Category: Nature reserve.

There are places that need water, so why does all of it fall here?

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Now I know how effective that anti tick spray is, it is very much so. It had been raining all morning and I thought that since Malkolm would be so wet while walking around most of it would drop off pretty fast so I skipped it since he actually hate that smell. It’s a long time since I’ve picked so many ticks of any of the dogs who has lived here. Nova was the only one that didn’t have any and I guess it is because she walked after us all  after we just had walked there, so no more walks without it, no matter how awful it smells 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

My shoes hadn’t dried at all since yesterday so today I had to wear my winter boots 🙂 🙂 They are light brown but by the time we came home all the water had made them dark brown 🙂 My feet were dry though so 🙂 I placed my shoes towards the south heading wall and even after a day with at least some sunshine they still aren’t dry. I guess it doesn’t help when the humidity stays at 100% or just below 🙂 There will be even more rain tomorrow and much of the week. There are places on this planet that desperately need rain so why does it all have to fall here 🙂

Lots of Rowan berries this year, perhaps I should make some yelly or ade when it is time. They need a couple of frost nights to become less tart and then putting some honey in it will make them rather yummy 🙂

This is a rather unusual flower, it is a parasite and has no chlorophyll of its own. The Swedish name for it would be Pine wort in English.

I haven’t done much today, I was going to bake some bread but then I found two packages with hard bread I had forgotten so I skipped the baking 🙂 We did have our nap, I realized we napped for almost two hours but I can already say that it will not keep me awake after the usual bet time 🙂 Oh I forgot I also now potted some of the Quince seedlings. I must admit that I mostly had forgotten about them, so some have grown in a 90 degree angle, I’ll need to find some sticks so I can direct them in the right position again 🙂 Two more Giant Sequoia seeds have germinated as well but unfortunately none of the Dawn redwood seeds. Well they might need one more winter before they wake up, they do look ok when I check if they still exists.

Lots of lingonberries this year.

This one is rather delicious and it looks like it has a thick layer of clear coat put on it. It’s actually a thick layer of slime that protects it from pests, easily removed though and I usually pick lots of it.

It is time to go and look at at least the beginning of which team will be the European champions in football (soccer) England or Spain. I always hope for England but they have a tendency to never win when it really matters 🙂

I’ll get at least two pink poppies this year and if You look at the top of the photo You can see the leafs from the Californian poppy, no summer here without it 🙂
I wonder if he will continue to have that quilted fur in his neck when he gets older?

   

Have a great day!

Don’t try to catch a hornet.

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The only photo I have of Malkolm today 🙂 He and Alma learned that it isn’t a good idea to try and attack a Hornet, Alma was limping for a while and Malkolm as You can see was stung on the back.

 

More mixed weather today than what they guessed yesterday. It was sunny and rather cool in the morning while we were out on our morning walk but the clouds arrived much earlier, so by the time we came home the sky had an evenly dark grey color.

No ALT texts today, too tired in my brain :-)     

With darker day comes the mosquitoes and once again they attacked my ancles when I was watering the newly planted seedlings. The Dahlias were still there so perhaps the slugs still doesn’t know they are there. The dogs really didn’t want to be outdoors even though it has been warm but I guess they too are a bit sick of the insects now.

The little creek up by the bog is almost dried out oddly enough since it has been raining so much but the ferns shows where it usually flows.

 

Besides doing my chores it has been a rather uneventful day, perfect really 🙂 I’ve watched some football (soccer) and we took a nap, shorter than I had hoped for because a friend called on the phone. At least I didn’t sleep for too long so that I can fall asleep tonight 🙂 I have a short work week ahead of me because on Friday it’s Midsummers eve and that’s a big thing here.

   

To be honest I think it is even bigger than Christmas here and even though the church tried to make it a christian holiday (John the Baptist’s’ Birthday) it’s all pagan here to be honest 🙂 According to the folklore it’s a day when the Beings are out and about a lot and if we do it right we can keep us all healthy during winter and also see the future if we want to. For those new to this place but have been following me on post I think I’ve told You about the trolls and perhaps gnomes but there are a lot more to tell. I’ll start telling You more about the beings and how we celebrate Midsummer over here from tomorrow.

