I’ve used another lens today that came with an old camera I bought, to be honest I only wanted the lens but it would most likely have been much more expensive if I’d tried ton just buy the lens 🙂 So You’ll notice that some photos will have a sort of blurry sharpness to them.
It was so nice this morning, a bit towards the cool side but with the sun shining and a rather weak wind. That has changed now, the wind is strong once again and even though it actually is warm enough it still feels chilly even on the south side of the cottage when the sun shines through the clouds.
So since I must change my hours to stay awake in the evening now I watched the entire Eurovision final. It really takes too long but I had very little else to do. We didn’t win but came fourth and that’s not bad at all. My sister and I usually text each other during this show and suddenly no texts came from her, she had fallen asleep 🙂 and texted me this at 4:56 this morning (we are both morning people) since I had forgotten to tell her that I’ll work in the evenings this week 🙂 Luckily I did manage to fall asleep as son as my head hit the pillow 🙂
I’ve been emptying my aquarium since the dogs mainly will be in the cottage while I work the coming weeks and since there now longer is any fish in it I decided to empty it instead of buying new fish. One never knows how wild the dogs play will be and if they bring down the aquarium I want the damage to be as small as possible 🙂 I’ll also unplug the radiators because they have actually once managed to trip over one of my sofas and it broke the radiator when it hit it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I always prepare for the worst 🙂
It is time for a cup of tea and then outing the garden for a while. I’ll tray to stay out of the wind and it isn’t often I have to say that because the wind can only hit my garden if it comes from north to north east.
20C (68F) today but very little sunshine. Really doesn’t matter to me since I’ve been working all day 🙂 The dogs must have had a really nice day though 🙂 Summer arrived a month early (I’m not complaining about that 🙂 ) and so did the forest flies, that I am complaining about though. Forest flies are really harmless to be honest, no biting or drinking blood or spreading diseases, instead they swarm around the head and always tries to check out our nostrils and ears 🙂 🙂 I truly dislike them! Still I can avoid them by wearing a mosquito ha so that’s what I’ll be doing when they become too many.
If You want tulips that comes back from year to year buy bulbs from the wild species. They tend also to spread quite happily 🙂
I did wonder how it would be with the wild bees now when the we don’t have any honey bees in the village and today the sound from the flowering apple trees told me they are ok 🙂 The trees were buzzing loudly so they have not suffered by having honey bees here. I had read that it could go bad for them if there were too many honey bees in an area but how many are too many. Well there were up to ten hives for a while and by the sound from my apple trees that weren’t too many 🙂
I’ll get my first pay check soon 🙂 well checks haven’t been used here for ages even though I’ve heard they still can be used. It’s always something special with that first one, even though it only is half a month since I didn’t start working until the 14th let month. How getting paid varies here, in this place You’ll get paid the moth after so if one quits one will get paid the month after on has quit. At my previous work place they paid for the same month on had been working and any adjustments, like sick days or over time would be on the next pay check. I’ll also get paid from the unemployment agency so it will be almost like it would if I had worked a full month anyway 🙂
I’m baking a bread right now so it’ll soon be time to bring it out of the oven. The dogs are eager for me to bring it out because they always get some and some cheese too 🙂 It’s also the first semi finale in the Eurovision Song Contest. If You don’t know what that is I’m happy to explain it as good as I can. Anyway, Sweden is once again a big favourite amongst the betting sites and if we win on Saturday when the big finale is we’ll be the country that has won most times leaving Ireland behind us 🙂 🙂 I will not see any of the semi finals because it takes forever but I will watch it on Saturday.
Now many people wonder why it is called Eurovision since also countries from Asia and Australia competes but I’ve learned that since they belong to the European Broadcasting system they too can compete. I don’t mind because my favourites are quite often from those countries 🙂
We passed this roe goat on our way home from our walk. Alma didn’t notice her thankfully, Malkolm did but just stood there watching her. I took one photo and then we left because I didn’t want to stress her more than necessary.
