks think much the same. I stopped counting when I had picked over twenty from Alma after our morning walk and thankfully just a couple on the rest of us. Nasty animals those ticks! Still not many annoying flies but a gazillion mosquitoes instead 🙂 🙂 Nova decides where every walk should go and today she has chosen the forest. She’s not the one that wants to walk the same path every day, the other two prefers that I’ve noticed.

We’ve taken a long nap today and after that I started to weed the vegetable patch. I’ve had big parts of it covered because I sowed an Asian cabbage. Nothing much happened though so I sowed a winter radish I bought seeds to for a couple of years ago. I have no idea what to do with it except using it in salads but I wanted to try it anyway. So now when I pulled away the cover I noticed that I now have both cabbage and winter radish there 🙂 🙂 I’ll bring back the cover when the cabbage butterfly and cabbage moth starts to fly again. Also the lid to one of my mini greenhouses fell down over the Broccolo seedlings I have, so when the sun showed they all boiled away. I think there’s still time to sow the remaining seeds to get at least some to harvest. The entire plant is edible so I will get something from them if they germinate.

Besides this I’ve done very little 🙂 I did catch mosquito larvae to the aquarium fish but that only took a few seconds 🙂 🙂 I think this is just how a weekend should be spent 🙂 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll have to do all those things I didn’t do today, like dinner for work next week, the laundry and baking a bread but since it will rain I will at least not have to mow the lawn 🙂

The potato sprouts that I planted now have flower buds 🙂 Technically I then should be able to harvest my first potatoes when the flowering is over but I think I’ll wait a couple of weeks before I try it.

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!

They’re guessing we’ll get rain tomorrow.

June 17, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

It has been so hot this week that we haven’t been on walks at all. Nova is old and Albins fur isn’t good at regulating his temperature. Even Alma has been a bit off because of it. I’ve been working in my old department at work and it’s even hotter in there than standing in the sunshine outside 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nova doesn’t want to walk down this road if we comes from the cottage but she will gladely walk it if we comes from the other direction. Have no idea why but we almost always do as she wants 🙂

So mostly I’ve been watering my potato and vegetable patches after work. It might have been too hot because lots of seeds haven’t germinated and the ones that did have been struggling. The only things that seems to like it are the beans, peas and iceberg lettuce. It does however look like I’ve managed to save the almost dead Pawpaw tree, no Kat not the tropical one You’re thinking of but the north American one 🙂 🙂 I dug it up and noticed that when they once potted it they put a huge chunk of the fertilizer pellets that looks like slug eggs just beneath its roots.

So the tree has never felt the need to spread its roots and by not doing that it sort of doomed itself. I dug it up and put it in a bucket with soil and lots of peat since it likes lower pH. After that I put a see through plastic bag over it to help it with sucking up water. Yesterday I took a look at if and I can see the beginnings of three new stems (well perhaps it’s branches?) 🙂 I’ll let it stay in the cool cellar during winter so it can get a better start next year.

It will be another hot day today but the morning was quite cool and nice. We went down to the creek and even though the mosquitoes were just as annoying as always there were very few annoying forest flies and not a single horse fly. Also I could only find one tick when I went through the fur of the dogs. They really don’t like dry weather. We still have morning dew though so that shows the ground and vegetation isn’t totally dry yet. A cold front will pass here tomorrow so temperatures will drop a lot and they are guessing that we also will get rain. Sometimes they guess we’ll get lots and sometimes they guess we’ll barely get anything 🙂 🙂 🙂 They also guess we’ll get more rain during the week but temperatures will stray high. We all do know however how good they are at guessing the wetaher over here 🙂 🙂 🙂

There’s a little black and white dot at the bump of the road, that’s Sally the beekeepers cat 🙂

So far I haven’t heard a single person complain about the eventual coming rain 🙂 :-)The risk of forest fires are high all over the country and, there are a few going on, it is an especially high risk around here. So panic bag packed just in case we need to leave quickly. I’m not especially worried but it’s always best to be prepared just in case. It is time for a cup of tea and perhaps a little nap, we’ve been up since 4am and it is now 8:30. Better take a nap when it still is fairly cool, later on it’ll be too hot.

Can You see those tiny green dots? The life continues for the Pawpaw after all 🙂

From the root zone, I think You call these irises Yellow flag.