     

I have re-potted the Guava trees today. I think they have been a bit confused with the weather because first it was hot as h..l here, then almost autumn weatherwise plus all the rain, so they haven’t been growing that well, especially the roots have stopped to grow. I can only hope they’ll start growing again now when it has become a bit warmer. All apricots, peaches and pear trees are now re-potted as well.  and I had a few seedlings from the Lemonquat seeds I sowed just before the warmth arrived. It takes far less time to get a seed sown Kumquat, limequat, lemonquat and what ever other quat there is out there 🙂   than it takes for orange, lemon or lime trees sown from seeds. For those it can take up to ten fifteen years before they flower but perhaps, with a bit of luck, only four to five years for the quats. It is time for a cup of tea so I don’t fall asleep in front of the tv later. Only four more days before long weekend again 🙂

I totally forgot that I also planted the last potatoes in pots today. The sprouts were so long that I made them follow the inside of the pot 🙂
The Guava trees has changed color to red, normally a sign that they stand in too much sunlight but these doesn’t so I have no idea to why they’ve done that.
I hope the old Pawpaw tree that survived winter here also speed up the growth of the new leafs now when the warmer weather return.
Perennials and trees can take years to start germinate so I’m quite pleased that I now have Giant Sequoias growing.
The Himalayan Cedar is coming fine 🙂

 

If You want a flower that will keep on flowering until autumn, smells really odd and would spread like wildfire this is the one for You, Nepeta sibirica, Siberian catmint (our name for it is Siberian dragon flower). It is 5 feet high and smother any other flower to death within a year 🙂 Only just as invasive flowers can keep it in control 🙂 🙂 It is beautiful though.

Have a great day!

A day with warmth and sunshine, it’ll rain tomorrow.

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Every year since long before I moved here poppies have grown outside the Beekeepers garage.

I have two really happy dogs beside me right now. Warmer weather and no rain so now they’ve been playing outside all afternoon/ evening 🙂 Also a short walk after I had come home was really liked. Unfortunately the Forest fly season has started so after walking to the bog we all hurried out of the forest again 🙂 These flies are really harmless in all way but they always try to get inside the ears and nostrils and if they can’t they just walk around on the hair. So annoying!!! So I better find my mosquito hat otherwise I’ll refuse to take any walk after it becomes warmer than 10 C (50 F).

Clouds missing my village, they pass south or north of us :-)

This is some kind of Lathyrus, Sweet pea relative and it grows along the gravel raod.
I can’t remember the name but this is a close relative to Sweet Pea. Could be Spring pea perhaps ?

The first wild strawberries, they grow all over the forest and in to our garden :-)
The first ones for the year. I didn’t eat any because too many dogs walk by there and god only knows how many pee on them 🙂

They’re guessing that it’ll stay this warm tomorrow again but with rain and thunder. After that a few days with lower temperatures again and then up to summer temperatures and with rain almost the entire time, I guess the mosquitoes will be happy about that 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think it might be time to go fishing and put what ever I catch in the little lake behind my garage, a few fish can eat a lot of mosquito larvae 🙂

White beam, not especially common growing in the wild outside this village. Whitebeam isn't rare here normally but I can't find it anywhere in this area except for in this forest.
Whitebeam.

The Birch wood on the way out to the tip of the peninsula in the bog. 

Lots of butterflies here now :-)
I’m not good at butterfly names 🙂

I found a new anti tick, horsefly, mosquito spray in the pharmacy last Friday. The last one I had smelled like really bad deodorant, the kind of buy while being abroad somewhere warm and wonder why one never find something like that at home and when You do come home fully understands why not 🙂 🙂 This one doesn’t seem so bad to be honest, it smells like a very flowery perfume older ladies used in the sixties. Sort of discrete but powerful. The thing is that it sticks around and if some of it has hit the floor or a wall that discrete smell sort of grows and fills the entire home and in the end forces You out of Your own home 🙂 :-)Nova doesn’t care much, Alma shows her displease and Malkolm starts to roll around in anything that might smell so bad that it at least kills the flowery smell 🙂 🙂 🙂

The bog.     

