Category: My dogs.

First summer day.

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I’m so glad I didn’t have to go anywhere with the dogs today 🙂 Life is so much calmer and easier when we’re all at home 🙂 We woke up pretty early today and I saw the most red sky I think I’ve ever seen in my life, unfortunately I only had the phone with me and after dropping it so many times on the ground the camera is having problems showing the right colors, the best I got was a pale pinkish color. It didn’t last for long because clouds soon covered the sky.

The last of the nights rain.
Grape elder and this is as much colors we get from flowering trees here, the Maples are quite yellow as well but most tree flowers are white.

 

It was around 5C (41F) and even without the sun quite bright outside. I like our cool mornings for many reasons but one of the best reasons is that the ticks tends to not catch us while we walk by, also it had rained during the night and even though ticks like damp areas they truly dislike wet. I had hoped Nova would want to go to the bog today but down to the creek is what she wanted, I did however manage to make her walk up-stream and in to the old forest. Nova and Malkolm stopped at every spot that had some kind of smell, there were lots of spots 🙂 Alma ran around whining and hated that we didn’t move when she wanted to see the entire world in five minutes 🙂 We did thankfully not see a single animal because today I think that would have been a bit too much for her 🙂

     

The sun did come out of the clouds shortly after we had come home and with it higher temperatures. It even reached well over 20C (68F) today and with very little wind it almost was too warm when I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I was a bit worried about Malkolm for a while because he sort of lost his energy, mostly he just wanted to sleep indoors and I did worry that it could be tick related. It took a while for me to understand what was wrong, Malkolm has never experienced warm weather! 🙂 He was born when it was cold, he moved here just before the last push of winter and snowstorm. After that it has been unusually cool here but today it went warm and he learned that warmth will make You tired, especially if one plays a lot in the sunshine 🙂 🙂

     

So I mowed the lawn and after that I’ve re-potted all the apricot trees and the two peaches. I’ve planted the two Pawpaw trees, one seed sown and one variety. I will not do anything with the ones I sowed, not until they start to grow again after the winter in the cool cellar and I’ll also wait with the tiny pear trees. My four year old neighbor made a bracelet for me today and I’ll wear it with pride. It is made with metallic blue beads and white beads with letters on. Now she is only four so the letters doesn’t say anything 🙂 She loves Alma as long as Alma doesn’t lick her in the face and Alma is constantly licking her in the face 🙂 🙂  She is still a bit unsure about Malkolm though be she has nothing against him licking her hands 🙂 🙂

     

I’ve also weeded the vegetable patch. Mostly grass, dandelions and geraniums that moved it but also some raspberry bushes and a weed called Catchweed or Cleavers. It has an ability to stick to anything passing by and especially long haired animals are full of the seeds later in summer. It is apparently full of vitamin C and the fresh seeds are good in a salad they say and dried seeds can be used as a coffee surrogate. Doesn’t matter how good it is I don’t want it in my garden but probably will because of my dogs 🙂 🙂 I don’t mind the dandelions so much though because the entire plant is edible even though the root is bitter but can be cut down, roasted and used as another coffee surrogate 🙂 The flowers and leafs are really tasty in a salad. Just think of only taking small leafs since they too can be a bit bitter when big.

The Harness is too big for him but he’s growing so fast that it soon will fit really well.

     

All the dogs are completely knocked by this warm weather so they are all sleeping heavily on the floor beside me. I had hoped the ice cream lorry would come today because it could be nice to have some ice cream when I’ll be watching the Eurovision song contest tonight. The Netherlands have been disqualified because the singer apparently attacked a film crew?! It is said that he asked the crew not to follow and film him and when they didn’t give a shit about that he did something. Israel on the other hand can compete despite killing thousands of small children in the Gaza strip, strange how different we can see the world!

I’ve planted the Pawpaws I bought.

