Category: I’m sick again.

Lots of water in the creek.

December 10, 2025 · 6 Comments ·

So we had a night without any disturbance thankfully but Alma was in a hurry to go outside. She hurried away behind some bushes in the garden so I couldn’t see how bad it was but she’s full of energy and happy so I guess she’s ok.

She’s not the one pooping outside the garden unless she’s desperate and that was what she was when we were out on our morning walk and this time I could check how bad her stomach was, I have seen worse 🙂 and most of what comes out are peanuts! I have no idea how much she ate from that big bag of peanuts but by the look of it at least a third of it 🙂 🙂

So she’s getting better but she farts and the smell is something that most likely can knock down a rhino 🙂 🙂 It is a horrible mix of sweet, sour and something that must have been dead for a week or so. I’ve tried to let the wind blow through the cottage, sprayed more of that air cleaner and used loads of matches but it has already sort of stuck to the walls and furnitures! I better go to the grocery store in Gudhem tomorrow to buy more rice.

Besides that the day has been rather nice, we walked down to the creek this morning and the latest rain has really filled up the creek again. It would of course not have been this full of water if the beavers hadn’t blocked the concrete pipe that goes beneath the gravel road. The thing is that I haven’t seen any more traces of beaver activity and haven’t in a few weeks so if they’ve moved they really should unblock that pipe. If we’ll get more rain which is quite possible that creek soon will overflow and start filling the fields as well 🙂

It is time to have that last cup of tea and some ice cream as well 🙂

Have a great day!

Only 13 more days till the winter solstice.

December 8, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

So I had another little mouse in the box trap this morning, I do hope that’s the last one for this season 🙂 But just in case more will visit I’ve now bought a small travel cage for hamsters on our eBay called Tradera. So if they’ll get caught while it still is dark outside and to be honest it seems to be dark all the time now, I can put it in there until the daylight returns. I guess it’s best to give them some peanuts during the time they’ll be in the arrest 🙂

Today it was so dark that I had to put the camera on ISO 5000 and the photos still came out rather dark, so most of them are being brightened up. The colours did look a bit odd so I changed it to black and white as well (any coloured photo I might put in was taken yesterday). To make it even funnier it has rained all day.

At the beginning just drizzle but after a while we had heavy rain instead plus a small storm was passing by. Didn’t notice much of it here in the garden though, the neighbours cottage and garage plus the forest took all of it instead 🙂 That wind did bring warmth with them so we might even reach 10C (50F) on Wednesday.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I have a slight fever and a slightly sour throat now, Don’t know how I got it since I barely leave my home. I noticed my neighbours were at home as well today so I guess they have it too. It doesn’t feel like an influenza thankfully t I’ll drive to the supermarket tomorrow morning and buy some ice cream and rose-hip soup 🙂

Have a great day!

Nasty wind.

November 20, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

I doubt the monster wanted the bird seeds 🙂

Less cold today but we’ve had a nasty, bitterly cold wind blowing almost all day so it has been rather unpleasant to be outdoors. It was totally calm on our morning walk though so that was nice. I think I might have a fever now, I woke up last night felling awfully hot but my bedroom is anything but and today I’ve had a slight fever and sneezed a lot all day. I’m not sitting here feeling sorry for myself though but I do hope this isn’t the beginning of something worse like what my neighbours had last week.

Nothing special is happening here at the moment. I have been thinking on Christmas decorations for some reason. I haven’t had a lot of that because cats and having rather big dogs that picked anything in their reach and chewed on them if they liked the taste 🙂 🙂 I do have a nice plastic Christmas tree and I’ve used it for two years but now I have a cat again 🙂 🙂 I do remember having a nativity set back in the days that I liked a lot but then one day I couldn’t find it, turns out my mother had given it away without asking me, quite common behaviour from her I’m sorry to say.