It’s supposed to be for humans as well so I sprayed some on myself as well. That smell has now followed me at work and it’s really hot where I work and I can tell You that heat really make this smell grow thousandfold. The bottle is new and it seems to do the job so I’ll keep on using it until I find something else 🙂 Can’t they come up with something that works but at least doesn’t stink so much 🙂 🙂

Maianthemum bifolium, relative to Lady in the valley and smells really nice.
Maianthemum bifolium, the Swedish name for it is Squirrel berries and I have no idea why 🙂

   

I won’t write anything tomorrow, too much to do but I’ll return on Thursday. I used to take Wednesdays off from the blog when I helped my friends daughter with her French homework and that continued even after she left school for good but instead of Wednesdays I’ll have a break every Monday, I never seems to be able to do what I should on Mondays any more 🙂 It is time for a cup of tea and perhaps something to nibble at as well 🙂

I guess You want a photo of Malkolm 🙂

Have a great day!

It missed us again.

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The factory where I work is almost surrounded by fields and I really like to stand outside in nice weather just watching what ever they are growing, sometimes a fox pass by and deer kan be seen gracing there too.
Took this one with my camera at work today, I think it came out rather nice 🙂

Another day another thunderstorm passing by but to be honest even though it did go through nearby I couldn’t even hear it this time. It was much worse along the west coast where cities and town have been flooded and cellars being filled with dirty water. An old gardening enthusiast who grew up nearby well over 90 years ago told me that the bog I live beside is so big that during hot summers it creates a high pressure area all by itself, so when rain comes close it push it towards its sides. So the rain can pour down on the mountain but we can have sunshine. It also makes it much colder here when winter arrives and so far I can’t say that he was wrong.

View from my window upstairs. Some sheep in the foreground and behind them the ground is covered by morning mist.
Not bad views when driving to work 🙂 This one however was taken from a window upstairs.

Photos taken in the village on my way to work. The sun is breaking through the mist showing how it floats around in different patters when the sun heats it up.  It doesn't take long before the sun burns it away but here the last of it is rising upwards behind the gravel road. 

We’ve had mostly thin clouds that the sun has shone through or clear blue sky. There was a strongish wind blowing when I came home after work so even if I thought it might be too warm for both Nova and Malkolm I took the dogs for a walk, I thought the wind would cool us down. Turns out that the wind wasn’t strong enough to blow through the forest. The odd thing was that there were no mosquitoes?! The first horse fly annoyed us for a while and the first forest flies a bit longer but even they gave up, so I guess it must have been much warmer in the forest than I actually thought.

This and the next photo showsmostly the did up fields and a small bit of the creek and a thin layer of morning mist floating around over it all.
And tow from the lake.

Dog biscuits, a quite common flower that looks much like wild carrot and smells rather nice.
The Swedish name for the white flowers is Dog biscuit, have no idea how they came up with that long ago 🙂 It is edible and the root is said to taste like Parsnip. They are closely related. The problem is that several other flowers looking similar are deadly poisonous so one must know what one is doing if one wants to eat them 🙂 Also We have wild carrot growing here, believe me when I say that it’s like chewing on a stick 🙂 the taste is there though 🙂

A cloud slowly building up to become a Thunder cloud.

The morning was cool and nice though, 8C (46,4F) and I would rather have had a walk with the dogs than having to go to work 🙂 🙂 🙂 Morning mist floating above the ground and birds singing like crazy. I brought one of my cameras with me and managed to get a few photos with the morning mist before the sun burned it away.

I'm bad at butterfly names but lots are flying around here now, This one was feeding n Lingonberry flowers just when I saw it.
Lots of butterflies here now.

The forest is filled with strwberry plants. Thankfully we have the law called Right to access so we can pick any berries everywhere (unless it is in a garden of course). No land owner has the right to stop us doing that.
Wild strawberry flowers

More Forest star flowers.

