Category: I’m sick again.

January 10, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

Today there’s a mix of photos. The female woodpecker is hard to scare away from the feeder, the male one flees as soon as he see me 🙂

Not much to write about today, we did get some snow but just a dusting. Strong northern winds blowing though and freezing temperatures. I woke up having pain in every single muscle so since every walk with Alma is a struggle I decided to not have a walk today. The cold winds seems to have been why the dogs didn’t want to stay outdoors especially much either.

There are few directions from where the wind can reach the garden and today we had one of those. I have been pretty tired today because Alma had an extremely rare accident in the living room last night. She must have a really bad stomach for that to happen. I’ve always wondered why she never alerts me but realized this morning that she does but in a very quiet way. She stands quietly beside my bed staring at me until she can’t hold it any longer. Well it is good that she tries but if I’m asleep I really need a lot of more sound than that 🙂 🙂 🙂 She stood beside me again this morning, I tried to fake sleep because I had no wish what so ever to go up when I realized what she wanted.

We were in a hurry down and made it all the way out without any accident 🙂 I should have been more aware that this could happen since they are changing their food. They’ve had an insect based food for a while now and started to scratch themselves around the neck and ears. I’ve had allergic dogs here before so I realized that the only thing that had changed lately was the food. It’s too early to know for sure that it was the food but they haven’t scratched themselves since the new food arrived. It’s a good sign anyway.

It is time for that last cup of tea and then watch some tv. My favorite show is on tonight, it’s called (På spåret) On the tracks and is a quiz show where two teams is going to guess what city (all over the world) they will end up at. In the beginning we watched views by seeing a film filmed on trains and get lots of really difficult clues, now days we also go by car. when they’ve reached the end of the trip follow questions comes. Plus now days even we viewers can guess on all questions via an app on our phones. There’s also two question about music where we hear an artist make their version of old songs and that’s the hardest ones in my opinion 🙂 🙂 🙂 I never remember what artist have done what even though I can the entire lyrics 🙂 🙂 🙂

One with old Nova 🙂

She has grown quite a lot since she came here 🙂

Have a great day!

December 21, 2024 · 8 Comments ·

I think Sara’s mother came from this farm. I haven’t seen her since we found Sara so I don’t think the mother is still alive.

The weather has really been boring for a couple of days now but it is well above 0 C (32 f) so I’m not complaining too much. The cottage becomes a mess though because since the dogs don’t want to be outdoors besides for walk they play indoors instead 🙂 🙂 They aren’t allowed to do it in the living room because of the aquarium so mostly they play in my bed 🙂 🙂

This was all sunshine I saw yesterday, not much but beautiful and a lot more than today 🙂

Today was a good day for Alma, not so much yesterday though but the periods when she is calmer seems to stay longer now. In this speed I’ll be long gone and dead by the time she’ll be able to behave like most other dogs, a year ago I’d never thought that would happen so it’s a step forward 🙂 🙂 🙂 I took a look at the trees in the cool cellar and despite that it actually has been pretty cold down there Some of them now shows new leafs! I don’t want that to happen 🙂 They are supposed to rest until at least early March Now I’ll have huge problems rearranging everything so that they’ll get light as well. I’ve also had a walk in the garden to examine how the new smaller trees are doing in the garden.

The Pawpaws look really healthy and have little to no frost damages and it’s the same with the Camellias I placed out there because they just too too much space in the cool cellar. I think that if winter doesn’t get colder than it has been so far they might even survive, I’m not counting on that though but they do look healthy. I have three different Mulberry trees out there too, A black called “Mulle” and it is the least hardy of them. Rather big frost injuries on that one but it will most likely survive and if it does it will become hardier next winter. I also have a white Mulberry tree and it is supposed to be the hardiest one but that too has some big frost injuries but it is far better than the black one. The one that has managed the winter best so far without any frost problems is the Red mulberry. I have two more in the cellar and it is of course those that has been growing new leafs 🙂 I have no idea how this will affect them towards next winter when they’ll be standing in the garden.

The Persimmon tree looks really well as well. I was a bit worried about that tree because some fungi had attacked it during summer and it looked so sad before it got cold 🙂 I also had those new branches that grew up from the roots of the dead persimmon hybrid, well they are no more but not because of the cold but because unknown dogs 🙂 🙂 had trampled them down while playing in the garden. I hope I’ll get lucky, even though this year has been anything but, and that new branches will grow up because then I’ll protect them so much better.

