Category: Gardening.

Our National day and why.

June 8, 2024June 8, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

No ALT text today, it takes a long time and it's getting late.

Sorry about yesterday, first I visited my friend at the garden center and I can proudly tell You that I didn’t bring home and plants this time 🙂 I had been tired since the moment I woke up and when I came home I took a nap for well over an hour but was just as tired as before so I went to bed and slept all night long. I guess that I actually am having a cold because after our morning walk today I napped well over two hours but this time I’m not that tired again 🙂

So I was going to write something about our national day and why we celebrate it. There are two reasons for it, the first is that June sixth Gustav Vasa became king here in Sweden. Sweden was at that time occupied by Denmark and their king (we call him Christian the Tyrant 🙂 ) made a blood bath killing lots of the nobility in Sweden including Gustav’s father. He wanted revenge and fled north to gather the support of the people in Dalarna (a region in Sweden that sort of have become the picture of what Sweden is when it comes to traditions). No one really did support him but he did eventually get their support and he of course promised them a lot in return. The Danish king was driven out and when the good people in Dalarna actually expected to get what he had promised he happily slaughtered them.

Before him the nobility here always chose the next king but after him it became an inherited title. He had three sons all more or less insane and all became king over Sweden and Finland (which was a part of Sweden for centuries). The first one I guess had schizophrenia, married his non nobility mistress which wasn’t liked at all so his brothers put him in prison and eventually poisoned him with arsenic. They spared his wife and children though but she had to move to Finland, promising never to claim the throne for her children and what I know they had a great life there.

The second reason is that we got a new constitution 1809 that removed most of the Kings power, that I see as a really good reason to celebrate though but very few know about it here. The king by the way was a French buddy to Napoleon which he then turned against and we helped to win over him. Denmark’s capital Copenhagen was heavily bombarded by the Brits so that Napoleon wouldn’t be able to use their harbors so they sided up with Napoleon instead. So after Napoleon lost Denmark was punished by giving Norway to Sweden. There was however a big problem with that because Norway had already declared they were now independent of Denmark. So they were pissed of by this (in my opinion they rightfully were so) but back in the days You really couldn’t do anything unless You were prepared to go to war with the big powers in the world. To be honest we really didn’t want Norway because we wanted to get Finland back from the Russians who had taken it from us by winning a war against us but Russia was also on the winning side so Norway it was. Lasted until 1905 when they finally became a free country. Not that the Swedish king wanted that but he was wise enough to not start a war. To be honest I don’t think we ever have won a war against Norway, the last time we tried our own troops finally shot our king with a big button.

So anyway we haven’t had a national day for that long anyway, until 1983 it was the Swedish flag day (the next oldest country flag in the world, only the Danes have an older one) and it didn’t become a holiday until 2005. So since most people don’t know why we celebrate and to be honest Gustav Vasa was a horrible dictator, we never have sort of understood how to celebrate it (and to be honest they removed another holiday that we wanted to have much more so that sort of dampened the cheers 🙂 🙂 ) They do try to make it more festive but so far it is sort of a meh celebration we’re having 🙂 🙂 🙂

The morning walk was really pleasant, cool enough to keep flies and mosquitoes away but still sunny and no wind. We met two foxes and the deer doe was outside the garden once again, she doesn’t even react when we go out now days. Now however the rain is pouring down and it is quite chilly and we might get thunder later today. The weather will be much the same tomorrow, sunny morning and rainy before noon and with lots more rain. I don’t mind even though it would have been nice if we could have reached 20C (68F), we’re not even close today.

Magpie younglings photographed through mosquito net and window 🙂

Looks like it has rained over my car but it hasn’t, lots of morning dew here so this is normal every morning.

Remember I told about how easy it is to propagate tomatoes? Some tomato plants grow like a bush and others like vines. The vine ones are supposed to be pruneed by removing all shoots that grow out and those are easy to just put in soil.

Take those shoots and remove all but the to leafs and put them in a new pot.

They will create new roots along the stems and then You have new tomato plants. Normally our summers are too short to get any tomatoes on them but these had already flower buds so perhaps I’m lucky 🙂

Have a great day!

Cool and nice!

June 6, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

Malkolm sitting in the middle of the garden doing nothing, very unusual :-)

The mornings was quite cool here today, so cool that no mosquitoes or flies were pestering us even though we went out to the bog. Nova wanted to go down to the creek but since she has been a bit off since the last walk there I’d rather have her walking a shorter distance but at least come out so she could sniff on every track she found. Good appetite though so she’s not ill. She did get grumpy though so she dragged her feet all the way until she realized we were on our way home again, then she suddenly could walk really fast 🙂 🙂

The village on the mountain bathing in sunshine but they too got this mixed weather after a while. The haunted tree :-) Not all photos will have an ALT text, this is a piece of the log from a pine that was cut down earlier this year. Cool summer mornings has a special kind of light that I like a lot.

