Category: My dogs.

They’re guessing we’ll get rain tomorrow.

June 17, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

It has been so hot this week that we haven’t been on walks at all. Nova is old and Albins fur isn’t good at regulating his temperature. Even Alma has been a bit off because of it. I’ve been working in my old department at work and it’s even hotter in there than standing in the sunshine outside 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nova doesn’t want to walk down this road if we comes from the cottage but she will gladely walk it if we comes from the other direction. Have no idea why but we almost always do as she wants 🙂

So mostly I’ve been watering my potato and vegetable patches after work. It might have been too hot because lots of seeds haven’t germinated and the ones that did have been struggling. The only things that seems to like it are the beans, peas and iceberg lettuce. It does however look like I’ve managed to save the almost dead Pawpaw tree, no Kat not the tropical one You’re thinking of but the north American one 🙂 🙂 I dug it up and noticed that when they once potted it they put a huge chunk of the fertilizer pellets that looks like slug eggs just beneath its roots.

So the tree has never felt the need to spread its roots and by not doing that it sort of doomed itself. I dug it up and put it in a bucket with soil and lots of peat since it likes lower pH. After that I put a see through plastic bag over it to help it with sucking up water. Yesterday I took a look at if and I can see the beginnings of three new stems (well perhaps it’s branches?) 🙂 I’ll let it stay in the cool cellar during winter so it can get a better start next year.

It will be another hot day today but the morning was quite cool and nice. We went down to the creek and even though the mosquitoes were just as annoying as always there were very few annoying forest flies and not a single horse fly. Also I could only find one tick when I went through the fur of the dogs. They really don’t like dry weather. We still have morning dew though so that shows the ground and vegetation isn’t totally dry yet. A cold front will pass here tomorrow so temperatures will drop a lot and they are guessing that we also will get rain. Sometimes they guess we’ll get lots and sometimes they guess we’ll barely get anything 🙂 🙂 🙂 They also guess we’ll get more rain during the week but temperatures will stray high. We all do know however how good they are at guessing the wetaher over here 🙂 🙂 🙂

There’s a little black and white dot at the bump of the road, that’s Sally the beekeepers cat 🙂

So far I haven’t heard a single person complain about the eventual coming rain 🙂 :-)The risk of forest fires are high all over the country and, there are a few going on, it is an especially high risk around here. So panic bag packed just in case we need to leave quickly. I’m not especially worried but it’s always best to be prepared just in case. It is time for a cup of tea and perhaps a little nap, we’ve been up since 4am and it is now 8:30. Better take a nap when it still is fairly cool, later on it’ll be too hot.

Can You see those tiny green dots? The life continues for the Pawpaw after all 🙂

From the root zone, I think You call these irises Yellow flag.

Iceland poppy. Seems they are now placing in lots of different poppies under that name that before had their own names. We used to call this one for Siberian poppy.

I’ve passed this rose several times a day for weeks and still didn’t notice that it was in bloom 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Almost forgot :-)

June 11, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (4) — My fly eating bucket will soon be complete. It will be as soon as the Venus flytraps grew up again 🙂

I almost forgot to write something here today. I can’t say that I’ve been very busy but I’ve been doing things all day but in a slow but steady pace. We’ve been out on our walks so now we all have plenty more mosquito bites but it looks like the dogs don’t feel the itching either any more. Now the mosquitoes are mostly just annoying. The ticks however are everywhere right now. I pick the occasional one from Nova and Albin but I pick at least ten from Alma after each walk. I miss very few though so it feels like I’m in control 🙂 🙂

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I’ve done the laundry like always and also dinner for next week at work plus I baked some Sorghum (and Teff) scones. They actually taste pretty close to normal ones. If I don’t have any Teff flour at home I’ll use either corn or rice flour. They are a bit dry no matter what flour I use but the taste is good. I’ve also had a whole chicken in the slow cooker, not for me but the dogs. It looks like Albin now is allergic to Tuna. Every time he gets some in his food the eczema blows up again. He has been able to eat chicken before so I’ll give them all some tomorrow and see what happens.

