Category: Insects.

The coolest looking beetle.

July 2, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

Ticks and mosquitoes.

July 1, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

Too hot!

June 25, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

DSC_0001 (5) — I filled up with mowed grass, sloe, roses and false spirea. That will keep the ground damp for several days before I have to water again. I might water it already today so that it’ll let the rain pass through easier if it actually will rain 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is hot and humid and I really don’t like it. How many times can one shower in a day before doing harm to oneself 🙂 🙂 🙂 Mosquitoes irritates and horse flies bite but Alma actually managed to take one that was a bit too brave and flew a bit too close to her mouth. I think both was just as surprised when it happened 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0029 (4) — There are sixteen citrus trees in this photo, A Grape that is two years old and the rest are from clementine kernels sown at Christmas one year ago. The different sizes in the clementines are because of how good they had it during winter, the small ones not so good with other words. There’s also the only Date Palm seedling that survived. Is it three years ago we sowed some Caryn? With a bit of luck it’ll produce the palm tree like leafs it has as older already this year.

DSC_0018 (3) — One plum on the wild plum tree.

DSC_0022 (4) — There should also be blue Irises here but it looks like the yellow one has killed of the competition in the root zone.

The rain they predicted for Tuesday were later on removed but is now back again and they are now guessing it’ll be much more than before. I’m pretty sure it all will be gone in the predictions already tonight but most likely tomorrow 🙂 🙂 🙂 The fun thing is that they, when heatwave stays a bit too long, always predict lower temperatures and lots of rain the next week and almost always that doesn’t happen 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I’ve done the laundry that was left but I still have to make dinner for next week at work. It’s too hot right now and it’ll most likely be too hot later on as well but I will make something for at least two days 🙂 🙂 I’ve also placed all my cacti in a couple of trees in the garden. I won’t water them unless they are looking like they’re dying and if the rain actually comes good for them 🙂 🙂

This is the only orchid I have left, It flowers once a year during winter.

Some of my cacti now living in the trees until just before frost arrives. This one I’ve sown and it is called Queen of the night but it is most likely a hybrid since the real species are quite rare. It hates anything living and doesn’t hesitate to toss out a branch when a hand is nearby 🙂 🙂 🙂

This was all I had the energy to write today, another shower will help at least for a couple minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Midsummer.

June 23, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The decaying lilac flowers smell pretty nasty and I have way too many to be able to remove them. But Bullfinches loves to eat those seeds when winter arrives and they are always nice to see when winter is here.

The morning was just cool enough to keep the flies away but still warm enough to let the mosquitoes fly around when we went out on our morning walk at 5:30 am. We couldn’t stand still for especially many seconds before we were swarmed by the annoying insects and now all the dogs have itching bites all over their bodies.

I really wish I was rich so I could buy this area and replant the forest again, now it looks like they’ll let cattle walk there instead. The owner is a bit too greedy and wants way too much money so no one is going to buy it from him.

I didn’t want to walk in high grass or by the creek but Nova decided that we should do both so we were also full of ticks when we arrived here at home. Even I had one climbing up my leg on the inside of my trousers. Alma is always the one worst hit so I removed ten from her and a couple from both the others and one from me. I truly despise those tiny blood sucking animals. It was so warm when we finally came home that the sweat was running down my back 🙂 🙂 It’ll be a warm and sunny day here.

Today we have a day off for celebrating Midsummer. It’s always on the first Friday after the solar equinox (or of cours if the solar equinox actually happens on a Friday). This is a day when all the beings are out and about and we all should be very carefully if walking in the forest. Especially if we’re out walking in the dark they say but since it only is dark for an hour or so and quite late at night I don’t think too many people are out walking in the forest anyway 🙂 According to most folklore most people will be outside picking wild flowers (so they during their dreams can see to whom they’ll marry) or just as the sun rise again because they are collecting the morning dew that is said to have magical powers.

That dew is especially important to save to the late autumn and winter when a bath with that dew in it is said to cure any disease and depressions. If one would meet for instance a troll while doing either one shouldn’t worry too much, well unless it is a mountain troll because we all know that they can be evil and shrewd. The forest trolls however are much like You and I (except for them having a tail) and is nothing to be worried about. There are several stories about how humans and trolls lived close together, helping each other with the daily life and troubles with the farming. However while we live in houses they usually lives in caves.