Have no idea what these tiny yellow flowers are called but I like them :-)
No idea what these are called.

WE have lots of Veronica's growing in the wild, I think these are called Granny's' goggles.
These veronica’s’ are everywhere now and I think our name for these are Granny’s’ goggles 🙂

The birds just stopped to sing, it is oddly quiet so I checked the lightning app and there isn’t any thunder even close  to here. There’s also a tractor working somewhere nearby that also just stopped making noise. I don’t think they are related in any way but it feels odd when it suddenly becomes totally quiet 🙂 Well th

Chamomile grows along the gravel raod towards the forest.
Chamomile.

The forst star loves living in the forest where it doesn't get too much sunlight that would dry out the ground.
Forest star.

More and more Buttercups are opening up now, soon the fields will shine yellow again nw after all the Dandelions have stopped flowering.
Buttercups.

This is a deep hole in the bog, it looks like it has a bottom rather shallow but it is in facy just roots that covers the water below. Hare tail cotton grass grows well there.
The little tjärn still has water in it and the hare tail cotton grass looks beautiful.

e birds are back and I hope they won’t drive that tractor any more 🙂 🙂 I noticed earlier when I was watering all the new trees that it is time to do something about some of my sowing, like the Hollyhocks and Morning glories, they are growing fast and I was wondering for myself if the best thing is to re-pot them (but I have very little soil) or just plant them where I want them to grow?

This small creek is almost dried out now but the ferns are covering it up instead.

Salmiak , the beekeepers cat, is sleeping on the patio table. We think he is as old as Nova, 18 years old.
Salmiak sleeping on the patio table.

These grow everywhere except in my garden 🙂

I sowed a Black Walnut almost 16 years ago and last year it gave nuts for the first time and this is the first time I've seen the male flowers :-)
The Black Walnut in bloom.

Also several more Giant Sequoias have germinated, still none of the Dawn Redwood but I still have hope 🙂 I have too much of the Greater celandine so I’ll remove some of them tomorrow, I’ll wear gloves when doing that because the sap in them are bright orange and it is more or less impossible to remove that color and I never know where smaller stinging nettles can hide 🙂 I also need to figure out where to plant that last Mulberry tree I bought and four Sea Buckthorn I have waiting as well.Plus the rose that I planted where Teodor the cat is buried seems to have died this winter, so I’ve bought another one, completely different. I doubt it’ll flower this year but it is much more hardy. Seems to spread happily with its roots though so perhaps I need to contain it with a bottomless big pot.

Four photos where You can see Alma and Malkolm playing.
It was too hot for Malkolm to have a walk but he and Alma could play for over an hour in the garden when we came home 🙂 🙂

   

It is time for a pot of tea and I bought a packet with gluten free oatmeal cookies. I’m pretty sure I’ll fall asleep in the retainer as soon as I’ve taken the last sip of the tea 🙂

Have a great day!

Even nicer today :-)

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I think today has been even better than yesterday, we woke up to a blue sunny sky and fairly chilly morning, it had dropped to 0C (32F) during the night. This is not unusual for this area, the last frost usually arrives at June sixth and after that, normal summers, nights regularly have temperatures down to 3C (37,4F). Well if the days are sunny, cloudy days the temperature usually don’t sink especially much, the clouds keep the warmth from escaping upwards.

     

We went out as soon as we woke up and that was way too early really because I watched the Eurovision last night and I think it stopped just before 1 am and we woke up just after 5 am 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well even after napping I still think I’ll sleep very well tonight 🙂 I, Nova and Alma didn’t see any animals this morning but Malkolm did so he started to growl. That of course made Alma running around looking for what threat we might meet and after that she couldn’t relax at all 🙂 🙂 Malkolm stopped caring about it as soon as we had passed where he saw what ever it was.

     

I’ve started to move the citrus trees I have from the less sunny north side of the cottage out to the sunny garden, even if we would get frost now and blazing sun during the days they’ll manage it. I’ve also sown iceberg lettuce, squash, chard and some kind of Japanese cabbage today. Iceberg lettuce is hard to fail but both the chard and squash seeds were a bit old so I’ll better start to look for what I can sow in those places nothing germinates. Peas and beans will be sown later when the temperature is more reliable. I’ll sow most of the potatoes in buckets this year so as soon as I buy more soil I’ll start with them.

