Category: My dogs.

Cold and sowing bananas.

WordPress is really slow today and has been for a while but I hope it will allow me to post something. We had a warning about heavy snowfall today but barely nothing extra had fallen when we went out on our morning walk. I could even see some blue spots up there in the clouds.

We walked out to the bog and I must say that Alma has become much better now, ok she still have these high pitch whining that drives me crazy but they are fewer now days and Malkolm has really learned how not pulling the leash makes my mood so much better :-)There was some new snow on the ground but it was still pretty easy to walk in the tire tracks the hunters had made two days ago.

So it wasn’t until we walked in to the forest that walking became a bit harder, it is like walking in potato starch, two steps ahead and one back so to speak πŸ™‚ but then the sun broke through and we had a huge blue opening in the clouds and that made life so much easier, even the walking in the snow πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ When we reached the end of the peninsula roe deer were jumping around everywhere πŸ™‚ I did manage to get photos of one that stood still but the rest were like bouncing balls πŸ™‚

It tried to stand so still that we wouldn’t see it.The sun kept shining almost the entire way home and when I had closed the door behind us the snow started to fall and it was a lot of snow falling. It didn’t last for long that time but it came back several times and enough of it for the guy that plows our road to get out working. Now the weather sites seems to have lined up and says the same thing, just a little more snow but nasty cold instead, especially during the weekend. I’m not happy about that at all but can’t really do anything else than to except it πŸ™‚ Well they aren’t too good in guessing the weather so it can be just the opposite instead πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have a sandwich or two at the same time. I baked a couple of loafs yesterday and they turned out really good, no I can’t make the same again because I just tossed in what kind of leftover flour I had at home πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ But to be honest, I think that it actually is the cheese I put in that make all the difference πŸ™‚ I’ve also started with the sowing today, two different bananas, Oriental raisin tree and Chinese dogwood.

These are the seeds to the Pink Banana. I soaked them in hot water over night.
I then placed them in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic bag. Now they hang over the kitchen radiator so they will be as warm as possible.
This is the seeds for the Ethiopian Banana. Ten times bigger but will be treated the same but soak in that water for a couple of days.

Haste great day!

Tomorrow we’ll get even more.

I think we now have gotten three dm (12 inches) of snow and more will come tomorrow. at the moment the flakes are tiny and few though. It did still snow a lot when we. went out for our morning walk and it looks like both Alma and Malkolm loves it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The monster however is not a happy cat at the moment, she did go outside but wanted to go in again after just a few minutes. She hates it so much that she even use the cat litter box πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ This is really her first real winter when she can go in and out as she pleases, last winter I stopped her from going out in the snow and I think she liked that πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I saw this generator outside the now empty neighbour cottage (and heard it but it is fairly quiet). I think the owner has been so cheap that he cut off the electricity when the last couple moved away. Apparently the water pipes froze!! Of course they will when there’s no heat in the building!! This time he wanted even more money for the place but no one showed any interest what so ever and now it has been taken away from the biggest web broker. So like always with some people, they rather let it fall apart than sell it for a price someone wants to pay.

We walked down to the creek and I was lucky that hunters had been out during the night because I could walk where the wheels had pressed down the snow. It is a fluffy kind of snow so the shoes, even studded ones like I have, really can’t get a good grip. That only lasted until the creek and after that I had to slid around hoping to get some kind of grip so I wouldn’t slip down in to the creek πŸ™‚ It is all covered in ice and snow but not even the lighter animals have tried to walk on it yet.

It was as worst when walking over the field where the wild hogs had dug up it all. The snow lay nice and smooth disguising where all the pits were, thankfully Malkolm walked first so I I followed him and only stepped down in a few pits the entire way πŸ™‚ The wind has calmed down quite a lot thankfully but only for a few days they’re guessing. Also when looking at the weather sites yesterday the temperature would drop down to nasty cold but today they’re guessing it will just be bitterly cold πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ With some luck it’ll stay more or less like it is now because to hope for even warmer weather seems to be pointless at the moment.

