Category: Morning mist.

We will knot know who won until Wednesday/ Thursday.

September 12, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0001 (2) — I took a few photos from the window upstairs this morning. I was lucky because the morning mist vanished within minutes.

So I went early to vote yesterday morning, I was there as soon as they opened up and I still had to stand in line. Not more than five minutes but it did feel odd. I was lucky, later in the day some people had to stand in line for hours.

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I don’t know how things work in other countries when it comes to the ballots but here each party has their own ballot. If one is a Swedish citizen we can vote for three different things, the parliament, the region (which takes care of the health care system) and the county. So one need one ballot for each one. Up until last year they had all the ballots on a place where everyone actually could see what one chose, not a great thing to be honest but most of us just took a bunch of ballots from different parties when we went to the screen where we put the ballots in special envelopes.

e (1) — It was however quite foggy up on the mountain yesterday morning when I went to vote.

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Now they decided that the ballots would be in a place where no one could see what one picked, no problems with that really but I and most other people then believed that there would be several places where they had the ballots. How wrong we were and since lots of people hadn’t decided what party/ parties they would vote for until they reached that place it took a lot! of time for people to vote. I don’t know who the idiot is who didn’t think of that, especially since they had been warned that this most likely would happen but who ever it was should never be allowed to be in charge of anything ever again. The lines were so long in some places that people just gave up and walked home without voting.

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Anyway, the results? Well we have eight parties in the parliament and they are divided in to two groups. One is center left parties and the other one is right and fascist. It is at the moment so close that we won’t know for sure until Wednesday evening/ Thursday morning until we actually know which one of them won. Unfortunately it leans towards the right-fascist side. They will have huge problems making it work though because the least right wing party refuses to have anything to do with the government if the fascist party is in it. Then again the fascists won’t be happy if the least right wing party is a part of the government either, especially since they are the biggest party in that group (just above 20%).

e (9) — I stopped by the Abbey ruins on my way back home but unfortunately most of the fog had drifted away by then.

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To be honest the other group, if things would change when all votes are counted, will not have an easier time to create a government either, they have more or less the same problems in their group 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is a bit scary that people who behaves like toddlers in in the defiance age will actually lead this country. I have some kind of stomach flu today so I’m at home and have spent the day in front of the tv watching the two big channels discussing what will happen now and that’s just stupid since we actually don’t know who won! At the moment the right leads with 46000 votes and I think they still have several hundred thousand votes to count. Anything can happen.

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It is time for some rose hip soup and after that I’ll most likely fall asleep in front of the tv as always 🙂

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Have a great day!

Sixteen years old and still going strong :-)

September 6, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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To be honest,Nova is now 16 years and three days old. I should have posted about her in the last post but I wanted to include a very short video(which I hadn’t filmed) as well and it’s at the bottom of this post. Just click on the bottom post and You should be able to see it even if You don’t have Instagram.

a (1) — Below 0C (32F) this morning. Most mornings lately has been so chilly that we’ve had morning mist and I’ve used my car camera for several days now to capture it.

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She has been through quite a lot in her life. Her first year she and her siblings were locked in a cellar, beaten and starved. After that she was with an elderly couple who spoiled her rotten 🙂 🙂 and she really deserved that. They had her for half a year and then she moved to me. She has some allergies, a tumor 2 inch long tumor between her right eye and ear removed, she has no cruciate ligament in her right knee but a knee brace and duct tape takes care of that and she’s in no pain. Constant ear infections and one of those turned in to flesh eating bacteria attacking her. The anti-biotics she got was so strong that I had to wash my hands every time I had given them to her. The skin is still hanging loose on the place where she had it. She has also had cancer but is still going strong 🙂