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I’ve watered the vegetable and potato patches and also the trees I’ve planted and the pots I have with different citrus trees and the potato sprouts I planted. It looks like nothing will happen in one of those pots with potato sprouts so now I can plant something else in it 🙂 I bought more soil on Friday, turns out they had plenty at the grocery store in the village where I work, I’ve just not been able to see it. I usually park at the side of the store, no doors and windows there. This time however I parked the car in front of the entrance and they had a couple of pallets with soil on the other side of the doors 🙂 🙂

So that’s what I’ve been doing, not much but sort of continuously. I’ve also tried to photograph the Hornets that now comes to a Cotoneaster I have in the garden. They love the flowers on it. To be honest the entire bush is sort of ugly and the flowers are tiny but the Hornets just can’t resist them 🙂 🙂 I’ve read that they mostly drink sap from trees and very rarely nectar from flowers so that ugly little bush will stay 🙂 Hornets eats lots of flies (and unfortunately also some of the Beekeepers bees) and anything that eat flies are best friends of mine 🙂

A15660_001 — Two from the Rolleicord. I had forgotten how to let go of the shutter and here is when I found how to do it 🙂

A15660_002 — Can’t remember taking this one 🙂

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Have a great day!

Felt warmer than it was.

June 10, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The thermometer said it wasn’t that hot today, 23C (73,4F) but the dogs said otherwise. The cool wind should have helped one could think but it didn’t. I mostly hid in the shadows so to me the day has been pretty nice 🙂

It was rather cool in the early morning though and it seems the mosquitoes like that too, so we had company the entire walks 🙂 🙂 Still I’ve now been bitten so much that I really don’t feel the itch any longer. Still just a few horse flies and their relatives and I know it’s useless to hope that it could stay that way but I can’t but hope 🙂 🙂 Besides walking with the dogs, making my lunch and watering the vegetables and potatoes I really haven’t done much today. I did take a nap as well though. Time has just flown away but I guess that’s what happens when one feel good 🙂 🙂

Mowing the lawn isn’t something one should do during a drought but I had to today. Only the part where the thorny roses and slow and the false spirea grew because those shoots were growing rapidly now. Isn’t it strange that when most vegetation struggles with no or very little water in the ground those things we don’t want just shrugges and keep on growing 🙂 🙂 I keep on pulling up their roots but there are so many and they are so twined that the majority of them stays in the ground. I have however no problems what so ever with the vicious roses on the other side of the garden, they behave nicely 🙂 🙂

There’s nothing I want to watch on tv so I could read a book or perhaps bake bread for the coming week but I have no energy to do either. I guess it’s the pollen that sort of slows down my brain but keep the will of not doing anything well alive 🙂 :-)I could go outside and scare away all the magpies because they have now kicked out their younglings from the nest, always before they can fly, and now they protest loudly every time they think the young ones are in danger and it sounds like they always are 🙂 🙂 The Jackdaws have built a nest in my neighbors chimney so they’ll have to remove that before the fire in the stove season starts. They don’t have the hearts to do it now 🙂

A15659_031A — Four taken with the Agfa Flexilette.

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Have a great day!

The fly season has started, yay.

June 4, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

My neck is feeling a bit better today, I’ve stretched it back and forwards, very slowly, all day long. I did however wake up in the middle of night when I tried to turn and had to sort of lift my head while turning around 🙂 🙂 🙂 Fell asleep directly as soon as I had let my head down again 🙂 My back is also a bit sore today but I think that has to do with me planting trees and ripping up roots from the ground.

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Today, I have no idea what this is called in English) I shuffled up soil towards the potato stalks so I’ll get more potatoes. I also sowed beans and peas and a couple of squash seeds. I’ll get more squash than I can eat with two plants so no need for any more. I still have space for more vegetables so now I’ll check what I have in my seeds bags 🙂

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This year we have more mosquitoes than I think I’ve ever seen here but the swamp behind my garage is drying out and there’s no rain in sight for ten days so I think that problem will end soon. Unfortunately the blood sucking flies have arrived. So far only the biggest that can be heard from a long distance. Alma managed to scare on of them away after trying to eat it and the sound from her jaws hitting would scare away even wolves I think 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (15) — Before I pushed up soil towards the potato stalks.

a (17) — The last of the Marsh Marigolds.