It has been less cool than what they were guessing in the weather sites and so far we’ve had a couple of small showers but that’s it. Lots of sunshine between the clouds as well. After we came home we had a little nap, well I tried to but Malkolm decided he would play with a nasty sounding plastic bottle so he woke me up every now and again. I guess the good thing was that I still just relaxed and most of the time even Alma stayed with me and Nova 🙂

Guelder rose in bloom. This one is unusually fine, they are almost always attacked by tiny pests. There's still water in the tiny tjärn.

I only found three ticks crawling around on the dogs when we came home, cool mornings keep those calm as well 🙂 The deer was outside in the cow pasture again this morning, I still haven’t see her young one but I’m pretty sure it’s out there with her. My neighbor, the Beekeeper, saw a doe with two young ones a couple of days ago. I guess that Alma and I are just too loud so that they can hear us from a long distance, Alma shouting and whining like always and me scolding her for it like always as well 🙂 The thing with Alma is that if she can keep calm until we pass the Beekeepers she’ll stay reasonable calm for the rest of the walk as well, if not we’ll have a constant war between us all they way 🙂 🙂 🙂

The first wheel shaped spider web for the year. Now when the forest has been thinned lots more ferns grow big.

I’m thinking of buying some fish to have in my water barrels again, there are so many mosquito larvae in them and I can’t find the fishing net so that I can bring them to the fish i my aquarium. The problem is that they now have so tough rules for pet shops to be allowed to sell aquarium fish that most just don’t care to do it, I’ve heard that the license to be able to sell fish just costs too much. Good thing for the fish, annoying for us humans. Well I can always go down to the creek and see if I’m lucky fishing there 🙂 🙂 🙂

The first wheel shaped spider web for the year. Now when the forest has been thinned lots more ferns grow big.

You don't want this one in Your garden, it can cover a big tree during a summer. The Swedish name foe it is Dog turnip :-) Its scientiffic name is Bryonia alba. — Bryonia alba is nothing You want in Your garden, it can cover a tree during one summer, smells nasty and I have had lots in my garden. Thankfully I’ve got rid of most of them.

Sorry but can't remember the name of this one at the moment :-) I have lots of our wild flowers in my garden, one can say that I'm lazy or say that I care for the pollinators :-) Chose the one You like most :-) — I have lots of wild flowers mixed with garden flowers in my garden. Some would say I’m lazy not weeding them out and some would say I think of the pollinators 🙂 🙂 🙂

Male flowers on Hardy Kiwi. — This is the male flowers on the Hardy Kiwi. My female plants are always freezing during winters (this one did in the beginning as well) so I’ve never seen those flowers but I think they look much the same.

Geum urbanum, much smaller and sort of shy comparing to all the garden varieties there are. — This is a Geum urbanum, grows everywhere here and beside it a wild pink Geranium.

The reasn this old flowerbed look so wild is that it actually grows a Sand cherry tree there, it is impossible to mow that area or keep in well maintained :-) — It grows a Sand cherry tree is that old flower bed so I can’t mow the area or remove all flowers we tend to call weeds 🙂

Another shower is just passing by and when they do the temperature drops a lot, then again it gets really hot when the sun shines instead so it evens out during the day 🙂 I forgot to write about our National day and what we are celebrating (most people doesn’t know why to be honest. So most just take this day as a day free from work and if the weather is nice they’ll barbecue something and just relax. I’ll try to remember to write about it tomorrow instead!

Have a great day!

Sunny, warm and unpleasant.

June 2, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

A Roe deer doe half hiding in the high grass, most likely the baby is there too.

Malkolm woke me up at 4 am today, so up we went so that he could go outside to pee. There was some morning mist just above the ground but instead of having our walk then we went indoors again and slept for an hour and a half instead.

The dog rose showed its pink buds for the first time yesterday. — I noticed that the Dog rose now is full of buds.

The deer was at almost the same place this morning. This one is actually closely related to the pink flower I've shown several times this spring.

It was still rather cool in the air when we finally went out but I could feel that it became warmer and warmer for every minute, so we just took a short walk before it went too hot for old Nova. Yesterday just before we went to bed I could see a Roe deer doe just on the other side of the gravel road and she was still there this morning. The grass is high so I think she had her baby there as well. She’s been hanging around for a while now so she knows us well and didn’t bother to even try and hide when we walked out the gate.

The Haunted tree :-) This is a favorite amongst all pollen drinking insects and also a favorite with spiders who there can get an easy meal. This trailer used to be where all the hunters gathered before the hunt started. The little tjärn still have some water visible.

I mowed the rest of the lawn and the outside parts as early as I could, then I did the laundry and the temperature dried it up within minutes. It did look like we would get thunder and rain again today but it all passed to the east and west of is. The day has been unpleasant though with the high humidity and temperature plus the fact that we’ve had very little wind, so we have mostly stayed indoors taking long naps instead.