However all the other beings can be tricky, never accept help from them because they will take advantage of it but if You can help them do it because they will make sure You’ll be safe and perhaps even wealthy. One good thing to know is that it is always good to have some pellets of silver in the pockets, beings loves silver and that will most likely make You safe if You meet any of them. I’m nere worried about beings when I’m out walking in the forest despite never having any silver in my pockets, I do however worry about meeting wild hogs, they are always something to worry about 🙂 🙂 🙂

Some of the flowers in bloom in my garden.

Have a great Midsummer!

Nice and gentle rain but we need more.

June 18, 2023 · 6 Comments ·

a (1) — It’s almost impossible to see that it had been raining for a couple of hours when I took this photo 🙂 🙂 🙂

It has been raining since early morning, a nice gentle rain far from what we actually needed, heavy showers would have been much better but I’m happy for what I got. They say we’ll get more rain in the coming week, not enough once again, and it’ll stay cool for a day or so before we go back to warmer again. The temperature dropped from 28C (82,4F) yesterday to 15C (59F) today. It has taken all morning to get the heat out of the cottage, it even became chilly for a while but I closed the doors and windows when I had baked my breads and let the oven stay open after I had shut it off. It was just enough with heat to make it feel rather nice indoors again 🙂

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I’ve done my chores for the day except for dinner at work next week. It’ll be a short work week since we celebrate Midsummer next Friday. I’ll make it easy for myself this week. I’ll fry some meatballs, some wiener sausages, two eggs and then pour half a tin of either baked white beans or baked brown beans over it 🙂 🙂 Perhaps not healthy but very yummy 🙂 🙂 I’ll go to the vegetable patch and pick some of the Goosefoot (Chenopodium album) that grows there, works very well as a spinach substitute.

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I didn’t win the lottery this week either, must say I thought it was my turn this time 🙂 🙂 🙂 So back to work tomorrow. Ok short week but I would rather have won the lottery 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve noticed that I spend much less time in front of the tv now days, instead I surf more on the net. I guess it sort of equals each other out. I mostly blame the hot weather, it has been so hot that it really has been impossible to do anything outside without jeopardizing our health. Still I wish I could have done something else really but I’ve been too lazy to come up with anything else to do 🙂 🙂 🙂

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It is time for the dogs dinners and perhaps I should make myself a cup of tea. I’m pretty sure I’ll sleep very well tonight now when it is cool and nice both outside and inside the cottage 🙂

Have a great day!

They’re guessing we’ll get rain tomorrow.

June 17, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

Almost forgot :-)

June 11, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (4) — My fly eating bucket will soon be complete. It will be as soon as the Venus flytraps grew up again 🙂

I almost forgot to write something here today. I can’t say that I’ve been very busy but I’ve been doing things all day but in a slow but steady pace. We’ve been out on our walks so now we all have plenty more mosquito bites but it looks like the dogs don’t feel the itching either any more. Now the mosquitoes are mostly just annoying. The ticks however are everywhere right now. I pick the occasional one from Nova and Albin but I pick at least ten from Alma after each walk. I miss very few though so it feels like I’m in control 🙂 🙂

a (9)

I’ve done the laundry like always and also dinner for next week at work plus I baked some Sorghum (and Teff) scones. They actually taste pretty close to normal ones. If I don’t have any Teff flour at home I’ll use either corn or rice flour. They are a bit dry no matter what flour I use but the taste is good. I’ve also had a whole chicken in the slow cooker, not for me but the dogs. It looks like Albin now is allergic to Tuna. Every time he gets some in his food the eczema blows up again. He has been able to eat chicken before so I’ll give them all some tomorrow and see what happens.