So I went online to see what they had there. Lots of different ones and they cost a fortune! Some I think I would be able to do better myself to be honest. I did find one I liked meant to be hanging on a wall I guess but it is oddly enough supposed to be filled with water?? Is it a kind of snow globe perhaps and every time one shakes it snow will fall down over the people? 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest, I have seen worse and I think that one would be the one working best because it would hang like a painting on the wall and the monster wouldn’t care about it. I’ll better check it once again 🙂

I took an extra look at it and no there’s no snow in it 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s called a lantern with LED lights in it but why the water? Also rather expensive to be honest. Well I’ll keep on looking or perhaps I should try to make one myself even though making the humans and animals will be very tricky 🙂 🙂 I do of course have the advent candlestick I made from clay last year. It’s not the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen but I did it myself, perhaps I should order some clay again and make the nativity set 🙂 🙂 I will at least have lots of fun making it 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then go out on the net to see whether I’ll buy some clay 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

It did feel much colder.

October 13, 2025 · 6 Comments ·

We had a beautiful sunny morning today but it was nasty cold. I don’t understand why it felt that could because we’ve had colder mornings that didn’t feel as bad 🙂 Lots of frost, no wind and sunshine and still my hands froze to ice 🙂

No moose flies or ticks though so that was a big plus 🙂 We walked down to the creek and followed it up stream. Small birds were tweeting and they Jays screaming but the most noticeable sound was the frozen leafs falling to the ground, for a while I thought squirrels must be jumping between the trees and sort of was disappointed when I understood that it just was icy hard frozen leafs 🙂

Today we finally could walk up and in to the older forest, nothing much had changed since the last time we were there except that the fallen trees had been removed. I don’t know why but it always feel safe when walking there and it is a bit odd since there’s nothing dangerous anywhere in this surrounding 🙂 Also compact spruce forest isn’t even my favourite kind of forest to be honest. I guess it’s because not a sound from the outside world can reach in there, not even now when all leafs are falling off the trees outside.

he temperature managed to rise up to 10C (50F) but not even the sunshine could make it so nice that I could have the kitchen door open. We were outside in the garden quite a lot but each time a bit short because the dogs wanted to go inside, none of them are cold weather dogs 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it is that time of year so we better get used to the colder weather. The supermarket has already put up a Christmas tree by the entrance and it is full of coloured lights. I wonder why they want us to hate Christmas by the time it’s actually here?

This little cold I have makes me more tired than I thought it would be so today we took a long nap the dogs and I. Well I’m getting older so I guess I’ll have to get used to that even smaller colds have this effect on me now. I can’t say I feel especially sick but it seems my body really doesn’t care about that 🙂 🙂 🙂 The only thing I’ve actually done today is to order new spiked winter shoes. A certain black dog who loves to chew on shoes destroyed the ones I already had. They were a few years old but still in really good shape so to say I was quite annoyed by him doing that is a bit of an understatement 🙂 For once I had just left them on the floor and Malkolm will never miss a chance like that to a new chew toy 🙂 🙂 🙂 well two since he managed to destroy both 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day andI’m pretty sure I’ll doze of in front of the tv even though they show my favourite science program today 🙂

Have a great day!

Much better and two surprises.

June 15, 2025 · 10 Comments ·

I can’t pretend I feel especially well at all but I do still feel much better than I did just a couple of days ago. The fever is gone and most pain as well, the pain I do have is mostly because I haven’t been moving around especially much. As soon as I do move around it stops. I guess that’s because the fonts always are in pain anyway so all this lying and sitting doesn’t help.

