Well we have to take the good with the bad I’m afraid and yesterday I found a tick on Alma. So I brought the tick repellent spray (it is supposed to help towards the biting flies too but that’s harder to check) from the cupboard. It smells like one of those cheap perfumes one can buy when going to (in our case) either the Canary Islands or somewhere along the mediterranean coast. They might smell nice there because You actually think more of the surroundings than what it actually smells but way too much here at home 🙂 🙂
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Alma has a very well made harness when we’re out walking and it has two attachments for the leash. Well today Alma tore off the one in the front so now there’s only one place. I’m amazed that it lasted this long to be honest but surprised at the same time since she has calmed down considerable. I guess that seeing two deer was one too many 🙂 🙂 She behaved much better on our second walk. Thankfully the attachment that still is there looks like that if she managed to break that one she would rip the entire harness apart 🙂 🙂 🙂
The beekeeper seem to have lost one hive this winter...
I might have to buy a new spray because I just picked a tiny tick from Alma, it walked on her where her fur is lighter colored and the tick was black, the tick is no longer. It is rather nice outside even though we have a rather feisty wind. The morning was dark and cloudy but the cloudy sky has more cracks in it now so we do see the sun every now and again. Tomorrow will be all sun though according to their guessing. They have already started to lower the temperatures they’re guessing we’ll have around next weekend so I’ll have a few work friends who planned to fill up their outdoors bathtubs feel rather sad 🙂 Ever never believe what Swedish weather sites and meteorologists say if it is longer than twenty minutes into the future, sometimes they don’t even get the weather we just had right 🙂 🙂 🙂
.This is the only bush with flower buds I could find unless one counts the willow we passed on our walk today..We call this one Porcelain Hyacinth (Pushkinia scilloides).
Have a great day!
The swamp behind my garage. There was a really beautiful duck swimming around there this morning but Alma refused to stand still so all photos I tried to take were so fuzzy it was hard to see anything.
WordPress have lowered the amount of gigabyte I can use for free, from 3 GB to 1Gb and that would mean I would have to start a new blog so often that I finally caved in and bought more space. Now I have 6GB per year but I’ll have to pay for it. So from now on this is the place I’ll stay at.
From the Agfa Ambi Silette...
We’ve had a cloudy week but rather nice temperatures but since it has been so cloudy I’ve taken very few photos so all photos today are older ones. I would have liked to say that the week has been totally uneventful but that would be to lie a bit 🙂 Twice this week I’ve had calls from neighbors telling me that Alma had escaped from the dog yard 🙂 🙂
From the Voigtländer Bessamatic...
I have no idea why she does it because she’s miserable when she can’t get back in again 🙂 🙂 I do hope I now have secured the fence enough to make it too difficult for her to get out again until I can fix the dogyard properly again. It is a good thing my neighbors like her a lot 🙂 🙂 but we are all a bit worried that she might get hit by a car, not many comes here to be honest but if anyone who doesn’t know about her habit of escaping comes here I really don’t want her to be hit by them. A good thing though is that she doesn’t approach strangers.
From my phone, a Samsung something..
They are now guessing that it will be really warm towards the end of next week so now people are planning to fill up their outdoor bathtubs and all kinds of things one can do in warm weather. They really shouldn’t since it’s over a week and at best our weather forecasts are slightly worse than bad 🙂 🙂 I’ll be happy if the sun shines, if nothing else it at least makes it feel warmer 🙂
Well all I could find out about beings and easter is this. It is said that gods power over this world was as weakest between god Friday and easter Sunday and during that time the evil trolls and witches moved around and created problems. That isn’t much, compared to any other big holiday here that’s nothing, there are loads of info about what all the beings would and could do when they had a chance otherwise 🙂 🙂
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We’ve had another rather nice day here, it would have been a wonderful day if it hadn’t been for the chilly and rather strong wind that just keeps on blowing. Still we had our mostly had our walks where the wind couldn’t reach us and I have to admit that the laundry dried up really quickly. It was however a bit chilly in the cottage because i had the kitchen door open most of the time so that the dogs could run in and out as they pleased. Now the sun is on the other side of the cottage so I have closed the door for the day.