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I’ve watered the vegetable and potato patches and also the trees I’ve planted and the pots I have with different citrus trees and the potato sprouts I planted. It looks like nothing will happen in one of those pots with potato sprouts so now I can plant something else in it 🙂 I bought more soil on Friday, turns out they had plenty at the grocery store in the village where I work, I’ve just not been able to see it. I usually park at the side of the store, no doors and windows there. This time however I parked the car in front of the entrance and they had a couple of pallets with soil on the other side of the doors 🙂 🙂

So that’s what I’ve been doing, not much but sort of continuously. I’ve also tried to photograph the Hornets that now comes to a Cotoneaster I have in the garden. They love the flowers on it. To be honest the entire bush is sort of ugly and the flowers are tiny but the Hornets just can’t resist them 🙂 🙂 I’ve read that they mostly drink sap from trees and very rarely nectar from flowers so that ugly little bush will stay 🙂 Hornets eats lots of flies (and unfortunately also some of the Beekeepers bees) and anything that eat flies are best friends of mine 🙂

A15660_001 — Two from the Rolleicord. I had forgotten how to let go of the shutter and here is when I found how to do it 🙂

A15660_002 — Can’t remember taking this one 🙂

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Have a great day!

Felt warmer than it was.

June 10, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The thermometer said it wasn’t that hot today, 23C (73,4F) but the dogs said otherwise. The cool wind should have helped one could think but it didn’t. I mostly hid in the shadows so to me the day has been pretty nice 🙂

It was rather cool in the early morning though and it seems the mosquitoes like that too, so we had company the entire walks 🙂 🙂 Still I’ve now been bitten so much that I really don’t feel the itch any longer. Still just a few horse flies and their relatives and I know it’s useless to hope that it could stay that way but I can’t but hope 🙂 🙂 Besides walking with the dogs, making my lunch and watering the vegetables and potatoes I really haven’t done much today. I did take a nap as well though. Time has just flown away but I guess that’s what happens when one feel good 🙂 🙂

Mowing the lawn isn’t something one should do during a drought but I had to today. Only the part where the thorny roses and slow and the false spirea grew because those shoots were growing rapidly now. Isn’t it strange that when most vegetation struggles with no or very little water in the ground those things we don’t want just shrugges and keep on growing 🙂 🙂 I keep on pulling up their roots but there are so many and they are so twined that the majority of them stays in the ground. I have however no problems what so ever with the vicious roses on the other side of the garden, they behave nicely 🙂 🙂

There’s nothing I want to watch on tv so I could read a book or perhaps bake bread for the coming week but I have no energy to do either. I guess it’s the pollen that sort of slows down my brain but keep the will of not doing anything well alive 🙂 :-)I could go outside and scare away all the magpies because they have now kicked out their younglings from the nest, always before they can fly, and now they protest loudly every time they think the young ones are in danger and it sounds like they always are 🙂 🙂 The Jackdaws have built a nest in my neighbors chimney so they’ll have to remove that before the fire in the stove season starts. They don’t have the hearts to do it now 🙂

A15659_031A — Four taken with the Agfa Flexilette.

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Have a great day!

The fly season has started, yay.

June 4, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

My neck is feeling a bit better today, I’ve stretched it back and forwards, very slowly, all day long. I did however wake up in the middle of night when I tried to turn and had to sort of lift my head while turning around 🙂 🙂 🙂 Fell asleep directly as soon as I had let my head down again 🙂 My back is also a bit sore today but I think that has to do with me planting trees and ripping up roots from the ground.

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Today, I have no idea what this is called in English) I shuffled up soil towards the potato stalks so I’ll get more potatoes. I also sowed beans and peas and a couple of squash seeds. I’ll get more squash than I can eat with two plants so no need for any more. I still have space for more vegetables so now I’ll check what I have in my seeds bags 🙂

a (9)

This year we have more mosquitoes than I think I’ve ever seen here but the swamp behind my garage is drying out and there’s no rain in sight for ten days so I think that problem will end soon. Unfortunately the blood sucking flies have arrived. So far only the biggest that can be heard from a long distance. Alma managed to scare on of them away after trying to eat it and the sound from her jaws hitting would scare away even wolves I think 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (15) — Before I pushed up soil towards the potato stalks.

a (17) — The last of the Marsh Marigolds.

Suddenly our postal service is worried about their employees, which is a good thing to be honest. However if I order a package that ways 19,9 kg (43,87 pound) they’ll carry it to my front door. If it should way 20,1 kg (44,31 pound) they’ll only bring it to my gate. That would have been perfect for me but if it weighs 43,87 pound I also need to stay at home and sign that they have delivered it? Why not just leave it at the gate so I don’t have to take a day off from work to sign that I’ve recieved it? So from now on I need to get one sack of dog food and no more each time, therefore they must drive to me more often and I’ll have to pay more because it’s always cheaper to buy two packages at the same time. I could just leave a big wooden box outside my gate so they could leave it there but they won’t allow anything like that I’m afraid.