The little creek is almost totally dried out but ferns will soon cover it.

I was outside for a few minutes an hour ago, the wind has started to blow but despite that I sweated like a pig when I planted some of the sowings (Hollyhocks and Morning glories). Also there were so many mosquitoes biting us that we all went in, closed the doors and now only have windows covered with mosquito nets open. They are guessing that tomorrow will be mostly cloudy and perhaps not warmer than 20C (68F) and that fits me fine 🙂

Today the first dog rose opened up.

My tree peony, bought last year, have already given me two flowers and a third is on the way. — My tree peony has two flowers and one bud now, unfortunately these flowers look down to the ground.

I wasn't sure if my lemon tree would survive last winter but it did anjd now it has lots of buds. — Lemon flower.

The second daylile flowers too now.

Have a great day!

Sticky flypaper.

May 26, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

I’m waiting for the rain and thunder, we already have the strong winds that usually comes with it. The dogs haven’t any energy to play. Every now and again they go outside to try and have fun but comes in again just to take a long nap. Even I joined them in one of their naps 🙂

We were up early today though, when it still felt a bit cool and the sun was shining. We took the short walk out to the bog and then back home again. None of them was especially enthusiastic about having a walk but they sure were when we headed back home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t blame them because there were about a gazillion mosquitoes out there and Nova is so badly bitten now that her face is a bit swollen and she has small wounds after scratching herself in the face. I can’t even imagine how bad it is for all the wild animals out there. Thankfully we don’t have any midges here. They are tiny and many and some years it can be so bad that if a Moose can’t get away from them all those midges actually can kill them. It’s a good thing this country have so many lakes they can flee out to.

So I haven’t done that much today, I’ve done the laundry and it dried up within a few minutes :-)I’ve watered the newly planted trees and also the Persimmon where the new branch is growing out plus the Pawpaw that survived the winter. I’ve also placed my summer tires in the car because tomorrow they’ll be put on and my winter tires taken off. I’m a bit late with getting that done to be honest 🙂 If the garage doesn’t have a car I can borrow I’ll just have a walk in Falköping while the job is done. I always do so when the car is in the garage and I always bring a camera. So if You want to see photos from Falköping wish that they don’t have a car, if You don’t wish to see Falköping just wish they have a car 🙂 🙂

If they don’t have a car I’m planning on buying a new garden hose and some other things while I’m there, that is if it takes long enough so that the stores open before the job is done and I have to go to work again. Some of them don’t open until 10 am and since I’ll be leaving my car at 7 am I might go to work long before that,unless the garage is really busy. Then again who says I need to go to work immediately 🙂 🙂

I haven’t done any dinner for work next week either, so I’ll buy something on my way to work for tomorrow and make dinner when I come home again for the rest of the week. I’m just looking at the thunder app and it is slowly closing in to us. It will feel good when it has passed and the temperature has dropped. I have done one more thing though, the first sticky fly papers now hang from the roof downstairs. A few have already found their way indoors even though I do have nets put up by the kitchen door and the windows. No matter what one does those flies always find a way in and thankfully they like to land on something close to the roof, those fly papers are heaven sent 🙂

Potatoes keep comming up even though it was three years ago I had potatoes in that patch 🙂 Those red leafs looking like clover is actually an Oxalis, a popular annual pot plant. Turns out it thrives in this climate so now it’s one of the more common weeds we have in our gardens. I don’t fight it , instead I embrace it and it does get cute yellow flowers 🙂

This is a native annual Geranium (not the pot plants You call geraniums because those are actually Pelargoniums).

Columbines comes in all kinds of varieties.

Have a great day!

I didn’t mind they were wrong about today’s weather :-)

May 25, 2024May 25, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

So today was supposed to be all cloudy and hot but without any wind. It started out that way but then the sun broke through so the hot part was right because we now do have a wind blowing thankfully. Before it started it was like living in a steam bath here. I couldn’t move a meter without sweating like a pig.

The cattle walking in the pasture outside the beekeepers place for the first time this year.

Rowan trees usually don’t grow especially high, this one is at least fifteen meters high (much the same in yards). We had one much bigger but that one was a victim this years thinning. A bit odd because it seems they’ve saved almost all other Rowan trees this time and we do have lots of them here.