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It’s just not the last of the laundry I’ve done today. I’ve emptied pots and poured the old soil in to my compost, I’ve moved out two more trees/ bushes from the cool cellar, a hazelnut bush and a Ginkgo. I really have no idea where I should place them and the problem is that I have already ordered a few more trees and bushes 🙂 🙂 🙂 Plus the only place I’ve found where I could plant the walnut (so it has a sporting chance to survive) is where my Laburnum (well call them Golden rain) grows. I have also baked a bread that now is put in the oven and will be ready to bring out after I’ve written this.
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I think I’ll make this a weekend blog so I’ll see You all here next Friday.
I think this could be cattle’s answer to breakfast in bed 🙂
Another rather wonderful day here, mostly sunny even though there now and again some of those really thin clouds high up in the sky passes by but just dim the sunlight a little. Even though the temperature had dropped during the night I still only had a fleece sweater instead of a jacket, walking with Alma really does a jacket a bit too much 🙂 I have to say though that the second walk was unbelievable good when it comes to Alma, she didn’t whine or scream like she always do and the leash pulling was down to a minimum?! (it was the contrary in the morning though).
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When we were out on our second walk I came to think of that I’ve never heard anything about easter, folklore and beings. Normally every big christian holiday is filled with that but I can’t find anything, besides the witches and Blåkulla of course. I really need to dig down into this and if I find anything I will write about it tomorrow. Easter Monday is a holiday here but I’m not sure why to be honest. I’ll take any reason to have a holiday though so I’m not complaining about it 🙂 🙂
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I brought up the rather high walnut tree from my cool cellar today. Nights will be above freezing they say but I’ll cover it during nights even though the temperature down in the cellar has been as low as 3C ( 37,4F). It stands on the northern side of my cottage and the sun doesn’t reach it yet but it is just a matter of time till no spot on the cottage is in a forever shady place. Plants need not only have to get used to the temperatures outside they also needs to get used to the uv-light it will be hit with. Just like us humans plants can and will get burned by the sun if they aren’t slowly getting used to it, we humans normally managed it but plants can actually die from it. I’ll continue to put out what’s growing in the cellar but I think I’ll wait a few days with the rest of what’s down there.
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We’ve had our pancake Sunday lunch like always but now it’s time for the dogs to have their dinner. I’ve done most of the laundry but will have to do the rest tomorrow, my tiny little washing machine can’t take too much of heavy things, like sweaters and trousers, at the same time.
I stopped by the lake Wednesday morning. The sky looked amazing so I took a few photos. Later that evening a new sow storm passed by but all of that latest snow melted away already on Thursday 🙂
So easter has begun, well at least the holidays because I guess one really should say that easter started on Monday. Weather has been so nice the week that no big amounts of cranes has gathered by the lake. twelve thousand as most but there’s still a wall of sound from the lake while they all trumpet like crazy. Instead they have now started to fly to the fields and meadows around the village. For some reason I think it’s more fun to see them here than standing by a fence down at the lake looking at them walking a couple of meters away and loads of them as well.
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This week another neighbor than the usual gave me a call at work telling me that Alma had escaped the dogyard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really don’t understand why she keeps on doing that since she’s miserable when she can’t get back in again. She is however very happy to see me coming back home again though 🙂 🙂 I stayed at home a bit longer this time, the weather was so nice so I made myself a pot of tea before I drove back to work. Alma has been pretty impossible on our walks this week, that is until this morning when she suddenly remembered how to behave. Well at least until we came close to some cranes and she started screaming like obcessed for a while.
I looked up in the sky yesterday to see if I saw any witches up there but all I could see was more cranes on their way to the lake.Today I saw what we call song swans and in America is called Trumpet swans.and of course cranes in the field.
Yesterday evening all witches flew to Blåkulla to have a party with the devil. There are a few places that is supposed to be Blåkulla and I think all of them are remote islands out in the ocean. More close to the ground however yesterday is the day when kids dress up as witches (and now days warlocks) and walks from home to home begging for candy. It is sort of our Halloween. This custom almost died out but has become popular again. But since yesterday was a work day for most of us they might do it on easter eve instead. I don’t think anyone will come here since I have Albin here but perhaps I should buy some candy just in case, it won’t last for long if no one should come anyway 🙂
We came pretty close, they didn’t care about us at all. That is until Alma started screaming as if she was possessed..
