Category: Gardening.

Going through the garden.

· Leave a comment ·
I think the birds want me to make sure the feeder is full of peanuts 🙂

I just realized that there are no hunters in the forest yet and it’s lunch time now. The sign they always put up is turned to show the back side and if it is no hunting is going on. My guess is that if they come they’ll come around 1pm-2pm. It could also be that they’ve given up for now and they all will be here during the weekend. The weather predictions have changed again, we’ll get rain from now on and all day tomorrow, lots of it as well but the storm will still miss us.

The seed sown Pawpaws are finally dropping their leafs so I can bring them down to the cool cellar.
The peach tree however looks like it still is summer.
I have a potted Ginkgo that I think needs to stay in the cellar as well this winter. Its leafs/ needles look a bit different from the one already growing in the garden.
The fun thing with sowing ones own trees is that one never know how they will look like. Now when they’ll drop their leafs some have quite red leafs while some turns to yellow.

The dogs and I have been outside in the garden for quite some time today though, Nova stayed indoors because she usually only go out when she needs to, she’s so old that playing isn’t that fun but sleeping is 🙂 Alma and Malkolm however got rid of lots of energy 🙂 Malkolm is so big now that even though Alma is still much faster she does have problems catching him while they’re playing and that frustrates her so much that she starts barking like a hunting dog while she’s chasing him 🙂 🙂 🙂

The peach tree in the garden also still has green leafs, I would like for them to drop as well so I can spray sulphur on it to get rid of the curled leaf disease. It would most likely be the last time I need to do that.
The shoots from the now dead Persimmon hybrid looks fine. They are touched by frost and will soon drop their leafs, so now all I can do is to hope they’ll survive the winter. The tree I planted last spring has already dropped its leafs.
I’ve tried to get rid of a Wisteria that I once planted in the wrong place, to be honest it shouldn’t survive here but grows like a weed 🙂 I’ve tried to kill it for several years now but it just comes back. Last year I once again dug it up but this time planted it beside a Laburnum and it survived. Still don’t know if the old one will come back again though 🙂 🙂 🙂

I can’t remember when the leafs stayed on the trees for this long. Some still have green leafs as well. I need those that will spend the winter in my cool cellar to start dropping their leafs, well the tea tree/ bush will keep its leafs so I can bring it in already now but the small pear trees, peach tree, all the apricots and what else still is out there need to drop them now, I really don’t want all those leafs on the cellar floor 🙂 Also I need to dig down the rest of the plants that will spend the winter outside but I still haven’t figured out where to plant them 🙂 I guess I’ll just do the panic thing and dig them down together in the ground with the pots still on and then figure out where to plant the survivors next spring.

The Black walnut thrives and I can see some walnuts hanging way up in the tree. This year I’ll use a hammer to crack those nuts 🙂 🙂 🙂
The bought Pawpaw trees still look to much like summer is here, I want them to be ready for winter now. The little one that only had a few leafs this summer is still alive but has dropped its leafs now.

The little Ginkgo looks fine as well. I’ll thin out the branches on the apple tree next spring so that it’ll get more light and rain reaching it.

Sara the cat is pestering Malkolm by playing with his tail 🙂 At first he looked horrified every time she did but now he’s just a bit annoyed 🙂 🙂 Alma is a bit worried every time Sara comes close to her when she’s in the sofa, it’s because she twice laid down over Sara and she screamed like she was being crushed and I had to rip her away but otherwise she adores the little cat. I’ve been trying to undo the damage by not letting Alma jump of the couch when Sara is there and it seems to have helped quite a lot, Alma is after all the mother of all living things 🙂

       

It’s time to figure out what to eat. I think I’ll make a couple of warm sandwiches. I have some mackerel in tomato sauce in the pantry or perhaps with meatballs? and perhaps sprinkling some curry over it all? I could do a real dinner of course but then it would mean so much more work 🙂 🙂 🙂

A really tired little kitten 🙂

Have a great day!

A really nice day despite only a little sunshine and a GF bread recipe.

· 6 Comments ·
I filled the bird feeder for the first time two days ago. Not a single bird came until early this morning 🙂

 

We’ve had a really nice day today, not as sunny perhaps but warmer, also no frost even though it was close. I was freezing when I woke up so I must have had a fever so I waited a bit longer before we went out on our morning walk so that it was a bi warmer even where the sun didn’t reach but cold enough for the moose flies to stay calm.