Suddenly our postal service is worried about their employees, which is a good thing to be honest. However if I order a package that ways 19,9 kg (43,87 pound) they’ll carry it to my front door. If it should way 20,1 kg (44,31 pound) they’ll only bring it to my gate. That would have been perfect for me but if it weighs 43,87 pound I also need to stay at home and sign that they have delivered it? Why not just leave it at the gate so I don’t have to take a day off from work to sign that I’ve recieved it? So from now on I need to get one sack of dog food and no more each time, therefore they must drive to me more often and I’ll have to pay more because it’s always cheaper to buy two packages at the same time. I could just leave a big wooden box outside my gate so they could leave it there but they won’t allow anything like that I’m afraid.

Blue really lights up when the light gets weaker. Sage of some kind I think.

It is time for a last cup of tea and then read a book.

Have a great day!

Falling down :-)

June 3, 2023 · 1 Comment ·

My kitchen stairs are just two steps but when a slipper gets caught in a nail that has grown up from the wood it still is pretty high when falling down to the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 Most of me hit a sack of peat and my first thought was that I had broken the lens on my camera, after that I started to check if I was ok 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nothing broken but my strained neck, because of Almas constant pulling of the leash, that was back to almost normal again is now back to being very strained.

It was even colder tonight than the previous one, -2C (28,4F) and this time I was worried that much more would have been damaged. The new walnut tree is badly frozen but I hope it will make a comeback later in summer. One of my ginkgos was touched at its top branch and so was the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) but otherwise everything looks ok. The sun took its time to show as well this morning so we didn’t go out until well after 6am, normally we’re out at the same time the sun rise.

I went to Skara to buy soil and they were selling pitcher plants this year as well, so I bought three new ones to replace those two that didn’t make it through winter. I also went in to the super market and now I’m trying two new cookies. I’ve said it before and I say it again. They also make most of the cookies vegan so no butter or milk and nothing really tastes good because of that. I did however find hobnobs, normally not one of my favorites but these are quite ok, perhaps because the other ones I tried tastes like shit. They would most likely have been great with milk and butter in them. I’m not against veganism in any way but if food or edibles need milk and butter to taste good there really is no use in trying to make them without either of them.

I’ve planted my new Ginkgo today. I planted it close to the rose that stands above Teodors resting place. The rose seems to struggle so I thought Teodor most likely wouldn’t mind if ginkgo took its place 🙂 I also planted my Persimmon hybrid. The big problem was that the only place it really should be planted at was filled with roots of roses, sloe and false spirea. So I chose the only place where only the false spirea had grown. It really is a out of control weed that plant but it is fairly easy to remove because the roots grow just beneath the surface and can be ripped up. Except for the fact that they also grow like they are spiderwebs. So I had to rip up roots for almost half an hour before I could start digging for the tree 🙂 🙂

The Persimmon. You can see some of the roots in front of it.

Old Broccolo (a variety of broccoli) germinates much better than I thought 🙂

I cut out the bottom of a bigger pot,m placed it in the hole and planted the tree inside it. The put is deep enough so no roots will grow in to it from the false spirea. Next year when the tree is established (if it survives the winter) I’ll remove the pot bu just pulling it up from the ground and over the tree. I think it is time for a cup of tea and perhaps a couple of hobnobs. The other ones I bought would have been great as dog treats if they hadn’t contained chocolate. I hate tossing away anything edible so I guess that I’ll have to eat them but I will drink lots of milk while doing it 🙂

Photo taken while falling down the stairs 🙂

I think almost all potatoes have leafs now 🙂

Columbine. Looks like almost all mine are either pink or dark purple. I think I have one white and one blue.

Have a great day!

Frost.

June 2, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

My seed sown Gardenia (one of four) shows its first flower. Unlike the ones we buy these flowers are single, like they are in nature. The ones we can buy are always totally filled and looks almost like a rose. It smell just enough strong and the scent fills up my kitchen. Two more flower buds and then hope it’ll, and the other ones, will do it again next year.