 

The vegetable patch before the weeding
and after. A good thing with almost only sand in the ground is that it isn’t hard to remove weeds, a bad thing is that it dries up way too fast but as long as one cover every bare spot with grass cuttings the ground will stay damp and the decaying grass cuttings will work as fertilizer.
My new lawn mower, I always think it looks like a formula one racing car 🙂
The bracelet my four year old neighbor made to me 🙂

It is time to make a pot of tea and then hope I won’t fall asleep during the competition 🙂

Have a great day!

The vet visit.

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Salmiak, the beekeepers cat. He’s getting old now, I think he’s 17 years old by now and have used lots of his nine lives because he’s too friendly towards dog that aren’t friendly towards him.

We had meh weather here when I woke up this morning, misty rain and a bit too cool and since we were going to the vet in a few hours I said to the dogs “Going for a walk or sleep again?” To my very big surprise they all went indoors again 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

So I was wondering if it would be best to let Alma and Nova stay at home in the dog yard while Malkolm and I went to the vet for his shot or should I bring them and when we come home have that walk? Last time I left with one dog he never came back (Albin) so knowing Alma I thought it best to let her follow and Nova would be there to keep her company for those five minutes we would be indoors. It sounds good doesn’t it 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I fasten my dogs in the seat belt when they’re with me on the roads, I could have had them in the back but the thought of getting hit from behind and what that would do to the dogs has always made me use the seat belts instead. So I thought everything would be easy when letting them in to the car. Malkolm and Nova were no problems, Alma started screaming as soon as I tried to get her in 🙂 🙂 After that she kept on screaming all the way to the vet and also tried to come to the front seats, so I had to push her back with one hand 🙂

     

So we arrived at the vet and thankfully it was still rather cool and cloudy outside so I lowered the windows and as soon as we started walking to the entrance door Alma screamed like insane and tried to dig her way out of the car. I shouted at her that no digging is allowed and oddly enough she stopped. No such like when it came to the screaming though. We came in and were shown to a room on the other side of the building and while we were waiting I could hear Alma very clear, it sounded like someone stabbed her over and over again 🙂 🙂 The vet hadn’t arrived yet so I hurried out, shouted at her to calm down and went in again.

     

I arrived at the room at the same time the vet did. Malkolm thought that when I was gone it would be a good time to both poop and pee on the floor 🙂 So the first thing the vet had to do was to clean the floors 🙂 He kept on smiling and laughing to himself because Alma was so loud by now that anyone hearing her could have called the police reporting animal cruelty 🙂 🙂 🙂 As soon as I and Malkolm were back in the car she went silent and slept the whole way home 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s a wonderful girl that dog but sometimes I think she will be the reason for my death 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A good day for naps :-)

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I’ve noticed that now when it is warmer the birds still wants sunflower seeds, so when they think I’m cheap they come really close, lots of them, and won’t leave me alone until I filled the feeder 🙂

After this winter I really can’t complain about it not being warmer than 10C (50F) but it does feel a bit chilly and I did turn on the radiators this morning. In summers it’s nice that the bottom floor is a bit cool not so much now when it isn’t that warm outside 🙂  The dogs hasn’t been that keen on being outside either but the kitchen door has been open so that they can go in and out as they please.

The Serviceberry trees are in full bloom. I really like the berries but the birds always take them first.

   

No sunshine today so I wore a hoodie when we were out on our morning walk. I would have liked to walk to the bog but Nova decided it was the creek she wanted to walk to. She and Malkolm wanted to stop at every spot where something had passed by while Alma wanted to see the world and quickly as well since she wanted to go home again 🙂 So even though I really like that they want to follow tracks I had to pull them away some times so that Alma wouldn’t get a too high blood pressure and a brain bleed 🙂 🙂 🙂

It used to grow so may cherry trees here but they thinned out most of them.