     

To be honest so far I haven’t seen that many moose flies here so perhaps last winter and rainy summer killed off a lot of then? We walked out to the bog, out on the peninsula, a favorite place for me and the dogs. I enjoy the views and the dogs all the smalls from the Fallow deer and Red deer and the badgers of course. Malkolm probably wondering what they look like and Alma wanting to pick up a fight with them, I really don’t understand why she wants that 🙂 🙂 Nova once met a badger. The badger jumped up on the road and ran towards her and old Sune , who was half Bernese moutaindog and half English working cockerspaniel, very much like Malkolm in his behavior.

     

Both dogs just stood there (always unleashed) and the badger came running to them. They stood there and sniffed at each other, looking really happy to meet each other, then they all turned away and went on their own directions. Five minutes later we met the Mrs, she wasn’t happy at all and both showed and sounded so we wouldn’t do it again 🙂 🙂 🙂

       

I haven’t done anything I was planning today, mostly I’ve just rested a lot but it felt like a nap only would mean lots of coughing. I have however baked gluten free french rolls. I never fully follow recipes but today I was close 🙂 and they turned out really good! I’ll write the recipe at the end and the changes I made at the end and it’ll be in centigrades and grams so You’ll need to change to Your measurements yourself, my brain is just too foggy right now 🙂

     

I will stay calm until this cold is over, calling companies asking for jobs but having a cold isn’t especially smart if they want You to come over to have a talk, it’s never a good idea to make an eventual employer sick when looking for a job 🙂 🙂 🙂 But I might have to go to the store and buy food.

A bumblebee had spent the night in the Canadian goldenrod, it was just waking up when we came home from our walk 🙂
I’ve never seen flower buds growing together like this! It’s like they are conjoined twins.
Lots of male starlings up in my neighbors birches.
I looked at these for a very long time wondering what it was 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then I remembered that I sowed cob millet for the birds but they started to grow so late that I had forgotten about them. I hope the birds will have some use of them despite them being so late.

Anyway, the recipe.

Ingredients:

100 grams of potato flour                 

300 grams of brown rice flour         Well I used 200 grams of white rice flour because I didn’t have any brown rice anything and one bag with 200 grams of white rice flour already open and didn’t want to open a new one 🙂 Instead I added 100 grams of Oat flour.

 

20 grams of powdered psyllium husk.

 

1.5 teaspoon of salt

 

1 tablespoon of honey.          Why destroy honey that way, I used brown sugar instead and probably 2 table spoons because the sugar is food for the yeast.

 

1 tablespoon of olive oil.

 

2 teaspoons of dry yeast or 20 grams of fresh yeast.

 

500 grams of lukewarm water.

 

Instructions:

Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl, including yest, salt and sugar. Well I’ve done that once and I really failed with that bread. I added all the dry things together with some strong tasting cheese (the recipe says olive oil but I can’t stand olive anything really), don’t take too much, it will feel like eating a well tasting rubber ball if You do that 🙂 🙂 🙂 

I warm the water and then add the yeast, sugar and salt and let it stand for a while, perhaps a minute before I put it all together.

Then the recipe says whisk it all together quickly. Well I say use a baking machine if You have one or like I do an old time electric whisk and work the dough for five minutes. If You have all the strength in the world and muscles thick as a telephone pole just do it by hand 🙂

The recipe then says let it rest beneath a handkerchief for 75 minutes before You take it all out and form the rolls but be careful so You don’t press out the air. That’s quite stupid to be honest. This dough is rather firm, so form the rolls already after it has been worked on, put them on a baking sheet and then let it rest for 75 minutes.

 

The instructions then says heat up the oven to 275C and as soon as You’ve put the rolls in the oven turn it down to 200C. No don’t do that, put it o 200 from the beginning (well all ovens can be different so You’ll have to test that Your self I’m afraid), otherwise You might end up with burned surfaces and soggy middles. 

 

Let them stay in the oven for 40 minutes, no that will be a bit long according to my tries. Today I had them in for 25 minutes with the oven working and then I turned off the oven and had the rolls in there for another ten minutes. Crispy surface and just enough baked through the entire rolls 🙂

Good luck if You try them 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

· 2 Comments ·

This is the pot with the self sown flowers. Canadian Goldenrod, catnip, Californian poppy and also an Aaron’s rod but I managed to break that stem .