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I really didn’t want another dog at that moment, my old Erna had just passed away a month earlier but then the animal rescue organisation who called me and asked if I could take her showed me a photo of her. She looked almost exactly like old Erna but only half the size. Of course I couldn’t say no 🙂 🙂 🙂 In the beginning she had this thing of hating hares and if she was unleashed she would run after it and out of my sight (she never caught any though, the hares were just too smart for her 🙂 🙂 🙂 ). I never had to worry about her running away though, she always ran back to either me or back home 🙂

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One day hares weren’t tyat fun any more and after that She has mostly walked unleashed on our walks. Wild hogs and moose have run close to her several times and she might have looked a bit surprised when it happened but she has never run after them. The only time I demand her to be leashed is when I know there are wolves in the area. She’s friendly to all animals so she would mostly likely go to it and say hi 🙂 🙂 She has always had ear infections and one vet once said that her ear is built to get infections. Now days we’re controlling those infections with steroids and so far it has worked pretty well.

Even though she right now is healthy and strong it doesn’t take much to change that in a dog that is that old, so all I can do is hold my thumbs and cross my fingers and hope it will continue like this for a very long time more 🙂

Have a great day!

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The first frost!

August 31, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

20220830_060424 — The first frost on the car. I had a few photos in the phone that I show today.

We had our first morning with frost yesterday. The temperature sunk to 0C (32F) for just long enough time to give me a sheet of ice over the entire car. I can’t say I liked it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Normally the first frost arrives at September 6 so it came a week early.

20220829_093136 — This rather aggressive spider refused to be pushed away from the toilets at work 🙂 🙂 The body is around four fifths of an inch.

When I’m at work my dogs are in the dog house/ yard or garage. They once dug a hole in the ground to get in to the garage so after that it’s now their indoor yard 🙂 They’ve created havoc in there so I rarely go inside to see what it looks like now days 🙂 🙂 The problem now days is that they easily get in there but Nova is old and not especially agile any more so quite often I need to open the garage door to let her out. Albin has never been agile in any way and he’s getting older as well so lately I’ve had to open the garage door for him too.

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So yesterday when I came home Alma came out from the dog house (a big part of the wood shed to be honest, it’s so big that I almost can stand straight and I would have no problems having a bed in there 🙂 ) but neither Albin or Nova came out. So I opened the garage door and out ran Albin but I couldn’t find Nova? In this garage/ wood shed, dog house they’ve saved the old outhouse (the old outdoors toilet) and remade it in to a garden shed. and it is sort of built in to the garage. I called after her but she didn’t make a sound, then something on the ground caught my eye.

DSC_0014 (7) — The photo really doesn’t show it but the leafs are now slowly changing colors.

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Turns out that the old lady had dug her way beneath the old outhouse and while doing that pushed the sand behind her blocking the way back out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have no idea for how long she has been trapped there but it looked like she has had plenty of space anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 So the first thing I had to do was to dig her out of that place and when i finally got her out I blocked the space with an old lawn mower 🙂 🙂 🙂 The lady might be old but she’s still pretty active 🙂 🙂 🙂

20220830_163829 — She had dug her way in beneath the old outhouse where the lawn mower now are pushed down and I could see her nose mowing from the little space between the wall and ground to the left where the rake stands.

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Have a great day!!

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

August 27, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

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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!

Does everyting come from China now days?

August 23, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

It is still rather warm here, 25C (77F) and I can’t remember when we had this high temperatures this late in August the last time. It’s actually quite nice since we also have had a nice breeze blowing. It will continue like this until at least the weekend if they’re guessing right.

It is amazing how fast one can forget ones last work when one wants to 🙂 I had to go to my old work place for a while today and I managed to shut down the entire painting program and instead get out on the internet and I just couldn’t get back again 🙂 🙂 🙂 (to be honest, I didn’t even know we could reach the internet from the painting box). We had to shut down the entire box and restart it again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I even offered to do the cleaning program when we were going to use another color but they thought it best to let me do other things instead 🙂 🙂 🙂

I went to the optician yesterday to ask if they could do progressive contact lenses. I had heard that they can do that now days and why not try it if they can. Turns out they can so I now have an appointment in September. I’ve had lenses before but had to stop when I started to work with powder paint. The pain when something as tiny as a dustgrain comes between the eye and the lens is horrible so it wasn’t possible to wear contacts when I worked there. So they’ll do a check on my eyes and after that I hopefully can have contacts again.