   

Alma has started to calm down a lot again, she too must realize that our walks will be much nicer if I don’t have to scold her every five minutes because she’s trying to pull my arm off my body 🙂 🙂 🙂 The whining is almost gone thankfully, I think that cutting noise is what drives me crazy most of all 🙂 🙂 🙂 To constantly hear a sound that cuts in to the brain slicing it into pieces for two hours when we’re out walking is actually quite painful after a while.

     

We haven’t done much today the dogs and I, they’ve been playing a little in the garden while I re-potted the rest of the Guava seedlings and the two Jacaranda trees. I haven’t even looked at the mower yet 🙂 We’ve had a pancake dinner and we’ve napped a lot as well. Tonight we have the seconds semi final in the Eurovision Song Contest and it would be fun if I at least could watch all the contributions. The big final will be on Saturday and for the first time in many years our song is not amongst the top five on the betting sites. Our song is sung by two Norwegian twins, they are really good at what they’re doing but the song is a bit too much meh. Plus people are getting tired of us because we’ve won this competition seven times now and been amongst those they think will win for perhaps too many years now. Jealousy and politics have always been strong in this competition even though they say it isn’t about either, we should just have fun 🙂

     

I’m sitting here wondering if we should have another walk or perhaps take another nap, the dogs are deeply at sleep and I wouldn’t mind joining them but I think we’ll have a short walk instead. I’ll try to avoid high grass because tick season is here and now I need to go through my dogs after every walk and even after they’ve been walking in the grass here in the garden. Nasty animals those ticks, if we all have a purpose in life theirs is to spread death and disease 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

I had to apologize to Alma :-)

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Today I’ll show photos I’ve taken on my way to work so some can be a few days old but also some from today.

So it wasn’t Alma who had stolen the meat, it was all my fault even though it actually happened because of keeping it away from her 🙂 🙂 I was going to do something and it wouldn’t take long so I thought I just place it high. Like always things that won’t take a long time usually does 🙂 I have two window sills in every window and in this window I have one rather high up but at the moment no plants there. So I reached up and placed the meat there 🙂 🙂 🙂 One can’t see that window sill because the drapes hang low so even when I looked “everywhere” I couldn’t see it and had forgotten that all those pots now stood outside on the north side of the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

One the other hand today I once again got a call from my neighbor, Alma was outside the dog yard again and this time Malkolm had followed. My neighbor told the two of them to follow him to my garden and blocked the gate. He then called me and when he had he noticed that Malkolm sat beside his feet 🙂 So he let him in again and made sure the gate was properly blocked. Alma wouldn’t leave Malkolm all alone so he thought he could relax a bit before he had to go away for a while.

     

I came home not long after that and heard Malkolm in the garage and thought he must have told me wrong where Malkolm was because Alma was outside the dog yard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I placed them both (and Nova even though she would have been happy to be anywhere as long as Malkolm was busy with Alma. So I went to check where she had escaped through and turned around and there he was, Malkolm, by my feet 🙂 🙂 I had the same thought as my neighbor so I took him back to the garden again. For some reason I looked back towards the gate when I was going to fix the fence, she had managed to remove a huge log that I tied to the fence with thick electric cables, she had worked hard on those from the morning when I checked everything in the dog yard until my neighbor called.

     

So when I turn around I saw that Malkolm knows how to climb over a fence 🙂 🙂 🙂 When I saw that I remembered that I said that it was so nice to once again have a dog that loved to use his brain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So how long will it take when he’s grown up to be able top climb over the well over two meter (much the same in yards) high fence around the dog yard 🙂 🙂 🙂 The log by the way is now #tied” together with the fence with a really thick steel wire so now we’re guessing how long it will take until she manages to remove that, should be impossible but if any dog can it will be Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well what ever I sowed there last year will most likely never see the light of the day unless it in some way has managed to be covered with enough wet sand and then grow up elsewhere.
I think it might be a joined work between these two 🙂

 