We had a warm summer day here yesterday, a bit too warm for my liking but still rather nice. Today will be even warmer they say but also more cloudy. So the kitchen door was open for quite some time until a surprise shower passed by, after that it also became very humid so the door had to be closed. Then suddenly another one passed by and it became even worse 🙂 🙂

I’ve had one of those leaf cacti in my kitchen for years and I’ve never seen it in bloom, so guess how surprised I was to find this flower and buy the other dayI I’ve never seen white flowers on these, only red so I was sort of both really happy and still a bit sad because I thought they would be red 🙂 🙂 🙂

You know I told You about that deep red peony I had bought but the dogs managed to kick off the bud? So it is pink instead 🙂 🙂 Two wrong deliveries A creamy yellow that should have been ours white and one pink that should have been dark red. All peonies are beautiful is I won’t complain anyway, they were both on sale anyway 🙂

Yesterday the dogs decided they should pay my closest neighbours a visit and they are allowed to do so but only when they are at home and outside. Suddenly I heard a ruckus of cackling chickens and called back the dogs as fast as I could. I wasn’t aware that they had chickens at all so I was a bit confused 🙂 🙂 🙂 Turns out that it was the newest neighbours down the road, well not the neighbours but their chickens 🙂 🙂 They had decided to make a visit to my neighbours as well 🙂 🙂 Nothing bad happened though and I was later told that the owner had come and scolded the chickens and they haven’t been here since 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have been hydrating a bit too well lately, what goes in must come out, so I’ve been up around every third hour during nights 🙂 🙂 🙂 I let the dogs out at the same time and I must say that being outside at night is really nice. Much cooler and fresher air and since I live this far north on this little globe of ours not especially dark either. The best thing though is that we so far have very few mosquitoes, the ground has been too dry this year, so not being attacked by them has been really nice. I haven’t even had problems falling asleep when we’ve come in again and that made it even better 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and then open the kitchen for again so the dogs can go outside, Malkolm was so sad when he could’t go in and out as he pleased that he fetched his favourite toy, a big octopus and brought it to the sofa to sleep some more 🙂

Have a great day!

I think it is finally letting go.

June 13, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

We have fewer hornets here this year and I think it is because we don’t have any honeybees, hornets eat all kinds of insects and especially honey bees.

So it felt better on Wednesday, still with fever and tiredness but still better. Yesterday it hit bad again and I started to wonder what I really was having. The thing is that usually when having high fever one boils and freeze with heavy sweating but I never had that sweating, until this morning and everything felt so much better when it started. Haven’t been freezing all day though .

Well magpies, even the young ones, loves to lure cats out on the thinnest branches and then just leave laughing out loud. This is what it looks like when the monsterkitten tried to get back down.

Also I haven’t had any problems falling asleep at any time during this cold, I just sat down and fell asleep. Today I haven’t been able to take a nap at all so I think this might be the beginning of the end of this cold 🙂 Another strange thing is that in the beginning I had pain in al joints but now the pain has settles around my elbows and wrists, nowhere else 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t pretend to have been active at all today but I have managed to take a couple of tors in the garden and that’s more than I’ve managed before. I even found a nest in one of the trees with doves in it :-)We have two forest doves here and it looks like it is the bigger one of them nesting in one of my Ginnala maples 🙂

These gooseberries aren’t ripe until red.

The sprouts are growing rather well now.

So are the potatoes in the vegetable garden.

Scleroderris canker hit our prunus trees (and other trees as well) hard sometimes so this is what many of them look like now. Hard to fight as well so we either have to live with it or take anything hit by it down.

I’m even a bit hungry today so now I need to find something in the freezer, I feel that another bowl with corn flakes won’t do it today 🙂 It is almost quiet in the village, just one of the farmers driving around with a tractor. The first warm day in quite some time as well, so I’ve been sitting on the kitchen stairs with Alma a lot today, IU can’t understand how she can like it because she’s becoming really hot, heaving a lot but still won’t walk in to the shadows. Malkolm is more reasonable with that 🙂 I need to go to the supermarket tomorrow to fill up the fridge, freezer and larder. The coming week is an evening week at work and it sort of feels wrong to go on an early morning when I’ll be working until midnight.

It is time to take a look in that freezer for something to eat and I’ll also make more rose-hip soup 🙂

Have a great day!

A little update.

June 10, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

Just a short one today. The fever goes up and down all the time but it looks like it goes down slightly more that it goes up 🙂 🙂 :-)Feel like sh.t but sleep away most of the day.

Yesterday morning was quite foggy but we had sunshine later in the day.