Have You ever heard about Baba Vance? it was a blind Bulgarian woman that predicted the future. I haven’t read about any of them to be honest but her followers said she amongst other things predicted the Covid hitting us and last years economic predicaments. I guess like always in these cases her predictions is just enough vague so it can fit anything and therefore come true πŸ™‚ Anyway for this year her predictions, according to her followers of course, says the third world war will start and involves Russia, The USA and China. Also this is the year we’ll meet aliens from space for the first time.

One touch and all that snow falls down on the passer by πŸ™‚

After the last days events the world war doesn’t seem to be too strange but will the Aliens arrive before or after Trumpty Dumpty starts the world war? I sort of hopes it is after because who would want to be embarrassed by having any of those leaders welcoming visitors from space? Senile Trumpty, insane Putin or Horrible calculating Xi (the man who forbid Winnie the Pooh because they look so much alike πŸ™‚ )? and make them think we all are like that? Well if they come after they’ll know for sure that we weren’t the sharpest knives in the universe πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Perhaps they can restore the planet again but not any kind of ape because the same thing would most likely happen again if any of us were still here. Well the Bonobo could stay, they are anything but violent to be honest.

It is time to make a pot of tea and just relax for the rest of the day doing nothing πŸ™‚ Perhaps I should try the old pencil again, I found the three drawings I’ve for some reason saved from back in the days and remembered how much I liked to draw, then again a good book isn’t bad either πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

I really don’t like winter.

It has been snowing since last night and it will continue to do so for at least two more days. The flakes are smaller though so it only builds up rather slowly. I really don’t like winter! It does look like people are taking it easy in the traffic though, so far I’ve only read about one accident involving two cars and a bus.

I don’t think I would have hated it this much if it wasn’t for the wind, it reaches all the way in to the forest as well and since I wear glasses it only takes five seconds before I can’t see anything πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I wouldn’t have moved outside the garden at all if it wasn’t for the dogs πŸ™‚ They didn’t seem to be bothered at all and they followed tracks not visible because of the new snow that covered them. I must say they did behave really well today and I didn’t hear especially much whining from Alma, perhaps she has finally understood that it isn’t necessary to make sound all the time πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Well I doubt it but I value the times she actually is quiet πŸ™‚

I wished that I had something sweet to have with my tea but had nothing at home and no matter how much I wanted something I sure wouldn’t drive anywhere in this weather, so I baked a sponge cake (the Swedish name for it would be sugar cake and thinking about how much sugar there is in a sponge cake I think our name is more appropriate πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ ). I checked online for gluten free ones and as always I didn’t follow the recipe especially much πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Most of those recipes says to use a flour mix and those flour mixes are usually just some kind of starch and usually taste horrible. So I took what I had and I must say that it turned out so well that I wish I could remember what I used πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

There was a tiny forest mouse in the trap this morning and since I thought it shouldn’t sit in that tiny space I moved it to the travel cage I bought. When I came down to fetch it and walk to the forest with it the little bugger had chewed its way through the plastic!! I hadn’t even gone an hour! so from now on they’ll need to stay in the trap and have a much more uncomfortable journey to the forest. I can hear it in the walls and I think it is laughing at me πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll have what’s left of the sponge cake πŸ™‚ I did put half a banana in it but to be honest I couldn’t feel any banana taste. I guess it wasn’t ripe enough and perhaps I should have used the entire banana and not just half of it. I’ll know better the next time this happen πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

I’ve been sleeping so bad lately.

I’ve slept bad for a few days now and the closer I came to today the worse it got. I haven’t had especially many hours of sleep to be honest and the reason? The annual vehicle inspection πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It doesn’t matter how new my car has been and also knowing there’s absolutely no wrong with it, I still have a slight panic when it comes closer πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

These are taken through my kitchen window so they are a bit blurry.

I had the appointment at 7 am today and my first thought when I woke up was, why didn’t I take one later in the day πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Don’t get me wrong, I really think we do need this since I want my car and the ones with me in the traffic as good as possible but I just can’t stand it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I knew it wouldn’t pass this year because there’s a clonk sound when I drive over bumps or potholes, I didn’t know why though. Turns out the spring to the front right tire had broken. At the bottom and just a little so it is still safe to drive it. I was also tole that the Lamda value, something to do with the exhaust fumes) was a bit too high. 1,03 is ok but my car had 1,05. My car had that problem last year as well but and it takes a few minutes to fix so no bigger deal.