We walked down to the creek while it still wasn’t too warm, we couldn’t follow it down stream though because now they let the cattle walk in to the pasture outside the beekeepers so they block the road with those electric wires and I really didn’t want to go through passing them with Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really didn’t want Malkolm to learn from her how to do it 🙂 🙂 🙂 So we walked it up-stream for a while until the grass became too high, damp grass close to a creek is a tick magnet. After that we walked back the same way and suddenly four wild hogs ran out in front of us, perhaps ten meters (much the same in yards) away from us. Alma reacted like always so no photos of them I’m afraid 🙂 🙂

This flowers Swedish name is Hag’s tooth 🙂

We actually woke up at 3:45 this morning because someone needed to go outside to do his business 🙂 Normally we would all just stay up and then take a walk as soon as the sun would start to rise. No sun was supposed to shine today though so we all just went back to bed and slept for two more hours and that is really unusual! The sun was shining when we went up again, went back in to the clouds while we were out walking and then came back and has stayed here all day and by the looks of it it’ll stay until it sinks down beyond the horizon. One good thing with yesterdays heavy showers is that I didn’t have to water anything today 🙂

The Persimmon hybrid that I bought last year and that looked healthy all winter through until that last snow storm is dead. Since it was a variety however it’s always grafted on a root from the actual persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, and I have hoped that the root has survived because it is so much hardier than the rest of the trees in that family. Today I noticed that a new branch is growing up from the root 🙂 🙂 So since I bought a real Persimmon this year I now will have two 🙂 Lets hope that one is female and one is male so I can grow my own fruits in the future 🙂 So now I have two Persimmon trees and with the my own seedlings nine Pawpaw’s 🙂

Can You see the little green dot at the base of the dead tree trunk? That’s new growth from the Persimmon roots 🙂

This is a new variety of White Mulberry tree with tasty berries. Normally the white mulberry tree gives edible fruits but someone said if one likes the taste of dry grass they’r pretty good 🙂 🙂 This one however gives sweet and tasteful berries. It was quite damaged by frost before it arrived here but it is coming back again.

This is on the other hand another Mulberry tree with the name variety name Mulle 🙂 (Morus accidosa). I once had a smaller tree here but one day my two big dogs dug it up and had lost of fun tearing it apart 🙂 🙂

I’ve bought a tea bush as well this year (Camellia sinensis). It’s just as picky as the Camellia we have as pot plants or in the gardens where the climate allows it but it doesn’t flower until late spring I’ve read plus if it gets big enough I can always try to make a cup of tea from its leafs 🙂 🙂 🙂

We’ve had our pancake Saturday, I’ve sown almost all of the flower seeds I still had (but there’s at least two more but I just can’t find the seed bags 🙂 ) and we’ve had a short nap when it was as warmest. I don’t think we slept for especially long but that nap did more for me than the two more hours in the morning did 🙂 So for the rest of the day I’ll just relax. I didn’t win the Euro jackpot yesterday which is strange since so many really hopes that I will win 🙂 I’ve promised that if I win that much money (around 100 million US dollars) no worker at my work place would have to work any more 🙂 (not even the ones I dislikes). With that much money I still would have perhaps 25 million US dollars left to myself and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t miss the other millions 🙂 🙂 🙂

I did sow Salvia pratensis seeds last year and I think this is it 🙂 The Swedish name for it is Meadow sage and it looks like it’s the same in English!

When You think all the Greater celandine have died out but then You remove some grass and cut away some branches and suddenly it’s everywhere in the garden 🙂 🙂

This is a rhubarb but not an edible one, this is the Chinese rhubarb. Well it is used in traditional medicine but don’t try it for a pie 🙂 Mine has grown in the shadows and too dry for too long so this year I moved it. It can become really big and is quite beautiful as an ornamental plant.

Well the smaller lottery is today with “only” 7,5 millions US dollars as minimum maximum winning. I think it might be higher at the moment. I’ve said that if I “only” win those millions all they can expect from me is a cup cake 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The Mosquitoes love the rain.

May 24, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

The plastic bag You can see is covering the handle on my old lawn mower, mostly because the birds ten to poop on it.

When I looked at the weather sites yesterday they said really warm all next week with almost only sunshine, today they say almost no sunshine and quite a lot of rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So Your guess to how it will be is as good as mine 🙂 I won’t mind some rain just as long as it doesn’t continue for too long plus the farmers need it so at least they will be really happy when it starts to fall 🙂

The last peat in the yellow plastic bag was so dry that this rain really helped 🙂

It is hard to catch the rain drops when taking photos.

Today they were almost right though, they guessed cloudy all day but no rain. It has been cloudy all day but just before I arrived here at home after work the clouds opened up and the rain started to pour down. My water barrels that were almost empty are now three quarters full. The ground here is still very wet so we here really don’t need the rain but it is nice to see that the barrels are full of water again.

Can’t remember the name on this weed but it does look harmless enough. It isn’t though because it becomes so dense that nothing else can grow up from the ground. Really good to stop water evaporating from the ground though, never dry beneath it.

The rain however stopped us from taking a walk and now there are so many mosquitoes flying around that it’s a bit nasty to have walks. Well they are guessing we’ll have sunshine and hot weather tomorrow again so we’ll just take an extra long morning walk before it gets too hot. This rain has unfortunately brought out both slugs and snails so some of my sowings (in containers) has been eaten. Tomorrow I’ll see if anything can be saved.