The dogs behaves amazingly well, before when I was in the sofa normally only one would stay with me and the other would jump to the other sofa. Now they both agree how to squeeze down just beside me, it Geta a bit warm I. can tell You 🙂 🙂 🙂

A rainy afternoon and a cloudy day before that but sometimes the sun managed to shine through the clouds when they were a bit thinner, So I sat on the kitchen stairs for a while so the dogs could play in the garden. They do need to get rid of their energy some way and playing is the best I think.

I’ll make a pot of tea now and after that I’ll shower my head and neck with cold water and it feels so good afterwards. After that I’ll most likely fall asleep with the dogs in the sofa again 🙂

Have a great day!

Not the best of days today.

June 8, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

I’m feeling like sh.t today, no fever though so I hope this will be better tomorrow when I go to work. I’ve eaten lots of honey and been drinking a lot of tea but most of all I’ve been sleeping in the sofa a lot. It gets really warm when two dogs decide to share the sofa with me 🙂 🙂 🙂 No walk today but we did walk around yesterday so the photos comes from then.

The road associating meeting went smooth and quickly and after that we just sat and talked. I gave up after one and a half-hour and I think the rest stayed for half an hour more. It bis a good way to learn to know other people in the village by going to these meeting even though they’re only once a year. Especially when they go as well as it did yesterday, then again one learns a lot when there are fights as well even though that was long ago that happened 🙂

Some sunshine today, some rain as well and when the sun showed it became so warm that it felt like walking in to a steam bath 🙂 🙂 The dogs have been going in and out of the cottage all day but I had to shut the kitchen door when the clouds became too thick. I’ve done my laundry and dinner is cooking in the slow cooker and today those were the shores I had to do.

I started to cut away big chunks of the Hungarian lilac yesterday. Still thick branches left but I’ll have to use a sw to get rid of those. When I had done that I realised that I could plant the potted gingko tree there. Didn’t go especially well because there weren’t a lot of roots in the pot, the tree managed to fall down leaning heavily towards one direction but a top branch is now instead pointing upwards so I just let it be as it is. Now I think I only have one red mulberry tree left to plant, five pear trees and possibly an apricot as well. I was thinking about possibly plants the trees as trellised but seed sown trees usually grow really high and there will be a lot of pruning to keep them low enough so I’m not sure but I will have that in mind when it is time.

It is time to check the dinner in the slow cooker and after that I’ll make a pot of tea 🙂

Have a great day!

I have a cold again.

June 6, 2025 · 2 Comments ·

I think this is a Welsh poppy. It is said to behave like a bad weed but not here. I sow it every year and all I’ve gotten is two or three that usually dies during winter despite it being a perennial.

I always complain about not being able to remember my dreams, I think I’ve done that at 5 times as maximum. However I do remember the dream I had last night and I was so annoyed that I woke up at 4 am and couldn’t fall asleep again 🙂 I dreamed that there was a tiny black and walking all over my back and when ever I tried to get rid of it it rushed out of reach 🙂 🙂 I even tried to squash it by lying down and rub my back towards the bed 🙂 🙂 🙂

When I woke up I realised that I now have a cold and a slight fever. Lots of people have it now but it seems to be short lived so my guess is that it’s over by Monday. My entire body hurts, especially my neck and head and since I can’t even eat anti inflammatory pills for children I have to rely on coffee 🙂 🙂 I’ve had too much coffee today so all I can do is to wish that it’s over by tomorrow.