The cat refused to move but both Alma and Malkolm behaved really well when we passed it 🙂
It could have been a nice day if it wasn’t for the cold winds from north. They are biting their way in to the core of the body no matter how well dressed we are. We’ve had some sunshine but the wind destroyed that nice feeling as well. We’ll have frost during the night and I can only hope it won’t be too bad but I’ll probably have to scrape ice from the car before going to work tomorrow.
A second crabapple tree is in bloom now so perhaps the one in the forest will have a chance to give fruit anyway but then again we’ll have frost tonight.
Strawberries flower in the forest but as You can see the flower is black in the middle, that means it’s destroyed by frost and won’t give any berry.
It wasn’t that bad in the morning though so we had a nice morning walk in the forest and out to the bog. Both Alma and Malkolm behaved really well when the new neighbours cat refused to move from the road when we came 🙂 I am however very glad they didn’t see the hare in the forest because that would have made Alma go nuts 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve done very little today, after the morning walk I did the laundry and the slow cooker took care of the dinner next week and that’s it. WE even had a nap in the sofa but I still feel rather tired to be honest, despite lots of coffee 🙂 Its pollen season and no amount of coffee can remove that tiredness 🙂 🙂 I also had to turn on the radiators because even though we did get rain last night it wasn’t much but it did make the humidity go sky high and the cold arctic winds just made it more cold. Thankfully it will turn towards warmer days again from tomorrow, night might be chilly though.
I think I’ll have that last cup of tea for the day after this and perhaps a sandwich too or I’ll skip the tea and have hot chocolate instead, it’s that kind of day today.
We’ve actually had a really nice day here as long as one wasn’t too long in shadow 🙂 Ok , it wasn’t that bad there either but I preferred to sit in the sunshine and drink tea 🙂 I have moved a perennial that comes from Illinois, the Kankakee mallow (Iliamna remota). It has actually thrived in my garden beneath the Juneberry tree but it was time to move it because the ground is just too dry there during summer.
It actually started last weekend and removed a part of it just to see how well it would adapt to the move and it adapted really well. It sort of divided itself to smaller parts so there’s still one growing where it has been that easily can be four new plants and I’ve already have it in6 other places now 🙂 It has been a favourite of mine since I sowed it well over twenty years ago so I do hope it will thrive at the new places they can call their homes 🙂 Mine spreads via its roots but I’ve read that a fire will start the seeds but I didn’t have a fire when I bought the seeds back then so I think it will work again without it if I try again 🙂
The clouds covered the sun when we went out on our morning walk but as soon as we were almost at home the clouds opened up. We’ve had lots of smaller clouds in the sky all day but now it looks like bigger clouds are coming in again, they say we’ll get rain but they said we would last night as well and as far as I could see the only reason the grass was wet was because of dew. A day or two with cloudy weather and some rain will only be good for my Kankakee willows now when they have moved all over the garden.
We won’t get much rain though, mostly just enough to keep the soil surface slightly damp 🙂 I’ve also heard the Cuckoo bird for the first time this year. According to folklore it means different things from what direction one hear it for the first time. From north and summer will be dry, from east one will be comforted because if it comes from south it means death in the family but it is from the west we want to hear it because that’s the best 🙂 The coming year will be great. We here will have a dry summer this year 🙂
I think this could be a Red Kite or a brown. I’m not that good when it comes to birds 🙂
Besides that I’ve done very little. Mostly I’ve been sitting in the sunshine drinking tea or coffee. Last year when the warm weather came the entire garden was buzzing because of the beekeepers bees, it is considerable more quiet this year. Yes we do have pollinators like bumblebees flying around but all those hives did make a big difference, so it’ll be interesting to see how it will be next year, to many honey bees can actually make life really tough for the wild bees by being too many for an area. Also everything started so early this year that there wasn’t much for the bumblebees to eat and that could have killed a lot of them. I think we’ll know better when summer starts and all workers starts to fly around.
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and today I’m so tired that I most likely will fall asleep in the sofa 🙂
In my woodland right now.
Have a great day!
Not this one though, it grows in full sunlight and dry soil.