Blue really lights up when the light gets weaker. Sage of some kind I think.

It is time for a last cup of tea and then read a book.

Have a great day!

Long weekend.

May 19, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

I’m having a long weekend and the weather is quite wonderful. Yesterday was a bit chilly even though the sun shone most parts of the day but the cold feeling from the day before when we had thunder, rain, hailstorms and snow falling really didn’t want to leave. Today it was gone though, no wind, sunshine, birds singing and the first annoying flies have arrived 🙂 🙂 It almost feels like summer.

We saw this fox in the field just beside a little grove, he was looking towards the grove and didn’t notice us at first.

When he did he didn’t seems to care about us at all. It’s most likely a male fox hunting food for all the cubs he’s a father to now. He can have several litters but will help with feeding them all and will also stay long enough to play with them every day.

Then he scratched himself a bit while we were leaving. As soon as we had started to walk away he ran away towards the creek.

Today I was expecting a package. Normally they just leave it outside my door but since it weighed more than 20 Kg (44 pound) I for some reason had to stay at home to get it. No problem since I had taken the day off anyway. My cottage can be seen very clearly when one drives down the slope but still the postal service employees can’t find my cottage!! I was standing by my gate looking at the driver passing my cottage, passing my neighbors cottage and stopping just before she reached the beekeepers cottage. There she stood for at least five minutes while I was shouting towards her and jumping and waving my hands. Turns out that she had called a college to ask for where I lived. Turns out that it helps to threaten to call the police if they missed me again 🙂 🙂 🙂

He most likely knew that this doe was in the grove close to her youngling. she would have defended the young one so unless the fox had been desperate he wouldn’t try and take it as long as she was close.

I’ve done one set of laundry today, all my work t-shirts. I’ve also mowed the lawn, the grass started to grow way too fast for my liking so I did it today, normally I do it on Saturdays or more often on Sundays. I have an electric mower, not a battery driven one, they just cost way too much and one need two batteries (and the batteries are insanely expensive) even to mow a small garden as mine is. So instead I have a long cord, well actually I have plenty of shorter ones and it works fine as long as I plan how to mow so I don’t have to cross the cord risking to cut it off 🙂 🙂 Instead I tend to step on is to the cord gets unplugged. I always sound as if i planned that stop by saying to my dogs why have You put that thing there 🙂 🙂 🙂

All I have left to do today, because the dogs and I had our pancake Sunday already today 🙂 is to bake two loafs of bread. I’m almost out of hard bread and I haven’t had any other kind of bread for several days, I must admit that I’ve been way too lazy to bake and the store bought ones are just gross. Turns out that my work friends wife just found out that she too most likely is gluten intolerant, she’s just a few years younger than me. So I told my work friend who I think bought everything gluten free he could find, that she should bake her own bread because she will not like the one she can buy unless she loves toast insanely much 🙂 🙂 I tried two new gluten free cookie variants I found in the store, they were just as awful as all other cookies I’ve bought. So so far there’s only one edible cookie and it’s an oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips in it.

It’s time to give the dogs their dinner and after that a walk in the forest and then baking those breads. I’ll sow something as well, most likely broccolo (a sort of in between broccoli and cauliflower) Looks more like a greenish cauliflower but tastes more like broccoli, a good thing since I really don’t like cauliflower 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Easter continues.

April 8, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So easter continues and today most families gather for easter dinner (well could be lunch as well, the thing is that relatives who can’t stand each other normally now do and after this they usually don’t meet until midsummer again 🙂 🙂 ) Like always we swedes eats loads of pickled herring, personally I can’t stand it but I belong to the very few who just refuse to eat it. They will also of course eat pickled salmon or cold smoked salmon. We who don’t like food that isn’t cooked eat meatballs, sausages, oven omelette with a stew made of chanterelles, lots of eggs and now days also easter ham. Easter ham is the exact same thing as christmas ham but they’ve changed the name so it fits the season 🙂 🙂

DSC_0014 (3) — I manage to distract Alma and Albin so they nere saw the deer 🙂

DSC_0016 (2) — Wild hogs at work during winter. Doesn’t look that bad but they can dig down to half a yard deep but it can’t be seen in this photo.

