Category: Misty rain.

A new morning routine :-)

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We’ve had two really grey and dark days but today the sun suddenly appeared again (of course not while we were out walking) and it felt really strange 🙂 It didn’t give any heat away though so I guess it appeared just for show 🙂 Still we were in the garden enjoying it as much as we could. It is and has been very windy as well but no wind could reach us here in the garden.

Well I guess it’s a bit wrong to call it logs, they’ll grind it down and make pellets of them. So this is the place I let the mice free.

It was so dark for a while yesterday so I switched to black and white for a short while.

I’ve sort of started a new routine. Wake up and let the dogs out to the garden and when they’ve come in I go down to the cool cellar and check what the box trap has caught during the night. When it gets brighter outside I take the mouse/mice out to the forest in the travel box and let them out just beside a big pile of logs they haven’t removed yet and walk hone.

The clouds thinned out so I turned back to cooler again 🙂

When I come home I leash the dogs and out we go on our morning walk. They are really interested in the smells at that pile of logs 🙂 Alma seems to have understood that if she is quiet we will see bigger animals and two days ago we saw a big moose. Unfortunately just as it vanished in to the forest so I didn’t get a chance to take a photo. Lately I’ve driven to the different places where I can pick up parcels so we might have our walk after that instead, it’s usually brighter outside if we do it that way.

Thankfully I don’t have any more parcels waiting to be picked up so I hope I don’t have to go anywhere until Monday when I’ll visit my old work friends again and also do that last christmas food shopping. I need a small ham and mustard and I’ll also check what I need for making gingerbreads. It’s always nice to have some gingerbreads at christmas but the gluten free we can but are an abomination to the world but I’ve made this kind before and they are delicious but perhaps a bit strong spice-wise 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and most likely a slice or two of the just a few hours old Vörtbröd I baked today 🙂

Have a great day!

Saint Lucia’s day.

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Grey, dull and rain all day here.

We didn’t have an especially long morning walk today, we had walked perhaps half of what we usually do when I suddenly heard a shot not especially far from us. It wasn’t our hunters but in the castles grounds neighbouring to this area. Well even if they were outside where we usually walk I really didn’t want to get too close just in case those hunters weren’t sure where to shoot, so we turned back home again.

A male Bullfinch.

So today, December 13, is Saint Lucias day and even though it isn’t a holiday now days we celebrate her. Its origins here is from the 16th century when we still were a catholic country and that’s when it was a holiday as well. I don’t know how they celebrated back then but that it wasn’t the way we do now. One can say it’s a procession led by a Lucia, all in white wearing a crown with lit candlesticks (kids have electric candles of course) she is followed by maids, star boys and sometimes gnomes and almost always a Saint Stephen. I’m not sure how all these are bout together but that really doesn’t matter when it comes to traditions, does it 🙂 🙂

This procession then travels to different places to sing  Christmas songs, like in retirement homes, hospitals or work places. Schools usually have their own ones. I hated that because I was always forced to be Saint Stephen and had to sing solo for the entire school about Stephen the stable boy 🙂 🙂 🙂 The gnomes sing about gnomes and the Star boys sing other Christmas songs 🙂 (I’ll try and post a video at the end). Everyone looking at this have coffee and gingerbreads and a wheat bun called Lussekatter 🙂

This is also broadcasted on tv so the ones at home gets a chance to see it as well. The first written story about a white dressed Lucia was written down 1764 at a place called Horn in this region of Sweden. It was traditionally a feast day here so I guess it fitted to have the first Lucia procession here (It’s a bit of a story to how they celebrated this day here before Lucia took over but that’s for another day). She was dressed in white but instead of having burning candles on her head she had candlesticks in her hands and she also wore wings. The way we celebrate now is from the early 1900’s when it spread from this region to all of Sweden and to our neighbouring countries.