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I had ordered a hand chain saw so that I can trim some branches of my apple trees and also lots of branches from my lilacs. I’ve been waiting for it to arrive for over 14 days but today it arrived. Doesn’t any company have anything in stock now days? Several things I’ve ordered lately have taken around 14 days to arrive and I have been able to follow the order all the time. It also seems that anything one buys today comes from Yunnan in China, or Shanghai :-)Well the sofas did come from a place in sweden and the coffee maker from Germany but for some reason I think they most actually were made in Yunnan in China anyway 🙂

DSC_0004 (5) — Still some flowers on my Catalpa.

DSC_0006 (5) — Lots of seed pods too but they are usually too late to give any seeds that will germinate.

Have a great day!

At least the morning was cool.

August 13, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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Clear sky and 8C (46,4F) when we went out on our morning walk today. At 10:30 the sky was still clear and blue but the temperature had risen to 26C (78,8F). Still a clear and blue sky and now it’s 29C (84,2F) and I’m not sure if it stops there or will get even warmer. It is too warm for my taste as it is now so I do hope it starts to cool off now instead. They’re saying it will get warmer tomorrow.

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Alma decided that she would be a monster on our morning walk so I can’t say I enjoyed it especially much, even if it was just enough cool and no flies were flying around. Ok she had a lot of energy in her body since it was too hot to take walks the two previous days but she really can’t control herself. The second we were at home she changed to that wonderful nice and pleasant dog I rarely see outside my garden. My guess is that she either really doesn’t like to take walks or she loves it so much that she just can’t keep calm.

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The two sofas I’ve ordered will arrive here on Monday some time before noon so I had to break down the old corner sofa I’ve had for at least twelve? years. Ever since I got the recliner from my neighbors I’ve left the sofa to my dogs and it was almost sad to see how bad it had deteriorated since then 🙂 🙂 🙂 The seat cushions had holes in them and one is so bad that the stuffing fell out from it while I carried it to the wood shed (well I need to place it somewhere until I can get rid of it 🙂 🙂 ). The two for the back and the smaller one to sit on is now placed in the dog house. Normally I give my dogs my old sweaters and other warm and sort of fluffy things to have in there but every young dog I’ve had here them drags it out into the dog yard, I would really like to see Alma drag these huge cushions outside 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I did actually try to unscrew all screws in the sofa when I was picking it apart but It took just too much time, not that I was in a hurry until Monday morning but it did start to be a bit too warm to do any kind of job 🙂 So instead I just broke it down into smaller pieces, yes that was a bit more job but it was a faster way to get rid of it 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was impossible to clean the floor where the sofa was standing without having to place all other furnitures outside while I moved that sofa around to be able to vacuum there, so it wasn’t a nice sight when the sofa was gone 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I was pretty sure that Bertil and Teodor had done something there and yes they had plus that the dogs had pushed in lots of things too. So first I removed all bigger pieces, then I vacuumed the floor and after that I washed the floor with chlorine. Nothing says clean and bacteria free as good as chlorine does 🙂 🙂 🙂 I took all the dog blankets outside and cleaned them up as good as I could and placed them on the floor where the sofa had been standing, the dogs aren’t happy and they all tried to climb in my lap in the recliner 🙂 🙂 🙂 As soon as the new sofas are in place I’ll start looking after a “new” table and a couple “new” low book shelfs. I have some big oil paintings on that wall so they need to be low 🙂 I’ve looked at where the second had places are in Falköping and they all have odd opening hours, now I’ll see what the other towns around here has. I did see one table in one of the second hand stores in Falköping but I doubt I’ll manage to get it inside my car.