     

The rest of this day I’ve mostly just watered the trees I’ve planted and I’ve had a couple of short naps 🙂 The dogs have been rather calm since it has been so warm. The wind can’t reach us down here so when it becomes warm it’s always a couple degrees warmer here and the opposite when it comes to cold weather. It’s almost never cold weather that kills plants here during winter, it’s because we have such a long time when it is dark here. So if we have a warm and sunny summer most of the less hardy plants make it till next year, is it cool and rainy most of those will die. They need that warm and sunny weather to collect so much energy that it lasts all winter through. It’s the same with how good plants flower and how much fruit/ berries they give, it all depends on what last years summer was like.

     

The big dogs are sleeping beside me but by the sound Malkolm is chewing on a stick in my bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve done dinner for next week at work and the laundry so for the rest of the day I’ll do as little as possible 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A really nice afternoon.

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He stops at every spot he can find something to sniff on 🙂 Drives Alma insane because she wants to walk and walk and walk 🙂

We’ve had two really nice days here. Yesterday was a bit cooler but after having a long cold winter and a few weeks where the temperature didn’t rise above 5 C (41 F) anything above that feels like summer temperatures 🙂 Even the dogs were panting when we were out walking 🙂 🙂 We had frost last night though and that can keep on happening until the first week in June. June sixth is usually the last night we have frost here.

     

None of us wanted to get out of bed when the alarm started this morning, it seems that Malkolm loves to stay in bed after we’ve woken up, that I like 🙂 but not even Alma wanted to leave the bed today and that was surprising. No need to hurry up tomorrow morning though, it’s May first, the workers day in big parts of the world. So I guess we’ll all get up at normal time just because we actually can stay in bed 🙂 🙂

     

Today however is Valborgsmässoafton, Walpurgis night which is celebrated here. No one actually knows who Valborg or Walpurgis as her English name was, is. She was actually an English princess I’ve read. She became a nun (and a couple of her brothers became monks) and was apparently really good in making pagans christians. She later became a saint and is the patron saint for those being infected with rabies. So as I said no one here knows who she was 🙂 🙂 Perhaps she does hold her hand over us because we haven’t had rabies here in this country since 1886.

     

So today they’ll start huge bonfires, choirs, usually men only choirs, will sing when the bonfires burn and singing spring songs. Today is a bit unusual because we have nice weather, all too often I’ve been standing is rain and / or snow freezing my b..t off not feeling the warmth from the fire because I had a tendency to always be placed on the other end far away from the fire 🙂 🙂

Tulipa tarda, spreads happily in my garden.

White checkered lily buds.

Checkered lily.

Lung worth. I was trying to photograph the Bumble bee that You can almost see at the bottom in the middle.

Leopards bane.

White wood anemone.

Yellow wood anemone and Corydalis.

So this will be a short working week but next week will be even better because next Friday is what we call a squeeze day. Thursday is Ascension Day and a holiday here so no one wants to work on Friday. Unfortunately most must but I applied for being free the right way so I won’t work 🙂 I’ll also stay at home on Friday the seventh of June because our national day is on Thursday. To be honest very few know why we celebrate our national day that day, we just don’t care that much as long as we don’t have to work 🙂 🙂 No it isn’t because of some war or something like that, we haven’t been to war since we helped to beat Napoleon. There’s actually two reasons but I’ll tell You all about it then.

     

The dogs are sleeping all over the cottage. Nova because she’s old and tired but Alma and Malkolm because they’ve played wildly in the garden just before clouds covered the sky. I think I’ll join them in a while. The best tomorrow though is that the Ice cream lorry comes, I’m out of Ice cream and it’s stay warm a while they say so I’ll but more than I usually do 🙂

I really like this photo, just look at Alma 🙂 🙂

 

Have a great day!