Wonderful weather today, which is quite unusual on Walpurgis eve. Lots of people are out having fun tonight and quite often we have huge bonfires as well but at least here it will be too windy and to dry in the grass to have any. No one knows why we celebrate this day but who cares as long as we have fun 🙂
If I’ve learned it all right Walpurgis (or Aalborg as we swedes say) was an English princes who became a nun in Germany and was quite successful in turning witches to the right way which most likely meant that she was rather unpleasant for those she turned since no matter how much those poor women (mostly anyway because there were a few men as well)turned towards christianity they still had n´been witches and therefore burned by the stake.
I just got the news about the tutor I have on one of my kidneys and it is good news 🙂 It has almost not grown at all since six months back (and therefore too small to take a test from) so now we’ll wait another year before a new x-ray. So perhaps I’m one of the very few that has a benign tumour and not caner? In any way it isn’t an aggressive one 🙂
Tomorrow is May first and in many places on this little globe of ours it’s the workers’ day and a holiday. I will have to work on Friday though since I’m so new that I don’t have any saved hours. I’ll survive one day of work though 🙂 I think it is time for a last cup of tea for the day and then I’ll most likely doze off in front of the tv. Pine pollen is in the air and it makes me so tired 🙂 🙂
The cherry trees are in bloom here so no more frost so we can pick some when walking around in the forest 🙂
The June berry in full bloom, too bad that it gets mildew every year so the berries get destroyed, I really like to eat them.
No wind this morning and sunshine. Really pleasant to walk around in the forest listening to all birds and some deer running away when we came close. Still it was below 0C (32F) and the water had frozen during the night. These mornings really are the best because it feels warm and nice but no flies are terrorising us 🙂 They’ll arrive some time in the middle of June. The forest flies are just annoying though and not biting. The biting ones tends to show up a couple of weeks later.
I’m slowly getting the dogs used to me being away a couple of hours every day now so today I went to my old work place for a visit, it might be the last time I do that since I now will work rather far away and after that I went to the grocery store I’ve been doing my shopping for the last 28 years now. I will go there again but not that often, I will have at least four big supermarkets and several other big stores just beside where I’ll be working.
Back in the days when one would sign a contract of employment one sat at the employers desk and signed it with a pen, that’s not how it’s working now days. I got a mail with a link and after reading the contract I signed it with my Bank ID and did it at home. It is amazing how fast things change now days. It is practical though since I now have it stored in my computer. Also I could really take my time reading it, one never did that in the office with the new employer to be honest. One just signed and smiled 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m slowly picking up the plants I have in the cool cellar. Lots have died, either too much or too little water during the winter but most is still alive. The dead plants get tossed in places where the dogs have been digging so the ground evens out again 🙂 🙂 We’ll have fairly warm nights for the coming ten days they say so I planted one of my apricot seedlings where I used to have the Amure grapevine. It will take a couple of years but it will be a good place for the birds to sit while waiting for their chance of eating from the feeder I have outside the kitchen window. I also started to fill the big wooden box I have my , for some reason, autumn flowering strawberry plants . Turns out the packages with soil are small now days (and more expensive) so I need to buy two more.
The box is quite empty when the big gooseberry bush was removed. Just weeds and strawberry plants left.I removed it all and filled up with soil and there’s still lots of space to fill up. I planted the young strawberries again. I’ll have to redo this when I have more soil (or compost when I can empty any of my composts).Lots of old ones left but I didn’t want to toss them away.So I planted them in a spot where I have removed as much of the stinging nettle roots I could. Now the strawberries can spread as they please 🙂
I have that last cup of tea for the day beside me and soon I’ll go outside with the dogs bringing more dead plants from the cellar 🙂
Below 0C (32F) again this morning, nothing strange to be honest because that’s how it used to be back in the days. April here back in the days could be anything from what we have now to bitterly cold and snowstorms, usually the latter. This year the warm weather started so early that it isn’t until now we can see and especially hear bumblebees in the air. Also the ticks are active, yay, and yesterday I killed two mosquitoes that tried to drink my blood.
