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 🙂
It was cold this morning when the dogs, monster kitten and I woke up. -14C (6,8F) but there was no wind at all so when I walked out in to the shine from the rising sun it actually felt rather nice even though I only wore a sweatshirt and sweatpants. It didn’t take long before I could hear drops dripping from the roof.
Still I can’t say that the snow did a lot of melting during the day even though it did become rather warm. Today the birds started to sing again and I could hear cranes from fields not too far away. I could also hear Alma the entire walk because today she decided that whining in a high pitched tone would make us all happy 🙂 🙂 🙂 She did behave very well otherwise. Instead I had to scold Malkolm because he decided that if Alma was supposed to walk without pulling the leash someone else had to 🙂 🙂 🙂
I haven’t done much today though, applied for some jobs and been outside in the garden every now and again. The snow is slowly melting around the early spring bulbs but that’s it. This is the time of year when newly plants die, the ones planted last autumn that is. Their roots haven’t spread down properly in to the ground so if the ground still is frozen they’ll dry out pretty quickly when the warmer weather comes, that little soil that they brought with them from the pot will dry out really quickly and since the ground is frozen it can’t get any moisture from it. So just before the cold weather would arrive I was outside watering everything I planted last autumn and those plants that live on the border to what they can manage. All I can do now is to wish that I watered enough.
Everything down in the cool cellar are now getting tiny leafs, rather annoying since I can’t bring anything of it outside and since one of the plant lights I had broke so it is a bit too dark down there now. Can’t do much about it though, not until the nights a get warmer. As soon as they’ve gotten used to be outside they usually can take a night or two in a row without getting damaged. Doesn’t look like that will happen in the closest seven day 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think I have one peach tree, five apricots, two red mulberries and lots of quince seedlings and even though mice? (could also be a monster kitten 🙂 ) have chewed on all the giant sequoias it still looks like four of them have survived, cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I hope that it will warm up quickly tomorrow morning (after a pretty cold night again) so I don’t have to scrape ice from the car before I’ll go to the supermarket 🙂
The snow started to fall already yesterday afternoon, just tiny flakes but with time they grew bigger and multiplied as well. I’m not surprised because this always happens after the first crane has arrived 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not a fan of it though, I would have preferred it to stay green and nice. The weather sites seems to agree that this is the last snow for this time and from Thursday and eight days into the future we’ll have cold nights but fairly warm and sunny days, none of us will believe that’ll happen until it does 🙂 🙂 🙂
The wind today is a bit nasty so we had our morning walk in the forest where it couldn’t reach us. All birds were quiet, even the jays and ravens seems to have thought this weather was just too much 🙂 Yes I admit that it does look pretty with snow everywhere but it is enough to see it in photos and post cards 🙂 Back in the days warm weather like we had just a day ago was quite unusual in March. March was sort of the last winter month and April could go either way. Just around 21 years ago we still had winter the first of May when I opened my garden centre. It was so cold that I couldn’t bring out any spring flowers.
Now days it’s rather unusual to have winter at all in April, the only exception in recent years was last April when I brought home Malkolm, we had had spring temperatures for quite some time when easter came and Malkolm as well plus a snowstorm we haven’t had in years 🙂 🙂 🙂 40cm (16 inches) of snow here but not far away they had 90cm (36 inches) during one day 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t miss the old winters but they were more predictable. Winter now days seems to be shorter but more intense when they come.
Since the wind can’t reach my garden I thought it would be a good idea to let the monster kitten meet snow for the first time 🙂 Well I would be lying if I said I think she likes it 🙂 🙂 🙂 She just stood still looking at all this white garbage on the ground and falling from the sky. So I brought her to the apple tree where she was the last time she was outside with the rest of us, she didn’t like that either and suddenly she started to shiver so I put her inside my jacket and brought her inside again. I think I honestly can say that there’s at the moment no risk she freely would go outside again until the snow is gone 🙂 🙂 🙂
Spring flowers are thankfully used to setbacks in the weather but I was surprised to see this spring iris in bloom now.
It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps read a book or see if they show any interesting re-run on tv. I can also take a nap even though last night was the first night in some time that I slept really well.