It has finally stopped with shorter days and longer nights 🙂 Today the sun rose somewhere behind the clouds at 8:53 am and set at 3:16 pm here where I live in the village at the outskirts of the world.Some places further north haven’t seen the sun for ages. Then again we’ll get it back during summer where the sun won’t set at all for a long time. Even here further south it’ll be bright for a long time after the sun has set because of the angle towards the sun so when the day is at its longest we still only will have a couple of hours when it’s almost dark. Well it is time for that last cup of tea with lots of ginger in it and then I’ll most likely fall asleep in front of the tv.

Have a great day!

September 11, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

It’s hard to believe that so much rain can fall at the same time 🙂 Well that just means that I won’t have to water anything in the garden for quite some time 🙂 It had rained all night so when I saw that the rain had stopped this morning the dogs and I went out for our walk, It can’t have taken more than a few minutes after we had left the garden when it started to pour down again 🙂 🙂

I’m not complaining about the rain though because with that kind of weather napping comes naturally 🙂 So we didn’t do much before I left for the hospital and the x-raying. I left a bit early to avoid the rush hour in Lidköping and as soon as I had given notice of me being there they called me to get those x-rays. I said already, it’s a half hour until I’m supposed to be here and the nurse then said sometimes one is rewarded for being early 🙂 🙂 So I was finished long before I was supposed to be there 🙂

It is still pouring down outside so I think I might make it an early night and I hope my nose will stop running and that the coughing will stay calm (and the sneezing) It was a bit bad with both before I drove to the hospital but rather calm now in the evening.

Have a great day!

Am I getting a cold?

September 10, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

So all the photos comes from the folder “For a rainy day”.

I think I’m about to get the cold so many around here already have had, it seems to have gone away after three days so it really doesn’t bother me that much but I sneeze all the time, my entire body hurts and I’m unusually tired all the time.

I’ll have a vacation day tomorrow, I’m going to get x-rayed so they can see if there are any kidney stones left, I really hope there aren’t because I never want to go through that kind of pain again 🙂 🙂 It’s in the afternoon so I could have gone to work if I really wanted to but then again this is my last week there so I took a vacation day instead 🙂

We had lots of thunder and heavy showers yesterday and both my water barrels that can take up to 325 liters (85,85 gallons US) are now completely full again. More rain is on the way and for a couple of days the temperature will stay around 15C (59F) and then rise slightly again. I have really enjoyed these low temperatures again buy I won’t mind if it goes up a degree or two again. It is however supposed to rain again tomorrow and that’s too bad because I was thinking of bringing a camera to show You what the town looks like, it is actually quite beautiful.

It’s time for a last cup of tea and perhaps an ice cream before I fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

Have a great day!

Don’t collect kidney stones :-)

August 28, 2024 · 10 Comments ·

The photos today are from the folder “For a rainy day”.

I know some people collect stones and rocks and I like that but I can tell You that You must avoid collecting kidney stones 🙂 🙂 They aren’t worth anything and to be honest quite uggly, plus they are way too painful to get anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today I’ve spent all day at the ER in KSS, a hospital in Skövde. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such pain before.

There was no warning of any kind, it just started to ache when I had given the dogs their breakfast. If I hadn’t promised to pick up a work friend on our way to work I most likely wouldn’t have gone to work at all. A good thing I did go to work because the pain that hit was something out of the ordinary. So a work friend had to drive me to the hospital to the ER. It did take quite a while before the doctor came, she had been studying my behaviour and it was very different to how kidney stone patients usually behaves. They walk around restlessly to make the pain lesshorrible while I sat absolutely still.

After having x-rays taken they did see a 3mm big stone on its way down but she also think that my rheumatism had a fit at the same time because the pain was as worst in the wrong place, ni kidneys close at all. The stone will have to make its journy out by itself so tomorrow I’ll go to the pharmacy to get a liquid pain killer and anti inflammatory before going to work, this will most likely be a painful journy so I better prepare for it. I had heard how painful it can be but I really didn’t understand how painful it actually is 🙂

My neighbor came to the hospital, far from our home and picked me up when I was going home again, then he drove me to work so I could get my car. I truly have the best neighbors in the world!

The stone had worked its way down the canal to a place where it didn’t hurt by that time so right now I’m pain free but very tired, I do hope tomorrow will have a better start 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

His rebellious phase seems to be rather calm, at least right now :-)

August 6, 2024August 6, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

We had a really nice morning today, rather cool and lots of fog and it lasted until I arrived at work. I brought a camera with me so I have a few photos to show today. One of the red spots was about to become a scab so I showed it as soon as I could and it didn’t take long before it started to form a scab, so i went home as they had told me to. I hope this is the last one so I can go to work again as soon as it falls off. I feel quite good but am rather tired and I guess that’s because of thew chickenpox.