-1C (30,2F) here last night and the frost damaged my Amur grapevine. Most other plants, except for my tomatoes seems to have made it through without too much problem, even the small pear tree seedlings I replanted yesterday evening. Tonight might be even more cold so I’ve covered most of the plants that I still haven’t planted.

a (8) — If one see lilacs somewhere one knows it once was a cottage there. Lilacs are weeds but they rarely spread far when the cottage is gone.

a (9) — Paris quadrifolia, Lover’s knot, is a favorite of mine. It should really have problems surviving here but it looks like it is spreading instead.

Today was just as chilly and windy but with full sunshine as yesterday. The temperature barely rose to 14C (57,2F) but as long as I could stay out of winds reach it still was pretty nice. I am a bit tired of the wind now but it does at least blow away all the mosquitoes we have right now and we might have more forest flies than I noticed because of the wind as well. I had hoped the forest flies would take some time more to arrive, they really don’t do anything like bit but they hover around the head and every now and again they tries to get inside the nostrils and ears. I truly hate them for that.

In my garden right now. I can’t remember sowing this but I think it is some kind of sage.

Geranium that I also have in white and pink.

I found a tick on my thigh the other day. It couldn’t have been there drinking my blood for especially long since it was almost totally flat but I am now of course feeling all the diseases it might have given me. To be honest I’m feeling fine but it does itch a lot where it bit me, just lime it would if it had been a mosquito. Still nasty animals and I would not have minded if they just died out, who would miss them? Most animals won’t even try to eat them unless they are starving badly 🙂 🙂

The three Venus Fly traps I have survived the winter in my cool cellar 🙂 Also two of the pitcher plants but two died. I hope they sell more so I can fill up the big pot. Anything eating flies is a friend of mine 🙂

Lots of poppies in the old broken wheel barrow.

The potatoes are growing in the potato patch but also those sprouts that always break off from the potatoes when trying to untangle the potatoes from the net bag they put them in. I planted those in pots and buckets and so far they’ve shown above the surface in four out of five pots/buckets. Now I’ll continue to cover them with soil until they are almost completely filled, the more of those sprouts that are covered by soil the more potatoes I’ll get. I need more soil though so I’ll most probably go to the store tomorrow to buy more.

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I’m having a long weekend again 🙂 It’s our national day on Tuesday so I took Monday off as well. I’ll get a package on Monday and I must stay at home to recieve it otherwise I would have waited until Monday to get more soil I have bought an interesting book about our folklore beings and I’ll tell You more about it when I’ve read it through.

Have a great day!

Alma is so much more careful when playing with her.

May 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

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We once again woke up just before the sun was about to rise above the mountains and it felt really cold for the first time in a long time. To be honest it wasn’t that cold, the thermometer said it hadn’t been colder than 9C (48,2F) and warmer than that is still fairly uncommon here at nights. But the sky was cloudy and we had a rather strong and chilly wind so I guess the wind and the sky sort of made me think it was much colder 🙂

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It took quite some time before the sun showed itself so we didn’t go out on our walk before 6:15 and I guess that’s why I only saw two deer (the dogs only noticed one of them thankfully) but we heard them run away from us in the forest so Alma was a bit annoying big parts of our walk. The cold feeling has stayed for most of the day but I refused to close the kitchen door where the sun shines (even though we’ve had lots of clouds today). It is however amazing how fast it gets warm indoors again as soon as doors and windows are closed again, The sun is really warm now.

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I have been quite active again today, never thought that ever would happen 🙂 🙂 I have a part of the garden where I’ve had a woodland area and I have neglected it for several years. Once Trilliums thrived there and even self sowed, now I have one or two left and most of the ground was covered in either Wood avens (Geum urbanum) or Solomon’s seal and in early spring different wood anemones. The Hungarian lilacs had spread out and covered the air of over half the surface and an old apple tree that is slowly dying covered the rest. I guess You all by now know what I think of lilacs, so I just broke off lots of the branches, They seem almost impossible to kill so they’ll survive. I also broke off all dead branches of the apple tree.

DSC_0047 (2) — A few of the branches I just tore off.

DSC_0048 (2) — Now finally there’s light in the woodland again.

The tiny Pawpaw is said to like growing beneath bigger trees, at least as young, so while it slowly will grow taller the apple tree stays.