Otherwise it’s been a rather wonderful day, not hot but not chilly either. Lots of sunshine but also lots of clouds. I’ve re-potted some of the Guava seedlings, they are now placed outside as well. I had planned on mowing the lawn tomorrow but they’re guessing it will be a bit rainy. I have however a long weekend now so no more work until Monday. Malkolm will also get his second vaccine shot on Friday and I’m already worrying about Alma 🙂 It will not be especially warm so I might have to bring her with us and then Nova can relax here at home without being disturbed by wild playing between Alma and Malkolm, she deserves that the old Lady 🙂

I managed to break off one of the small branches on the Apricot tree I bought this year. I have no idea if this works but I put it in moist soil and put a plastic bag over it. I have done this with an apple twig once and it grew roots on its own. Those apple trees becomes very weak and usually dies with a few years. The Prunus family is know for spreading easily with their roots so who knows it might work. I’ll keep You updated weather it goes well or not.

   

Have a great day!

Food missing.

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My prime and only suspect 🙂

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 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The thunder did arrive.

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The sky just before the thunder arrived yesterday.

The thunder did arrive not long after I posted the blog. It struck somewhere in the northern part of the village and not especially much south of my cottage. Thankfully none of the dogs react to thunder so we just relaxed while it was here. The showers were quite hefty though and washed away the grass seeds I had spread here and there in the garden, well I have plenty left so I can continue to sow if this would happen again 🙂

     

We woke up to a wonderful foggy morning, it was so thick that it even was foggy in the forest, that rarely happens here. We walked out to the bog and I could hear Cuckoo birds all over the area. We have a saying here when it comes to Cuckoo birds and the first time we hear it every year, so here’s some Swedish: Norrgök är torrgök, södergök är dödergök, östergök är tröstergök men västergök är bästergök. Gök is the Swedish name for the Cuckoo bird. So the saying say that if one hear the Cuckoo bird from north the first time it’ll be a dry summer, if You hear it from south someone close will die. If You hear it from east You will need comforting but it’s best to hear it from west which means it’ll be a great year. I heard it from east and I hope that included poor Albin because I don’t want more of comforting this year 🙂

     

Even though we took an hour long nap today I’ve been fairly busy. I’ve done two sets of laundry, I’ve made pancakes, I’ve re-potted all the tomato plants and also all bell peppers.Plus of course I have been watering all those trees I’ve already planted in the garden. I have defrosted some meat to make as dinner for work next week but I’ve forgotten to do anything with it and now I feel it’s too late in the day to start doing it. So I’ll do it tomorrow instead, just as well because I barely had any vegetables at home, I thought I had something more than tomatoes but I was so wrong 🙂

     

Only three working days next week though, holiday on Thursday and what we call a squeeze day on Friday. Some will work on Friday but I really didn’t want to when I don’t have to.Will not be any great weather according to the weather sites but I don’t care. I’ll just relax all four days until next working week 🙂

A Jackdaw inspecting the Magpies nest. I wonder if it would have used it if the Magpies haden’t used it right now? Jackdaws usually nest in chimneys and my neighbors chimney has always been a target 🙂

 

Alma inspected the pastures on the other side of the gate a long time this morning. She sat there with me as well for a long time when we waited for the laundry to be ready 🙂It is time to bring in the laundry that hangs outside. The sky is dark grey around the village so I better bring it in. The first round dried in a few minutes but we had sunshine and a very weak wind, now we don’t have any of that.

This is how it looks when one forgets or delays the re-potting of the tomato plants 🙂
90% of the plant is now below the surface and the plant will create roots all the way there making it much stronger than it otherwise would be.
I decided four potted tomato vines would be enough the rest I either planted in the ground like here or in a raised bed I still have where a redberried gooseberry bush grows.

Have a great day!

Thunder closing in.