If You look carefully You can see the monster climbing in a bush. She tried to surprise a magpie youngling and all magpies just laughed out loud 🙂

I checked my lottery tickets on Wednesday evening. It is called Lotto and one has to pick to seven numbers out of 35. They’ll also draw four extra numbers that if one has six right and one of the extra numbers one win a bit more. You won’t be rich by having six right and an extra number but You would still be very happy. The big money is in seven right, then it can be millions we’re talking about. Well I got four right and then three of those extra also were my numbers. So technically I had seven right numbers but in the wrong way 🙂 🙂 🙂 So instead of millions I won what would be $ 2 US 🙂 🙂 🙂 I didn’t even get annoyed, I just laughed out loud 🙂 🙂 🙂

Rainy day today but we have actually had some sunshine as well. A bit chilly though but I’ve been outside wearing a sweater just so I could get some fresh air and feel a bit less sick 🙂 The dogs and I stayed outside for quite a while yesterday evening. My lilacs have weak branches so when ever it rains they hang down so it is impossible to walk beside them to get around the cottage. So all evening yesterday I pruned away all branches that hangs low. I also cut away those being behind the huge roses and bled quite a lot after that 🙂 🙂 plus I opened up around the Red oak so it gets more light and air. So now it’s like a tunnel behind the roses and both I and the dogs can walk there now 🙂

Now I can pass without being drenched every time it has rained.

It continues on the other side of the gate.

These are the roses from the other side 🙂 No one can see me from the garden and no one from the road because of the lilacs 🙂

I think it is time for another cup of coffee but before that I’ll have some honey. I’m so tired right now that I doubt any amount of coffee will keep me awake tonight 🙂

Have a great day!

A wonderful spring day :-)

February 27, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

I’m glad I didn’t have to go anywhere this morning 🙂

So the cold is slowly getting better and this morning the sun shone, which it wasn’t supposed to do and there as frost on the vegetation so we had a short walk in almost perfect weather. It was so nice to finally be breathing fresh air again 🙂 Alma almost behaved so that helped a lot 🙂 The coughing has started to annoy me a bit but it is at least only while I’m awake and not while I’m sleeping. The sleeping leashed to Malkolm works much better than I thought it would, when he does try to walk away towards Alma I notice it immediately, pulls him back and he just goes back to where he’s supposed to stay.

Even though the walk was really nice it still felt like I had run a marathon when we came back home 🙂 🙂 So I had a nap as soon as I sat down but can’t say I feel anything from that now, I’m just as tired as if I hadn’t napped 🙂 🙂 We’ve also been outside in the garden a lot, I continued the cleaning after the dogs at the same time I kept an eye on the dogs 🙂 The Himalayan Cedar looks really good and so do the two small stems on the English walnut tree.

The hardy Rosemary has some frozen leafs but looks fine otherwise. Some frost damage on the red mulberry tree but that one is still much better than the black mulberry and the white mulberry. The pawpaws look amazingly well since they are the least hardy trees I have, much better than the Persimmon tree. I think that if we don’t get any more cold cold periods that all still has survived this winter. I won’t buy anything more when it comes to trees because now I must think where to plant all the seedlings I have in the cellar 🙂 🙂

I have at least six small pear trees, five or six apricots, two red mulberry trees and one peach. I really don’t have that space but since when has that stopped a gardener 🙂 🙂 🙂

Hard to see but the Himalayan Cedar looks really well, conifers this small usually show pretty early if they are dying.

Hardy Rosemary, it’s an variety from the US and seen as the hardiest Rosemary there is.

Have a great day!

It isn’t easy for them but they still manages to play even though they both most likely wants to do something else 🙂 🙂 🙂

The first Crane has arrived.

February 24, 2025 · 10 Comments ·

These photos are a couple of days old, we haven’t been on a walk since the cold hit me. There’s absolutely no snow or frost here now, it actually rains.

I’ve survived 🙂 It has been awful but I think I actually have two problems working really well together. The cold and fever is bad enough but that exploding pain every time I took a deep breath or coughed/ sneezed is most likely another problem and her name is Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂

She actually can walk really well to be honest but way too often she see something that she wants to chase or she”s just bored and wants something to happen or god knows what. She had one of those rushes the day before the cold started to show and I was unfortunately a bit too relaxed and never had the chance to fend it. I thought it was odd that the pain mostly only came from the right side of my chest and when I held my arm in a certain position (up in the air) the pain was less horrible. So my guess is that I have perhaps a little rupture in a muscle or tendon beneath the ribs. I just looked it up and yes it’s most likely why it hurts so bad.