I’ve a bread in the owen and the smell has spread in the entire cottage. The kitchen door is open because the sun shines and it gets so warm towards the south heading wall that the radiator in the kitchen is turned off. We’ll have another walks as soon as the bread is out of the oven because they’re guessing we’ll have a cloudy afternoon. From tomorrow we’ll have 10C or over (50F) during the days and a day after or so we will also have above 0C (32F) temperatures during nights 🙂 It does feel like spring has sprung after all 🙂
Another snowstorm passed by yesterday, must have been the third in four days, so ow the world is covered in white garbage again. I do have to say though that the days has been rather wonderful with sunshine and above freezing temperatures. The photo shows the morning mist we got and it was better than nothing 🙂 🙂 🙂 They’re guessing that we’ll continue to have this weather until at least Thursday, with cold nights but sunny and warm days, after that the cold nights most likely will give up and most likely the sunshine as well but to be honest they aren’t that great in guessing the weather over here so a new ice age might start before the week is over 🙂
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We now have a pack of wolves that made my county their territory. Their sort of home area isn’t that far south of the town Falköping so I guess we’ll have many more visits from them in the future unless hunters do what they usually do and poach them. Hunters can be nice people but they really don’t like competition about the wild life they themselves wants to kill. I do know however that the hunters in my village wouldn’t shoot them, they are usually the first ones to see the wolves and then spread the news to us in the village so we all can keep our eyes open and see them ourselves. No such luck for me yet but I know that at least one followed us, out of sight, at at least one of our walks because the dogs clearly showed me that something was close to us for quite some distance and they really didn’t like it.
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More and more cranes arrive now and so does the crane tourists. long time since I saw that many caravans and mobile homes down by the lake. Lots of other birds arrive here too of course and I do hope that I one day will see at least one of the very few Black Storks that comes here every year. I know that they one year actually nested here but that’s very rare. They are usually more at home on the other side of the Baltic sea.
These were taken with my Agfa Ambi Silette. .
Last year I bought a pair of shoes that were nasty expensive but they were the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever walked in. Unfortunately the price didn’t show that they were a high quality shoes, I guess they lasted a month or so and the reviews of the company showed that there was no use in trying to send them back or get a new pair. Turns out that the soles just were glued on and with a low quality glue as well. So I’ve been looking at the shoes with some kind of disgust 🙂 until I realized that if I tore the soles off they would work very well as slippers instead 🙂 So now I instead have really comfortable slippers 🙂 🙂 Still to be honest they weren’t worth the price but now I can at least use them again.
. . Sixteen and a half years old, with a bad knee and still has no intentions on walking at the same pace as the rest of us 🙂 🙂 🙂
It’s time to make dinner for the dogs so see You tomorrow again.
It really was spring like here for a while so I thought I might start here again, then the rain came and now it snows. They tend to change the weather forecasts faster than a spinning wind power plants but at the moment it looks like we’ll get nasty cold nights and barely survivable warm days. That will of course change next second but that’s what I’ve read so far.
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So what has happened since christmas? Well I’ve learned, after 58 years why I’ve always had a wobbly stomach. Turns out I can’t eat gluten. I was at the companies health care service and talked with a nurse there. She asked if I had tried to stop eating products with gluten and I said I had bought one of those rather expensive home tests and it didn’t show anything at all. So she said try and stop eat anything with gluten and see what happens. Well I can tell You that I really don’t use much toilet paper now days 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Now days it isn’t that hard to avoid gluten since it has become fashionable to not eating it. however the bread one can buy is an abomination to anything living so I’ve tried different ways to bake bread with other kinds of cereal and now I have bread that is just like any other except I really can’t make a good French roll but I’ll keep on trying till I get close enough.
I had a few rolls of film developed and these two photos were taken with the Flexaret II
The dogs are all fine and I must say that Alma has calmed down considerable. She would still be considered awful compared to other dogs but she has really tried to listen to what I tell her. Last time we saw a deer she only screamed for five minutes after she last saw it and that’s a huge improvement. More and more cranes are around now and now I can hear them trumpeting from the lake in the mornings. Well I can hear them for the cow pasture on the other side of the road as well but so far they’ve stayed behind a tiny mound so I haven’t been able to see them yet.