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Since it isn’t especially dry in the grass or the ground there will be lots of bonfires burning, to scare away the witches who now flies home after the party on Blåkulla. This tradition is strongest here in the southwest and out on the islands outside of Gothenburg, the town I was born and raised in, the tradition has gone a bit out of hand.They are, since at least 100 years back, competing in what island has the biggest bonfire. I’ve heard stories about how they go over to other islands and steal what ever they can to make their own bonfire bigger, including old tires and christmas trees. It will burn but they are also polluting both the area around the bonfire as well as the ocean surrounding the island. Now days it’s so bad that they call in extra polices to keep it reasonable calm.

p (16) — The Honeysuckle is always early with new leafs.

I went and visit my friend with the garden center. No I didn’t bring any camera, I’ll do that when the spring season has started. Easter eve was pretty calm back when I had my garden center, most people had already bought the flowers they were about to give away, so I was happy to see they she had lots to do today. So I had some time to walk around and I always like to see what they have hidden away. I found a Calamodin, a citrus relative that gives small orange looking fruits. They taste bitter sweet with emphasizing on bitter. It works great for marmalade though. All leafs were gone but it looked really healthy but she was going to toss it away, so now it stands in my cottage 🙂 My guess is that it was hit by cold air and didn’t like it so it dropped all the leafs. Takes too much time to come back for a garden center but I have all the time in the world 🙂

A15264_002A — These three photographs were taken with a Minolta X700 but it broke down after that so I moved the film to the Bessamatic instead.

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The day started boring and grey but it was at least above 0C (32F) but later on teh sky cleared and we’ve had sunshine all day long after that. Tonight will be a bit chilly, well almost warm after previous week but days will now be at least around 10C (50F) so I’m planning on bringing out some of what I have in my cool cellar to slowly get it used to be outside until the frost comes back in autumn again.

A15266_010 — And one from the Flexaret VI.

Have a good continuing of easter!

We’ll get anything from lots of rain to A LOT of rain :-)

August 27, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

a (1)

We might get up to 80 mm or three and one fifth inches of rain this weekend (or possibly even more, it all depends on where the showers will pass). At the moment we’re having a nice gentle summer rain and almost no winds to speak of. The dogs won’t go outside in it but it’s actually quite nice.

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The morning weather was rather different though. Just below 10C (50F), ground mist and a rising sun. There are no birds singing any more unless one counts the trumpeting from Cranes. When we first hear them it’s a typical spring sound but now when we hear them it’s a typical autumn sound. Lots of them are heading south now together with lots of geese. Some will stay for much longer but those who plays it safe move south already now.

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No flies were around to annoy us thankfully. Well most of the forest flies are gone but it is worrisome that the moose flies already have arrived. They will usually stay until late October or early November unless the worst night frost that will come is nasty cold. It isn’t that many years ago that we didn’t have those nasty flies here but warmer and especially shorter winters have helped them to survive till next spring. We do have lots of spiders this year though and since there has been plenty of annoying forest flies (but actually not especially many horse flies) they’ve had plenty to eat.

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This weekend is the last one with summer temperatures they believe, already on Monday it’ll fall below 20C (68F) and it will stay like that for at least eight days. I don’t want summer temperatures for too long so I’m ok with it but I sure don’t want winter to start early either 🙂 🙂 A perfect climate would be a very long and not too cold autumn followed by a not too early spring, I really don’t mind us skipping winter even though that most likely would mean more ticks, horse flies and moose flies 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I’ve just watched the latest Ghost Buster movie, afterlife I think it’s called. It isn’t that bad to be honest. Sometimes a bit slow between when things happens but otherwise I think it carries on the tradition rather well. Later today I’ll most likely watch Spiderman: No Way Home. I’ve seen so many trailers from it that I feel I’ve actually seen it 🙂 🙂 🙂 First though I’ll need to feed the dogs and force them outside to make their businesses no matter how much it might rain 🙂

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Have a great day!