It is time for that last cup of tea that stands beside me 🙂 I woke up at 4 am and as soon as I did Alma came over to me and placed her chin on my head. I took that as a I must out now 🙂 She is much much better now but she still poops out the occasional peanut 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully the farting has stopped so now the cottage have gone back to smelling like it usually does 🙂 🙂

There isn’t a specific Saint Stephen in this video or gnomes but I guess that pagan gnomes perhaps doesn’t fit in a church 🙂

Have a great day!

So tired.

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I’m a bit tired today because a certain big dog decided to raid the peanuts that was supposed to go to the birds. Of course this created chaos and havoc to her stomach. If I’m saying high pressure diarrhea due to huge amount of gasses sort of ruined the night 🙂 🙂 🙂

I wish I could say that we had morning mist here but it was misty rain instead, the nastiest kind of rain.

Today my home smells of an oddly mix of shit and air cleaner spray 🙂 🙂 🙂 She isn’t the dog that tells You that she needs to go outside, she just sneaks down the stairs and waits to have the door opened. To be fair I think she only thought it would be a fart but so much more happened 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I’ve boiled a lot of rice and she’ll have some fish in it as well. I have Malkolm on the same diet since he has been a bit sad in the stomach as well because the previous food didn’t really agree with him. He will however have some of the new food I’ve ordered in his rice.

Besides that I’ve had a calm day. I’ve been to the supermarket and bought rose-hip soup and Orange ice cream with lots of strings with chocolate 🙂 The cold isn’t any worse than before so I don’t think it’s any of the three flus going around that I’ve gotten. I do try to avoid humans as much as possible but today it was tricky because I was later than usual to the supermarkets so lots of customers walking around but to my surprise no line at the cashiers.

I think it is time to give the dogs something to eat and I’ll have ice cream and later on most likely some of that rose-hip soup 🙂 Some people love to put vanilla ice cream in hot rose-hip soup or a layer of whipped cream on top of it but I prefer to have it by itself.

Have a great day!

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Mixed weather here today, anything from misty rain to drizzle and then showers but also a lot of sunshine and it was so nice to stand in it feeling the warmth from it. Tomorrow it’ll be 4C (39,2F) all day, both day and night but with no chance of seeing the sun they say.

There was almost no vegetation growing in the bog (except for the pines) when I moved here 25 years ago but long draughts have made sure that birches thrive.
The idea was that they weren’t allowed to keep the ditches so that the water level would rise but nature has another idea. So now when animals walk here I can’t see them, just hear them.

It was a joy to have our morning walk today, Alma behaved all the time and Malkolm pushed the leash much less, I guess the smell from what ever it was that the ravens ate made them more focused 🙂 🙂 🙂 This time of year the birds don’t make a lot of sounds, the occasional tweeting but they are so focused at finding food that they really don’t have the time to do other things. That makes it easier for us to hear other things, like wild hogs trying to move as quietly as possible .

We had lots of them around us today and as long as they keep trying to avoid us I don’t care about them 🙂 there were lots of ravens in the air and Great tits flew between the trees looking for insects hiding in the moss and lichens. No woodpeckers today though and oddly enough I didn’t hear any Jays arguing, normally those are the ones one mostly can hear 🙂

I also went to the supermarket today. I didn’t need especially much but came home with more than I had written down on my list 🙂 They did have whole chicken on sale so why not and I found this cereal that was supposed to taste like apple pie (and it was also gluten free) and I thought I really needed to try that one. Well it didn’t taste anything like apple pie and one could think that since it was made from oat that it possibly at least would taste like oatmeal cookies but no. So sit was like eating hard bread in a bowl of yogurt 🙂 🙂 🙂

Then I thought I should buy sand for the aquarium so I walked in top the pet store just beside. They now have a license to sell fish so they actually had a few aquariums with fish but they were so expensive that I doubt anyone will buy any fish from that place. I did eventually find aquarium sand but I couldn’t find how much it weighed but took it anyway, I would need around 10kg (22 pound) and it looked like that bag would way something like that. I did think that I must have lost a lot of muscle because it was so heavy. It was expensive too but since the fish was expensive I didn’t think much of it. Turns out that I bought a 20kg (44 pound) bag 🙂 🙂 so now I have around 22 pound of sand just standing in a corner 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think this might be the last leaf still hanging on in the entire area, it’s on my peach tree 🙂
I really should cut of this big branch on the apple tree but I like all the moss that’s growing on it 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea I think. Perhaps I should have some of that apple pie cereal as some kind of cookie 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can always pour some cinnamon over it all and pretend it’s a Christmas cookie 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

So dark and dreary.

