Dark and grey again even though we almost could see the sun for a few seconds in the afternoon 🙂 We were supposed to have rain but it missed us. Perhaps a good thing because there’s so much water in the creek now that if we would get lots more it would overflow.
I could see a few ravens in the sky but no other bigger animals, they tend to stay where it is calm and today was nothing but. We did however see a big forest machine in the distance and the sound from it stressed Alma so much, she really doesn’t like strange sounds or any change what so ever. We managed to have a walk without her freaking out too much anyway 🙂
I realised how old I am now when I was on Reddit and looked at their different forums about aquariums. Back in the days when I was a kid I learned one way to have and keep an aquarium healthy and have never really changed my ways as it has worked well. Today having an aquarium is high tech! They fertilise the plants, use CO2 as well and they even use soil and having soil in aquariums was something they always said was a big no no.
They also test for the, for me, most odd things like ammonium. Can’t remember that I ever had a problem with that, must smell horribly if that happens 🙂 🙂 I don’t however think necessarily were better back then but it sure was less complicated and less expensive 🙂 🙂 Anyway when I looked at those forums I started to remember all the old books I read until they broke and realised I don’t have any left and started to look on the net. So now I have two of those books I read and a third is on its way. These are of course old school because I’ll never start with any of that they do now days 🙂 🙂 The book that’s on its way is printed in 1938 so it’ll be interesting to see how things have changed since then 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. There’s absolutely nothing I want to watch on tv so I guess I’ll be reading those two books all evening long 🙂
We might get up to two decimeters (eight inches) of snow from tonight and until Friday afternoon so I decided to go to the store already today so I don’t have to drive in that garbage weather on Friday. I know, snow is pretty but I truly dislikes it. The only time I actually liked it was rather many years ago when I spent Christmas in a cottage even more remote than where I live now.
I rented a cottage back then in a region called Dalsland, close to the Norwegian border, and I had the best Christmas ever (I think that I have written about it here in my blog a year or two or perhaps even more years ago 🙂 ). Over half a meter of snow (much the same in yards), -28C (-18,4F), no electricity but a fire stove and my then two dogs and one cat. There’s no light pollution at all there so even if I can see lots of stars here it’s nothing compared to there. I spent an entire week there and as I said it’s the only time I actually have liked snow 🙂
This and the rest of the photos are taken with analog cameras and if I remember it right it’s an Agfa Ambiflex I took these six first ones, then two with a Nikon F90 and the four last ones with an Agfa Colorflex (can be wrong with that last one though).
Back then mobile phones just started to become popular so to hope for any kind of signal there was to hope for a miracle 🙂 🙂 🙂 I would have loved to live there but I think there’s a bigger chance to find a job on the planet Mars than in that region 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I’ll have to endure the snow here no matter what but I do think that if I ever won the lottery I would buy something small in southern France so I could stay there during winter and move back here when spring arrives 🙂
I didn’t bring any digital camera with me on our walks today but it looks much the same as it did a few days back and I also have some wintery photos taken with film cameras last winter so perhaps I’ll put in a few of those. I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I will not bake a mug cake today no matter how yummy it was so I’ll just have that tea and perhaps watch some tv even if I doubt that there’s anything I want to watch, there rarely is.
So today was the last day with cold weather and sunshine for quite some time it seems, I’ll miss the sunshine but not the temperatures 🙂 The low pressure is arriving with a roaring wind now and it might even be as warm as 10C (50F) already on Saturday.
This morning however was still pretty cold and the sun shone as well. Thankfully once again totally wind free (it arrived later in the day) so it was quite nice being outside walking. Alma behaved reasonable well but Malkolm pulled the leash instead. He’s not that big and strong though so that isn’t so bad to be honest but if Alma isn’t allowed to do it neither is he. I must start thinking about the possibility that the tutor on my kidney has grown and that I’ll get treatment during the summer so having dogs pulling the leash when I most likely won’t be especially strong is a bad idea. However we aren’t there yet so perhaps I can make them both calm down by then.