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The day has been really nice and still is even though thunder is lurking at the outskirts of the county. It has never come especially close but I can hear it and we’ve had a gentle rainfall while the dogs and I had a nap. More rain is on the way but the different weather sites shows either more thunder tonight or no thunder at all. 20C (68F) today but now we’ll have two slightly cooler day without sunshine and with rain. We’ll know better after those two days if they were even close to guessing it right 🙂 🙂

     

I can see the windows at both ends of my cottage from my bed and this morning the sky was bright orange when I woke up. It was so nice because none of the dogs were in a hurry to get up and out so we stayed in bed for quite some time. So for once our morning walk was late, not because of the weather but because we all were a bit lazy 🙂 🙂 That has never happened with any of the old dogs that once lived with me 🙂

     

I’ve continued to plant the trees and bushes, some of them I’ve bought and some sown. I’ve also placed all the Pawpaw seedlings and Guava seedlings on the north side of the cottage. I’ve tried to place them so that the bigger citrus trees that I have shield them from the burning sun. Just like us plants get burned if one just place them in the sun after having them indoors for a longer time. Five pear seedlings of one of the two kinds I’ve sown seems to have survived the winter indoors and four of the other kind. Still a bit cloudy on a few of the seedlings that sort of looks dead but still have a chance 🙂

A goose couple flew just in front of us while walking along the creek. I think it is Greylags. Sorry but I don’t think You can see them if You look through Your phone, they are hard to see even on the computer screen.

   

I took my time doing this of course but so far I can say that my back isn’t any worse, not much better either but at least not worse 🙂 I think that it’s all that ice cream I’ve been eating that has done the trick 🙂 🙂 🙂 Still sunny outside but the thunder is closing in. It’s a bit south of here and when it is it usually follows the mountain and miss us totally. When it comes however it’s usually furious. The worst time was when the lightning split in two and four of the homes here were hit. The light ramp on my aquarium jumped up in the air and sort of exploded in a bright light, my closest neighbor had a arch of light in their bathroom (from a fan straight in to the wall on the other side), the third down the road didn’t notice anything because they are heavy sleepers but the fourth home was hit so bad that the entire electrical cabinet blew in to pieces 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I would have liked to have another walk now when the weather is nice but thunder nearby is no good thing. Once we were surprised by how fast the thunder arrived and I had to chose between being the highest point in the fields or walk in  amongst the trees and hoping the lightning wouldn’t hit a tree 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Nova has always loved to sleep in the sunshine, no matter how hot it has been 🙂

Finally Friday.

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IT has been a lovely day, lots of sunshine, 20C (68F) warm and no wind. Thin clouds cover the sky at the moment but that’s ok. I was thinking of wearing a hoodie on our walk but decided a t-shirt would be enough and I’m so glad I decided that 🙂 It was more than enough when walking in the shadows but almost too much in the sunshine, after all it wasn’t that long ago we had snow here so we aren’t used to warm weather yet. Even the dogs thought it was a bit too warm in the sunshine.

The wild hogs have really concentrated to dig up all roots on one side of this field. It’s just 20 meters (much the same in yards) away from the Beekeepers cottage.

 

A new tree growing up from an old tree stump.

My back is worse today but as long as we were walking it felt quite ok. I opened the kitchen door when we came home so the dogs could go in and out as they pleased. Went to the toilet and while sitting there my neighbor called and told me that Alma was walking around in the cow pasture up the slope 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I was in no position to do anything about it, just trying to stand up would take quite some time 🙂 🙂 🙂 So my neighbor helped me to get her back home. That dog is going to give me problems if she continues like this 🙂 🙂 🙂 She doesn’t like cows so I have no idea what made her think walking around close to them while having several new calves would be a good idea 🙂 🙂 🙂

Lots of butterflies flying around today. If this one had opened its wings they would be bright sky blue.

   

Well my neighbors had a good laugh anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was thinking of planting more trees and bushes today but I felt it was enough to just water what I’ve already have dug down. I couldn’t find my rice bag to warm in the micro but I did  find my old electric heating pad. I’m always a bit worried to used that one because it’s so old that if the insulation inside it is broken it might start to burn while using it 🙂 🙂 So far so good though. It does help a lot though.