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Even darker today even though it did light up some every now and again.

Rain all day except for in the morning plus strong winds blowing so we’ve mostly been indoors today. Still rather warm for this period of the year but what good does that make when we can’t be outside enjoying it 🙂 🙂 Still, the morning walk was nice since the wind hadn’t reached us yet.

The aquarium I had ordered arrived yesterday and as soon as I saw the package I guessed that it was broken. Too bad I was right. No real damage to it but one could see that they had placed other heavier packages on it because that is what one does when the package is more or less wrapped in red Fragile stickers, well that is at least what the Swedish postal service think is the right way to do it.

Lots of glue and tape and it might become a mini greenhouse 🙂

So I mailed the business I bought it from and they shipped away a new one as soon as they saw the photo of the damages and it will arrive tomorrow!! They didn’t want the broken one back so with some glue and tape I guess I will be able to use it as a mini greenhouse 🙂 I do wonder about our postal service though, back in the days even if a letter had the wrong address they still managed to get it to the right person but that a package marked fragile isn’t supposed to be placed at the bottom with other packages on to of it seems to be a mystery for them 🙂 🙂 🙂

Also a couple of years ago the constantly placed my packages at the wrong places even though they said they used the GPS. In the end I had to threaten to report it to the police as a harassment if they missed one more time. Haven’t had the slightest problem with that since then 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is so muddy now in places we walk all the time in the garden that I started to pour out those wood chips I got after I’d cut down all those branches from the trees.
It works really well and I have more chips to use in other places 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and after that I’ll watch a dvd I think. I have so many but no place for them 🙂 🙂 Storage units is nothing I really have in this small cottage. I have one closet and mice went in there and chewed on all my clothes 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

So many varieties of rain in one day.

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Misty rain.

It is amazing how many different kinds of rains there are because we’ve had all sorts of it today. Misty rain which I think is the worst but it does at least look like thick mist or fog. The drizzle, not that annoying, light autumn rain and showers. The clouds were so thick that I needed to use ISO 3200 and 4000 to be able to take any photos at all.

No wind though so that was a big plus, so the dogs weren’t too disappointed when they had to go for a walk in the morning, well morning is the wrong word because it was pretty late before it was light enough to be able to see where we were going 🙂 We might get a chance to see the sun on Thursday if we’re lucky. Now it’s so muddy that even the dogs and monster dislikes to walk on the “grass” outside the entrance door but I’m pretty sure that if we had walked out to the same place as yesterday it still would be just as dry in the ground there.

My neighbours are all having a cold and I met my neighbour when we went out for our walk and just seeing her made me want to stay far away from her 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not sure if it is a common cold they’re having or this years influenza. What ever it is I’m sort of glad I already have my little cold because if one already has one kind of cold virus one can’t get any other at the same time, learned that last year when a doctor explained that on tv.  At least one good news when having one of them while several other viruses is hitting the rest of the population 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m going to the supermarket tomorrow so I guess I’ll be safe from getting a new one since this little cold I’m having refuses to leave 🙂 🙂  Well it is time for that last cup of tea for the day but today there’s a science program on tv so I’ll watch that instead of a dvd.

Even the Magpies need something to eat.

Have a great day!

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Very little has happened these last days and that’s how it should be 🙂 The weather has changed loads of time, lots of just cloudy, a fair amount of sunshine and some rain as well, especially today will be rainy, they’re guessing it will rain all day long.