It wasn’t much cooler today so the factory was nasty hot today, it’ll be slightly cooler tomorrow but now the ovens are building up the heat indoors. We do have two big gates where forklifts can go in and out of the factory but the problem is that the sun shines towards both almost all day, so it’s only when it is really windy it actually helps to open them up 🙂 🙂

I found these photos in the camera, must have taken them during the vacation I think.

   

No walk today either, the dogs didn’t want to go outside at all, they did follow me outside when I walked around watering all the trees I’v planted this year but as soon as I went towards the door to go inside they ran to be first indoors again 🙂 We did have a weak wind blowing so I opened up the windows upstairs but as soon as I did the wind died 🙂

The new shoots from the dead Persimmon hybrid, I will cover them with something to give them a better chance during our winter.

This and the one You can see behind it slightly towards the right are the Pawpaws I bought this spring.

The seed sown pawpaws. I think they still are confused about the year. They germinated the absolutely wrong time of year to be honest.

The first Black walnut I could find 🙂 I’m sure there are more but really tricky to find up there 🙂

I met a villager out running when I came home to the village. I can’t think it i especially healthy to do that in this heat. He also wore a back pack, ok a smaller one but still. Back in the days when I was out running almost every day I never ran if it was over 23C (73,4F), I would not have been able to carry that much water 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also I used to bike every day as long as it wasn’t colder than 0C (32F). I actually liked to bike when it was cold but I never could find gloves or mittens that could keep the cold away from my fingers and I hate cold fingers 🙂

They didn’t have the energy to play, only to eat apples 🙂

   

It is time for a last cup of tea and then bed I think, I start an hour earlier on Fridays so best not to stay up too late 🙂

Have a great day!

Summer is back for a few days.

· 5 Comments ·

We had a maintenance day at work today so when I had done the things I was involved in I went home, no need to over do things at a place I won’t stay at. Almost 26C (78,8F), a clear blue sky and thankfully a rather strong and cool wind blowing. Normally I don’t take the dogs on walks when it is that hot but since the wind made it feel cooler we had a walk as soon as I had come home.

Hard to see the yellow crab apples beside the bright red rowan tree berries. Everything seem to ripe at the same time here now.

 b

We walked down to the creek and Nova walked off leashed all the way. We had to go back to find here quite often so at the end it felt like we had walked twice as long as we had 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wonder what had walked that way before us because she stopped every second meter (the same in yards) and stood there for quite some time. I had to leash her when we passed a field because she can barely hear anything ans it was hard to find her in the high vegetation 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

I thought it was Wednesday today so I’ve been longing for the ice cream van, guess if I feel disappointed now when I realize it won’t come until tomorrow!! Then again the temperature will rise up to 30C (86F) both tomorrow and on Thursday so I think I’ll need it more then 🙂 🙂 🙂 My apples that normally are ripe in late October early November are already ripe to eat. The seed sown apple tree is full of delicious apples and its mother, an Aroma apple, has fewer this year. No matter what I can’t eat that much apples so I’ll give my neighbors as many as they want, especially the kids loves apples so they even eat those normally rather sour wild apples growing beside the dog yard  🙂 🙂

     

Speaking of neighbors, the Beekeeper has now moved. The owner wanted an insane amount of money for that cottage (not even the realtor agrees on how much the owner wants for that place, said so to a customer who called and asked if there was any house for sale here and if realtors says so one really should listen to them 🙂 🙂 ) The Beekeeper found a house not far from here but up on the mountain and I do hope this is a place he can stay at to the day he himself wants to move elsewhere. I’ll miss him, good neighbors can be hard to find but so far I’ve been unusually lucky and I do hope I will continue to be so.

     

I’m rather tired today, I woke up three times last night. I drink a lot of water now so that was the first time I had to get up, second time one of the dogs had to go outside to poop and almost made it 🙂 🙂 and the third time it was the old lady who needed to pee but wasn’t really close to make it 🙂 🙂 🙂 She just wakes up, runs down to the door and hope I’ll be there, I’m a heavy sleeper so I rarely hear her walk down but Alma usually makes a lot of noise when Nova runs down, this time I had just fallen asleep again so no chance on me waking up  easily 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so glad that this rarely happens 🙂 🙂

One of the Red mulberry trees I bought had one unripe fruit and I think we can call it a flower. Normally I’ve read that one need both male and female trees to get berries but now days there are trees that gives berries anyway but they can be either seed less or give seeds that won’t germinate.

