Category: Insects.

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.

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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 🙂 🙂 🙂

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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.

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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.

Blue Irises are in bloom in my root zone.

Grapevine flowers aren’t pretty to be honest 🙂

Have a great day!

If You ever are about to buy a new garden hose, don’t buy this black one 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel :-)

June 16, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

DSC_0022 (7) — The first flower to bloom in the wheel barrow will be the Corn flower. I think red poppies will follow and possibly Californian poppies just after that.

I feel that I’m slowly getting back to life again. The fever seems to be gone even though I sometimes feel like I’m boiling when I move around. The coughing however came back last night with a full vengeance. So I’ve talked to my work place and will stay at home tomorrow as well.

a (1) — The flowers in the root zone are also opening up now.

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Next week will be a short one again, first of all we’re free on Friday when it is Midsummer, a holiday almost as big as christmas but for totally opposite reasons. Even though the church tried to make it all about John the Baptist midsummer here is more or less rooted in paganism, I’ve never heard anyone celebrate John to be honest. To be honest very few celebrates christmas because of Jesus now days either, it’s more about the Yule gnome (or as in big parts of the western world Santa Claus) and ways to spend loads of money on things we can’t afford 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I’ll also have a day off because I’ll go to the doctor for my hip check. It is now almost exactly twenty years since I got my first hip implant! (and I also think it is almost exactly ten years since I got the second one too). Even though there are strict restrictions of what I mustn’t do with these implants (I think it still is considered an experimental practice, I was too young to get hip prostheses, I would have worn them out too fast because being young would be being too active for them to hold for more than ten years, after that I would only be able to get new ones one more time. They cut off a piece of the bone each time they put them in) I’m still so glad I got them because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to walk at all.

DSC_0010 (7) — A gentle giant, the European Hornet. It’s huge compared to other wasps.

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After I had been to the hospital I went to the store and bought a new garden hose, food for the entire weekend and lots of ice cream. They didn’t have the ice cream I wanted but I decided to try one called Banana Split. I do like a real banana split so I do hope it tastes something like that anyway 🙂 🙂 I also picked up a battery for one of my Minolta camera since I was out driving anyway. I was away for perhaps two hours and was totally exhausted when I came back home 🙂 🙂 🙂

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A13796_001 — One from my old camera Moskva II.

I think it is time to try that ice cream now. I was thinking of having a cup of coffee with it but I’ll skip that since I Feel I’m not tired enough for coffee and it therefore most likely would keep me awake the entire night 🙂

A13795_013 — This and next from my Hasselblad 500C.

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Have a great day!!

Well I’m still alive :-)

June 14, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0003 (8) — A photo of light yellow flowers towards green-yellow background never comes out well 🙂 It looks much more beautiful in the real.

These last days have been a bit tough. Sneezing during days and coughing during nights. The throat has sometimes been really nasty but it is amazing how much better it feels after having half a teaspoon with honey slowly melting down the throat. The pain almost goes away totally after just ten minutes. It’s important that it is unpasteurized honey though, so that all good bacteria in it still lives.

DSC_0005 (7) — The wild roses are finally opening up 🙂

DSC_0011 (7) — This one will be so beautiful with pink roses towards those leafs.

We’ve had really nice weather but I’ve mostly been indoors sleeping. It has felt like the fever has come and gone but today it feels like it is at one level all the time, it’s the small things one can enjoy 🙂 🙂 🙂 My voice was so hoarse yesterday when I called my work place that they just laughed when they heard me 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0004 (8) — More potato leafs are showing 🙂

DSC_0016 (5) — Did You know that if some potato sprouts fall off when You put potatoes in the ground actually can be planted and give more potatoes themselves without being attached to the potato?

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I had to go to the store today, I had no food at home. It does feel a bit bad going to a store with a nasty cold, people all around me can get it then but I do need food even if I’m sick and I live a bit far from the rest of the world to get food delivered to my cottage, at least to a reasonable cost. I went there early though so it was almost only me and the people working there and I was never close to any of them.

DSC_0027 (2) — Sometimes the light falls just right.

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It was on my way home I realized I had forgotten to buy lots of ice cream, in fact I hadn’t bought any at all but I was too tired to go back and buy some. I did however buy some carnivorous plants. Normally they are hard to get here but today I was lucky. This is a paradise for flies and other insects so they’ll have plenty to eat this summer 🙂 🙂 🙂 I bought three Venus fly traps and four Sarracenias. None tough enough to survive a real winter here but I can have them in my cool cellar during winter. I would have bought a pitcher plant as well if they had had any.