The dogs just look at me when I open the door for them to go outside 🙂 🙂 The little monster however will not be stopped by some rain, my guess is that she’ll go straight to the woodshed because she’s rarely especially wet when she comes back home again.

We have been lucky with the weather when we’ve had our walks though and yesterday morning was so chilly that I could see frost on the ground here and there. So no moose flies to deal with 🙂 It should be the end of their season anyway so from now on I shouldn’t have to wear the hoodie to avoid getting those nasty flies walking in my hair. It is a horrible feeling to wake up to at night 🙂 🙂

Today I’ll go to a job interview. The job is in a town called Skövde but the interview will happen in another town called Lidköping. Apparently they have two factories (I’m not sure it should be called a factory but I don’t have a better word for it), the job is about sanding objects before it is going to be painted and eventually later on also paint the things. To be honest I have no idea what kind of things we’re talking about but a job is a job and since I don’t tend to win the lottery I hope I’ll get this job 🙂 🙂

I have come to like staying at home all day though 🙂 🙂 but getting payed is better than hoping for that lottery winning after all 🙂 🙂 This time at home have however made me realise that I will love to retire when that day comes 🙂 🙂 🙂

I haven’t had any tea yet so I better make some before it is time to drive to that job interview. Since the weather is like it is I guess I’l spend the time until then in front of the tv or perhaps watch an episode or two of a Town called Eureka 🙂

Have a great day!

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They are slowly ripening 🙂 I had to take this photo with a flash so the colours aren’t quite right. They are turning towards a very dark red colour.

For a while in the early morning it looked like we were going to have sunshine while we were out walking and we did for around twenty seconds 🙂 Then the rain arrived, no heavy showers but either a steady but calm rainfall or misty rain. It wasn’t until just after noon the sun made a come back and now three hours later I can see that the rain is falling again.

The rain on the mountain missed us but another one came a short moment after.

So I haven’t done a lot today, mostly drinking tea and watching tv, well I wouldn’t be able to tell You what it was I looked at because mostly it was pretty boring and nothing I really wanted to see. When the sunshine finally arrived I’ve mostly been throwing away what I’ve had in pots and poured it all out close to where the plum tree stood. I dug up all the dahlias and for the first time in my life only one can be saved till next year, I have no idea why they didn’t create root lumps like dahlias always do. Could be that I’ve watered them too little.

No signs of any wolf still staying around, they rarely do to be honest. I did see some tracks from moose though and they looked really fresh, if they had been old the rain would have wiped them out. To my very big surprise I finally found my jigsaw!! and it was pure luck because I can’t really understand why I had placed it there, beneath the entrance stairs??!! It must have been that a shower passed by and that was the closest place I could find, otherwise I have absolutely no idea 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully it is in a sort of plastic suitcase so no water from the latest rains had managed to get to it. So it still works and soon I’ll be able to have that third rainwater barrel 🙂

Well the weather doesn’t seem to become any nicer again so I guess I better make a pot of tea and perhaps doze off in front of the tv 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

First sunshine, then rain and repeat all day.

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We had a beautiful sunrise today and I think that have might been the only beautiful thing happening today 🙂 🙂 The rest of the day we’ve been in and out of the cottage. The sun shone and we went out and suddenly rain arrived and we went indoors again 🙂 We’ve also had a strong wind blowing so even if we were outside while we could see the sun up there in the sky it still wasn’t especially nice.

I had hoped I cut take down the trunks of those plum trees but I really didn’t want to be caught outside with an electric chainsaw with a cord if it rained. So since most machines and tools I own is just the same I really couldn’t do much else either 🙂  So I have mostly, in between going in and out again, sort of half napped in front of the tv 🙂

Edible and really tasty mushroom.
Don’t eat, You’ll get really sick.