My first ripe tomatoes 🙂 I doubt that I’ll get any more unless it stays warm for a very long time 🙂

My strawberries are flowering and gives me a few berries every week now 🙂

It’s time to go downstairs and watch some Paralympics. The Paralympics isn’t a big cash cow for the big tv channels so they sell those rights to PBS channels so we are lucky to be able to see it on our PBS, Swedish Television 🙂

The Aronia is cut down and it will start to grow again next spring. I have planted the first Red mulberry tree there as well, hoping the mulberry will grow faster and grow over the Aronia in the end.

Alma and I sat on the entrance stairs before the sun hid behind the trees, I drank a cup of tea and she looked through the gate on the cows that now has moved back too the pasture on the other side of the road, she doesn’t like them 🙂

Canadian Goldenrod, seen as invasive has self sown in a pot in my garden, really beautiful. WE had loads of it here back in the days but now it can’t compete with our native plants and we only have it in a few places.

Have a great day!

August was a shitty month but today it’s September.

· 6 Comments ·

Yesterday morning. Today there will be a mix of photos from today and yesterday.

I’m sorry about not writing anything these last days but I’ve been a bit under the weather so to speak. No not in pain the medication really did its job but they also gave me a slight fever and a very wobbly stomach. I’ve been so tired that beside walks with my dogs I’v mostly been either napping or watching tv. So since I can’t have this anti inflammatory medicine I’m not sure there is any left that I can use, August has really been a shitty month this year 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Today however is September and it started sunny with only 2C (35,6F) outside. I must admit that I loved it when we were out walking in the village. It was a bit tricky to figure out what clothes one should wear since it would be really cold in the shadows but as soon as the sun hit it would start to boil inside. Very little shadow when walking there so I just wore a hoodie and normal trousers. I’m glad that I decided to close all windows yesterday because that night it was just slightly warmer and I woke up freezing in the middle of night. I really didn’t want to get up to close all windows so instead I called for the dogs so they could warm me up 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

They’re guessing that it’ll be really warm the coming week and so high temperatures at night that the risk of frost will be zero percent. Some places in this area did have frost during the night but for once it didn’t happen here, I sure hope it takes a long while because only two of my tomatoes are half ripe, the rest are still green. I also hope that I get them before the dogs do because I already had two ripe tomatoes but one morning when I went out to get them most of them were eaten by the dogs 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’ve also started to cut down my Aronia bush, I really can’t stand the berries (the dogs and birds love them though) because too many berries and a couple of winters with lots of snow have bent down the branches so much that they were laying on the ground. It was a bit tricky to remove each branch because they were all entwined with each other. I still have some to cut off but there’s no hurry to do that. It will grow up again so already next summer it will become a new little bush. However I was thinking of planting one of my Red mulberry trees there, if it grows fast enough it will soon be higher than the Aronia and I hope they’ll co exists well together.

At least two different varieties of apples hanging on this apple tree.

   

It is time to make some dinner, I haven’t had that much of an appetite lately 🙂 but I think I can have some pancakes, if not I can have them as dinner at work tomorrow. Just bring some jam and since they are just as tasty cold as warm it’ll be fine 🙂

The biggest of my five seed sown Giant Sequoias, they’ll spend the winter in the cool cellar.

I do hope the flowers open up on this Butterfly bush before the frost comes, won’t be many butterflies around though.

The white flowers on the Woodland tobacco really shines when it’s getting dark around it and the smell is amazing.

My Christmas cactus loves staying outdoors all summer.

Have a great day!

       

· 7 Comments ·

Seed pods from a day lily.

Nothing much has happened here these last days. We’ve had some rain and we’ve had some sunshine and that’s it. I am working with the same things as always and will continue to do so until the day I’m leaving, on Friday the 13th 🙂 🙂 🙂 Friday the 13th has always been a lucky day in my family so if that means anything that’ll be the day something is going to happen 🙂 🙂

Creeping bellflower.

 

Jerusalem artichoke.