They build “tipis” several years ago and it looks like they still use them, It’s for the grandkids to the forest owner.

So now it’s over for this time and I know I’ll sleep like a baby tonight πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Β Well below 0C (32F) this morning but there was no ice on the car! I had it on the inside instead πŸ™‚ The humidity here is almost always high so it creeps in to the car and when one doesn’t drive every day it builds up inside and I’ll have to dry it off as soon as the motor works and heats up the ice. I drive perhaps once a week now so I’ve just accepted it πŸ™‚ The weeks before when I drove to pick up parcels however I had no such problems at all.

The horrible wind we had yesterday was even more so today, not even the forest managed to keep it away. So I’m now for the first time this winter wearing my winter jacket. The wind will calm down towards Friday but instead we’ll get snow!!! I had hoped we had seen the last of that white garbage this winter πŸ™‚ I know it was stupid because if we’re unlucky winter can continue here until early May but it was a long time ago that happened.

If I had known if we would have an early spring this coming year I would have started the sowing now. Some I think I need to sow now, perennials, bushes and trees that needs a period with cold temperatures to be able to germinate. I also have some things that needs a long growth period before they start to flower, like tomatoes for instance, but it is way too early to sow them now, too warm indoors and too little daylight so they grow slow enough. Not even having a greenhouse now will help a lot with that.

There’s a newly dug hole in the old tree stump, I wonder what animal lives there. Could be a water vole, Ratty in the Wind in the willows are a water vole, I only see them as big aggressive monsters πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I baked two loafs of bread earlier today. I’ve already had a couple of slices but one can never have too many when they are absolutely fresh πŸ™‚ I haven’t caught a mouse in two days now. I know there’s at least one still here, I could hear it earlier today. I hope they haven’t learned that they’ll get caught in the box trap πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The monsterkitten has been down in the cool cellar so I’m pretty sure she’s after it and hopefully successful in taking it.

Have a great day!

I guess it’s ok during Christmas :-)

They said the chance/ risk, depending on how one look at it, that we in southern Sweden would get a white christmas was slim to none, so I wasn’t especially surprised when I let the dogs out this morning that we had snow on the ground Β πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Also it continued to snow for quite some time and the temperature has dropped so we will have a white Christmas here this year.

I had a parcel waiting for me at the grocery store in Gudhem so I decided that it was best to pick it up before we went out on our morning walk. I had ordered an aquarium book from 1942 so that I would have something to read this christmas plus the fact it is so old that I would be able to read about cold water fish people since long has forgotten about πŸ™‚ I had hoped to find shredded coconut as well because I had forgotten to buy some when I went to the store yesterday. There’s nothing mice seems to like more than shredded coconut. Unfortunately they didn’t have any but it did remind me of potatoes when I saw the last two bags they had πŸ™‚

A sort of a second flowering πŸ™‚
It is actually quite hard to see these huge animals as long as they stand totally still.

This morning the box had trapped three mice! This time a definitely recognised one of them. Some time in its life it had lost a part of its tail so it was easily recognisable. I went out with them before I drove to the store. We went out on our morning walk as soon as I came home and walked much the same way as when I released the mice. We passed the last little field before entering the forest and something caught my attention. I didn’t see them at first but then I saw them, three moose! One big cow, one calf and the third too small to be an adult moose but still too big to be a calf. I’ve seen them before a couple of times and felt happy that they’ve survived the hunting season so far.

The dogs didn’t see them but they understood they were somewhere near πŸ™‚ I must say that Alma has come a long way, just a few months earlier and she would have gone berserk πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ For once she actually started to follow the scents on the ground instead of screaming like obsessed and whining like she has gone crazy πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We didn’t see any more big animals but both Alma and Malkolm kept their noses to the ground for the entire walk πŸ™‚

I have actually been rather active today because when we came home again the first thing I saw when I went down in the cool cellar was that the trap had another prisoner. Well if that mouse with the short tail come here again I just as well get a cage and have it as a pet πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It wasn’t the least stressed to see me, rather the opposite to be honest πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It had taken it slightly more than two hours to find its way home again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ So I just took the trap and walked even further away before I released it again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I was worried for a while that I for some reason had all forest mice and yellow necked mice in the entire area but I think I’ve just caught the same ones all the time πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