It won’t do much to You but they don’t taste a thing 🙂

I’m starting planning to bring down some plants down to the cool cellar already, mostly my Peruvian ground cherries, they have lots of small fruits but are far from being ripe and their relatives Tomatillos for the same reason. By the way I’ve never grown or eaten tomatillos but understand that they should be cooked, what do they taste like? 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m getting lots of them so it would be sad if the frost takes them before they are ripe.

Never ever eat this one!

Or this one, the Swedish name for it is forest salad or lettuce might be a better word. I doubt You’ll die but …

It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll eat an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream. They sell gluten free ones from the ice cream lorry so I bought a package yesterday 🙂

They are beautiful though!

Have a great day!

Lots of rain and I like it :-)

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I always take a test photo when we’re going out for our walks and it is usually this one 🙂

It has been raining all night and almost all day since I went to bed yesterday night.but there was a moment when it didn’t early this morning so the dogs and I went out for our morning walk. Didn’t last for long though before the misty rain arrived and later on just before we arrived at home we had heavy showers 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did at least have a walk and despite Alma trying to rip off my arm while passing the new neighbours she behaved really well 🙂 🙂 No screaming at all and only a quiet whining 🙂 I had hoped to see the fox cubs again so I brought a bigger lens but had no such luck plus the misty rain stuck to the glass on the lens like it was velvet  🙂 🙂 🙂 it was a nice walk though because it looks like misty rain is a mortal enemy to flies as well, almost no flies fly around when we have misty rain, I guess their wings just sticks together when those small droplets fill the air.

I had to save a lot of the potted plants from the rain water today, normally it’s saving them from not getting water but today I had to remove all the plates they stood on because the rain just kept filling them up. I always feel a bit torn placing pots directly on the ground because small red ants tends to move in, small red ants with a good ability to sting and the pain is quite gruesome. Also lots of other animals move in as well and as long as they are outside and those animals can come and of they do no harm but when I bring them in during winter they tend to start eating on the plant because they have no other place to go.

I have also had a long nap, Alma and I took a long nap in one of the sofas and Malkolm decided it was a bit crowded so he had the second sofa to himself. Alma is rather big so I must say it was a bit uncomfortable but we shared that two people sofa rather well to be honest and since the air is a bit damp and cool today it helped me to stay warm 🙂

I really should bake some bread today but I just don’t have the energy to do it. I am rather glad I mowed the lawn yesterday because it would have been impossible for my mower to cut it the next time we have sunny or at least dry weather, it wasn’t exactly pleased to do it yesterday as it was, I hadn’t mowed the lawn in one and a half week and ad water to that and I think it would have died 🙂 I like this mower so I really don’t want to have to buy another one 🙂

Potato flowers are actually quite beautiful.

It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps I will read one of all the books I’ve started to read but never finished 🙂 They are all really good, I just haven’t had the energy to read for quite some time but it feels like that’s slowly changing now 🙂

Have a great day!

Quite a nice day despite the rain.

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To me this has been a rather nice day, no sunshine but still rather warm, mostly misty rain but every now and again it changed to a nice summer rain, You know the kind that isn’t too heavy and not drenches anyone outside.

So the fox cubs were playing just by the gate but the lens was covered in misty rainwater.

We took a walk rather late today down to the creek. Both Alma and Malkolm behaved so well until we had passed our new neighbours, then we met them just after their home and both Alma and Malkolm were so excited that Malkolm for some reason started yapping, yes it did sound just like that and Alma started bawling like insane 🙂 🙂 The good thing was that their dogs did the same 🙂 🙂 They all really wanted to meet but sort of scared each other at the same time so we had to just keep walking 🙂 🙂 🙂

I just like how difficult it is to see that there’s an opening to a path in to the forest that is really hard to see just in front of us.

That’s when the misty rain arrived and unfortunately misty rain sticks like glue to everything no matter what direction it comes from so I couldn’t get any photos of the two fox cubs that played on the gravel road in front of us, they didn’t have the patience to wait for me to clean the lens from rainwater. So I was sort of relieved when the nice summer rain started to fall instead.