Alma has been unusually challenging when we’re out walking, I guess it is because she’s at the end of her being in heat. Today I finally had a witness to how she can be on our walks, the beekeeper walked with us for a short while, as he said: It seems she’s full of, well something 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m still confused to how a dog can be so different on walks towards how she is here at home. She’s an angel here at home (ok she do steal food from us all and can reach everywhere to do so -) 🙂 ) but more like an insane demon while we’re out on our walks 🙂 🙂 🙂 The longest I’ve ever seen her concentrate on anything is twenty seconds, yes I count the seconds every time she actually finds anything interesting 🙂 after that she’s all over the place again. Here at home she’s calm, does what I ask of her andlooks after old Nova so that she’s ok, a totally different dog. I’m sure she has dog adhd 🙂 🙂

   

This apple isn’t what You would call a crab apple, instead it’s a species of apple, Malus sylvestris, that we call Wild apple. Barely edible because it’s so sour but it pollinates all other apple varieties and works amazingly well to make a delicious jelly from.

Well I guess it’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and then fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

   

I tried the first apple from my seed sown apple tree, not quite ripe yet but oh so delicious! So anyone who tells You that seed sown apple trees only give sour and bitter apples really don’t know what they are talking about!

Have a great day!

Warm.

· 4 Comments ·

I’ve found more Hazelnuts 🙂

It took two days to mow the lawn, it was just too warm to do it all during one evening. Today was even warmer but with almost no sunshine. Too warm to have a walk especially for Nova. I was worried for a while that she was near her end but then suddenly she started to eat a lot again (I boil chicken and rice only for her and since there’s almost no fat in chicken I also give a hand of a special food for senior dogs) so now she’s almost back to normal again 🙂

Four different colors on the five Petunias that germinated late this summer. There’s a fifth one that still not shows any flowers but it’s on its way 🙂

   

The cattle is now walking in the pasture behind my cottage. Alma hates cattle, the first time she saw them she ran straight into the electric fence. It was of course my fault but she forgave me quickly but she has not forgiven the cattle 🙂 🙂 🙂 Malkolm isn’t that happy about them either but he is happy to just bark towards them 🙂 No herding instincts shows so he hasn’t inherited that from the brodercollie that he’s 50% of. He’s more like a English Cockerspaniel that loves to follow tracks and much like Golden retriever when it comes to how he behaves otherwise and how he looks. Very much cockerspaniel head though.

The English walnut, a better photo than I had the last time.

Aronia berries, if You love tart and very bitter berries these are the ones for You. No ammount of sugar can make them taste good but the birds and Alma loves them 🙂 🙂

My seed sown apple tree. Delicious apples but they are easily attacked by fungus.

Finally! Bell peppers on the way 🙂

He is a very soft dog in his behavior, loves to meet new people but shows clearly that he isn’t dangerous. If I call he comes immediately even though he sometimes walks very slow 🙂 🙂 🙂 Learns easily except for when it comes to putting on a harness 🙂 🙂 Even Alma has started to understand that, only took three years 🙂 🙂

Every morning when I let them out in to the garden both Alma and Malkolm runs straight to the gate, looks over it and down on the ground, when they don’t see what they think should be there Alma runs a few laps in the garden while Malkolm follows Nova. I couldn’t understand what it was they were looking for until I was going to mow the outside parts of the grass. The badger that was climbing over the fence at nights here now instead follows the fence around the garden, I can now see the typical little shallow holes in the ground they make while digging for insects and slugs 🙂

     

It is time for a last cup of tea and then see if there’s anything worth to watch on tv.

Have a great day!

· 5 Comments ·

Two cranes passed over us on their way to the bigger lake.

Today has been really nice, sunshine all day, 20C (68F) and a rather strong wind that dried up most of the grass, tomorrow I’ll mow the lawn because it will be exactly the same weather, at least that is what they are guessing 🙂 So no blog will be written.

     

WE walked out to the bog early this morning. I could hear both cranes and geese flying by. This time of year they fly between the two lakes, the one in the bog and the one I pass every time I go to work, every morning and every evening. I have no idea why they do that though. I know there are more fish and vegetation in the the I drive by but perhaps it’s safer for them to overnight in the bog lake?

     

We met  Roe deer doe and her kit on our way out and they are now so used to us and Alma slightly insane behavior that they don’t care about us 🙂 They stood in front of us just looking at us, the youngling scratched its leg and then they slowly walked in to the forest. I had hoped that we would see more animals today when we reached the end of the peninsula but I couldn’t see anything. The dogs didn’t mind us walking away from there so I guess there might have been a moose, wild hogs or perhaps even a wolf even though I doubt that last one would be there, the roe deer were just to relaxed. It was most likely a moose, the dogs really don’t like them.