I’m so lucky that my neighbour works in a supermarket now when Alma is in heat and the shot Malkolm had doesn’t work properly yet because I realised that the cat litter wouldn’t last for long so she brought home a bag for me plus I suddenly had a craving for some soda, I normally don’t drink soda unless I have a head ache so it will be something with caffein in it. Today I wanted something else, so now I have pear soda at home. I didn’t think they still made that so when she said they sold it I really wanted it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I remember when being at my mormors’ (grandmother on my mothers side) I was always allowed to go downstairs to get a soda and I usually chased between raspberry soda or pear soda 🙂 I was also always allowed to take an ice cream if I wanted to 🙂
The monster kitten was allowed to be without the cone of shame for a couple of hours today and she really enjoyed it. Tomorrow it’ll be eight days after surgery so I’ll allow her to be without it even longer and on Saturday she will not have it any more. It should be totally healed already now I think but it might still be a bit fragile I guess so better be safe than sorry. The scar doesn’t seem to bother her at all though but to be honest neither does the cone 🙂 The only thing is that the the place where the cone is tied together seems to be itching, as soon as it goes off the itching stops.
Today I won’t have that last cup of tea for the day, instead I’ll have some pear soda 🙂
WE were lucky to have sunshine this morning and I could see morning mist in the village when looking out the window. I knew we wouldn’t get out in time to catch it with the camera so I took a couple of photos from my window. It was so chilly outside so I could see my breath when breathing 🙂 🙂
It was much warmer just a few minutes later when the sun started to heat up the air. Nova has had a really good day today, so we walked down to the creek and followed it up-stream for a while. I didn’t spray the anti tick spray on any of us otherwise we would have walked down-stream instead. I saw an owl flying away from us, a rather big one but I know very little about owls so I have no idea what kind it was. But we met some other animals that I did catch with the camera, Red deer. For You Americans they are as big as the Elk/ Wapiti.
I rarely see Red deer here, sometimes a couple of does but today I also saw a youngling and a bull, a very young one because the antlers are really small.
They are usually really shy here but today they were in no rush at all even though they knew we were there, Alma made it impossible not to know where we were 🙂 🙂 🙂 I thought that we also would meet wild hogs, due to how Alma behaved but I guess they weren’t that interested in meeting us 🙂 No flies while we were walking but the mosquitoes were quite active. It must be other species flying around this time because suddenly those bites itch again. Yesterday my feet itched so badly that I had to use a cortisol ointment 🙂 🙂
Looks quite good with the pink flowers and silvery leafs but the silvery colors is unfortunately mildew, we have unusually much of that this year.
It didn’t take that long after our walk that the rain arrived, heavy showers and a strong wind so the dogs refused to go outside unless they really needed to 🙂 So now the dogs are quite restless and I can see in their eyes that they accuse me of the rainy weather and oddly enough it isn’t better if I open the other door 🙂 Less rain tomorrow they’re guessing but Sunday will be nice they say. I’ll believe it if it happens 🙂
Nothing on tv tonight. Back in the days when I was young Fridays were the big family tv day in the weeks. Families gathered in front of the tv to watch something fun for all. These days they seems to have given up totally since so many stream programs and can see anything any time. I don’t stream anything and only have the free channels and now during summer they all show reruns that we already have seen loads of times 🙂 🙂 We have one channel called the Knowledge channel, my favorite channel that shows science programs but even that channel only show reruns now.
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps have some more of that cortisol ointment all over my feet 🙂 🙂
Today we haven’t done much at all. The rain they first said would come but later that it wouldn’t actually did come 🙂 🙂 🙂 So it has rained from early morning till early afternoon. When the sun finally did show itself the humidity made the world feel like a steam bath. It wasn’t until we had some wind that it actually became quite nice outside. The ice cream lorry came yesterday so I have been eating way too much ice cream 🙂
I wish I could say it was fog in the distance but it was a shower passing by.
I’ve topped the tomato plants now and also removed most of the leafs, now I want the plant to concentrate its energy towards ripen the tomatoes.
So we have stayed indoors most of the day but has been in the garden some when the wind arrived. Malkolm jumped over to the neighbors and if they don’t mind it I won’t either but they do need to be at home 🙂 I don’t want him to become an adventurer taking long trips all over the place 🙂 I once had a dog who did that and I didn’t have a clue 🙂 🙂 I thought he walked down to the neighbors horses and spend time with them, he loved everything in this world but especially those horses.
The Himalayan cypress still look really good.
