Category: Nature reserve.

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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 🙂

Have a great day!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

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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.

Have a great day!

A tad chilly :-)

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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 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The vet visit.

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The photos will be a mix taken these last days.

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 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

We even had sunshine today :-)

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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 🙂

Have a great day!

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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.

Have a great day!

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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 🙂

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She didn’t like cold snow towards her paws 🙂

I’m pretty sure I have a cold again. I was pretty sure yesterday as well but today I’ve been freezing like a dog on and off. Can’t say that I feel especially sick except for the muscle pain and the occasional moments of freezing. I did get a bit warm when we were out walking but that’s mostly because I’m not especially fit 🙂 🙂 The snow on the ground is still more like ice pebbles so not even my studded shoes get any grip in it, the dogs however have no such problems but they did at least not fall down again 🙂 🙂

     

We’ve had a really nice day here otherwise, a nasty wind has been blowing but the forest took all of it and we’ve also had a lovely sunshine all day as well. There were lots of animal tracks in the snow and it looked like lots of wild hogs had been moving around and also a few Roe deer. Plus our local fox, the one that has a tendency to poop on the stirs both at my cottage and my neighbors 🙂 The badgers are asleep now but they just sleep during winter, not hibernate, so we sometimes see their tracks as well in the snow.

The wind had been pretty hard, look at that bent Pine!

 

Sara the cat tries every now and again to run outside when she thinks I don’t see her and she is quick but a bit obvious so I have so far had control. She was close yesterday though so I picked her up and placed her on one of my composts. I could see that she was excited but also see that cold and wet snow isn’t a favourite of hers, she hasn’t tried to run outside after that 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It’s time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a french roll with cheese and some kind of marmalade.

 

 

Have a great day!

Winter is here and it will stay I’m afraid.

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It rained almost all day yesterday but later the temperature dropped and the rain became snow. The dogs had so much fun in the snow, they had been bored all day because they didn’t want to go outside in the rain so when the snow started to fall they really enjoyed to run around 🙂

     

It didn’t feel that cold when I let them out in the morning but that was because we didn’t have any wind, it was nasty cold 🙂 So I filled the bird feeders before we went out on our morning walk. The horse guy came pretty early so we went out into the forest and out on the peninsula in the bog. The sun was shining but it was unusually quiet, normally sunny days in winter means lots of birds twitting but I only hear a few but the ravens could be heard flying above us. I do like ravens but I really don’t like how they hunt. it is a nasty way that they even use on calves here (I will not explain what they do because of its nastiness) , still they are so smart and they always fly around playing up in the air on stormy days.

It’s almost always completely dry beneath the branches on a spruce so it’s a good place for animals to stay on rainy and snowy days. We used to have a huge spruce not far from the village where I and the dogs could take cover when we were surprised by heavy showers or hail. Just a few drops would reach us.

 

I haven’t had a raven as pet but a European Jackdaw, a small cousin who are very intelligent as well and the most fun bird there is. Now that happened before it became illegal to have them as pets and this one had a broken wing that never healed the way it should have, so he couldn’t fly. So instead he lived with me and the pets I had back then 🙂 Two dogs and a rat called Hamlet 🙂 Anyway, the walk was really nice especially since we had sunshine all day.

     

We had been at home for a while when the dogs suddenly wanted to go outside again and since it was so nice in the sunshine I followed them. Turns out that my neighbor and her children were in their garden so the dogs jumped over the fence and played with the children 🙂 It has been a while since I saw the dogs so happy 🙂 It felt much colder staying still in the garden though so we had to go indoors. Yes I could have let the dogs stay outside but Malkolm has a tendency to walk around and suddenly he walks away towards the forest or the big swamp/ little lake behind the garage and then one never know where he ends up 🙂 🙂

     

They’re guessing we’ll have lots of sunshine tomorrow as well and I do hope the horse guy is elsewhere tomorrow or arrives late because it would be nice to be able to walk down by the creek and/or in the older forest. Well I think that perhaps the water has frozen enough so we can walk out to the island in the bog, it isn’t nice to sink down half a meter /yard in half frozen mud 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

     

I wish You all a Good Yule!

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A Green Finch, haven’t seen many of those so far.

 

We Swedes are sort of obcessed by Disney today and it has been so for generations. Swedish Television (SWT), our Pbs, has since 1960 sent an old Disney program called The Wonderful World of Disney. 2020 it became the most viewed tv program ever in this country when almost half the population looked at it on Christmas eve. Back at the beginning anything coming from west of the Soviet Union was view as imperialistic and should be banned from the world 🙂 🙂 🙂 So this was the only time we ever had the chance to see anything Disney on tv, we only had Swedish Television in those days and no commercials (that I still love 🙂 )

     

Despite what all experts have said it is still just as popular and that’s of course because we brainwash the kids to watch it as well, even though they later refuse to see it they always come back when they have children so they too becomes brainwashed to see it. Disney now has its own streaming service and doesn’t sell their programs to other companies any more, except for this one and the SWT 🙂 but from what I’ve read the negotiations are hard every year. The risk for Disney being punished by the Swedes if they don’t sell this particular program to SWT is very big though, You don’t kill very popular traditions like that unpunished 🙂 

     

The program is almost totally exactly the same, First we see when the elves make the presents up at the north pole, a film from the 1930’s I think and now days they’ve removed almost all racist parts 🙂 After that we see short parts from Cinderella (when the mice and birds sing and make her the dress. Snow white when she and the dwarfs are having a party singing and dancing. Chip and Dale when Mickey Mouse by accident brings them in when he has cut his christmas tree and Pluto fights with them. 