A13796_004 — Two photos taken with my Moskva II.

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They are all now standing on the north side of my cottage protected from the sun by an old cardboard box. As soon as a plant has been standing indoors for a while they must stand in the shadows for a week or so when they are moved outside. The sun otherwise will burn them to death even though they actually love standing in full sunshine. I’ll later on replant them in peat and in deeper boxes without any drainage holes because they need acidic water and lots of it too.

A13797_008 — Two taken with my Flexaret VI.

A13795_001 — Two taken with my Hasselblad. Something has happened here, either some moisture have reached the film or perhaps just the lens but they still look rather good.

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It is time for some more honey and after that some tea I think.

Have a great day!

Today I paid for it.

June 9, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

DSC_0002 (3) — Sunshine, water drops hanging on my Amur grapevine. A rather nice view from my kitchen window.

The sun shone and there was a beautiful layer of fog above the ground when I left the village to go to work and I thought that it was typical that we would have such a wonderful morning when I’m working and can’t take a walk in it.

DSC_0004 (3) — I’ve taken a photo like this loads of time but can You see the difference from before?

DSC_0008 (3) — This is the difference, they cut down almost all trees.

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Turns out that it only was here that we had that wonderful morning, As soon as I came to the lake I met a grey sky and some rather boring fog, sort of being there but not really hiding anything. It was like that all the way to work. The finishing of the potato patch and vegetable patch finally caught up with me so today my body has been aching, I wasn’t even sure I would be able to get out of bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 So since The things I have to paint at work were in no hurry to be painted I instead went home after lunch. I thought I might as well stay that long since I had ordered lunch and didn’t want to reheat it when coming home.

DSC_0011 (3) — There are two oaks in this photo. One is growing between the pine trunks and one to the left of them. Both are much the same age, perhaps around 25-30 years old. One grows like a tree and one is more or less the same hight it has since I moved here, it’s more like a bush.

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I don’t think it helped that I decided to start sowing some things in my vegetable patch in heavy rainfall yesterday either 🙂 🙂 🙂 The day was warm but the rain pretty cold but now I at least have started. I had ordered a new hardy kiwi vine since one of the ones I have seems pretty dead and it arrived today. The problem was that they had delivered it to my neighbor instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was surprised that they actually had done that since I’ve had plenty of packages delivered to my home. Also they delivered the package to a road where there are three houses and I don’t think it is common for the middle house to have the number 3 as home number 🙂 🙂 🙂

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It’s a good thing I’m so good friends with my neighbors because technically I’m not sure I’m allowed to walk in to their property to get my package even if it delivered wrong. I planted the vine and then we went out for a walk. Alma behaved pretty well, I was so glad she didn’t see the deer in the field. The first annoying forest flies have arrived but they were so few that I didn’t care. We still have plenty more mosquitoes but I’ve been bitten enough times now so it seems I’m immune to the itching again 🙂

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Besides this nothing much has happened. The company I’m working at is going so well that they now will make a new storage building so we finally can have the space we have in the factory for working spaces we really should have already. They’ve also rebuild my old painting department so that most people will be working outside the nasty hot and humid paint department. I’m really happy for my work friends because that hot department made me hate warm weather, instead i enjoyed walking outside in my t-shirt when it was below freezing temperatures outside 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now when I don’t work there I hope I’ll go back to liking warmer temperatures again 🙂

DSC_0034 (2) — It’s hard to see but here’s my new apricot tree.

DSC_0036 (1) — I threw out seeds all over and around the upside-down lawn pieces and now small seedlings show here and there 🙂

DSC_0037 (2) — I’ll grow melons in this one 🙂

Have a great day!

DSC_0039 (2) — My little peach tree. The thought of this placement is that if it survives and gives peaches in the future my neighbors will just have to reach over the hedge and grab as many as they can. I have great neighbors and they’re worth that.

Blueberry flowers. I have neglected my blueberry plants for years now but they still give me plenty of berries. I think it is time to actually care for them now.

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So nice day!

June 5, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

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I really can’t complain about anything today to be honest. 23C (73,4F), sunshine, a weak but cool wind blowing and Alma has behaved all day! There was this one deer that refused to move out in a field but Alma didn’t see it and only pulled the leash forward. It’s when she suddenly make quick turns that my shoulder gets worse.