The first bumblebee of the year 🙂
We are thankfully out on our morning walks so early that it is too cold for ticks to be active, the ground is still frozen after the nights low temperatures. It will be less warm the coming days with especially Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights being pretty chilly but we’ll have sunshine and almost 10C (50F) temperatures during the days so it will not be as bad as they first guessed.Tuesday will be the start of rising temperatures again. So I took a bit of a chance today by sowing annuals in the little area where I’ll have flowers for pollinators. I most likely did this too early so that those more sensitive flowers might get killed even if they during those chilly nights still only will be seeds.
I’ve also brought up more trees from the cellar but those will be covered with fibre cloth so the freezing temperatures won’t reach them. It’ll be nice when I can bring out all those plants down there so that I can use it as an earthen cellar. The cool cellar works fine as a farther cellar but if summer is hot it will be a bit too warm down there as well. It is perfect during winter though when the temperature usually stays just above 0C (32F) as coldest, especially now days when it doesn’t get as cold as it used to be.
I think it is time for a cup of tea and perhaps some hard bread with cheese and jam 🙂
I have a couple of old piles with branches I’ve cut of from trees and bushes and yesterday the monster kitten went in to one of them and Malkolm was upset, he couldn’t follow her 🙂
Another really nice and sunny spring day here. Started a bit cloudy but warm so I didn’t feel I had the right to complain 🙂 No cranes in the field though but I could hear some trumpeting in fields further away.
We walked down to the creek but in the opposite direction to what we normally do. It would have been nice to walk to the older forest but the ground is so wet around there that rubber boots are a necessity at the moment. The sun started to shine while we were out warming up the air quite a lot so after a short while it felt too much to wear an anorak 🙂
I continued to weed in the garden, today only nice weeds but yesterday I started to rip up stinging nettle roots. I could see the first shoots for the spring and decided I would at least slow them down this year. The shoots are edible after heating them up and can be used as a sort of spinach. People who do that always lies about those new shoots and say that they doesn’t burn, lies lies lies 🙂 🙂 🙂 So yesterday my hands burned and today they itch something bad 🙂 🙂
Besides that very little has happened here. Can’t say I remember what I’ve been doing but at the moment it does feel like I could have taken a long nap and still hadn’t rushed to do what I have done today 🙂 Tomorrow we’ll have a much cooler day and they’re saying we’ll have some rain as well, we barely got anything last time they said that. It’s not like we really need it but nature will love it anyway 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I have no idea 🙂
The cranes had arrived outside the cottage when we were back home again, they didn’t like to see me so they flew away 🙂 🙂
Another really nice morning, chilly but sunny and no wind. The wind will arrive a bit later and with it it will bring clouds and perhaps some rain as well. Works good for me since I’m planning to sow winter lettuce. It can’t germinate when it is warm weather and can live long in autumn even after frost. It is a bit more bitter in the taste though.
We are now not allowed to throw clothes in the normal garbage bin, all clothes must be recycled. I can’t say I’m against it but it does give some problems because even though we have one of the most advanced cloth sorting machines in the world they still can’t use it. The problem is, if I understand it right, that there’s a sort of fibre it can’t sort away (some kind of nylon relative I think) so instead we’re sending our clothes to Lithuania where they sort it by hand. If anything is of good quality they’ll sell it but if it’s bad they burn it instead. Well that is something we could have done ourselves. What to do with an old stuffed blanket? have no idea to be honest, it’s more or less just stuffing left and is that counted as cloth fibres? Have no idea so now I have two big sacks I’ll have to have in the wood shed until I can figure that out 🙂 🙂 🙂
We met our new neighbours on our morning walk yesterday. I’m glad to say that they like both my dogs 🙂 🙂 Malkolm would be a given since he can behave somewhat but it can’t be easy to meet a dog that screams like insane and pulls the leash so hard that I almost lost my balance 🙂 🙂 🙂 But perhaps what’s more important is that their tiny little white dog actually loves both Alma and Malkolm, sh’e tiny but still throws herself towards them 🙂
I let the kitchen door stay open as soon as the sun shines towards it so all the animals can go in and out as they please. Malkolm has a tendency to jump over the fence to get down to the swamp behind the dog yard but now I have a weapon I use against him 🙂 As soon as I notice that he’s gone I just shout out “where’s the kitten?” Takes only a few seconds before he’s back and worries if he can’t find her 🙂 🙂 🙂 So far she hasn’t wandered off especially far though, just around the cottage and the entrance stairs 🙂 🙂 I even forgot to check where she was yesterday when I closed the kitchen door for an hour. As soon as I opened it again she came running in 🙂
I’ve kept on working (don’t like to call it working when it is something I enjoy doing and for free 🙂 ) in the garden. The aching isn’t that bad afterwords as I thought it would be 🙂 Ok it hurts in the legs and my back but it is sort of a good pain. Yesterday when I was about to boil some potatoes for dinner I found a few sprouts that I’ll plant in pots until it is time to bring them out to the vegetable garden or plant them in buckets or big pots. It takes a bit longer for them to grow new potatoes but they usually give a few but big potatoes.