     

Lady and the tramp when they are at the restaurant and Robin Hood stealing money from prince John and my favorite the Jungle Book when Baloo meets Mowgli for the first time plus one or two snippets from the latest films. However the most loved one is about Ferdinand the Bull. I think it was in the 80’s they announced that he would be replaced by the Ugly Duckling and all hell broke lose 🙂 🙂 🙂 It went as far as Swedish Television getting threats and they took is so seriously that the showed that film after the Disney program was over.  We’ve never seen the Ugly Duckling after that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also this program also decides when to eat and give out the present. We had the present before and ate after some could do the opposite but no one ever ate at 3 pm when Donald Duck was shown on tv 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is what christmas is all about for a me 🙂

I wish You all a Good Yule!

   

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Now I know why I slept so bad these last days, the full moon was bright this morning.

A storm passed by during last night, I knew it would be windy but not even close to what it was 🙂 It didn’t reach my garden because my neighbors cottage and garage blocked it but I could hear the roar from the wind blowing through the forest and it was loud! I couldn’t see any trees that had fallen though so the ground must have frozen enough to hold a grip on the trees.

Jackdaws having their morning flight.

 

This is the only place Alma always is quiet at, she saw her first wild hogs here, piglets. Today both she and Malkolm stared down to the trees so I guess there might have been hogs there today again.

I’ve finally made that clay thing I wrote about, a viking ship advent candlestick. If it was supposed to float on water it would sink because it is warped in all directions 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve had much fun making it though and that’s why I tried it but I think working with clay is not a hobby I will continuing doing 🙂 🙂 🙂 As it is now it’s also a sure fire-hazard because the lights are put deep in the lichens and they dry as soon as they come indoors and would start to burn as soon as it gets warm enough. So perhaps I must buy some more clay so the the candles stand above the lichens with no risk of them falling down. Even normal advent candlesticks can be dangerous if not watched properly and is one of the biggest reason to fires in homes this time of year.

One could see already at the beginning this ship wouldn’t be seaworthy. I evened out most of the side and then

I painted it. I had the idea to try and paint it so one could see individual planks but realized that I really didn’t care that much 🙂 🙂

Painted some more and decorated it with lichens. As I wrote this is a fire hazard since the candles stand in the lichens and moss but I won’t light the candles and this looks good 🙂

I managed to cancel the second computer order I made yesterday already today. To not risk them missing it I put a message on their web site, their forum, I emailed it and also finally managed to call them 🙂 🙂 To be honest the price was so low that I most likely would have been able to sell it for a better price on our ebay called Tradera if I had failed but why go through that if I don’t need to. One of my brothers’ who’s a Mac fanatic (never had anything else ever) is happy about this, I’m leaving the dark side and have seen the light 🙂 🙂 🙂 He’s the only one I know who has a Mac so I guess we’ll have plenty of phone calls until I’ve understood how those computers work 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Alma behaved so well today when we were out walking that it surprised me! Oh how I wish this would continue but she has her moments of peace and then back to even worse than before until she calms down again 🙂 🙂 There were a few moments out by the bog when sounds, I can only describe them as sounding like distant explosions, rolled over the bog. Have no clue to what it could have been but they did worry her for a few minutes. A wolf killed a hunting dog not far from here yesterday, I just can’t understand why hunters so willingly let their dogs run out in a forest where they have wolf-packs?? They know this can and will happen but they just refuse to change the hunting methods they have used up till now. After this has happened they go out in media crying how horrible the wolves are and now they’ve lost a family member and the kids are crying. Well if it was a family member why didn’t they keep the dog leashed??

     

I’ve already had my last cup of tea for the day and after this it’s time to fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

Have a great day!

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I think most of the photos I use today were taken yesterday when the world still looked frozen and frosty white. Well Sara as well of course.

The cold and wind free days are over and now we have windy but warmer days instead. The only thing I’m not happy about is how much dirtier the floor becomes 🙂 🙂 Still I prefer warmer weather. I have been born in the wrong part of the world, I should have been born in a  warmer climate where it stayed around 20 C (68 F) all year round 🙂

I would like to say this was taken in the early morning but it was already 9:25 am.

I never picked that last squash in the vegetable garden 🙂

 

Today we must have had some rain during the night and the rest of the day, except for a few minutes, the sky has been evenly grey. Now the sky is clear, the full? moon is bright in the sky and therefor it’ll be cold during the night. Tomorrow the day will be cloudy again and I wonder why it always happen that way and not cloudy nights and sunny days? 🙂

     

I’ve done some laundry today and right now I’m waiting for my french rolls to cool down so I can have one or two before falling asleep in front of the tv 🙂 I’ve had some fun with clay for a couple of days now and have had really fun. I’ll show You when it is done. It isn’t beautiful in any way 🙂 🙂 🙂 but I’ve had lots of fun doing it. The problem is that I really have no good place to work with it, I’ve been standing at the kitchen counter and the stove 🙂 🙂 Back pain as a result but it’ll pass 🙂 I do have a lot more time now when I don’t have a job so I thought I would see what kind of hobby I would like besides photography.

     

I doubt I’ll continue with clay though even though this was a kind that hardens without having to stand in a kiln lots of hours. I have lots more things I can do and also sit down while doing it so if You’re unlucky You might have to look at several more failures until I know if I have another hobby or being happy about having my cameras 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it is time to try one of those rolls, this time they at least look good, and of course that last cup of tea for the day 🙂

     

Have a great day!