After that I made the gingerbread dough. The recipe said that I should have agave syrup and coconut fat but since I’m not a millionaire I used normal syrup and butter. The dough will rest until tomorrow morning before I make the cookies. I will however not be without anything nice to eat today because my neighbours daughters (six and three years old I think) wanted me to have something as a christmas gift, so they made me some fudge and butterscotch to have during christmas, well it won’t last that long because it was delicious πŸ™‚

After that I baked two loafs of VΓΆrtbrΓΆd, they came out rather nice, I and the dogs have already tried a couple of slices with a christmas cheese πŸ™‚ So tomorrow I’ll bake the gingerbreads and also grill the christmas ham. I bought a small already cooked one because now days we really don’t use the water it was cooked in as they did back in the days when every calorie one could get was important. They used to heat it up and dip stale bread in it the get up all the fat still in the rather salty water. It has never been a favourite of mine so I buy ready cooked instead.

It is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and of course some of the christmas candy my neighbours gave me πŸ™‚ Tomorrow is our big day of christmas and if I get some time over I’ll write something here πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Dark and grey again even though we almost could see the sun for a few seconds in the afternoon πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚

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 Β 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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I don’t however think necessarily were better back then but it sure was less complicated and less expensive πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The book that’s on its way is printed in 1938 so it’ll be interesting to see how things have changed since then πŸ™‚

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 πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

A new morning routine :-)

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 πŸ™‚ It didn’t give any heat away though so I guess it appeared just for show πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚

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 πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚

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

Have a great day!

They behaved really well today :-)

Rain all day long, not even the monster likes to go outside. It is warmish outside though but that doesn’t help much since we really can’t be outside anyway.

The travel cage for hamsters that I bought arrived today so I went to the grocery store in Gudhem to pick it up. They have so many parcels there now that one really can’t wait a day or so to pick it up, sort of annoying since I’ll get another one tomorrow. I’ll most likely have to go to the supermarket in Skara to pick up another one and that’s a bit annoying since that means I’ll almost go all the way back home just to continue 20 km the other way πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

We went out to the bog this morning and we could hear lots of animals moving around. I must say that both Alma and Malcolm showed their best behaviour all the way, even when we met a young Fallow deer buck. There was some whining and some pulling the leash but I don’t think they ever have behaved better than today πŸ™‚ Before our morning walk however I went out to the forest by myself with the box trap.

It had caught a small yellow necked mouse but it was still so dark that I had to wait a couple of hours before I could release it. When it was time to do it another one sat in the trap as well πŸ™‚ Rather big so I guess the small one was a female and the big one a male. There was no coconut flakes left so I guess the big one wasn’t out to get fed πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ This time I went further away in to the forest just to make sure they can’t find their way back home again πŸ™‚

The Fallow deer buck has two tiny antlers, hard to see though. Must be around two years old.
Now I don’t have to walk out to the forest with two cowards following me to release the mice, They can stay in this cage until it is time. I’ve put some peanuts in it so they have something to eat while waiting πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll also have the last of the ice cream. I’ll buy more tomorrow since I most likely will have to get that parcel at the supermarket anyway πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Saint Lucia’s day.

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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

This procession then travels to different places to sing Β 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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The gnomes sing about gnomes and the Star boys sing other Christmas songs πŸ™‚ (I’ll try and post a video at the end). Everyone looking at this have coffee and gingerbreads and a wheat bun called Lussekatter πŸ™‚

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 πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚ She is much much better now but she still poops out the occasional peanut πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Thankfully the farting has stopped so now the cottage have gone back to smelling like it usually does πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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 πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

They are not the most courageous :-)

So yesterday after it had gone dark I found another little mouse in the box trap. I thought I really couldn’t leave it there all night so I took the trap and started to walk towards the forest. Since I was sure I wouldn’t Β meet anyone (even though there are some people who loves to walk in the forest in the dark) I let the dogs follow me unleashed.