     

I’ve done all my chores, it’s fun I’ve had all week to do them but still wait until the last minute 🙂 I have even harvested some potatoes, You know the ones I planted in two different pots. I found everything from thumb nail small to one really big and these will last for the rest of the week. Next week I’ll check some of those that survived the winter. I forgot to bring in some peas, chard and squash though, I don’t think I’ve ever had this many peas before, still no beans though.

     

I also checked the English walnut. I suspected that it had died and was sort of right 🙂 The variety that once was grafted on the roots of what I guess is a seed sown walnut had died but instead I now have two stems growing up from the root! Just as it is with the Persimmon I bought last year but from those roots I have lots of new stems, they grow slow though. I think I’ll cover those with either grass or leafs when winter is approaching. Now when the warm weather finally came after our vacations things really started to grow, with a bit of luck I might actually have the chance to see the seed sown dahlias flower 🙂 🙂 and I’m sure I’ll see that self sown sunflower open up soon 🙂

This is to be honest an impossible photo because it’s impossible to actually see what it is 🙂 It shows the two new stems on my English walnut. Well You can at least see the leafs, it is the dead trunk that still is standing there. I think I’ll use that as a support during winter and then remove it.

The Wisteria started to grow really well but then it stopped. The canopy above was so dense that almost no rain water reached the ground, it was the same where the Pawpaws grow. So I’ve started to remove branches so that both water and sunshine can reach the ground.

The Hardy Fuchsia likes to get more light. I’ll cover it over winter with lots of leafs and grass.

The Troll grapes has been opened by the birds so now the seeds can be seen.

My seed sown Pawpaws. They are a bit slow because they did start to grow very late in the autumn, then started their winter rest just when spring started here. I hope they have adjust to how it really is already next year.

Today they actually show some tv programs I want to see, on the knowledge channel of course so after this I’ll make myself a cup of tea and most likely doze off in front of the tv 🙂

     

Have a great day!

The rebellious stage has begun.

· 4 Comments ·

Mostly cloudy today but really nice. Just warm enough and no wind. The no wind did make the flies too happy but only while we were walking in the forest, here at home they mostly kept away. So I could walk around watering the plants that need extra attention without going crazy 🙂

     

Today I scolded Malkolm for the first time, three times actually 🙂 🙂 He has now gotten the idea to pull out my potted plants and then start to chew on them. He’s getting his real teeth now so I guess it itches something awful in his mouth right now. I caught him in action so I thought that it would stop after the first time but oh no, he tried again 🙂 He really look miserable after scolding him and refused to go inside after the first time, no such behavior the other times though, he almost looked proud instead 🙂 🙂 I think the time of rebellion has started 🙂 🙂

     

Otherwise I’ve mostly listened to the radio and the Olympics and I’ve also napped so I’ve only missed to nap twice during my vacation, always feel nice when I can keep a promise to myself to almost 100% 🙂 🙂 They warned about showers passing by but so far nothing has fallen here. They’re guessing that we will get rain tomorrow as well but the amount and when keeps changing all the time. I won’t mind if it will rain the entire day, sort of fitting since I’ll go back to work on Monday 🙂 🙂

Nova has had a bad day today. The walk was tough for her so I let her off the leash so that she could walk in her own pace. I haven’t noticed any signs of wolves in the area so I’ll do the same tomorrow.

   

My cold has come back, yay. I don’t have any fever but my throat is sour and my nose is runny. Summer colds are the best 🙂 🙂 They stay long and close as an old friend 🙂 🙂 So now I’ll have a cup of tea with lots of ginger in it and hope that will stop the cold from going worse.

These are the Guava seedlings, they haven’t grown much in the cold weather we’ve had but look really healthy.

Here are the Apricots, I have one more but I test planted it amongst the Siberian nepeta. It doesn’t look happy because the nepeta is too invasive.

My two peach seedlings. The one to the right was the first tree Malkolm decided to chew on 🙂

My strawberry plants are thriving now, I’ll get plenty of strawberries if the warm weather continues for a while.

Have a great day!

I’ve found two small squashes beneath the leafs, perfect size to have in the dinner.