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The first horse flies have arrived, still they aren’t too bad, just annoying by circling around showing they are here. Well I think one bit Alma because most of the day she has been chasing everyone of them that has been close to her. These look like wasps so I’m a bit worried she will try and catch one of those, a sting in the mouth isn’t a good thing. I can also tell already now that it’s a wasp year, long time since I saw these many as I do now.

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I’ve finally done the potato patch 🙂 I haven’t placed the last pieces of lawn over the stinging nettles yet, I was so tired and my body hurt so much when I was done that I decided to do that tomorrow. It was so fun because every time I went away for a short while small birds landed in the patch and took any maggot, larvae and worm they could find. Some were even so brave that they came down while I still was working there. I’ll rake the place tomorrow before I put down the potatoes so they’ll have another chance to find food. There is this larvae (who eventually will become some kind of beetle) that feeds on grass roots, when the grass roots no longer is there they will go for the potatoes so any of these the birds will take is a good thing.

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Tomorrow I’ll start with the vegetable patch and do the exact same thing there. I’ll have some very well fed baby birds this summer 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think there are lots of birds nests in the garden this summer because I could hear when they fed their younglings. It’s amazing how loud they are, especially since there are so many who would love to have them as a snack. I don’t have any cats now but the neighbors have plenty but they are of course not in my garden if I and my dogs are there.

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Tomorrow is our national day and that’s a day very few actually celebrates here. Most of us didn’t want it to become a holiday because we knew they would remove another holiday we had if it did become a holiday. The one they removed was Whit Monday. No one did celebrate that one either since no one actually knew why we had it as a holiday 🙂 🙂 The thing was however that it always was on a Monday so we all knew we would get a long weekend.Our national day can come any day since it is a fixed date. So since no one actually wanted it both the employers and the union agreed on us getting eight hours of compensation time every year it happened on a Saturday or Sunday so that we actually could take a long weekend anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I can feel I have drunk way too little water after working in the sun all day so now I’ll have something to drink and I will also open a tin of canned peaches because I feel I deserve it 🙂

Have a great day!

a (29) — Tiny little spiders who are all ready to start to eat each other 🙂

DSC_0002 (1) — The potato patch. I’ve planted three hardy kiwi along the fence. It looks like one might be dead or on its way to so I’ve ordered a new one.

I’ve made a path for the dogs with the cut out pieces of lawn.

DSC_0009 (1) — This is a male plant of the hardy kiwi. It’ll get small beautiful white flowers. None of my female plants will give any flowers this year so I’ll have to wait for a chance to eat the berries.

Yay! The mosquito season has started :-)

May 19, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

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I really didn’t need to paint anything today but the weather was so nice and we had summer temperatures so I did it anyway 🙂 🙂 It was so warm in the factory but so nice where I paint so that half of the day I was there was so nice and time just ran away. It didn’t when I had to go back to the heat again 🙂 🙂

DSC_0002 (7) — The cherry flowering is almost over and now starts the apples 🙂

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The clouds arrived before I drove homewards though and now it rains but just a nice spring rain. It can change pretty fast though if the showers that can give us up to an inch of rain comes this way. We do need the rain though so I won’t complain if those showers comes here. That would also fill up my water barrels so that’s another reason not to complain.

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I need to buy more fence. I put up fences around the places where I’ll have the potato patch and the vegetable patch and even though I do feel those spaces were smaller than I expected I still spent an entire roll of fence 🙂 🙂 🙂 I haven’t started to remove the grass yet, I’ll do that tomorrow unless it rains then too. I’ll place the removed lawn on top of stinging nettles, it won’t kill them but it will at least slow them down a little.

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The frost we had the other night killed almost all the small peaches on my new tree, they have turned brownish. I hope that at least the two that still just were withered flowers might grow in to peaches though. It also killed all my corn plants, that annoyes me a bit more actually. I do however have more seeds to sow so I’ll do that this weekend and I’ll cover the ground so that any small seedlings that show won’t freeze if we’ll get frost again.

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Yay, the mosquito season has started 🙂 We were walking in the forest when they suddenly attacked us. I have a few bites on my back but the most annoying one is on the side of one of my fingers. I don’t even know how it managed to go there since I held two leashes with that hand. Just a few minutes ago a woman with a stroller and a small dog passed my cottage and went up to my neighbors. The poor woman must have been scared to death when Albin and Alma suddenly started huffing and puffing and barking just as she walked beside my fence 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!