Alma hadn’t escaped the dog yard today either 🙂 This morning I took all small plastic bottles I could find here at home and put dog treats in them, I tried it with Malkolm at first and when he saw what I did to get those treats out he understood it. I don’t think Alma has a clue still because some of those bottles were heavily chewed so that the treats could come out 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well at least she has been busy 🙂

This container has not been visited by slug or snails so I moved it temporarily to a table on the other side of the cottage.The biggest leafs to the right are from Morning glories, beside them are Hollyhocks. Then comes False Dragonheads followed by Alpine Aster and Siberian Larkspur.

My little Red oak, it grows so slow here. I need to remove the vegetation around it so that it gets some sunshine.

So far only columbines and Giant Sequoia seeds have germinated in this container. Still no Chinese dogwood, Dawn redwood, Tulip tree or Sea kale. This one did have a small slug in it so that container has also been temporarily moved.

It is time to go out to check where I can place my Pawpaw seedlings so that the slugs and snails at least have a harder time to reach them. I’ll do it quickly because those mosquitoes mean business when they start arriving, Nova is already scratching herself badly, the other two have only been outside when they really needed to.

Have a great day!

Rain and thunder is close but won’t reach us.

May 23, 2024 · 8 Comments ·

There’s thunder nearby but looking at the radar sequence on all weather sites it will miss us, I wouldn’t mind if we had gotten the rain because my two big water barrels are closing in to be empty and the cooler air would be nice as well. The cool air will come tonight though but only stay for one day, it’ll be warm again on Saturday.

A tiny part of my Lilac hedge, I have around 30 meters (much the same in yards) of it and I truly dislike Lilacs 🙂 🙂 In front of it stands a Red leafed Rose.

Whitebeam. A close relative to the Rowan tree and can become fairly large. I would like to have one in my garden but I have so many other trees growing now so it’ll have to wait until I win the lottery and can buy lots of new land 🙂 🙂 🙂

We haven’t had any walk today because it is just too hot for a puppy and an eighteen year old dog, it was bad enough yesterday when we were out for a short walk. Still I’m not yet complaining about it being too warm 🙂 Alma and Malkolm have been outside playing a lot though and now they sleep here beside me on the cooler floor while Nova sleeps on two fleece blankets and snoring loudly as well 🙂

Alma has stayed in the dog yard all day today, Yay 🙂 funny because today had been the perfect day for her to do it when it comes to me and my job. The same company all day long, only one color and long series of what I painted. She always escapes those days when it is most inconvenient 🙂 🙂 🙂 I must admit though that the dog yard hasn’t been this clean and tidy in a long time. I’ve been there fixing and cleaning almost every day and all eventual plants that tends to grow in there are almost totally gone 🙂 Nothing bad that doesn’t bring something good with it as we say over here 🙂 🙂

So I’ve mostly hand watered the vegetable patch and all the potted plants. The vegetable patch has only been fried by the sun but the wind can’t reach it, so the ground was actually a bit damp on the surface now in the evening. The potted plants however needed a lot of water. It’s always a bit tricky to water all the potted trees and bushes because some need acidic water, like the Pawpaw and other preferres water with lots of lime in it, like peaches and Apricots. So now I need to place them in two groups so that I don’t use the wrong water.

One of the Ginkgo’s I had in my garden survived the snow storm, the other one seems to have died.

My seed sown Pawpaw’s. Three of them now have new leafs growing out and three have leafs since during winter and I think those need to drop before they too get new leafs.

Can You see the tiny green dots? New leafs on the outdoors Pawpaw!

This and the next one shows the two Pawpaws I bought this spring.

I can also tell You that the Pawpaw that stayed in the garden all winter has survived because today I could see the first tiny leafs growing on it 🙂 The Columbines are opening up now and the tree peony has big buds 🙂 My seeds sown Gardenias are either flowering or just about to. The seeds sown aren’t filled with petals like the ones we can buy and has a slightly weaker scent so they are easier to have if one has problems with strong smells.

Columbine. If You look at the petals they look like a dove seen from the side, hence the name, columbine means dove like.

This and the next one is the same species but since they self sow all kinds of varieties can show.

I “won” almost nine dollars US on the lottery yesterday 🙂 I use ” because if I don’t win on Saturday I’ve only lost 3 dollars US 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s a bit sad when one is happy because one only lost three dollars 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Doing everything while it is cool.

May 19, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

Another warm day here, My thermometers aren’t to trust when it comes to how warm it has been since both are hit by the sun. But I think that 25C (77F) is most likely. So everything I had to do today had to be done before it went too warm. So I watered vegetables, trees and a rose while it still was fairly cool, after that we went out for our morning walk.