I went by the grocery store to fill up the fridge and pantry since I won’t be able to go there while I’m still contagious, thankfully there was almost no one there when I arrived so I didn’t give this to someone else. I’m feeling ok though so I hope this will pass quickly. They managed to fix the problem at work though so they’ll start working tomorrow so someone else will have to do my work until I’m back again.

I was lucky that these cranes were walking around in a place where I could see if cars came behind me so early that there wasn’t any risk of a car crash just because I had stopped my car.

We had a walk as soon as I came home and it has been pretty warm when the fog finally evaporated. A bit too warm for Nova so we walked in the forest where the trees gave a nice and cool shadow. It is quiet out there now, no bird song but the tweeting we can hear until next spring and oddly enough no flies there either, perhaps their season is over now? one can always hope.

Malkolms rebellious period continues 🙂 Yesterday I realized that he has bitten a hole in the sofa cushion (I have one big on the entire sofa) from beneath, I realized that when I wondered what that white stuff on the floor was 🙂 Not a big hole so it can easily be repaired but still. Also today my neighbors texted me with a photo of him walking around in their garden (I’m so lucky I have the best neighbors one can have!). He did come back when I called the first time, the second time however he really didn’t want to because they were changing diaper on their youngest 🙂 🙂 So they too tried to make him jump back but he just didn’t want to. He didn’t come back home until I sounded really angry 🙂 🙂 🙂

Also Alma is in heat but thankfully he shows no interest what so ever, I don’t want to neuter him until he’s a year old. So hold You thumbs and cross You fingers that it stays that way 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think it’s time to have something to eat but no more tea, I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night now 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Well that was a surprise :-)

August 5, 2024 · 15 Comments ·

First day back at work and it was a calm one, actually so calm that we didn’t especially much at all 🙂 Nothing in the painting department worked and it’s most likely because a heavy thunder storm passed by there yesterday. I got several warnings from my lightning app but nothing was close to the village, instead it passed over the village where the factory is.

So we did the little we could do and after lunch I went home. However I had to call the occupational healthcare because We suspected I might be ill even though I don’t feel sick 🙂 So I am for the fifth or sixth time having chicken-pox 🙂 🙂 🙂 Not something that usually happens to be honest. So I called them and described the suspected two red dots, the itching and the one scab I have so far (I’ve never gotten lots of dots, five or six each time). So they were a bit skeptical at first but then the nurse said that one might get it several time if one has a really bad immune system, so I said I have Bechterews disease (my rheumatism) and then she laughed and said then You do have a really f.cked up immune system 🙂 🙂

That might sound strange coming from a nurse but we’ve met before and she heard my name but couldn’t put a face to it and her son has the same disease so we fully understood each other 🙂 🙂 I had already made sure that everyone at work already have had it before calling so there’s no risk of me giving it to anyone else and as long as I feel fine I can continue to work but if I get more rash I’ll have to stay at home until the last scab falls off. The one I have at the moment is covered to makes sure I don’t give it to anyone else. To be honest it might already be over since the two red dots also can be mosquito bites, we’ll only know if they too get that blister that belongs to it. Now of course it itches everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂

I guess I’ll know better already tomorrow. I know there can be bad complications having chicken-pox, especially as an older person so I’ll make sure not to dismiss any other symptoms. So all in all it has been a rather nice day 🙂 It was supposed to be cloudy all day but the sun has shined quite a lot after I came home. It was a bit too warm for Nova when the sun shone so we walked mostly in the forest and she was unleashed so she could walk in her own pace. I also had the new dog food delivered today, both Alma and Malkolm have problems with their stomach and since chicken is the main ingredient in their food and chicken is the most common issue for stomach problems I bought one made from insects. They all loved it when I gave them some as treats so now I’ll slowly change from the old one to this new and see if they’ll get better.

The Persimmon branches growing up from the root of the dead persimmon hybrid looks good.

Lots of berries on my care tree, a Rowan tree.

It is time to make a last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll mostly listen to the Olympics on the radio, Mondo Duplantis the Swedish pole vaulter is competing today and it will be a big surprise if he doesn’t win.

Have a great day!

Grey and dull and rain.

March 3, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

Warmer than they guessed but also more rain, so we have mostly been indoors after our morning walk. It rained when we went out as well, sort of intense drizzle or light spring rain, I decided to only wear a hoodie and not the winter jacket so I was happy when Nova decided that we should walk in the forest today 🙂

They are still cutting down trees in there so the clean road was anything but today. Even though horses are used instead of heavy machines the ground, now saturated with water still gets worn down pretty bad. The grass will grow back fast as soon as spring springs for real though but at the moment we all get muddy while walking there.