Plum tree doesn’t decay easily after the tree is dead. This plum tree died well over ten years ago and today I finally managed to remove the last pieces of the stump.
I have a plum tree that I only planted so that my former neighbours would get plums on their tree but since my recent neighbours took that tree down I really have no use or joy in keeping mine. It just gives a few plums each year and at least half starts to mould already on the branches. So yesterday I debarked it close to the ground about 20 cm (8 inches) wide. That stops any water and nutrition to go up to the top of the tree and will also stop the tree from giving loads of root shoots. It’ll have to stay like this for two years now, if I cut it down before that those shoots will pop up everywhere and I already have enough of shoots in my garden as it is. It will look sad but I think I’ll plants a fast growing clematis there this summer so it’ll cover the tree next summer.
It is time to open the kitchen door and have a cup of tea while sitting on the kitchen stairs 🙂
Still rather cold nights but after follows sunny and spring warm days. It was supposed to be windy all day but it seems the wind lost its breath after noon, so both me and my neighbours have been outside in the garden today and when my neighbours are outside none of the dogs can hear my voice or understand what I’m saying 🙂 🙂 🙂 Not even the monsterkitten was interesting enough for Malkolm to keep an eye on 🙂 🙂 Then again she mostly lays on the kitchen stairs sleeping in the sunshine 🙂
It was just above 0C (32F) when we went out for our morning walk and there was still frost on the trees and snow on the ground where the sun can’t reach it. Cranes flew above us and the small birds in the forest sang their spring songs. We saw a deer out on the bog but it was too far away for Alma to start screaming 🙂 🙂 🙂 I didn’t mind 🙂 she screamed enough when we passed the new neighbours 🙂 🙂
I’ve been busy in the garden for three days now and I must admit that I have some training sourness all over my body 🙂 🙂 I’ve done the first more serious weeding both in the vegetablegarden and the bigger one that used to be for vegetables as well but I last year decided should be a sort of flower meadow. Well I failed badly last year but can see signs that it might be better this year. If I had wanted it to be filled with only our wild flowers it would take lots of year to be successful, so instead I’ll have any kind of annuals bees like and also a few perennials. Plus I have lots of garlic growing in there as well 🙂 Perhaps mice, voles and deer will stay away from it if I have 🙂 🙂
So I’ve now filled my composts till maximum and I still have more to remove, well that’s a problem for later. I have lots of vegetable seeds but perhaps I need a few more flower seeds, annuals. Still lots of time for that since nights will continue to stay below 0C (32F) for quite some time more and one never knows what April will be like, could be anything from summer warm to snow storms. So my body is aching but in a sort of good way 🙂 I slept unusually well these two last nights though 🙂
Last years model, new one is approaching soon.