Lots of water still and the reason for all the mosquitoes we have around our cottages.

It could have been much nicer if it wasn’t for all the mosquitoes and the first of the oh so annoying forest flies. Forest flies don’t bit or anything like that, they annoy! They come in big swarms flying around our heads and do their best to try and fly in to nostrils and ears. They are usually quite calm in the very early morning when it still is cool, almost chilly, after that I need to wear a mosquito hat while walking in the forest because they drive me crazy! On one hand I truly hate them on the other it is amazing we have so many and that they are food for lots of birds and other animals. Now days when driving during summer there’s no need to wash off all crushed flies on the windshields because there are no crushed flies any more. I guess they all moved to this bog 🙂 🙂 🙂

The laundry is done as well and everything dried within 20 minutes 🙂 despite the lack of wind and hanging in the shadows. We will get stronger winds again the coming week they’re guessing and I won’t mind, strong winds means no mosquitoes or forest flies, they will do what they can to hang on to vegetation and not blow away 🙂 More wind however mean more watering. The ground is still damp but the surface will dry up and since I’ve just sown seeds that mustn’t happen until the roots have grown deep to more reliable water sources. The ground water is just 2,5 meters (much the same in yards) down here.

Ash tree. The first to drop its leafs in autumn and the last to get new ones in spring.

I’ve also re-potted most of my orchids. I’ve now placed them all on the north side of the cottage and after a week or so I’ll place them in the trees and leave them there doing nothing (unless we’re having a drought, then I’ll water them but not otherwise). I’ll also place my Christmas and easter cacti there as well. All I have left to do now is to make dinner for work next week and take a look at my notes for the road association meeting next week. We’ve already had a long nap but I’m still just as tired, pollen season does this to me. Then again the warm weather arrived so fast that the heat does this to me as well but I refuse to complain about that 🙂 🙂

I do need to check the melon vines I planted this morning as well. I think I better cover them with something now when the wind will arrive, they really can’t manage dry soil especially well. I haven’t seen many Cabbage butterflies yet but I better start to think about covering the little cabbage seedlings as well. The sun is coming back from behind the clouds we’ve had for an hour or so so I better go out and check those melon vines!

The extremely hardy Rosemary. It is said to survive -25C (-13F).

I have to protect the young Tree peony so the dogs don’t break it 🙂

One Ginkgo and most of my smaller citrus seedling plus all of the Guava seedlings to the right.

Three of the first kind of pear tree seedlings survived winter in the cool cellar

Here are the bigger citrus trees, they all need more iron, hence the yellowish leafs.

Have a great day!

I have a few Sand cherry trees in my garden, I love the berries but birds are fast.

There isn’t any big difference between the subspecies but the first one seems more easily hit by mildew.

My new Persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana).

Old Nova was outside too before it was too hot even for her.

The snail had a long shower while I was watering the vegetable patch 🙂

If it hadn’t been for the mowing.

May 18, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

If it hadn’t been for having to mow the lawn today would have been a perfect day. Cool but sunny and wind free morning, ok it gave the mosquitoes a good opportunity to drink our blood and we will all probably scratch ourselves a lot tonight 🙂 🙂 I am lucky in a way though because I get immune pretty quickly from the itchy thing we got so after four or five bites I usually don’t feel it any more, I can only hope the dogs are lucky that way too 🙂

We now have pine pollen everywhere, my car is now covered in yellow pollen every morning.

I think this is a Greylag feather (well could be crane as well) I should have brought it with me and made a quill pen 🙂

We walked down to the creek, the birds were singing like crazy and I could also hear lots of geese honking up in the sky. Lots of animals had followed and passed the gravel road so both Nova and Malkolm had to stop everywhere to sniff to get what animals it might have been, Alma ran around like crazy as always 🙂 The dogs had already eaten before the walk but I had my breakfast as soon as we had come home. They said that it would be rather warm today and yes it has been and still is. So I went out and watered the vegetable patch and all the potted plants after that.

I let it be for a while so the water could sink down into the ground and then I went out to sow more flower seeds in the old vegetable patch and after that I sowed split beans, two different peas, carrots and one more thing I at the moment can’t remember what it is 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have lots of different vegetable seeds waiting to be sown in places where what I originally sowed won’t start to grow. A few days ago I also sowed different flower seeds and also some of the seeds I sowed when it still was cold are now germinating as well 🙂

I still plants that needs new spaces in the garden but I still haven’t figured out where 🙂 After the sowing we all had a long nap before I went out to mow that lawn. I didn’t drink enough with water so after a while I was bone dry in my mouth and not even thinking on lemons gave any result 🙂 🙂 I usually aren’t careless about that since I need to drink a lot of water at work because my workplace is close to a big oven so if I don’t drink a lot during the day I will get headaches. Only Alma kept me company while I mowed, Malkolm who now learns what warm weather is slept at the coolest place he could find, north side in the cottage just beside the entrance door and Nova slept in the kitchen close to the open kitchen door.