DSC_0038 (4) — Albin always look a bit grumpy. He doesn’t have that pitty smile.

After that I tore up all Wood avens, we have plenty left all over the garden and I also ripped up some of the Solomon’s seal. Now that little place is more open and some sunlight can reach everything growing closer to the ground. I already have an Ginkgo there but it has had a tough time and grown really slowly so I hope this will help a lot. I then planted the Pawpaw tree (well tree is a bit much to call it, can’t be more than a foot high 🙂 🙂 ) where I once had another apple tree that had to go due to tree cancer. Tree cancer is a fungi attacking the tree and it is almost impossible to save the tree once it gotten it. There’s also a rhododendron Catawbiense living there and I think it too will love a bit more sunshine. I also tossed out peat since both it and the Pawpaw likes a bit more acidic soil.

DSC_0041 (3) — Nova might almost be 17 years old but she still plays with the other dogs every now and again.

DSC_0042 (3) — Alma is so much more careful when she plays with Nova, like when she plays with my neighbors daughter than she is when she plays with Albin. Sometimes it looks and sounds as if they are trying to kill each other 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I’ve also made dinner for the coming week and of course the weekly laundry. I have however not baked any bread and since that will take more than two hours to do I’ll just bake some scones. I haven’t been too successful in my previous tries but I’ll keep on trying till I get it right 🙂

DSC_0031 (6) — In bloom in my garden right now, Columbine.

Have a great day!

The nettles slid down my arm.

May 27, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (1) — I went up the my mailbox to see if I’d gotten any mail yesterday and took this photo on my way up the slope.

I have a thorn in one of my fingers and it hurts every time I press down a key with it so now I’m trying to not use it at all. I can see the thorn so I’ll get it out after this. I have the thorn there just because I cleared out another area in my garden. This one was filled with mostly False spirea, an old gooseberry bush (hence the thorn), a few wild raspberry bushes and lots of stinging nettles. I did manage to get a few stalks from the stinging nettles to slowly slide down my arm. The pain is gone but now it’s itchy and warm 🙂 🙂 So now it’s a new place where I’ll have to mow no matter what weather we’re having otherwise it’ll all come back again.

a (2) — And I took these on my way down again.

a (4) — Guess where I live 🙂 My cottage is barely visible behind the lilacs and that Rowan tree in bloom.

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I really need to stop drinking lots of water before going to bed, today we were up before the sun rose (and it rose at 4:19 today) and it sort of felt wrong to go back to bed because I know I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again anyway. So we went out just as the sun rose and it did feel quite chilly, I think it might have been around 5C (41F) but no wind and sunshine from the start. To be honest a walk with Alma will make anyone sweat like crazy anyway so I didn’t use the fleece sweater that I thought would be needed if we had been able to walk like normal humans and dogs 🙂 🙂

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I watered the vegetable patch and potato patch as soon as we came home , sowed some seeds and when the clock reached 10 am I started to mow the lawn. Before that I cleared that space of course.I really would like to plant my Persimmon tree there but all those roots makes it hard so I would have to rip them up (both the false spirea and raspberry roots are relatively easy to remove since they lay just beneath the surface but there’s a net made of those roots now so it wouldn’t be that easy because of that). I’ve also done some laundry so now I’m really tired, aren’t weekends supposed to be the time when we relax 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Suddenly most of the wildlife is gone again so I guess that the wolves are elsewhere at the moment. Today we only saw one young roe deer buck and he was sleeping in a field just beside the forest. I wish I could see any of them but I only hear from other people that they have seen at least one. The wolves are in trouble right now though, don’t think it is our pack but one in the neighbor county, because they killed a lot of sheep the other day. People here aren’t used to wolves so fences are way too low and not electrified in most places and to be honest the fences needed will cost a fortune. I think the government should pay most of that cost but the government we have right now instead wants to eradicate the wolves completely. Well the EU Court of Justice will not allow that thankfully 🙂

a (19) — I hate it when they put up those electric wires even when there are no cattle walking in the field. It is anything but easy to get those wires down so the dogs can pass, especially when I need to keep Alma calm. They do like that because they’re too lazy to have to do it when the cattle actually arrives.