I have several blue-berried honeysuckle bushes and the bumblebees love them. Unfortunately for me I didn’t know one needed at least two different varieties of this to get berries so I hope this will be the year I’ll get berries because last summer I bough two other ones 🙂

   

More flowers are opening up now and the grass is growing so I’m afraid I might have to mow the lawn tomorrow because we might get both rain and thunder during the night and mowing wet grass is a nightmare. I’ll just have to put together the new mower that I bought last autumn, I haven’t even removed it from it’s box yet so I do hope nothings wrong with it because who has a receipt  left after a long winter 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is an oddity because it’s a natural crossing between the white wood anemone and the yellow wood anemone. It’s sterile but spreads happily via its roots. I’ve never bought one so this crossing is from my own white and yellow ones.
This is the yellow one and it has a much deeper yellow.

Vinca minor.

It is time to go down to the recliner and the heating pad again and I will have ice cream but perhaps also a cup of tea?

Have a great day!

We have at least nice weather.

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A short one today because my back is killing me. I have rheumatism in my spine and mostly it’s ok, well I always have back pain but it is bearable. Today however it isn’t. I once destroyed my stomach with an anti inflammatory medicine, it was amazingly good but also pretty aggressive towards my stomach, so now days I can’t even take anti inflammatory medicines for kids.

     

I can take some of the ointments (not too much though because then I get stomach problems) but I don’t have any at home so the only thing that helps is to move around, it’s when I’ve been still for a minute or two that the pain starts again, so it’ll be fun to try and go down stairs after writing this 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll put the rice bag in the micro and towards my back and hope for the best. No use in staying home from work either because if there anything I do at work while painting is to move around and stretch my body in all kinds of strange angles 🙂 🙂 🙂

  It was rather warm when we were out walking.  

Wonderful weather here today though, even though the wind is even stronger today. I need to water those trees I planted yesterday and after that fall down in to my recliner. If the back gets too bad and I can’t get up a recliner is amazingly nice to sleep in 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll make sure to bring an ice cream on the way there 🙂 🙂 🙂

In my garden right now. Marsh marigold in the root zone.
My two Nanking cherry bushes now have loads of buds
and even some open flowers. I do hope I’ll get loads of berries this year 🙂
White Checkered lily.
The Yellow wood anemone is starting to spread, normally the white one is stronger and push a lot of other flowers away but this yellow one have pushed away the white one 🙂
This one looks like a failed experiment to be honest but give it a week and it’ll look very different. Also a Yellow wood anemone.

Have a great day!

Always that wind.

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We’ve had a really nice day here today. Mostly sunshine and almost 20C (68F). The only thing that sort of made the day less nice was the wind, the gusts were too strong and dried out the trees I have and had planted these last day. It’ll stay warm and so will the wind but I guess it is good all those wind power plants produce all that electricity so the price stays low.

     

We had a pancake day today so now I need to buy more jam, the one I had made myself is long gone 🙂 Nova has been unusually picky with her food lately. I know she liked it because they sometimes get that dry food as a treat so I just couldn’t understand why she refused to eat it. I always boil up water and pours it over the food and then cools it down with cold water so it isn’t too hot. Turns out that this food instead of swelling just falls apart and becomes some kind of porridge and that’s what she hates. So later in the morning I gave it to her dry and everything went down in a hurry. So I wasn’t sure if she would eat much pancake shortly after that but she gulped it down and did the same with her afternoon meal. It’s nice when problems are so easily solwed.