He doesn’t look too guilty after chewing on my plants 🙂 🙂

Last day of vacation but still the weekend left.

· Leave a comment ·

The test photo of the day, my and my neighbors trash bins. The brown one is for leftover food and the green for non recyclable trash. I’ve used the brown twice, once when the freezer broke and once fr some really old food that I managed to hid in the back of the fridge 🙂 Still if I don’t have that brown bin I’ll have to pay more. It is more or less impossible to refuse to have garbage bins over here.

Another really nice day but it was a bit too warm in the morning and absolutely no wind so the flies were quite annoying, no biting ones though and that’s always positive. We walked down to the creek and I had hoped we at least would see the Roe deer we’ve seen lately but I guess they too were a bit tired of the flies and instead had walked in to the forest and hid in the shadow amongst the trees.

A bad year for acorns, normally this little tree is full of them but today I found five.

The spring was amazing when it comes to Rowan berries though. Old folklore says that if there are lots of Rowan berries we’ll get a cold winter. We had almost no berries last year and got a nasty cold winter again 🙂 All it says is that the spring was amazingly good for Rowan trees.

 

I think the beavers are back in the creek, even though the water level is really high on one side of the place we pass on our way home it’s really low on the other side. Last time they were here they blocked the big pipe passing under the gravel road and it looks like that’s what happening again now. I’m happy about it but I know the land owners aren’t. Still that was what saved the fields along the creek last time we had a drought for well over two months here. The rest of the area was so dry that the trees started to lose their leafs but everything was green and lush along the creek.

     

No risk of that happening this year though since the ground water levels now are higher in this area than there’s space in the ground 🙂 Still my garden has mostly sand so even though there’s lots of water in the ground the surface still dries out really quickly, so now the first thing in the morning I’ll go out to water what is newly planted and those things where the roots don’t go especially deep. The good thing with having sand is that almost nothing even get close to rot away because of standing water and the dogs are usually quite clean after being outside in the garden after a shower 🙂

     

I was disturbed twice when I tried to have a nap today. First time it was a phone sales person, I never answer a phone call if I don’t know who’s calling but my phone said it was trash and second time it was a text message telling me that a package had arrived and stood outside my gate. I know I should turn off the sound while having a nap but I usually never get a call that time of the day and when I do turn off the sound I usually forget to turn it on again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I did get two short naps so I’ve fulfilled my vow to have a nap every day of the vacation 🙂 Today was the last day of my vacation but I still have the weekend to enjoy. Tomorrow will be much like today weather-vice but Sunday will be rainy they guess.

The perennial sunflower the Jerusalem artichoke is very early this year, they normally start to flower some time in Early September but I can already see buds. Badly eaten by snails this year.

I sowed sunflowers all over the garden this spring and the few that started to grow are still small and tiny. This one however, sown by birds I think, grows in the vegetable garden 🙂 🙂

My seed sown apple tree has lots of apples. They taste delicious but the tree almost always get attacked by fungus and the apples rot directly on the tree, doesn’t look like that will happen this year though. So this tree proves that seed sow apples always becomes sour and bitter.

The blueberries are coming fine as well but they ripe really unevenly, so I’ll have to pick and freeze them one by one.

Alma is in the dog basket, she isn’t sleeping but I can’t say what she’s doing either, could be chewing on something. Malkolm sleeps beside the vacuum cleaner, he has no fear of it what so ever and Nova sleep just beside me, both of them sleeps quite heavily and at least one of them has gasses and it’s bad 🙂 Time to have a last cup of tea for the day and then see if there’s anything worth watching on tv.

     

Have a great day!

Chicory. I tossed the left over seeds from yesterday all over the garden and one germinated. The ones that grew quite well last year died during winter.

One of those summer days one remembers from childhood.

· 2 Comments ·

Yesterday morning.

The weather has been so nice today, an almost perfect summer day like the ones one tend to remember from childhood even though here most summers used to rain away and the only reason one had to remember those warm and sunny summer days was because summer breaks were so long as a child 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We walked down to the creek this morning and thankfully there was a strong wind blowing so mostly we weren’t that annoyed by the flies, some did try and bite us but it was mostly the small really irritating forest flies that managed to keep up with the wind. Also the wind and sunny weather has now dried up the grass so for once none of us was soaking wet when we came back home and even better I couldn’t find a single tick on the dogs when I checked them before going inside. They do tend to calm down this time of year but normally I always find one or two anyway.