The Morning glories are finally showing more flowers. This one does at least grow up the fence, most of the other finds the grass much better 🙂
The Aronia is full of berries, I really don’t like them but the birds do. I’ll cut down the Aronia to ankle height as soon as the berries are gone.
Turns out that he visited the entire village 🙂 🙂 🙂 I learned that when he was no longer here. I passed villagers that asked where he was and it was so sad that he no longer lived because he was the most wonderful dog they had met and even people who didn’t even live here but were friends with villagers came and told me how sad it was. Turns out that he every now and again took long walks in the village and since I was the only one having dogs here in the village at that time everyone understood that he just was very social and made sure he wouldn’t leave the village 🙂 🙂 🙂
My Aaron’s rod is really high now, above three meters anyway.
His brother Hector did also take small tours but towards the forest, he wasn’t especially social at all even though he liked people too so instead of visiting the neighbors he had a Fox friend 🙂 🙂 🙂 We met the fox when he was rather young and for some reason he and Hector stayed to play with each other (Hector was a youngster as well). The fox never came especially close to me but Hector and his brother were never leashed so Hector ran out to him in the fields when we met. I’m pretty sure that if Malkolm would have his own small walks he would be very much like Orvar, Hectors brother.
To be honest I think Hector was autistic, he didn’t like to be patted, wasn’t especially cuddly and never understood how to play with other dogs, The only thing he liked was to stand on the stirs to the upper floor and then he expected me to have my head towards his, nose to nose, and then we would stand like that until he thought it was enough 🙂 🙂 If I wanted to leave earlier he just kept on standing there until I came back and did it all over again 🙂 🙂 His mother wanted to kill him as a newborn puppy. Good thing she was listening to me all the time but she wan’t happy about me not letting her do that. Instead she was mean, every time anything bad happened to her she ran and bit Hector, even if everyone around could see that it was Ovar’s fault.
Well that was a long time ago now but I do miss those two a lot 🙂 It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and perhaps more ice cream 🙂
So Malkolm is much better already 🙂 I went to work an hour later this morning just so I could see if the food would stay or not. My biggest worry was if he possibly had eaten something that blocked the food. He ate and had no problems at all 🙂
The sky on my way home today.
We have lots to do at work but the things I do had all been done just after lunch today, so I left work a couple of hours early 🙂 I went to the grocery store in the village where I work and was going to buy some frozen fish for Malkolm. When I was a kid fish was poor mans food, so we ate a lot of fish. Today fish is rich mans food because those prices really make one need an income on the top 1% to be able to buy it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead I bought frozen chicken and that also works really well for an upset stomach. I made the rice this morning before going to work and boiled the chicken as soon as I had come home. Now days Nova only eat any food made from chicken and the smell made even her want to eat so of course both she and Alma had some too 🙂
The food stayed where it should be and now Malkolm have more energy that I think he should have 🙂 🙂 He and Alma were playing here on the upper floor and when both finally fell off my bed and it to what sounded as the radiator I had to shout to make them stop 🙂 🙂 All three are now sleeping on the floor here beside me 🙂 For once no one is snoring 🙂
It was supposed to rain this afternoon and the sky sure looked like it when I drove home but one drop hit my head and that was it 🙂 They are now guessing that it will rain more or less all day tomorrow and Friday and Saturday but I’ll believe it if it happens. They are also guessing that my first vacation week will be sunny and just enough warm, I’ll believe that when it happens as well. Some times they don’t even get it right when they show what weather we’ve had during the day. I remember one winter when they said that we had had cloudy weather and -18C (-0,4F) when in fact we had had sunny weather all day long and minus 28C (-18,4F) 🙂 🙂 🙂 WE haven’t had such low temperatures since then so it must be well over 15 years ago but unfortunately the weather sites haven’t become much better since then 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think these are Creeping bell-flowers.I have two Hardy Hibiscus in my garden but so far no signs of buds.
I’m not the one to be nostalgic or think back on memories form the good old days that weren’t particularly good to be honest but today lots of memories came back when a smell I really can’t say whet it was brought back a lot of memories, mostly about our summer cottage up in the mountains just outside my home town. Suddenly I saw myself sitting in the glassed veranda with place for two people eating two sandwiches and I could feel the smell of newly brewed coffee. The cottage were placed at the top of the mountain and there was no running water, an outhouse painted screaming green, a gas cooker and showers were taken outside with cold water that we brought with us in big plastic jerricans.