These three were taken with the Agfa Ambi Silette..
Well since the wetaher will be more wintery than what I prefer I’ll come back next weekend again.
So a new year is here and I doubt that it’ll be any different from the last one. Well there’s a risk that many will lose their jobs because of a recession but otherwise I’m pretty sure it’ll stay the same. I never have any higher hopes for a coming year and that’s why I never feel disappointed about how it ended up 🙂 🙂 🙂 Over here the year started grey and dull, some drizzle and thankfully some fog. If we won’t have any sunshine I think we at least should have some fog 🙂
...It was around here where Albin suddenly started to look behind us 🙂
Yesterday when we were out walking in the morning we walked down to the creek. We walk a lot there now since the dogs still are a bit hesitant to walk out on the bog, even when we just walk out on the peninsula they’re a bit more attentive than usual. So anyway we were walking down the long gravel road to the creek when Albin suddenly started to look behind us. At first just a glance every now and again but then he stopped, turned around and took a long look behind us. I must admit that it feels a bit worrisome when a dog like Albin does something like that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nova rarely cares about what happens behind us and Alma, well Alma is like she is and rarely notice anything 🙂 🙂
It was just as dark yesterday and even though I looked around as good as I could I never saw anything...
We followed the creek out to the fields and then suddenly Nova too realizes that something is close to us and she starts to hurry. I wasn’t really worried until Alma reacted as well 🙂 🙂 but suddenly instead of looking behind us they all started to look towards our left side. I could never see anything but the dogs were all in a hurry to get home. Later when it had become dark and was going outside in the garden they went to the side of the cottage, sniffed some in the air and went back indoors. I was out there too, with my headlamp on but I still couldn’t see anything out there. We walked the same way today and none of them seemed to care about anything and behaved just like always. I must say though that Alma behaved really well yesterday and today she barely pulled the leash at all. That in it self is a very strange behaviour from her 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Besides that very little has happened here. I wasn’t up when we went in to the new year, I rarely am to be honest. I did start to look at the film Murder on the Orient Express but I must admit that it wasn’t as good as I remembered it to be. Mostly I was annoyed about the man playing Hercule Poirot changed his accent from time to time, he’s supposed to have a french accent byt every now and again he did sound more like he came from Italy 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I never finished it but instead went to bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 There are never any fireworks here since we have lots of cattle and horses here so it was almost as quiet as it always is here. I could hear fireworks from a far distance but that was it. I still have a weeks vacation before I have to go back to work and I’ll enjoy every second of it 🙂
And it was here they started to look towards our left side. There’s an open field just after the end of the trees here but I could still not see anything special...
Have a good continuing of the new year!
Salmiak was sitting in the middle of the road when we returned back home. He doesn’t like my dogs at all but he sat there for quite some time before he decided it was best to move 🙂
Older photos today, no snow left and no photos taken since we couldn’t take any walk in the forest while we had daylight.
Today has been a day of relaxation, well the previous ones as well but today we took an extra long nap after lunch. The hunters were out for the most part of the day when we still had daylight and it has also rained quite a lot so none of the dogs were outside for any longer period of time. I could hear the hunting dogs every time I went outdoors so I guess they never met any of the potential wolves out there.
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I was planning on going to the grocery store tomorrow but we’ll have sunshine so I’ll postpone it until Wednesday instead (it looks like the rest of the week will be mostly rainy here, I don’t mind but it would be nice if we could have some sunshine and above freezing now when I have my vacation). I really don’t need that much but seeds for the birds are running low and I forgot to buy gingerbread last week so I haven’t had any this entire christmas, to be honest I haven’t eaten more than a couple this entire December so I feel that is one thing I need to correct 🙂 I’ll also buy some julmust, haven’t had much of that either.