Swedish forest authorities, experts and the swedish forest industry always complain about how other countries manages their forest, especially if we’re talking about those with rain forest but when we get complaints about how we take care of our forests we then always hear them say that we know better and that we have other conditions in this country than other countries 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Eu says we don’t have a sustainable forestry by only planting either spruce or pine and that when we cut down all trees at once we let too much carbon dioxide out into the atmosphere. Instead we should have a mixed forest and just thin out the biggest trees every now and again. Also we Swedes are complaining about how we treat the forests as well so now the authorities, experts and industry tries to tell us all how wrong we are 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest we’ve cut down so many trees now (yes we plant new ones as soon as possible) that we now have almost no older forest left. So when they cut down new trees they are either too young or they’ve cut down forest that should have been protected. I really hope the EU Court of Justice sues the shit out of them all 🙂

I had forgotten how much space there actually was behind that wooden box 🙂

There is this one really big root system that I think belongs to the old gooseberry bush. If new shoots grow up from it I’ll move it to a better place. The gooseberries were red and really tasty.

It is time for a last cup of tea and also to get that thorn out of my fingertip 🙂

Have a great day!

Not happy about it.

May 26, 2023 · 6 Comments ·

f (6) — Today the photos can come from today or any other day this week.

We’ve had a rather nice week over here sunny and warm but not too warm. The rain that they said would fall here, and it would be well over an inch, never arrived. I have no idea where it went instead though but none at work had gotten any. So instead I’ve been watering both the vegetable patch and potato patch. To be honest I’m not sure I really had to but at least those tiny seeds lie close to the surface and most likely liked the little help they got. The first potato leafs are now showing.

I planted this tulip two years ago and never saw anything of it. Turns out it shows up so late that all the higher flowers (and stinging nettles) grow up before it shows. I will move the few I have already tomorrow.

No idea what this really tiny flower is called.

We were called to a meeting at work first thing in the morning on Thursday and that’s never a good sign. Times are hard so they will now shut down those departments that gives little to no money and my job is of course one of those that will stop to excist. I won’t lose my job though but September first I’ll go back to my old department again and will start working evenings instead. Not happy about it but it’ll be fewer hours but slightly more in pay. Also we’ll get two hours more in compensation hours than if we would work normal day shift. Things can still change all depending on how things go in Ukraine and it can all go to h..l if the Republican party doesn’t do the responsible thing and allow the US to borrow more money.

I wanted to go home two hours early on Wednesday, no special reason just because I really just wanted to 🙂 No problem as long as nothing turns up where they need my help. So of course it did. I had to pick off maskings from things we had painted. So instead I could take those two hours on Thursday instead. Of course they then was supposed to paint the same things again and I would be needed there again, so instead I officially took two hours today. The thing was that the maskings never arrived before I was going home the normal time on Thursday anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today however nothing could stop me, so I went to the store and bought what I needed for the weekend, drove home and passed the factory and it felt rather nice 🙂

Nova limped after being outside in the early morning but I couldn’t find any spot that seemed to hurt. She didn’t limp at all when I came home but I let her decide on where we should go on our walk. Normally she loves the longer route but today she chose to go to the bog instead. slightly shorter but mostly in the shade from the big trees in the forest Now she’s sleeping beside me and snores quite loud 🙂 🙂 🙂 She always does and I’m surprised that I don’t wake up because of it 🙂 I’ve had a neck pain for slightly over a week now and I just couldn’t figure out why, yesterday however I realized that it was because of Alma pulling the leash. She is very much better now than she was but every now and again she decides that no one should enjoy the walk and pulls the leash and is quite loud and whines a lot and the neck ache started after one of those days. Turns out that every time she rush ahead in a high speed and the leash it stretched my neck hurts like insane. That dog will kill me one day and she will eb happy while doing it 🙂 🙂 🙂

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It is time for a cup of tea and a few oatmeal cookies with chocolate drops in them 🙂 It is so far the only gluten free cookie that is edible because it has milk and butter in it. I’ve realized tyat lots of gluten free things also are vegan and vegans don’t eat anything that comes from animals, including honey for example. So now at least I know why everything taste really sad 🙂 🙂

A15397_004 — One from the Meopta Milona just so we remember what we’ve just left behind us 🙂

Have a great day!