I’ve done my chores mor or less today. I’ve done the laundry and is baking a bread at the moment and soon I’ll do a meat sauce so I’ll have something to eat at work next week, I didn’t win the lottery so I will have to keep on working 🙂 I’ll just add rice nudels each day and I can boil them while giving the dogs their breakfast 🙂

I’ve had this cold coming and going since christmas and it was back again this week. No fever to be honest but sour throat, runny nose, either coughing or sneezing and a tiredness that never goes away. We are plenty to have it and it is so annoying. Not enough fever to not go to work but not feeling good enough to go to work 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s a damned if You do, damned if You don’t feeling to it 🙂

I don’t mind but I’m pretty sure this will be a nasty mosquito year.

The sun will of course show itself on Monday and Tuesday but then again we’ll get snow on Wednesday. It’ll be warm enough so the snow will melt away unless it comes at night because nights will stay cold. It feels like this weather is too good (despite the grey and dull weather) to be true. It is after all only the beginning of March yet and back in the days we could have winter here until late April and if it was really bad in to early May. I don’t miss those winters at all to be honest 🙂 🙂 I heard that California might get up to three yards of snow up in the high mountains today, that’ll be fun when it melts.

I think this is a Coal tit. there are two other tits that looks almost identical though.

Have a great day!

January 7, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

It fell down to -20C (-4F) last night but now they’re saying, on tv, that it’ll turn towards warmer again. The weather sites doesn’t show it that well though but how often are they right in their guessings 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do hope they’re right because I’m really tired of having a real winter again 🙂 🙂 🙂

We went out to the bog when we finally came out on our morning walk, I wanted it to get less cold but the snow was still enough cold to give Albin problems with his paws. Snow cramp isn’t funny. None of them seemed to hesitate going out there so I guess no wolves have been close for a while. I did however see lots of tracks after moose and the dogs really don’t like them either, not enough to stop them from going out on a walk there though 🙂

The only animal we heard was an over active raven, it was totally alone and I guess it had found something to eat and was calling after its friends. If there were any smaller birds they must have been amongst the trees on the island. I guess if one is used to all the sounds there are in a city it could feel scary to walk around in an almost completely silent world like it is out there 🙂

I had hoped the cold would give up by now but instead it seems like it has gotten new strength. I’m sitting here very well dressed and still feels that it is way too cold 🙂 Sneezing a lot but also coughing more than before. I still feel that it is going the right way, after all I’ve had it for quite some time now.

Time to make something to eat and then stay up till really late just to get the right hours in to my brain for when I start working again 🙂

Have a great day!

I wish You a good end of this year and a good new year.

December 31, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The birds were patiently waiting for me to fill up the feeders again.

So I’ll end this year by having a cold. Fever, runny nose, sneezing and coughing and I guess it won’t disappear magically over night so I’ll start the new year the same way. It is at least better than what one of my neighbor has at the moment, she has what we call The Winter Vomit Disease, it’s actually worse than it sounds and that’s hard to believe 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve never had it, turns out that some people have a defected gene that makes it impossible for that virus to attach to our bodies. Sometimes it’s nice to be a defect 🙂 🙂 🙂

I went to the supermarket this morning and of course the list of what I wanted never followed me there. I knew some things but they were all sold out, other things never attached to my brain but I did remember seeds and peanuts for the birds 🙂 To be honest I have most things I would need and since we now have the beginning of a snowstorm passing by I won’t drive to any store before it has passed no matter how much I want it 🙂

It was very calm when we went out for our walk though but the wind has become stronger and stronger and now I can hear it roar through the forest. The snow has started to fall as well, well fall is the wrong word since it comes sideways 🙂 There were a few gaps in the clouds but none close to where the sun was. We walked down to the creek and then followed it up-stream. there was also a thin layer of snow on the ground but very few tracks from animals. Except for where the wild hogs passed the creek and after where all the water ran off from their bodies.

It’s easy to see where the pigs has passed the creek 🙂

I’ll most likely not stay up until we pass over to the new year, I’ve never really celebrated new years eve and I’ve always wondered why they didn’t change that day to when we have the the winter solstice instead, I mean that’s when we actually is starting the journey towards longer days again and slowly leaving these long depressing nights that we have. In my mind that would make much more sence 🙂

It is time to give the dogs their dinner and after that I think I’ll go to bed. Thankfully no fireworks even close to here so the dogs and I will be having a calm and quiet night 🙂

Out with the old and in with the new, sort of fitting now at the end of the year 🙂

I wish You all a good ending of this year and a good new year!