     

I have as I mentioned planted most of the trees I had delivered the other week. No matter what place I found it would mess with other plans for the future 🙂 🙂 🙂 Plus having two walnut trees makes it a bit harder. Walnut trees tend to spread a toxin called juglone in the ground to keep other plants away from them, but to be honest I have the Black walnut which is said to be the worst of them and so far everything around it is just as healthy and happy looking as they were the day the walnut was planted and that was well over 15 years ago. Still it is a bit risky to plant anything that might be sensitive to it too close and in my little garden everywhere is a bit too close 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Also all good places are already having trees growing there 🙂 I do have a plum, gives tiny yellow plums but usually flowers too early so frost takes both flowers and fruits that I’ve planned to remove so I did plant my Persimmon tree close to it. The tricky thing with cutting down all kinds of Prunus (plums, cherries and so on) is that they tens to spread a lot via its old roots so the best thing one can do is to ring bark it. That means one will remove a ring of bark around the stem so that no water and nutrients can move up the tree. it tales two years before one can remove the dead tree but it will not start making new stems from the roots. I really don’t like to cut down trees but there will at least grow a new tree just beside where the old one stood.

The early flowering plum tree has lots of flowers and buds right now.

This and the rest of these photos show the newly planted trees and are actually quite useless since it’s hard to see the thin stems and needles 🙂 🙂 🙂 This is the Apricot.
The Persimmon.
The white mulberry.
This is the best looking Himalayan Cedar, There are new needles growing in between all the dead ones.
This is the Persimmon hybrid and peach tree I planted last year. Both are alive anf
d healthy.
This is the Cedar I think might be doomer already but there are green needles even towards the top so I thought I would give it a chance.

I’ve also planted an Apricot ‘Hargrand’, one of the hardiest there is and a white mulberry tree (can’t remember the name of it). The white mulberry tree usually gives berries that tastes somewhat like grass 🙂 🙂 but this one will have pretty tasty berries they say. So now and for at least a week ahead I’ll have to water everything I’ve planted with at least ten litres of water every day and continue to help with water all summer long if we’ll have a dry summer. Good thing I don’t have to pay for my water 🙂 I still have two Pawpaw trees to plant but I want to buy more peat because they like a slightly acidic soil.

     

All the Apricots and pears I sowed last year and have survived will have to stay in the cool cellar for two more winters, well except for those two Apricots I’ve already planted, I thought I would test how they manages a winter already that young, I have after all four more Apricots and very little space in the garden 🙂 🙂

   

Just look at Alma’s eyes, she’s not impressed 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

A really nice afternoon.

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He stops at every spot he can find something to sniff on 🙂 Drives Alma insane because she wants to walk and walk and walk 🙂

We’ve had two really nice days here. Yesterday was a bit cooler but after having a long cold winter and a few weeks where the temperature didn’t rise above 5 C (41 F) anything above that feels like summer temperatures 🙂 Even the dogs were panting when we were out walking 🙂 🙂 We had frost last night though and that can keep on happening until the first week in June. June sixth is usually the last night we have frost here.

     

None of us wanted to get out of bed when the alarm started this morning, it seems that Malkolm loves to stay in bed after we’ve woken up, that I like 🙂 but not even Alma wanted to leave the bed today and that was surprising. No need to hurry up tomorrow morning though, it’s May first, the workers day in big parts of the world. So I guess we’ll all get up at normal time just because we actually can stay in bed 🙂 🙂

     

Today however is Valborgsmässoafton, Walpurgis night which is celebrated here. No one actually knows who Valborg or Walpurgis as her English name was, is. She was actually an English princess I’ve read. She became a nun (and a couple of her brothers became monks) and was apparently really good in making pagans christians. She later became a saint and is the patron saint for those being infected with rabies. So as I said no one here knows who she was 🙂 🙂 Perhaps she does hold her hand over us because we haven’t had rabies here in this country since 1886.

     

So today they’ll start huge bonfires, choirs, usually men only choirs, will sing when the bonfires burn and singing spring songs. Today is a bit unusual because we have nice weather, all too often I’ve been standing is rain and / or snow freezing my b..t off not feeling the warmth from the fire because I had a tendency to always be placed on the other end far away from the fire 🙂 🙂

Tulipa tarda, spreads happily in my garden.
White checkered lily buds.
Checkered lily.
Lung worth. I was trying to photograph the Bumble bee that You can almost see at the bottom in the middle.
Leopards bane.
White wood anemone.
Yellow wood anemone and Corydalis.