The sunshine is really hot.

May 21, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (4) — Clematis *Propertius’. It has a weak but pleasant scent.

We were supposed to have a gray and dull day here with little to no sunshine so is anyone surprised when I say that we’ve mostly had sunshine all day? 🙂 🙂 🙂 21C (69,8F) but really hot in the sunshine. I even hesitated to take the dogs for a walk because of how hot it was. Albins fur is so short that I doubt it can regulate heat especially well, Nova is old and Alma starts panting as soon as I open the door before the walk 🙂 🙂 🙂 But we did take a short one i the forest where it’s mostly shadowy. Still they are now all sleeping on the floor beside me here on the upper floor. The windows are open and there’s a wind blowing so it feel almost chilly here now.

a (1) — 35 meters (much the same in yards) of this and I’m not happy about it but also too lazy to do anything about it 🙂

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c (6) — I got this one from my friend who owns a garden center. They didn’t have time enough to take care of it and bring it back to what it once was and was going to toss it away. I have the time and now new leafs are on the way. This is by the way a Calamodin. The fruits can be used for jam but aren’t that wonderful to eat as they are.

I’ve never seen as many flowers on my lilac hedge as there is this year. It’ll be horrible when they all open up but even worse when they wither away. It is too much work to remove it though so here I am complaining every spring when they open up 🙂 🙂 It will rain tonight they say, anything from light drizzle to heavy rain. They are guessing that we’ll get nothing up to 25 mm (an inch) of it during the night and early morning. They are also guessing that the warm weather will stay but one day or two the temperature might not reach 20C (68F). I can live with that 🙂

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I’m continuing to sow seeds and today it was mostly for flowers but I do have some more vegetables to sow but I want to see what of the seeds I’ve already sown will come up before I continue. Any bare spot will be filled with something new. I’m also pretty sure I won’t get any walnuts this year either, not a sign of “flowers” on my black walnut and the one I just planted barely has any branches or twigs at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 My Pawpaws looked fine until that rain/ hail and snowstorm passed by but now they look dead. There will be new leafs some time during the summer but it is annoying and that will make it harder for them to survive next winter if it is a tougher one.

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So back to work tomorrow since I didn’t even get one number right on the lottery ticket 🙂 🙂 🙂 The laundry is done and so is dinner at work for next week. I’ll only have to add baked beans and fried eggs. I I didn’t want to fry eggs today for something that won’t be eaten until next Friday and I don’t know how fried eggs make it if they are frozen.

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Have a great day!

Presummer is here.

May 20, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

I’ve always been like this but I still feel it’s wrong to wake up earlier on a weekend than on the days I need to go to work 🙂 🙂 🙂 I woke up just as the sun slowly should have risen but there were a few clouds at the horizon that blocked it for a while. The rest of the day however has been sunny without even a single cloud.

View from behind my gate yesterday when the sun was slowly setting.

We all had something to eat before we went out on our morning walk. It was still a bit chilly so I was stupid enough to wear a sweater, ok it was one with a zipper in the front but it didn’t take long before I started to boil. Walking with Alma does that to me but also the sun started to heat up the air and there was no wind at all. The first thing we did was of course to see a roe deer cross the road and Alma went from just stressed to quite insane. She did calm down a bit though but she gets so excited when she see wildlife that she can be impossible to walk around with.

The first deer we met. She must have seen us since long becausee the forest is cut down on the left side. She was in no hurry at all.

A crab apple tree on the right side of the gravel road. It gives red and rather nice apples.

Of course just when she finally had calmed down properly we went out on a field and what do we see? Another roe deer. So I was prepared for the worst but then she almost didn’t care at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 I will never be able to figure out how she will react to anything to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so glad that she and Albin never saw the badger strolling along some bushes when we were almost at home. when we came home I finally baked those breads that I should have baked yesterday 🙂 🙂 and they turned out quite ok. I think I had a bit too much flour though so the loafs didn’t rise as much as I had hoped. To be honest though, the taste is the only thing that matters as long as it is edible 🙂