The heat has arrived.

June 24, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

DSC_0002 (14) — From the window upstairs where I have my computer.

So the heat has arrived and so far I’m ok with it but I’m sure I won’t be tomorrow when it’ll be even hotter. 28C (82,4F) today, 30C (86F) tomorrow and 31C (87,8F) on Sunday. The hottest I’ve ever been through is 35,6C (96,08F) and that was in 2018. I really never want to go through that kind of heat again.

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It was quite nice in the early morning though, we were out on our walk around 4:30 am and the hot air was on its way so we had a thick layer of fog all over the village. It doesn’t last for long after the sun has risen so I thought it best to get outside as soon as possible. I doubt we’ll have any fog tomorrow morning though since the ground now will already be warm when the sun rise again.

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I watered the vegetables and potatoes as soon as we had come home and I must say we do have unusually many mosquitoes this summer. They all went to visit me as well and even though it doesn’t itch any longer the sound of them is quite annoying. I just heard one flying around my head when I was closing the kitchen door so I sprayed some insecticide towards it. I rarely use insecticides but fly season can be nasty here and suddenly those sticky fly papers can’t take any more flies and then I will use it. I now have two open windows upstairs and one downstairs, all covered with mosquito nets of course.

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I hope that will make the wind we have flow through my cottage and I will be able to sleep upstairs tonight. I do have the recliner and I do sleep very well in it but not as good as in my own bed. Then again there’s no place for dogs so I might even sleep better to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also did my laundry, well some of it anyway, and it felt like it dried up even before I managed to hang it up to dry 🙂

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I’ve done very little besides that today, a lot of napping because of the heat and that I still have very little energy after that cold I had. I didn’t even have the tv on most of the time, summer is rerun season so they show very little I not already have seen or is interested in anyway. I have lots of dvd’s I haven’t seen, the latest ghost buster movie for instance so I mighty watch that one before going to bed tonight.

Have a great day!

I didn’t expect that :-)

June 17, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

a (2) — Took this when I woke up, view from where I have my computer.

We’e had a rather nice day again, mostly sunny till afternoon arrived but now a sheet of grey clouds cover the sky. It’s just above 20C (68F) with a kind lukewarm wind blowing. I’ve had the kitchen door open since early morning so the dogs have been able to go out and in as they’ve pleased.

b (1) — Took this and the next one a few minutes later when the sun just had started to rise above the tree line and with another camera.

b (5)

We had our first walk this week, I finally felt enough well to do that. The sun was shining and the temperature well below 10C (50F), so none of the flies annoyed or bit us. Yes the fly season has started. Still mostly biting flies and they are annoying enough but still not as many as the overly friendly forest flies who seems to have only one wish in life, to take a look inside our ears and nostrils 🙂 🙂 🙂

b (10)

I bought a garden hose yesterday and today I used it to water my now showing vegetable plants and potato plants. I also now have the cleanest kitchen floors in the world, why You might ask? Well because the hose I bought turned out to be a dripping hose. It has loads of tiny holes in it so that while I water where I want to the hose also water gently where I place it, like in my kitchen 🙂 🙂 🙂

b (11) — We only walked down to the creek and turned back again. The grass is filled with dew and most likely with ticks as well.

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The thought behind it is that if one place it strategically in the vegetable patch (or inside a green house) one just plug the end of it and the water will then gently drip out of the hose, a perfect way to not waste water. So now I really need to buy a new hose long enough so I just put this “leaking” hose in the two patches and let it slowly water the ground. To be honest not what I had planned but kind of right anyway. This time I think I’ll order the hose online. To be honest I also totally miscalculated how long the hose needed to be and it should have been at least twice as long as I thought 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I also bought a toy for the dogs, well at least Alma and Albin. Nova doesn’t play that much any longer. It’s a big Cotton? rope. They had fun with it for around five minutes and then they left it 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is still fun if I throw it up in the air and one of them catch it. Then they play with it for five more minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂 Those dogs don’t seem to be the toy kind of dogs, they’re more in to chewing bones and preferable hard ones that will take a year or so to chew through.

b (24)

Rain is on the way and for once I really hope we’ll get lots of it. The creeks is getting narrower and narrower and the swamp behind my garage is no more. Ok we’ll get fewer mosquitoes if it is dry but we’ve gotten unusually little rain this spring and early summer so the vegetation really needs it. Back in the days June, July and August were the most rainy months we had. Still it’s much better than down south in Europe, It isn’t that nice in big parts of the US either to be honest. It’s time for something to eat and perhaps a cup of tea.