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It’s the season to start thinking of seeds again. Either one buy seeds for perennials that needs a winter to start germinating or buy those vegetable seeds one want to grow this summer. I wasn’t that successful with peas but I did get a lot of beans. My white cabbage never became bigger than a tennis ball so I’ll sow some other kind instead. The lettuce however grew better than expected but then again lettuce isn’t especially hard to grow, they don’t like hot summers so spring or early autumn usually works perfectly. So far my Pawpaws look living and healthy and I do hope that if winter decides to come back again that it at least stays just below freezing and not much lower, they are still really small and need a few years before they manages our rather long dark period during winter.
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It’s time to get something to eat and then see if there’s anything worth watching on tv. I don’t dare to fall asleep again because I’m pretty sure that would make it impossible to fall asleep later tonight 🙂
Last Sunday when we took a walk out on the bog I found some tracks in the snow when we walked on my favorite island out there. beneath the canopy there was just a thin layer of powdered snow so I really couldn’t see what animals they came from but it was clear that they weren’t from pigs or any kind of deer or moose. Fairly big and my dogs were really unhappy about them. From what I could figure out there must have been at least three of these animals passing by. It looked like the animals had done their best to walk in each others foot steps though. Since the dogs were so unhappy about them I guessed that we must have wolves here again. Today I thought we should walk the same way again but it didn’t take long until suddenly the dogs refused to go on, they all sniffed in the air and just wouldn’t walk. So we turned back and I think that must have been the first time all dogs had the same goal, just to leave the area as fast as possible. So I guess those wolves are still out there and who knows perhaps they were watching us while we left in a hurry.
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I don’t mind wolves myself but I really don’t want to risk meeting several of them while walking in an area where we not easily can get away from them. A dog is just another wolf in their eyes and will kill and eat them if they can. I’m not sure if they would have come even close to use while me, a human, is with the dogs but I’m not willing to try and test it 🙂 🙂 🙂 There weren’t any tracks from any other animal but hares and a fox out there either and that’s usually a sign that something has changed, like wolves staying in the area. So instead we walked down to the creek and back home again. I talked with my neighbor and he had seen some paw prints behind one of his cars so we took a look at them. The prints were much bigger than Almas but perhaps not as big as the only real paw print I’ve seen in snow that actually came from a wolf, so either a really big dogs or a rather young wolf I guess. Kind of cool that they’ve passed just outside my garden but at the same time I better follow my dogs outside in to the garden now when it’s dark outside. Just in case it will return. Anyway I did send a text message to the hunters that will be out hunting tomorrow, they’ll be using dogs and I really don’t want any dog to risk getting killed by a wolf. To be honest, if I hadn’t had the dogs with me today and thought there might be wolves around I would have continued out on the bog just to see if I could see any 🙂 🙂 🙂
.This is where we stopped and walked back when the dogs refused to continue.Up at the left corner is where we were so we walked back and down to the creek instead.Fortunately I took some photos last Sunday while we were out walking there 🙂
These are the times to also keep an eye open fro trolls and other beings while out walking according to our folklore. Trolls, who actually origins from the Norse faith can be out and about any time of day since they look much like us humans. Well not the mountain trolls up in the north of course, they are really big and human like even though they quite often are rather ugly, shrewd as few but not especially smart and they really dislike us humans. The other trolls however are much more like us but with the difference that they have a long tail. Sort of downy all they way to the tip where they have a big fluffy “ball” of hair. If one leave them alone they’ll leave us along but they will be forever grateful of one help them when they are in need. They occasionally tends to swap their children with ours but it is easy to make them swap back again, just threaten to hit the child and the troll mother will be there in no time to get their child back. A troll would never ever hurt their own child no matter what. Most of the rest of the beings will mostly come out when it gets dark and this time of year it’s dark almost all the time, especially if it is cloudy as it has been today. Never interact with them unless it is to help them (happens extremely rare), they will reward anyone who will give them a hand when they need it. Also it is a good thing to have some pieces of silver in the pockets, they love silver and will help if one give them some of it.