The vegetable patch. I’ve gone back to more traditional way of growing them. If one co plant with other vegetables if one doesn’t grow all of it will be a mess.

Six photos showing what’s in bloom in my garden right now.

They are all still sleeping but now close to me, I opened the window on the opposite end of the cottage so that the little wind there is now can blow through the upper floor. It is time for them to have something to eat and after that I think I’ll sow some more flower seeds, they are getting old so I’m not sure how well they are but to be honest one can’t have either too many trees or too many flowers 🙂

Aronia. The berries might be super berries as they call them but they taste like shit to be honest. To say they are tart is an understatement 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Time flies sometime.

May 14, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

The photos today can be from today but also from a day or two back.

I don’t know where yesterday went! It passed by so fast that I all day today have believed it is Monday today 🙂 🙂 Two days with no Alma escaping the dog yard, it feels like it’s my turn to win the lottery tonight 🙂 🙂

It has been really warm today so we didn’t take any walk after work, Malkolm is after all only three months old and 25C (77F) is a bit too much when being so Young. Still he and Alma played in the garden both before and after their dinner so it wasn’t that much of a difference to be honest 🙂 🙂 Well they were close to water any time they wanted to drink.

I watered the planted trees and the vegetable patch on the part where I had sown seeds and Malkolm thought it was really funny to catch the water jet 🙂 🙂 Alma kept her distance from it though, the risk of getting clean really scares her 🙂 🙂 Nova slept in the kitchen 🙂 🙂 Sleeping is mostly what she does now days but every now and again she starts to play with the others just as though as they do 🙂

I cut Malkolm’s claws today, he’s really good at screaming in pain long before I’m even close 🙂 🙂 Any imagined pain is gone as soon as he sees the treat bag though, sometimes that bag is so good that he forgets to complain at all 🙂 Alma really doesn’t care, just cut the claws and give me the treats 🙂 Nova is also easy since I can cut them while she’s sleeping, I will however wake her up for her treat 🙂

Three of my four apple trees are in bloom now.

They’re guessing that we will have this wonderful weather for at least ten more days. Back in the days we knew that if May was warm and nice June would be cool and rainy and July when most people have their vacations over here would then be warm and nice. Today we never know, it can switch pretty fast. Last year my entire vacation was rainy and rarely warmer than 20C (68F) and for me that was quite ok, I’ve rarely felt so relaxed after a vacation because one couldn’t do anything outside anyway so I had long naps every day 🙂

I marked where I've sown seeds with small stones along the lines :-) — I marked where I’ve sown seeds with small stones along the lines 🙂

The melons decided to start flower now, I haven’t even separated them yet 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

First summer day.

May 11, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

I’m so glad I didn’t have to go anywhere with the dogs today 🙂 Life is so much calmer and easier when we’re all at home 🙂 We woke up pretty early today and I saw the most red sky I think I’ve ever seen in my life, unfortunately I only had the phone with me and after dropping it so many times on the ground the camera is having problems showing the right colors, the best I got was a pale pinkish color. It didn’t last for long because clouds soon covered the sky.

Grape elder and this is as much colors we get from flowering trees here, the Maples are quite yellow as well but most tree flowers are white.

It was around 5C (41F) and even without the sun quite bright outside. I like our cool mornings for many reasons but one of the best reasons is that the ticks tends to not catch us while we walk by, also it had rained during the night and even though ticks like damp areas they truly dislike wet. I had hoped Nova would want to go to the bog today but down to the creek is what she wanted, I did however manage to make her walk up-stream and in to the old forest. Nova and Malkolm stopped at every spot that had some kind of smell, there were lots of spots 🙂 Alma ran around whining and hated that we didn’t move when she wanted to see the entire world in five minutes 🙂 We did thankfully not see a single animal because today I think that would have been a bit too much for her 🙂

The sun did come out of the clouds shortly after we had come home and with it higher temperatures. It even reached well over 20C (68F) today and with very little wind it almost was too warm when I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I was a bit worried about Malkolm for a while because he sort of lost his energy, mostly he just wanted to sleep indoors and I did worry that it could be tick related. It took a while for me to understand what was wrong, Malkolm has never experienced warm weather! 🙂 He was born when it was cold, he moved here just before the last push of winter and snowstorm. After that it has been unusually cool here but today it went warm and he learned that warmth will make You tired, especially if one plays a lot in the sunshine 🙂 🙂