I started going there by myself when I was around 13 years old. I lived on the other side of the city so I think it was around 40 km (25 miles) to our cottage. The only heating we had was a kerosene heater so i rarely went there when winter had arrived. From early spring to late autumn however I want there quite often, the rest of the family didn’t care especially much then. Normally I biked there so I didn’t bring a lot of water but enough for a cup of coffee in the morning and to be able to wash myself if there wasn’t any water in the rain water barrel (well this is Sweden so naturally there was water in the barrel 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) The best thing, I think, was that I passed my mormor (grandmother on my mothers side) so I usually had a pit stop there bunkering up with a couple of sodas and cinnamon buns 🙂 and of course I had some while visiting her as well 🙂
I was quite young so if something walked outside the cottage it could be a bit scary but it was always a moose or deer that passed by 🙂 I loved that place and I think I mostly just read books or listened to my radio, back then they often played the Radio theater shows and those were really good. I don’t think they do that any more. Nothing would grow there except for grass, moss, daffodils and some Irises, we tried to grow potatoes there once but the potatoes were tiny and so hard that it didn’t help that we boiled them for hours, they just kept on being like little round rocks 🙂
So yesterday I brought out a piece of meat from the freezer, I was going to make dinner for work this week. I naturally forgot it until it was too late in the evening so I went in to the kitchen to put it in the fridge and I just couldn’t find it!! I’ve looked everywhere, even in the pantry but it is nowhere to be found 🙂 🙂 🙂 So the only one that could have reached it is Alma, I’m not saying she’s a food thief but she is my prime suspect 🙂 🙂 🙂
I can’t find any traces of the plastic wrapping or the plastic tray it was lying on either 🙂 🙂 🙂 My neighbors will look for evidence in their garden when they go outside for a walk with the dogs and I’ll go down to the pond behind my garage to morrow when we’ll go out for a walk 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was enough to make her stomach a bit wobbly I think but she’s better than ever 🙂 🙂 🙂
Anyway I was planning on bringing sandwiches instead but it turned out that I only had had bread at home so this morning I went to the grocery store in the village I work in and bought some grilled ribs and a small package with potato salad. It was delicious and thankfully so much that I’ll have it again tomorrow 🙂 In a way I hope it is Alma that has taken the meat because otherwise it’ll soon start to smell pretty nasty in my cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂
Alma reminds me of one of the old dogs that used to live with me, her name was Viran. More or less the same size, just as much energy but Viran had the ability to be relaxed on walks as well. I have so many stories with Viran that it could fill a book 🙂 🙂 🙂 She, for instance, managed to destroy three fridges during one year, one could say that she was highly food motivated 🙂 🙂 🙂
The photos doesn’t come in any particular order, like age or so. It tends to be that the smaller they are the older they are. I can’t remember the password so I can’t reach the photos from my oldest blog unfortunately.
I have nothing much to say really, the wetaher has been nice but today is a bit chilly and we even had some drizzle on my way home and a while after I had come home.
Sickan is the brown dog, Viran the big black to the left and all the puppies were Virans.Erna when she was quite young.Slightly older.and at least twelve years old.Nova, she quite the spitting image of Erna but just half the size 🙂 Too bad that the harness covers the white that Nova also has on her chest 🙂
Work has been flowing nicely and I have had the big gate open when ever I’ve had the chance, like today when I cleaned some things I was about to paint. The sun was shining then and all that nice warm sunshine filled the place.
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The swallows have arrived and they nest beneath the roof just outside where I paint and where all goods are delivered or shipped away. I do like them but they poop a lot and it’s hard to remove after just an hour or so. Plus they can spread salmonella with their poop so mask is always worn when cleaning it off.
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Today I’m showing more old photos from when I had this blog at another place, blogger. Some are from 2008 and very small. I have all these photos in the laptop I can’t remember the password for though 🙂 🙂 I really need to find some place that can help me open it up again so I can get photos from old Sickan and Viran too.
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Have a great day!
...This is Öivind, later on renamed to Maxi. He was the father of Orvar and Hector and unfortunately their mother was Erna, Öivinds sister 🙂 🙂 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 