For being me I woke up quite late this morning, I can’t say that it was anything but dark outside but I could see that it slowly was going towards brighter where the sun would rise. I took a look at the thermometer and then I took a new look at it, -18C (-0,4F). It was cold outside but it didn’t feel that cold because of low humidity and no wind. I took a look at the stars and Betelgeuse is still shining bright orange up there. It is 645,2 lightyears away so even if it had gone supernova 500 years ago we still wouldn’t know about it 🙂
The bitter cold weather we’ve had for a few days now will soon leave us. On Tuesday the day suddenly will have above 0C (32F) temperatures but nights will still be pretty chilly. Well I’m not out and about at nights so I don’t mind that but it feels nice that day temperatures will be more pleasant again. I think it was still -15C (5F) when we went out on our morning walk but the sun gave away quite a lot of heat so I enjoyed it quite a lot. Thankfully neither Alma nor Malkolm have sensitive paws. We weren’t supposed to have any snow the other day so of course it snowed 🙂 🙂 🙂 we didn’t get much though but I still don’t like it but it does make things look more beautiful to be honest.
Sara the monster kitten seems to feel much better now, she even tried to jump up on the aquarium this morning 🙂 it didn’t work of course and I think I like that cone 🙂 🙂 As soon as we get more stable warm weather I’ll bring her out so that she can start inspecting her domains. Since I think her mother was/ is one of the farm cats up the road I do hope they won’t be too hard on her, my neighbours cats might be something else though, they have reigned in my garden for a couple of years now and might not want to resign.
Nothing much else has happened here like it should be. Tomorrow I’ll go to the grocery store in Gudhem to buy a few things I don’t have at home. I’ll bring the dogs. Alma will have the back seat all for herself and Malkolm in the passenger seat beside me. That would make it very hard for them to reach each other just in case, I really don’t want puppies no matter how cute they are 🙂 🙂 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea and after that it would have been nice to just go to bed but that would most likely just mean I’ll wake up a couple of hours earlier instead 🙂 🙂
I had set the alarm today because we were going to the vet this morning. Malkolm would get the chemical neutering and Sara the real surgery. We were all up long before the alarm started so we even could go back to bed and just wait for it to start :-)Well I couldn’t leave Alma at home because I like try little cottage and the little I have here in my home. I couldn’t leave her in the dog yard because this is not the time to renovate it, too cold to even try to dig down net in the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 So she came along as well.
Alma hates car rides but jumped in to the car, Malkolm loves car rides but refused to put his paws in the car at all 🙂 So it was a bit tricky to even lave the village 🙂 🙂 I didn’t have to scrape any ice from the car even though it was well below freezing point so I took that as a good omen 🙂 The ride to the vet was unusually calm, Alma only whined a little and managed to tie her and Malkolm together with the seat belts. She calmed down even more when she could put her nose outside the car on both sides, the inside of the car went a bit chilly but it was worth it 🙂 🙂
We could course not bring Alma when it was time to insert the chemical neutering in Malkolm so she had to stay in the office. The vet said this will hurt and he must be absolutely still so he called the ones working there. The syringe was pretty big so I held Malkolm firmly and so did two employees as well. That when we all heard Alma shouting her lungs out so I said For heavens sake You didn’t leave her alone there because nothing will remain 🙂 🙂 🙂 but there was one person still there to keep her as calm as she could 🙂 🙂 🙂 Turns out Malkolm didn’t feel a thing and was so happy when three people hugged him so much 🙂 🙂 🙂
I had to go back and pick up Sara before lunch and she was not a happy camper but I doubt that she actually managed to notice that we were going back home again. They checked her ears and it turns out she had ear mange so we went to the pharmacy on our way home. Almost the first thing she did was to tear off the cone of shame but I managed to make it a bit more tight but still let hear breathe so I hope it stays on at least during the night, she’s supposed to have it for ten days but that’ll never happen 🙂 🙂 🙂 The toughest job will be to keep the dogs away so they don’t clean the area where the surgery took place. I won’t argue with her if the cone at least stays for four days 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and hope there will be something interesting on tv. I doubt that though 🙂 🙂 🙂
Not an eating day in any way but suddenly the sun started to shine!! It wasn’t supposed to show itself until it was about to set but it arrived pretty early instead. We are supposed to have sunshine all day tomorrow but I’ll believe it if it happens 🙂
Nothing much new about the shooting yesterday, at least 11 dead but some are so badly injured that it might end with more dead. The suspect shooter is said to be a 35 year old man born in Sweden and so are his parents, so at least the far right can’t attack immigrants. He’s a loner and it is said by a relative to him, which we can’t trust since he said it anonymously, he was supposed to have problems with his mental health. The suspect did kill himself.