Couldn’t see any damselflies today but quite a lot very active small dragonflies. None would sit down long enough to be photographed though.

   

How come is it that every time one is waiting for more than one package they never arrive at the same day? I was up at the grocery store in Gudhem yesterday to pick up that tree I had ordered, today the next package arrived!!! I didn’t want to go there again today, just didn’t have the energy to be honest. I will however have to leave home tomorrow to pick up those new shoes and insoles. The rather annoying thing is that I have to drive the opposite way to pick up the package and then turn around to go to the hospital, almost back to home, and drive all the way to Lidköping. I know it’s a first world problem but oh so annoying 🙂 🙂

     

I haven’t done much today to be honest and that’s just how it is supposed to be while having vacation. I have watered all the trees, potted plants and all the newly planted perennials, there’s very little soil in the ground here, it is mostly sand, slate and bog ore so the ground dries up really fast as soon as it gets warmer and dryer. We have lots of Iron in the ground here so that’s why the water in the creek has that rusty color. Luckily not enough for anyone to start trying to bring it up and at the same time destroying the area. We also have one of the biggest deposits of Uranium in the mountain north of the lake. At the moment it’s forbidden by law to try and mine it but the right wing government that supports on the fascist party wants to remove that law. It is never a good thing for the environment to have a mine and especially not when it’s about Uranium. Well the people stood up and fought the government the last time they tried and they will again 🙂

     

It is time for a last cup of tea and today I won’t drink as much as I did yesterday, I woke up around three am and desperately needed to go downstairs 🙂 🙂 Oddly enough I managed to go back to sleep again and didn’t wake up until after six am 🙂

This is Salmiak, the kindest cat in the world. His biggest problem is that he believes that there’s good in everything and that has given him huge problems with dogs. My Albin tried to take him and I think at least three other dogs bitten him badly. Now days he tries to have some distance between himself and dogs. He is at least as old as Nova, so eighteen years old by now.

   

Have a great day!

· 8 Comments ·

Through my kitchen window early this morning.

We didn’t get a morning with cool air and morning mist, instead we had fairly warm morning with a thick layer of clouds above us. So instead of having a really nice and cool walk we had a walk in the forest where flies and mosquitoes reigned.  Still we’ve had worse walks so I’m not complaining too much 🙂

One of the cats living at the farm next door.

   

I think there was just one horsefly flying around and it found my hand so now it itches something nasty. Another one found me when I mowed the outside space but that one will never bother anyone else any more 🙂  To be honest this year has been pretty good when it comes to flies, with that I mean fairly few. If we get in to an area where suddenly lots of flies fly around it means animals are close, most likely wild hogs because there are always many together and therefore draws more of those annoying insects.

     

I had to go to the store in Gudhem today because the package with the Red Mulberry tree had arrived and it was just in time, the soil in the pot was so dry that I had to put it in a bucket of water as soon as I opened the package. As soon as the soil was wet I planted it in a bigger pot and I think I’ll keep it like that until next spring, down in the cool cellar. Now I have three different mulberry trees. This red one, a white mulberry with tasty berries and one called Mulle which is a Morus accidosa. I can’t find any info about M. accidosa so I think it must be some kind of hybrid. It gives black berries, really tasty ones, but they are smaller than the ones the Black Mulberry tree gives. So lets now hope we get a mild winter so that they all survive plus of course the Pawpaws and persimmons 🙂

 

Snails and slugs live in paradise when they find my Root zone.

So this is the last week on my vacation and I’m desperately hoping for that lottery winning 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t hesitate to quit my job immediately even though that is frowned upon (I really don’t hate my job but I’m not crazy in love with it either 🙂 🙂 ). Normally we have one month to work after we’ve given notice but since I wouldn’t plan on going back to work again ever so why bother 🙂 🙂 🙂 However until that happens, most likely five minutes before I leave this earth 🙂 🙂 🙂 I will have to keep on working, at least until I can retire and I think I’ll start with part time retirement when I’m 64, just a few years left 🙂 I think I would be really pi…d if I died before I could retire 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and later on I’ll watch Midsommer Murders, unfortunately they show Death in Paradise at the same time in another channel but since I’ve watched all the murders in Midsommer from the beginning the choice is easy tonight 🙂

     

Have a great day!