So this will be a short working week but next week will be even better because next Friday is what we call a squeeze day. Thursday is Ascension Day and a holiday here so no one wants to work on Friday. Unfortunately most must but I applied for being free the right way so I won’t work 🙂 I’ll also stay at home on Friday the seventh of June because our national day is on Thursday. To be honest very few know why we celebrate our national day that day, we just don’t care that much as long as we don’t have to work 🙂 🙂 No it isn’t because of some war or something like that, we haven’t been to war since we helped to beat Napoleon. There’s actually two reasons but I’ll tell You all about it then.

     

The dogs are sleeping all over the cottage. Nova because she’s old and tired but Alma and Malkolm because they’ve played wildly in the garden just before clouds covered the sky. I think I’ll join them in a while. The best tomorrow though is that the Ice cream lorry comes, I’m out of Ice cream and it’s stay warm a while they say so I’ll but more than I usually do 🙂

I really like this photo, just look at Alma 🙂 🙂

 

Have a great day!

It finally arrived :-)

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The warm and sunny weather sure took its time to arrive today, the morning was chilly and rainy so we didn’t go out for our morning walk until just before noon and it was still really cold. Then suddenly it changed and the temperature has risen to 20 C (68 F), the sun is shining even though there are big clouds in the sky and, of course, there is now a strong wind blowing.

     

That has helped the laundry to dry in five seconds so I really can’t complain too much 🙂 I don’t think it took fiver minutes after the sun started to shine through the gaps in the clouds before I heard the first mower 🙂 Yes the grass has grown pretty much but why can’t they just relax at least for one day before they start 🙂 🙂

     

I didn’t care about mowing the lawn, instead I’ve brought up almost all plants from the cool cellar. I only have four cacti down there still because I need to get more plants outside before I have enough space by the windows 🙂 I even brought the pawpaw seedlings I had down there outside, three of them but decided that the three I have indoors by the kitchen window can wait for a while. One never knows when we’ll get a nasty cold frosty night again.

The Camellias started to flower in the cool cellar.

 

I bought a hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) and it too was touched a bit hard by frost, like the trees I also got delivered late this week. So I decided to take a few cuttings that can over winter in the cool cellar neat winter. I took a few photos of how I do that that You can see here below. The Hardy Fuchsia doesn’t survive like a big bush here though but the roots survives and starts all over next year. It’s always best to put dry leafs over it all just in case we do get another cold winter. One can of course also have it as a pot plant and keep it light but cool during the winters.

The best soil to have while planting cuttings are usually sowing soil. I didn’t have any so I mixed ordinary soil with some sand from my garden, mix it well.
As You can see the cuttings did look a bit sad after the frost so I don’t know if they’ll work but it’s worth a try. I can take new ones later in summer.
One only need a short stem, just make sure that at the bottom there have been leafs. Take away those because that’s where the new roots will start to grow. This one didn’t have any leafs at all but they usually work anyway.
This one looks better. Two leafs taken away at the bottom and two leafs at the top. Most people think this is too short but it’s actually just enough.
Plant the cuttings along the edge of the pot, more oxygen will reach where the leafs will grow and the risk of them rotting because of too much water is lesser. Normally I don’t put a see through cover,, like plastic, around the pot but since there were hit by frost I thought it might help. Place the pot by a window that doesn’t get any sunshine and wait for them to grow to new plants 🙂

Tomorrow will be a bit cooler than today but still above 10 C (50 F) and then on Tuesday it’ll go back to more what we’ve had this afternoon, I do hope this was the last cold period until autumn arrives again, I’m really tired of the cold weather we’ve had lately. I wonder how Malkolm think about warmer weather, so far all his life has been pretty cold, all three months of it 🙂

Alma and Malkolm have been playing all day long so they are both now snoring loudly 🙂

Have a great day!