Iceland poppy. Seems they are now placing in lots of different poppies under that name that before had their own names. We used to call this one for Siberian poppy.

I’ve passed this rose several times a day for weeks and still didn’t notice that it was in bloom 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Falling down :-)

June 3, 2023 · 1 Comment ·

My kitchen stairs are just two steps but when a slipper gets caught in a nail that has grown up from the wood it still is pretty high when falling down to the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 Most of me hit a sack of peat and my first thought was that I had broken the lens on my camera, after that I started to check if I was ok 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nothing broken but my strained neck, because of Almas constant pulling of the leash, that was back to almost normal again is now back to being very strained.

It was even colder tonight than the previous one, -2C (28,4F) and this time I was worried that much more would have been damaged. The new walnut tree is badly frozen but I hope it will make a comeback later in summer. One of my ginkgos was touched at its top branch and so was the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) but otherwise everything looks ok. The sun took its time to show as well this morning so we didn’t go out until well after 6am, normally we’re out at the same time the sun rise.

I went to Skara to buy soil and they were selling pitcher plants this year as well, so I bought three new ones to replace those two that didn’t make it through winter. I also went in to the super market and now I’m trying two new cookies. I’ve said it before and I say it again. They also make most of the cookies vegan so no butter or milk and nothing really tastes good because of that. I did however find hobnobs, normally not one of my favorites but these are quite ok, perhaps because the other ones I tried tastes like shit. They would most likely have been great with milk and butter in them. I’m not against veganism in any way but if food or edibles need milk and butter to taste good there really is no use in trying to make them without either of them.

I’ve planted my new Ginkgo today. I planted it close to the rose that stands above Teodors resting place. The rose seems to struggle so I thought Teodor most likely wouldn’t mind if ginkgo took its place 🙂 I also planted my Persimmon hybrid. The big problem was that the only place it really should be planted at was filled with roots of roses, sloe and false spirea. So I chose the only place where only the false spirea had grown. It really is a out of control weed that plant but it is fairly easy to remove because the roots grow just beneath the surface and can be ripped up. Except for the fact that they also grow like they are spiderwebs. So I had to rip up roots for almost half an hour before I could start digging for the tree 🙂 🙂

The Persimmon. You can see some of the roots in front of it.

Old Broccolo (a variety of broccoli) germinates much better than I thought 🙂

I cut out the bottom of a bigger pot,m placed it in the hole and planted the tree inside it. The put is deep enough so no roots will grow in to it from the false spirea. Next year when the tree is established (if it survives the winter) I’ll remove the pot bu just pulling it up from the ground and over the tree. I think it is time for a cup of tea and perhaps a couple of hobnobs. The other ones I bought would have been great as dog treats if they hadn’t contained chocolate. I hate tossing away anything edible so I guess that I’ll have to eat them but I will drink lots of milk while doing it 🙂

Photo taken while falling down the stairs 🙂

I think almost all potatoes have leafs now 🙂

Columbine. Looks like almost all mine are either pink or dark purple. I think I have one white and one blue.

Have a great day!

Frost.

June 2, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

My seed sown Gardenia (one of four) shows its first flower. Unlike the ones we buy these flowers are single, like they are in nature. The ones we can buy are always totally filled and looks almost like a rose. It smell just enough strong and the scent fills up my kitchen. Two more flower buds and then hope it’ll, and the other ones, will do it again next year.

-1C (30,2F) here last night and the frost damaged my Amur grapevine. Most other plants, except for my tomatoes seems to have made it through without too much problem, even the small pear tree seedlings I replanted yesterday evening. Tonight might be even more cold so I’ve covered most of the plants that I still haven’t planted.

a (8) — If one see lilacs somewhere one knows it once was a cottage there. Lilacs are weeds but they rarely spread far when the cottage is gone.

a (9) — Paris quadrifolia, Lover’s knot, is a favorite of mine. It should really have problems surviving here but it looks like it is spreading instead.

Today was just as chilly and windy but with full sunshine as yesterday. The temperature barely rose to 14C (57,2F) but as long as I could stay out of winds reach it still was pretty nice. I am a bit tired of the wind now but it does at least blow away all the mosquitoes we have right now and we might have more forest flies than I noticed because of the wind as well. I had hoped the forest flies would take some time more to arrive, they really don’t do anything like bit but they hover around the head and every now and again they tries to get inside the nostrils and ears. I truly hate them for that.