So I mowed the lawn and after that I’ve re-potted all the apricot trees and the two peaches. I’ve planted the two Pawpaw trees, one seed sown and one variety. I will not do anything with the ones I sowed, not until they start to grow again after the winter in the cool cellar and I’ll also wait with the tiny pear trees. My four year old neighbor made a bracelet for me today and I’ll wear it with pride. It is made with metallic blue beads and white beads with letters on. Now she is only four so the letters doesn’t say anything 🙂 She loves Alma as long as Alma doesn’t lick her in the face and Alma is constantly licking her in the face 🙂 🙂 She is still a bit unsure about Malkolm though be she has nothing against him licking her hands 🙂 🙂

I’ve also weeded the vegetable patch. Mostly grass, dandelions and geraniums that moved it but also some raspberry bushes and a weed called Catchweed or Cleavers. It has an ability to stick to anything passing by and especially long haired animals are full of the seeds later in summer. It is apparently full of vitamin C and the fresh seeds are good in a salad they say and dried seeds can be used as a coffee surrogate. Doesn’t matter how good it is I don’t want it in my garden but probably will because of my dogs 🙂 🙂 I don’t mind the dandelions so much though because the entire plant is edible even though the root is bitter but can be cut down, roasted and used as another coffee surrogate 🙂 The flowers and leafs are really tasty in a salad. Just think of only taking small leafs since they too can be a bit bitter when big.

The Harness is too big for him but he’s growing so fast that it soon will fit really well.

All the dogs are completely knocked by this warm weather so they are all sleeping heavily on the floor beside me. I had hoped the ice cream lorry would come today because it could be nice to have some ice cream when I’ll be watching the Eurovision song contest tonight. The Netherlands have been disqualified because the singer apparently attacked a film crew?! It is said that he asked the crew not to follow and film him and when they didn’t give a shit about that he did something. Israel on the other hand can compete despite killing thousands of small children in the Gaza strip, strange how different we can see the world!

and after. A good thing with almost only sand in the ground is that it isn’t hard to remove weeds, a bad thing is that it dries up way too fast but as long as one cover every bare spot with grass cuttings the ground will stay damp and the decaying grass cuttings will work as fertilizer.

My new lawn mower, I always think it looks like a formula one racing car 🙂

The bracelet my four year old neighbor made to me 🙂

It is time to make a pot of tea and then hope I won’t fall asleep during the competition 🙂

Have a great day!

The thunder did arrive.

May 5, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

The sky just before the thunder arrived yesterday.

The thunder did arrive not long after I posted the blog. It struck somewhere in the northern part of the village and not especially much south of my cottage. Thankfully none of the dogs react to thunder so we just relaxed while it was here. The showers were quite hefty though and washed away the grass seeds I had spread here and there in the garden, well I have plenty left so I can continue to sow if this would happen again 🙂

We woke up to a wonderful foggy morning, it was so thick that it even was foggy in the forest, that rarely happens here. We walked out to the bog and I could hear Cuckoo birds all over the area. We have a saying here when it comes to Cuckoo birds and the first time we hear it every year, so here’s some Swedish: Norrgök är torrgök, södergök är dödergök, östergök är tröstergök men västergök är bästergök. Gök is the Swedish name for the Cuckoo bird. So the saying say that if one hear the Cuckoo bird from north the first time it’ll be a dry summer, if You hear it from south someone close will die. If You hear it from east You will need comforting but it’s best to hear it from west which means it’ll be a great year. I heard it from east and I hope that included poor Albin because I don’t want more of comforting this year 🙂

Even though we took an hour long nap today I’ve been fairly busy. I’ve done two sets of laundry, I’ve made pancakes, I’ve re-potted all the tomato plants and also all bell peppers.Plus of course I have been watering all those trees I’ve already planted in the garden. I have defrosted some meat to make as dinner for work next week but I’ve forgotten to do anything with it and now I feel it’s too late in the day to start doing it. So I’ll do it tomorrow instead, just as well because I barely had any vegetables at home, I thought I had something more than tomatoes but I was so wrong 🙂

Only three working days next week though, holiday on Thursday and what we call a squeeze day on Friday. Some will work on Friday but I really didn’t want to when I don’t have to.Will not be any great weather according to the weather sites but I don’t care. I’ll just relax all four days until next working week 🙂

A Jackdaw inspecting the Magpies nest. I wonder if it would have used it if the Magpies haden’t used it right now? Jackdaws usually nest in chimneys and my neighbors chimney has always been a target 🙂

Alma inspected the pastures on the other side of the gate a long time this morning. She sat there with me as well for a long time when we waited for the laundry to be ready 🙂It is time to bring in the laundry that hangs outside. The sky is dark grey around the village so I better bring it in. The first round dried in a few minutes but we had sunshine and a very weak wind, now we don’t have any of that.

This is how it looks when one forgets or delays the re-potting of the tomato plants 🙂

90% of the plant is now below the surface and the plant will create roots all the way there making it much stronger than it otherwise would be.

I decided four potted tomato vines would be enough the rest I either planted in the ground like here or in a raised bed I still have where a redberried gooseberry bush grows.

Have a great day!