Since something bit off big parts of my Pawpaw seedlings last autumn I bought five more seeds this winter and they arrived three days ago. These seeds are really tricky and even though I managed to get five small trees last year means nothing, I’ve read that not even in nature are the success rate higher than 25%. So all I can do is to hold my thumbs and cross my fingers because they might just as well rot instead. If any start to grow I have no idea how to make them survive next winter since what ever it was that bit them off did it in my cellar. To be honest it could just as well has been a certain monsterkitten that did that job 🙂 🙂 🙂 She will not be permitted to be in the cellar next winter 🙂 🙂 🙂
I know I’ll have to weed it soon again but the big job is at least done. I’ll have potatoes, some kind of cabbage, beans and most likely some peas in there as well.
The coming meadow, I hope I’ll get a better result this year. Why the fence You might ask? Dogs I’ll answer 🙂
The garlic seems to like it, these are just a few of them.
This is a perennial Hollyhock and I do hope more will show as spring is going forward.
It is time for that last cup of tea and perhaps I’ll have one of the newly baked french rolls just waiting in the kitchen 🙂
I wasn’t going to post anything today since very little was supposed to happen but then I needed to go to the supermarket to do some shopping. We did have our morning walk before I left though and it was a really nice walk. Just above 0C (32F), no wind and sunshine so it warmed up pretty quickly. The Jays were arguing and we had lots of Ravens above us, something must have died nearby so they didn’t have to fly to the roads to see if they could find something there.
Looks much like life, doesn’t it? everything goes straight and just like it should and then it takes a turn one didn’t expect but hopefuuly it will turn back to what it was before 🙂 🙂 🙂
This is actually how one can see if the mound is made by a vole or a mole, a mole makes these lumps while digging but a vole just push out the sand as it is.
I brought the camera with me this time and stopped by the lake. I checked the statistics and yesterday there were 3900 cranes by the lake. Lots of them in the fields as well but still far away to how many they can be 🙂 I’ll stop there again before the season is over. After that the ones without a partner will walk around in the fields around here so I’ll show photos of them all summer.
Soon there will be loads of these parked here and You always know when the Germans arrive because their mobile homes cost just as much as a house 🙂 🙂 🙂
The rest of the day we’ve been spending in the garden. The monsterkitten was a bit more brave and walked around to the other side of the cottage, not close to the gate though because Malkolm wouldn’t allow that 🙂 She’s still only walking around the cottage but that won’t last for long 🙂 and than I need to keep Malkolm close to me so he doesn’t follow her 🙂
It is time to make that last cup of tea for the day and to check the dinner for tomorrow, it’s cooking in the slow cooker right now and the cottage is filled with the smell 🙂
Warmer this morning but with an annoying wind from north but warmer, despite northern winds so why complain 🙂 Also today it took some time before the clouds flew away so that the sun could reach us.
Lots of water in the small creeks.
I met our new neighbours today and can happily tell You it’s a younger couple who loves how quiet it is here. Very easy to talk to as well so that’s a relief 🙂 We met them on our morning walk when they were out walking with their tiny white dog and I shouted to them that Alma most likely would scream as obsessed but that she’s harmless 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yes Alma did shout and pulled the leash but gently greeting their dog and so did Malkolm. I told them that Alma is an escape artist and that they most likely would meet her when they walk out of their home but that she also most likely would run away from them after a sniff or two 🙂 🙂
The path down to the bog.
Lots of water in the small creeks.
They told me that they have chicken and that the rooster crows all the time. No problem said I. I mean roosters do that and I like the sound so that was nothing to be worried about 🙂 They had also already noticed that the wild hogs comes close to their cottage. I didn’t tell them about our wolves though, better to save the exciting things to when they’ve settled 🙂 🙂 🙂
One really doesn’t want to sink down in that mud 🙂
We walked out to the bog to see if the ground still was frozen enough so that we could walk out to my favourite island but it wasn’t. The ground was frozen all the way to where we’ve just passed the creek and that’s where the sun had reached. If I had had rubber boots I might have been able to go out there but I think it is Alma who chewed through my old ones and I’ve never bothered to buy new ones. The sun slowly started to break through the clouds on our way home but not fully until we’ve had come home, so we’ve spent a lot of time in the garden instead 🙂
I’ve baked some rolls so it is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and then try one of the rolls 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 