In my garden right now. I can’t remember sowing this but I think it is some kind of sage.

Geranium that I also have in white and pink.

I found a tick on my thigh the other day. It couldn’t have been there drinking my blood for especially long since it was almost totally flat but I am now of course feeling all the diseases it might have given me. To be honest I’m feeling fine but it does itch a lot where it bit me, just lime it would if it had been a mosquito. Still nasty animals and I would not have minded if they just died out, who would miss them? Most animals won’t even try to eat them unless they are starving badly 🙂 🙂

The three Venus Fly traps I have survived the winter in my cool cellar 🙂 Also two of the pitcher plants but two died. I hope they sell more so I can fill up the big pot. Anything eating flies is a friend of mine 🙂

Lots of poppies in the old broken wheel barrow.

The potatoes are growing in the potato patch but also those sprouts that always break off from the potatoes when trying to untangle the potatoes from the net bag they put them in. I planted those in pots and buckets and so far they’ve shown above the surface in four out of five pots/buckets. Now I’ll continue to cover them with soil until they are almost completely filled, the more of those sprouts that are covered by soil the more potatoes I’ll get. I need more soil though so I’ll most probably go to the store tomorrow to buy more.

a (14)

I’m having a long weekend again 🙂 It’s our national day on Tuesday so I took Monday off as well. I’ll get a package on Monday and I must stay at home to recieve it otherwise I would have waited until Monday to get more soil I have bought an interesting book about our folklore beings and I’ll tell You more about it when I’ve read it through.

Have a great day!

Alma is so much more careful when playing with her.

May 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

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We once again woke up just before the sun was about to rise above the mountains and it felt really cold for the first time in a long time. To be honest it wasn’t that cold, the thermometer said it hadn’t been colder than 9C (48,2F) and warmer than that is still fairly uncommon here at nights. But the sky was cloudy and we had a rather strong and chilly wind so I guess the wind and the sky sort of made me think it was much colder 🙂

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It took quite some time before the sun showed itself so we didn’t go out on our walk before 6:15 and I guess that’s why I only saw two deer (the dogs only noticed one of them thankfully) but we heard them run away from us in the forest so Alma was a bit annoying big parts of our walk. The cold feeling has stayed for most of the day but I refused to close the kitchen door where the sun shines (even though we’ve had lots of clouds today). It is however amazing how fast it gets warm indoors again as soon as doors and windows are closed again, The sun is really warm now.

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I have been quite active again today, never thought that ever would happen 🙂 🙂 I have a part of the garden where I’ve had a woodland area and I have neglected it for several years. Once Trilliums thrived there and even self sowed, now I have one or two left and most of the ground was covered in either Wood avens (Geum urbanum) or Solomon’s seal and in early spring different wood anemones. The Hungarian lilacs had spread out and covered the air of over half the surface and an old apple tree that is slowly dying covered the rest. I guess You all by now know what I think of lilacs, so I just broke off lots of the branches, They seem almost impossible to kill so they’ll survive. I also broke off all dead branches of the apple tree.

DSC_0047 (2) — A few of the branches I just tore off.

DSC_0048 (2) — Now finally there’s light in the woodland again.

The tiny Pawpaw is said to like growing beneath bigger trees, at least as young, so while it slowly will grow taller the apple tree stays.

DSC_0038 (4) — Albin always look a bit grumpy. He doesn’t have that pitty smile.

After that I tore up all Wood avens, we have plenty left all over the garden and I also ripped up some of the Solomon’s seal. Now that little place is more open and some sunlight can reach everything growing closer to the ground. I already have an Ginkgo there but it has had a tough time and grown really slowly so I hope this will help a lot. I then planted the Pawpaw tree (well tree is a bit much to call it, can’t be more than a foot high 🙂 🙂 ) where I once had another apple tree that had to go due to tree cancer. Tree cancer is a fungi attacking the tree and it is almost impossible to save the tree once it gotten it. There’s also a rhododendron Catawbiense living there and I think it too will love a bit more sunshine. I also tossed out peat since both it and the Pawpaw likes a bit more acidic soil.

DSC_0041 (3) — Nova might almost be 17 years old but she still plays with the other dogs every now and again.