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The gnome is, from what I’ve read, never seen during daytime. The house gnome or perhaps more correct the farm gnome is said to be the spirit of the first owner of the farm, the one who once built the place. He stays just because he wants to make sure the place is well taken care of. He helps with the animals on the farmers do their best as well. However if the farmer is lazy the gnome will punish him one way or the other and if the farmers are really bad it happens that the gnomes simply burns the place down. The gnome is always a male and he usually wears grey or green, rather worn woolen clothes. One shouldn’t however bring him new clothes as a thank you because if he feels he is too well dressed he most likely will leave for good, he will of course not wear good clothes while working in the barn 🙂 The gnome can live in the barn but he can also live in the care tree that should be growing in every home. A care tree (or vårdträd as we call it in swedish) is a tree that is planted just for eventual sprits and beings to live in. Normally it would be an Elm tree, Ash tree or perhaps a Linden but it could also be, like in my garden a Rowan tree or perhaps an Oak or a Chestnut tree. What ever one does ever never hurt a care tree, not even by mistake, because the spirits and beings living there will punish You, perhaps even with death, if one does. On the other hand if one takes good care of it they will instead make sure one will have a good life.
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It is time to give the dogs their dinner and I might even have something myself. I’ll be back tomorrow but after that I won’t write anything until new years eve I think.
We got a white christmas, or Jul as we call it, after all. Just a few days ago we had lots of snow and it was bitterly cold when suddenly a warm front arrived with some rain and melted it all away. Ok it also gave us freezing rain which made it rather exciting to drive home from work one day and to work the next 🙂 But with the warm weather the feeling that life most likely would go on arrived and it felt rather nice. The cold weather however hadn’t given up it seems, so suddenly the temperature dropped again and we also got a thin cover of snow. I must admit that it was beautiful this morning, when first the sun rose and then fog rolled in over the village. The fog didn’t last more than a few minutes before the cold light from the sun pushed it away again.
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Christmas eve, or Julafton as it’s called in Swedish, is the big day here in Sweden. Today is trhe day when children will meet the Yule Gnome, or jultomten as we say. He usually arrives around noon and even though there will be lots of packages under the branches of the Yule spruce he still has a sack filled with presents. Well perhaps this year with the running inflation and high power prices it’ll be slightly less filled to be honest. Personally I hated to have to go to the yule gnome to get a present, he scared the c..p of me 🙂 🙂 and I for one never felt sad when I heard he wasn’t real 🙂 🙂 🙂 Most families then let the kids play with their new toys until three pm when they show Donald Ducks christmas on tv. This is a tradition that has been going on since 1960 here in Sweden. Every year they think less people will watch it because they rarely change any of the films during the years, still it is one of the most watched tv programs we have in this country 🙂
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The eating starts after Donald Duck and the menu is much the same every year, a christmassy smorgasbord. Pickled herring in more variations You would ever guess there is. Salmon in one way or the other. The christmas ham of course and lots of sausages and meatballs. It varies depending on where one lives of course, some must have smoked eel. some baked brown beans, and perhaps oven made omelette covered in a chanterelle stew. Red cabbage or brown cabbage are big in some parts of the country and we always have beetroot salad which goes perfect with the sausages, meatballs and the ham. Preferable there will be lots of different cheese there as well. At least one made from cream which is impossible to get slices from but very rarely any kind of blue cheese or camembert. When everyone is so full that they want to puke the rice porridge is served and lots of it. Many make way too much so there will be quite a lot of the porridge left until christmas day when we make Risalamande from it. Just mix the rice with lots and lots of whipped cream and then use what kind of fresh fruit of berry You want to have with it. Some let the fruit and berries lay on the surface while others, like me, whisk it down into the rice and cream mix. Of course lots of sugar should be added as well, preferable vanilla sugar.
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Back in the days our Yule Gnome looked slightly different than today, today he looks very much like Santa Claus to be honest. If one look at old christmas cards he usually was rather thin and most likely dressed in green (and of course on cards he usually was quite small but I doubt that was especially important). He also brought the presents in a small sled pulled by a goat or if it was a wealthy family a sled pulled by a horse. We’ve never had reindeers here and our gnome lives in Lappland, a huge and sparsely populated area in northern Sweden (where they funnily enough have lots of reindeers 🙂 🙂 ) Our Yule Gnome is of course based somewhat on our folk lore gnomes, some from Sinterklaas and also some from Santa Claus and I’ll come back either tomorrow or the day after to tell You a bit about our gnomes and perhaps a little about our other beings and folk lore.