The rest of the day has been nice and calm. Alma has been over to the neighbors and played with their daughter. Alma is apparently great with kids. Not so great with Albin because she goes too far and never stops in time. Today I sprayed water on her since I was watering the vegetable patch and that calmed her down considerable 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve sowed two kinds of Asian cabbage, one edible flower and then lots of draught resistent flowers, mostly those we have as spices like Thyme. I was going to sow Oregano (the Swedish name for it is Kings Mint) but I just can’t remember where I put those seeds 🙂 🙂 🙂 Plus I’ve sown all kinds of poppies, morning glories, canary nasturtiums, normal nasturtiums and Black-eyed Susan vine. If they all would grow I’m pretty sure it will look amazing and sort of a mess at the same time 🙂 🙂 🙂

The second one and he too took it a bit to calm for my liking. It’s a miracle if these deer survives the wolf pack we now have here because they react slower than cold molasses 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for something, I’m thinking yogurt and perhaps corn flakes or some kind of gluten free granola. I must say that gluten free granola is a bit sad when comparing to the normal one but one takes what one can eat 🙂

Have a great day!

Long weekend.

May 19, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

I’m having a long weekend and the weather is quite wonderful. Yesterday was a bit chilly even though the sun shone most parts of the day but the cold feeling from the day before when we had thunder, rain, hailstorms and snow falling really didn’t want to leave. Today it was gone though, no wind, sunshine, birds singing and the first annoying flies have arrived 🙂 🙂 It almost feels like summer.

We saw this fox in the field just beside a little grove, he was looking towards the grove and didn’t notice us at first.

When he did he didn’t seems to care about us at all. It’s most likely a male fox hunting food for all the cubs he’s a father to now. He can have several litters but will help with feeding them all and will also stay long enough to play with them every day.

Then he scratched himself a bit while we were leaving. As soon as we had started to walk away he ran away towards the creek.

Today I was expecting a package. Normally they just leave it outside my door but since it weighed more than 20 Kg (44 pound) I for some reason had to stay at home to get it. No problem since I had taken the day off anyway. My cottage can be seen very clearly when one drives down the slope but still the postal service employees can’t find my cottage!! I was standing by my gate looking at the driver passing my cottage, passing my neighbors cottage and stopping just before she reached the beekeepers cottage. There she stood for at least five minutes while I was shouting towards her and jumping and waving my hands. Turns out that she had called a college to ask for where I lived. Turns out that it helps to threaten to call the police if they missed me again 🙂 🙂 🙂

He most likely knew that this doe was in the grove close to her youngling. she would have defended the young one so unless the fox had been desperate he wouldn’t try and take it as long as she was close.

I’ve done one set of laundry today, all my work t-shirts. I’ve also mowed the lawn, the grass started to grow way too fast for my liking so I did it today, normally I do it on Saturdays or more often on Sundays. I have an electric mower, not a battery driven one, they just cost way too much and one need two batteries (and the batteries are insanely expensive) even to mow a small garden as mine is. So instead I have a long cord, well actually I have plenty of shorter ones and it works fine as long as I plan how to mow so I don’t have to cross the cord risking to cut it off 🙂 🙂 Instead I tend to step on is to the cord gets unplugged. I always sound as if i planned that stop by saying to my dogs why have You put that thing there 🙂 🙂 🙂

All I have left to do today, because the dogs and I had our pancake Sunday already today 🙂 is to bake two loafs of bread. I’m almost out of hard bread and I haven’t had any other kind of bread for several days, I must admit that I’ve been way too lazy to bake and the store bought ones are just gross. Turns out that my work friends wife just found out that she too most likely is gluten intolerant, she’s just a few years younger than me. So I told my work friend who I think bought everything gluten free he could find, that she should bake her own bread because she will not like the one she can buy unless she loves toast insanely much 🙂 🙂 I tried two new gluten free cookie variants I found in the store, they were just as awful as all other cookies I’ve bought. So so far there’s only one edible cookie and it’s an oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips in it.

It’s time to give the dogs their dinner and after that a walk in the forest and then baking those breads. I’ll sow something as well, most likely broccolo (a sort of in between broccoli and cauliflower) Looks more like a greenish cauliflower but tastes more like broccoli, a good thing since I really don’t like cauliflower 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!