Almost no wind today so we were surrounded by forest flies almost all the way. I’ve realised that it is enough to wear a hoodie to keep them away from both the ears and nostrils. I mean they do no harm at all but they have this idea that they need to go inside there to see what they can find and I hate it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Still no biting flies here and that sort of builds up hope that they might be very few this summer but I’m sure that’s a false hope 🙂 🙂

The Fireweed in bloom just outside my livxingroom window.

This weather also removed all ideas that a nap would be wrong, not even the dogs wanted to be outside, so I had a nap in the sofa together with Alma, Malkolm decided it was too crowded so he chose the other sofa and the floor. I’m pretty sure the sofas would be great to sleep on during hot days when the bedroom would be like an oven but it tends to be too crowded with me and the dogs but I think I’ll try it next time the temperatures rise too high, after all I might be able to convince the dogs that they can share the other sofa instead sleeping close to me 🙂 🙂

Can You see the spiderweb?

I’ve just baked a bread and for once I let it rest and not take a slice or two just after bringing it out in to the world 🙂 So as soon as I’ve done this blog I’ll have a slice or two together with that last cup of tea for the day 🙂

Have a great day!

I managed the first week but I’m soo tired now :-)

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View from my window upstairs.

So my first evening shift week is over and I must say it worked better than I thought it would. I did get more and more tired as the days passed and this morning I was so tired that I would have preferred to stay in bed all day long 🙂 🙂

My black walnut is finally greening up.

The weather was perfect for that because it has been raining constantly since yesterday and will continue through the weekend. I don’t mind the rain though, wee need it because even the weeds started to look sad now 🙂 🙂 I do mind the temperature though, 4C (39,2F) as lowest during the day and it dropped down to 2C (35,6F) on my way home just after midnight.

No flowers in my woodland but Solomons’ seal has some buds now.

It’s a strange feeling driving home at night, even though I’ve driven that road so often during daylight it’s a totally different thing when it is pitch dark. There are almost no lights from the few houses along the road so even though I really can’t drive the wrong way I still don’t really know where I am :-)It isn’t before half way home when I pass the village Gudhem that I know where I am because there’s a petrols station that brings some light to the area and after that it’s pitch black again 🙂 🙂 If the sky is cloud free it really isn’t really dark here anyway this time of year, the sky is already becoming brighter after midnight so there aren’t any stars in the sky at all. o if one wants to look at stars here one better do it in winter when it is cold and nasty 🙂 🙂

I got my first pay check today so I drove to the grocery store in the village where I used to work, I’ve been doing most of my grocery shopping there since I moved to this area, must be 28 years now so many of them are like friends and they know more about me than most people 🙂 🙂 Also I know where everything is placed in that store so without the chats with the employees the shopping goes really fast 🙂 🙂 After that I visited my old work place, well my old work friends and told them how I really like working at this new place and how fast I just became one in the gang. It has never been like that in my old work place, if one is a bit shy it really is hard to get to know people there and that I know have work friends and bosses that actually treat people with respect., they asked me how that felt 🙂 🙂 🙂

The dogs have been behaving really good during this week. Ok Alma did one thing I wasn’t especially happy about, My kitchen door is to be honest just an old balcony door with no insulation in it, so I had put up insulation but not yet covered it. I now need to buy new insulation 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m actually now thinking of making the insulation much thicker and covering it with a sort of box so that I can have potted plants there during winter. I will check with friends who now better than I how to do it so it just doesn’t comes loose drop off the door one day 🙂 🙂 🙂

My Red oak shows leafs as well.
It’s easy to see why this rose is called Red leafed rose in English.
The Kankakee mallow has adapted well to where they grow now, I think I have six more in pots though and they look fine today, I think they liked the rainy and cooler weather a lot.

It is time for a cup of tea and perhaps baking some bread but I am so tired so I might skip the bread until tomorrow since I bought hard bread today.  I will not spend much time outside because of the rain but it is a bit warmer now at least.

Have a great day!