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I now am on a two week christmas vacation. I started yesterday by going home a bit early (most people had already taken the day off and we who still came went home a bit earlier than usual. As soon as I had come home and the dogs had gotten their food we all took a long nap. It looked like we all were just as tired after we woke up so we had an early night 🙂 Today I’ve had my rice porridge for breakfast, so easy now when I once again have a slow cooker 🙂 Befor that however we went out on our morning walk. The sun rose and fog rolled in over our little village. It didn’t last for long though because the sun, even though it didn’t give away and noticeable heat still burned the fog away. Today I used my “new” camera that I bought as a christmas present (julklapp in Swedish) to myself. A Nikon D7100. I bought it from our ebay called Tradera fairly cheap and they hade only taken around 8000 photos with it, in digital camera world that means it’s almost unused since a digital camera should be able to take 150000 photos before it starts to break down. We are still getting used to each other but I have figured out the basics.
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I couldn’t understand why several photos were so blurry since I do have stabilization in the lens. Turns out that one can chose shutter priority or focus priority in this camera?! So either the shutter close no matter if one is focused or not or it tries to focus no matter what until the photo can be taken. I’ve now changed it to focus priority and I’ll see what happens tomorrow 🙂 The camera itself will of course not make my photos better (except for perhaps a bit sharper) because that’s all up to me I’m afraid 🙂 We’ll have below 32F temperatures until the night towards Monday and I can’t pretend I like that but knowing how horribly cold it has been and perhaps still are in big parts of the US I really shouldn’t complain. I also must admit that my home, especially the floors, are much cleaner when the ground is frozen. Still I really prefer above 32F nex week since that’s when they decide what my electricity will cost per kilowatt hour in January. A warm and windy last week in December will lower the price pretty much so hold Your thumbs for nicer weather for all of us 🙂
This is the planet Mars. I couldn’t find my old tripod and the other one is in the car so I had to hold my camera while trying to get a photo. In the original photo it’s quite orange but as soon as I cropped it that color sort of vanished. I really need to find that old tripod if the sky ever gets clear again 🙂
Days have passed and things are still rather slow here. I did feel nausea at work on Thursday though and my stomach rumbled a lot so I went home quite early in the day. Felt really bad and started freezing so I went to bed, slept a couple of hours. After that I kept on feeling better so on Fri9day morning I went to work again. Have no idea what this was but it did at least pass quickly 🙂
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The big lottery winning went to Germany and hurray for the winner. We still have our smaller one (well it’s still around 150 000 000 Swedish kronor so it does feel a bit odd to write smaller 🙂 🙂 ) so I’m planning on winning that one tonight. I do hope that my planning for once works out well 🙂 🙂
.It’s easy to know where the wild hogs spend their nights, just check the ground 🙂.
It’s still much warmer here than normal, ok nothing close to how it’s been on the American continent but much warmer than usual. Today I think it reached 14C (57,2F) while the sun was shining. The sun didn’t start to shine through the clouds until we were almost back home after our morning walk but I was able to keep the kitchen door open for quite some time. Then Alma suddenly decided that she would visit other homes so I had to bring the dogs indoors again.
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She wasn’t that bad when we were out walking though, I only had to scold her three times! I really don’t get that dog 🙂 🙂 At home she’s amazing (even though she sometimes jumps over the fence 🙂 ) she does what I ask her to do and she even comes up with things herself, like sitting down and lifting up her front paws to get attention and possible treats. She really doesn’t give a s..t about treats or anything when we’re out walking 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well she gets attention when she’s pulling the leash or screams like insane every time something moves or perhaps will move if there’s even the slightest wind 🙂 🙂 🙂
Almost back home and the sun finally starts to shine through gaps in the clouds...
The other evening when I let the dogs out before going to bed I heard a sound like something big was walking in the pasture on the other side of the gravel road. Didn’t think much about it at the moment, just thought that there must be a big cow walking around in the mud. Came out next morning and realized that they don’t have any animals at all in that pasture 🙂 🙂 So my guess is that a moose must have been walking just a few meters (much the same in yards) away from my front door 🙂 Perhaps I should start using my wildlife camera again 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 