DSC_0042 (3) — Alma is so much more careful when she plays with Nova, like when she plays with my neighbors daughter than she is when she plays with Albin. Sometimes it looks and sounds as if they are trying to kill each other 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I’ve also made dinner for the coming week and of course the weekly laundry. I have however not baked any bread and since that will take more than two hours to do I’ll just bake some scones. I haven’t been too successful in my previous tries but I’ll keep on trying till I get it right 🙂

DSC_0031 (6) — In bloom in my garden right now, Columbine.

Have a great day!

The nettles slid down my arm.

May 27, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (1) — I went up the my mailbox to see if I’d gotten any mail yesterday and took this photo on my way up the slope.

I have a thorn in one of my fingers and it hurts every time I press down a key with it so now I’m trying to not use it at all. I can see the thorn so I’ll get it out after this. I have the thorn there just because I cleared out another area in my garden. This one was filled with mostly False spirea, an old gooseberry bush (hence the thorn), a few wild raspberry bushes and lots of stinging nettles. I did manage to get a few stalks from the stinging nettles to slowly slide down my arm. The pain is gone but now it’s itchy and warm 🙂 🙂 So now it’s a new place where I’ll have to mow no matter what weather we’re having otherwise it’ll all come back again.

a (2) — And I took these on my way down again.

a (4) — Guess where I live 🙂 My cottage is barely visible behind the lilacs and that Rowan tree in bloom.

a (5)

I really need to stop drinking lots of water before going to bed, today we were up before the sun rose (and it rose at 4:19 today) and it sort of felt wrong to go back to bed because I know I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again anyway. So we went out just as the sun rose and it did feel quite chilly, I think it might have been around 5C (41F) but no wind and sunshine from the start. To be honest a walk with Alma will make anyone sweat like crazy anyway so I didn’t use the fleece sweater that I thought would be needed if we had been able to walk like normal humans and dogs 🙂 🙂

a (11)

I watered the vegetable patch and potato patch as soon as we came home , sowed some seeds and when the clock reached 10 am I started to mow the lawn. Before that I cleared that space of course.I really would like to plant my Persimmon tree there but all those roots makes it hard so I would have to rip them up (both the false spirea and raspberry roots are relatively easy to remove since they lay just beneath the surface but there’s a net made of those roots now so it wouldn’t be that easy because of that). I’ve also done some laundry so now I’m really tired, aren’t weekends supposed to be the time when we relax 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (16)

Suddenly most of the wildlife is gone again so I guess that the wolves are elsewhere at the moment. Today we only saw one young roe deer buck and he was sleeping in a field just beside the forest. I wish I could see any of them but I only hear from other people that they have seen at least one. The wolves are in trouble right now though, don’t think it is our pack but one in the neighbor county, because they killed a lot of sheep the other day. People here aren’t used to wolves so fences are way too low and not electrified in most places and to be honest the fences needed will cost a fortune. I think the government should pay most of that cost but the government we have right now instead wants to eradicate the wolves completely. Well the EU Court of Justice will not allow that thankfully 🙂

a (19) — I hate it when they put up those electric wires even when there are no cattle walking in the field. It is anything but easy to get those wires down so the dogs can pass, especially when I need to keep Alma calm. They do like that because they’re too lazy to have to do it when the cattle actually arrives.

Swedish forest authorities, experts and the swedish forest industry always complain about how other countries manages their forest, especially if we’re talking about those with rain forest but when we get complaints about how we take care of our forests we then always hear them say that we know better and that we have other conditions in this country than other countries 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Eu says we don’t have a sustainable forestry by only planting either spruce or pine and that when we cut down all trees at once we let too much carbon dioxide out into the atmosphere. Instead we should have a mixed forest and just thin out the biggest trees every now and again. Also we Swedes are complaining about how we treat the forests as well so now the authorities, experts and industry tries to tell us all how wrong we are 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest we’ve cut down so many trees now (yes we plant new ones as soon as possible) that we now have almost no older forest left. So when they cut down new trees they are either too young or they’ve cut down forest that should have been protected. I really hope the EU Court of Justice sues the shit out of them all 🙂

I had forgotten how much space there actually was behind that wooden box 🙂

There is this one really big root system that I think belongs to the old gooseberry bush. If new shoots grow up from it I’ll move it to a better place. The gooseberries were red and really tasty.

It is time for a last cup of tea and also to get that thorn out of my fingertip 🙂

Have a great day!