They haven’t even identified all the dead yet, which is a bit odd but that can indicate that they mostly were immigrants. Normally I doubt it would take especially long for us who has grown up here to be identified since even our phones would help to do that, I think we might be one of the most digitalised people in the world, most of us don’t even use money now, I don’t and haven’t since many years ago, but just one look in my wallet or phone they would identify me in seconds 🙂
I’ve never seen a Beard lichen this big down here in southern Sweden, they grow slow so it must be really old.
Birds or mice have found their way in to the squash and eaten almost all seeds.
Well here in the village at the outskirts of the world it’s calm and quiet as usual. My neighbour were outside when the sun arrived so we had a little chat and the dogs jumped over the fence and played with the children. After that I made some rose-hip soup and now I’ll have a sandwich or two with cheese. No tea today, I had a cup way to late yesterday so I had to go up in the middle of the night to visit the bathroom 🙂
So this is the pasture the wild hogs now walk around in at night.
We did see the sun shine for a few minutes just as it was setting, otherwise the day has been rather depressing 🙂 A meh fog in the morning, later on just grey and dull.
Today I’ve been a bit busy though. First I ordered and downloaded an antivirus program, the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I paid the bill, pressed the link and voila finished 🙂 🙂 The Macworld said it was the best and it wasn’t especially expensive either, I also got a discount for being a new customer and that didn’t hurt 🙂 If all things computer was that easy! I never remember my passwords to anything so I rarely log out from anything but I need to get a new password now when I change computer, since I don’t remember them 🙂 So I tried Facebook. I could just as well hit myself in the head with a hammer! I thought I would get a link via my mail but no not any more. I tried to change it several times but no such luck I’m afraid, now I have no idea if the old one still is there so I can come in to Fb on my old computer 🙂 🙂 🙂
The last snow for this time 🙂
When the first wave of hate towards Fb had calmed down I finally found the old way but it sure wasn’t easy to find it 🙂 What angered me the most was when I tried to change the password their new way it didn’t work so a new page turned up so that I could change the password, the only problem was that I had to log in to be able to do it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then I needed to do the same for my blog and it took four seconds to let me in again 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest I’m not sure I want to stay on Fb anyway but I want to have a chance to say bye if I do decide to log out totally. Now all I need to do is to slowly but steadily add my favourites so things can go back to normal again.
But I have done other things as well, like baking bread, well very flat French rolls 🙂 🙂 🙂 and to dinner I made a shrimp and vegetable pie, not bad at all 🙂 I had a bit too much though so now I’m burping shrimps and Broccoli 🙂 🙂 I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I had too much too late yesterday so I’ll have this cup early so I don’t have to get up in the middle of night again 🙂 The hunters will be here tomorrow morning again, they have noticed that the wild hogs now walk around in the pasture just outside my gate. Wild hogs are good for nature but not gardens 🙂
My hardy Rosemary, survived -18 C (-0,4 F) beside it some Oregano but they survive everything 🙂
The Himalayan Cypress also looks good but the most dangerous time for plants here is when spring starts and those late frosts suddenly kill them.
So I picked up the new antenna cable yesterday and after connecting it to the antenna and tv I had better picture than before. I hadn’t seen Malkolm chew on it but since he quickly ran away when I saw what had been done it wasn’t that hard to understand 🙂 So this morning when we were supposed to go out on our morning walk I was putting on my shoes when I looks at him happily chewing on the new cable!!!
Two Ravens playing in the strong winds we had yesterday.
I have never really had the need to scold him for doing something he isn’t supposed to do here in the cottage, he has never really done anything wrong or dangerous but chewing on cables, even if the antenna cable is sort of harmless next time it could be an electric cable I really had to do something drastic. I have big lungs so I screamed at him at the same time i picked him up so I could look directly in to his eyes. I feel so sorry for him but that scared the s.t out of him, well pee actually. He is still a bit skittish when he must pass that place. I really hope this helped because I never want to scare him like that again 🙂 🙂
Yesterday morning was quite nice, it had been cold during the night with a clear sky and the sky stayed mostly clear all through the walk. There was a thin cloud layer that the sun had to shine through but that didn’t do much to stop the sunlight, Today it was warm all through the night and has stayed that way but the clouds were pretty thick. I can’t really complain about it since it is warm but it would have been nice to see the sunlight again. It’ll be like this for at least ten days, or so they guess at least. Then again I still get daylight and I haven’t had this much daylight at this time of year so that’s a good thing.
It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day, I’ve just had dinner so I won’t have anything else today, I have no bananas so I’ll buy more tomorrow 🙂 The roads will be good though, almost no ice left either now, just in a few places where the sun never reach this time of year.
Have a great day!
The night crew were still working when we woke up in the morning 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 