This is what spruces look like when cattle is around πŸ™‚ They don’t eat it but scrub themselves towards them when it itches πŸ™‚

They were running all around me and had lots of fun. Then I suddenly realised that they’ve stopped, turned around and watched how they hurriedly ran back home πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I have no idea why but suddenly I stood there all alone in the dark not knowing why πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Well what ever it was it left me alone anyway so I just let the mouse out and walked back home. That little travelling cage I’ve bought hasn’t arrived yet but I know it is on its way. I’ve learned one thing, if ever anything serious will happen to me I really can’t count of any help from the dogs πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I said I hadn’t seen any signs of beaver actions lately, well I saw this today πŸ™‚

The morning walk was rather pleasant, no wind and it almost reached 10C (50F). No sun of course but slightly more daylight than previous days. Alma and Malkolm almost behaved all the way as well. We did see a Roe deer around a football field away and that did of course stress out Alma and it didn’t help that they were cutting down forest somewhere close but as soon as we were on the way home again she calmed down.

Tomorrow is Saint Lucias day here and oddly enough we Lutherans who rarely celebrate anything celebrates this catholic saint πŸ™‚ I’ll tell You more about it tomorrow but I can say this that this custom actually have spread to the US even if it still is very few who does this over at Yours.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and even though I’ve just had dinner I still think I’ll have a couple of vΓΆrtbrΓΆd sandwiches with cheese, spotted sausages and shrimp salad πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Lots of water in the creek.

So we had a night without any disturbance thankfully but Alma was in a hurry to go outside. She hurried away behind some bushes in the garden so I couldn’t see how bad it was but she’s full of energy and happy so I guess she’s ok.

She’s not the one pooping outside the garden unless she’s desperate and that was what she was when we were out on our morning walk and this time I could check how bad her stomach was, I have seen worse πŸ™‚ and most of what comes out are peanuts! I have no idea how much she ate from that big bag of peanuts but by the look of it at least a third of it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

So she’s getting better but she farts and the smell is something that most likely can knock down a rhino πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It is a horrible mix of sweet, sour and something that must have been dead for a week or so. I’ve tried to let the wind blow through the cottage, sprayed more of that air cleaner and used loads of matches but it has already sort of stuck to the walls and furnitures! I better go to the grocery store in Gudhem tomorrow to buy more rice.

Besides that the day has been rather nice, we walked down to the creek this morning and the latest rain has really filled up the creek again. It would of course not have been this full of water if the beavers hadn’t blocked the concrete pipe that goes beneath the gravel road. The thing is that I haven’t seen any more traces of beaver activity and haven’t in a few weeks so if they’ve moved they really should unblock that pipe. If we’ll get more rain which is quite possible that creek soon will overflow and start filling the fields as well πŸ™‚

It is time to have that last cup of tea and some ice cream as well πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Perhaps the darkest day so far but fairly warm, no wind and no rain so I can’t complain too much. We had our morning walk fairly late because I had to pick up two parcels that arrived a bit late yesterday at the grocery store in Gudhem. One was the two quality street boxes and the second was with two peonies.

Yule is here soon so they really need us to pick anything we get as soon as possible otherwise I could have waited until Monday, even though the peonies do feel better to be planted as soon as possible. We walked out to the bog and since both Alma and Malkolm behaved so well we walked to an area we seldom walk at because it’s more or less a big thicket and walking with wild leashed dogs there is a nightmare πŸ™‚

Worked well today though so the both gf them had so many more treats than they usually have on our walks πŸ™‚ We didn’t hear any animals walking close to us but we did hear lots of hunting dogs from a distance. I guess most animals laid low listening if the dogs came any closer or moved away. Β After that we’ve been doing very little and I think I should have taken a nap because I really had time for it. I did look at my neighbour while he was carrying a dryer over the garden and up the stairs to their cottage though πŸ™‚ Looked exhausting πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

There’s ice under the water and that’s a bit surprising since it has been warm for so long now.

It is time for that last cup tea and then watch the news I think. It’s most likely the same as yesterday and the day before and most likely about the orange blob doing something stupid or Hegseth doing something even more stupid. Well our politicians do stupid things too but on a much lower level. The hunters will be here tomorrow morning so we’ll have a late morning walk I guess. We’ve most likely had a wolf passing close to the garden because the dogs still refuse to go especially far from the entrance even during daytime.

The wild hogs have dug a hole just a couple of meters away from the hunting lodge πŸ™‚

Have a great day!