I’ve had the front door (towards north) open all morning but now the sun shines there so it’s time to open the kitchen door so the dogs can go in and out as they please. Ok it’s too hot for them to do anything but if they suddenly get a burst of energy and wants to go outside the kitchen door will be open 🙂

Have a great day!

Sometimes I do wonder about our postal service!

July 28, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

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So I woke up to e clear sky just before the sun started to rise and we went out for our morning walk as soon as I had put on my clothes and the dogs their harnesses. I did take a look at the thermometer before we went out and it showed 4C (39,2F). It was wonderful to take a slightly longer walk in that temperature because not a fly or mosquito were around to bite and annoy us 🙂

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Alma had once again decided that she would be impossible but she did at least not scream loudly when we passed our neighbors and Albin didn’t even look for Salmiak. Salmiak however is totally ok and it might actually be that Albin never tried to bite him but just push him down with his nose but as I said to the beekeepers I’m not willing to try it again just to see if that’s the case 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway we walked down to the creek and followed it down-streams. Alma was everywhere as usual and when Albin wanted to walk out on one of those small bridges that cross the creek she naturally had to follow and since Alma is like she is she then fell down and in to the rather muddy water 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0036 (7) — Those three trees are the last ones in the WOW trees 🙂

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That didn’t calm her down especially much and we had a full blown war between us all the way home. It’s fun but as soon as we pass the gate she calmes down and becomes that wonderful dog she is here at home. She smelled of mud and rust, lots of rust in the waters here so I had to shower her. I could have and should have done it outside with the garden hose but instead decided I should do it in my tiny bathroom. I decided that she would follow in her own pace and everything was going fine until both Nova and Albin decided they too had to go in to the shower. Well I did manage to get in there but she wasn’t happy. At least until she realized it wasn’t that bad, perhaps even rather nice 🙂

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After that I had to go to the store. I decided I should go to the one in the village where I work, mostly because I needed duct tape. They are the only ones I know that sell a kind where one can split it in half and get two thinner strips. All other ones are difficult to do that with. So off I went. At the same time I got two text messages that told me I was going to have two packages delivered to my home but I didn’t need to be at home at the delivery. Just before I left the store I also got a text message that Almas new harness had arrived and that I could pick it up in Gudhem. I could have waited but thought I really want to try it as soon as possible.

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When I came home again my neighbor told me that a guy had been here to deliver my packages but went to them instead. My neighbor told him to leave the packages with him or just put them in my garden around 20 meters beside. No problem the delivery guy said, tossed the packages in the car again and drove off??!! I then got a message that the packages had been delivered but I didn’t have them and my neighbor hadn’t either. So I called our postal service and was pretty angry, asked something about if the driver possible had some mental challenges or other problems (I’m not proud of that) (I did say to the girl in the phone that I wasn’t mad at her but she was the one who unfortunately had to take my anger). She fully understood and after perhaps ten minutes waiting she then asked how my neighbors house looked like. The delivery guy had told her he had placed the packages close to the post boxes (around a 100 meters, much the same in yards)Turns out that he had placed my packages at the farm up the slope!

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I know I have a high hedge but my cottage is very visible when driving down the slope so I have no idea why he though my neighbor next door meant the farm up the hill??One package weighs 20Kg (44,1 pound) and the other package was very big but not heavy at all, so I had to go back home and take my car to get it back home 🙂 🙂 🙂 On the other side, I did get my neighbors mail in my mailbox instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well everything was solved and now I don’t have any more packages so everything is as it should but if I can chose who will deliver my packages in the future it will never be our postal service again!

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Have a great day!

e (5) — If Albin doesn’t want to play Alma is fully capable to entertain herself with an apple 🙂 🙂

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The heat has arrived.

June 24, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great day!

I didn’t expect that :-)

June 17, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

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

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

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

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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.