So last night I slept in my recliner because I thought at least the coughing would stop, perhaps some but then I had pain in my neck instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also I had to be leashed together with Malkolm so he wouldn’t get us in trouble while I was asleep 🙂 🙂 🙂 The poor boy has big problems now when Alma is in heat. Thankfully he does listen to what I say so every time he has tried he stops when I shout at him 🙂 🙂 🙂 One could think that the chemical neutering at least would have some effect since more than a week has passed since he got it. Alma however doesn’t seem too bothered by being in heat. Anyway tonight we’ll be in the bedroom again and Malkolm and I will be leashed together again 🙂

A sheet of ice was covering the ground, even in the forest.

My neighbour has saved me by getting groceries for me, one can’t get better neighbours than I have! Yesterday instead of pear soda I bought raspberry soda 🙂 WE were supposed to get a visit from the ice cream van this week but suddenly they’ve changed that again!! Now it’s the twelfth of Mars. Would have been nice to have some ice cream with that soda 🙂 Ok I don’t spend any money so perhaps I should see that as positive 🙂

The first Crane has arrived at the lake and that usually also means we’ll have one more snowstorm coming 🙂 The rest of the Cranes will start arriving in the middle of March and so many as 28000 might stop there at the same time.Normally if the weather is warm and nice there won’t be that many at the same time but if the weather is bad they’ll stay because they are being fed. This isn’t a touristy area except for when the cranes are here. I’ve noticed that most of them are idiots because if they see a Crane in the fields they just stop the car open the door and run out to see it better, instead of driving a few hundred meters more to the lake and see thousand there. So now days they put up so many traffic signs and lower the speed limit just during the Crane season 🙂

I haven’t eaten anything today and still isn’t hungry but I think I really need to have something, I will at least have a cup of tea 🙂

Have a great day!

January 12, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

I went out to throw garbage in the bin and thankfully had my phone with me, the sun was setting and now it’s almost as cold as it was early this morning.

I must admit that when I let the dogs outside early this morning I really didn’t think it felt especially cold at all, I followed them and filled the bird feeders while they did their thing. So the first thing I did when we came back in was to check the thermometer, it was -14 C (6,8 F) 🙂 :-)There was no wind and for once the humidity was rather low and that helped a lot to make it feel warmer of course.

We went out for our morning walk as soon as the temperature had risen to -9 C (15,8 F) and since would be walking down to the creek the sun would warm up the air quite fast when walking between the trees on the gravel road. Alma wouldn’t make our walk especially enjoyable today and she showed that as soon as we started to walk but I couldn’t figure out why, not until we came closer to the creek and I saw that the horse guy was working today. It is something with Alma and especially horses and the cattle in the neighbor pasture.

So she could smell them long before we even came close and no matter how fun it is to see those horses working I really would have preferred that they had stayed at home today 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess he worked today because the storm is closing in and better be done before it arrives. It’ll be just wind this time and later on warm weather, so they guess at least, so no more snow thankfully 🙂 Perhaps one can hope for lots of snow melting as well so it will be easier to walk in the forest again. I feel however that will be too much to hope for 🙂 🙂

My cold is neither better nor worse, I cough sometimes but thankfully not at night, I freeze sometimes but not all the time and every now and again my nose is runny but nothing worse. Sara the monster kitten kept us awake for quite some time yesterday evening with lots of bumps in the night, except for that time when she broke my last tea cup. Lots of sharp pieces spread over the floor. She came running up and annoyed the dogs when she had done that. So now I had to find my thermos and make a big pot so I could use the small coffee cups I almost never use. I must remember to write down I need to buy a new one when I’m writing my shopping list.

I think it is time to have that last cup of tea for the day. I can’t remember if this particular thermos keeps the heat well though. I have one I couldn’t find today that keeps it for almost 24 hours, I’ll see if I can find it so I know the tea will be warm tomorrow morning 🙂

Have a great day!