Now I fear the phone when I’m working :-)

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Nicer morning yesterday so I’ll start with some from then.

Now days when the phone rings while I’m working my anxiety levels rise quite high and when I see it’s my neighbors the level hits the roof 🙂 Especially since we are way too few painters at work right now, so I wasn’t especially happy when the phone rang and it was my neighbor 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

Yes she had escaped once again and this time the hole was so small that it even looked like it would be impossible for Malkolm to get out through it 🙂 My neighbors said that she sat down by the fence towards the gravel road and looked up the slope. She knows I’ll be coming home not too long after she has done this 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m going to check the fence this weekend to make sure there are no weak spots left.

Grape elder. the flowers will soon open up, nothing special to be honest but they are usually the first and yellow so I like them a lot.

This is the place where Alma saw piglets for the first time and she’s always calm and quiet here so we go there quite often 🙂 🙂

Rowan tree leafs.

I have also noticed that one of the dogs, almost 100% sure it is Alma, has tried to dig her way out of the garage so now I’ve blocked that way with old car tires, with rims, and those are so heavy that it’ll take even her quite a lot of time to remove them before she can try again 🙂 🙂

 

Bog Myrtle in bloom. One of my favorite smells!

We’ve had rather nice weather today, lots of sunshine and slightly below 10 C (50 F).  The morning was a bit meh though, grey and dull and -2 C (28,4 F) so the car was covered in ice, easy to remove though. Nova wanted to go out to the bog today so out there we went. Lots of small birds singing but not a sound of any other animals, normally we can hear them run away when we come too close but today nothing.

I was going to photograph this when Malkolm jumped up on the tree stump 🙂

 

Tomorrow it’ll both rain and snow during the night, great because can one ever get too much water 🙂 🙂 🙂 Same temperature as today but no sunshine until late in the afternoon, on Sunday it’ll be really warm, too bad it couldn’t be the same tomorrow since I’m at home and would be able to enjoy it. Malkolm took a mud bath in the root zone (where all my dish water, shower water and washing water goes to be cleaned) so today he had his first bath. He now refuses to be close to me, didn’t even follow us up to the computer, he’s really grumpy and sleeps down stairs in the dog igloo 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A sunny and wind free day for a change.

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For once we’re having a day when the sun shines, no wind and after the ice cold morning a relatively warm day and I’m not at work 🙂 Also a low pressure with rain and possibly snow is slowly entering the country and it looks like it’ll miss us here 🙂 Something must be wrong and in one way or the other I’m sure I’ll have to pay for it 🙂 🙂

     

We walked down to the creek early this morning and even saw a few deer. Nova and Malkolm walks really good when leashed but Alma has after all that has happened here gone back to being impossible. She whines and shouts plus pulling the leash all the time. It hasn’t been easy for her losing her best friend like that and now when Malkolm is here being over protective.

   

He’s fascinated by the creek and its running water 🙂

Today I wondered where she was because she hadn’t been indoors for quite some time. So I went out through the kitchen door and it wasn’t until I walked over to the other side of the cottage when I heard her barking like insane 🙂 She was down by the now rather big lake behind the garage so the sound couldn’t really reach the cottage. She was probably defending us towards something horrible like deer or pheasants 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it could have been wild hogs too and she was smart enough to not trying to reach what ever it was because then she would have become wet and she really doesn’t like that 🙂 🙂

     

Later on we went out to the bog and she was just as impossible then as she had been in the morning. I do hope she calms down when Malkolm gets bigger and doesn’t need her protection but I doubt that 🙂 Otherwise it has been a calm and nice day. I’ll need to bake some bread though but the day is still young and there’s plenty of time to do that. I could also start with the laundry but I really don’t feel like doing that 🙂 🙂

   

The lake behind the garage is getting bigger and bigger, normally it’s a swamp there 🙂

The dogs are sleeping and I really would like to join them but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all tonight if I did that 🙂 I would have liked to start doing things in the garden but the nights will stay below freezing so no use in doing that, I could mow the lawn though because when nothing else is growing the lawn sure does 🙂 I have to put the new lawn mower together first though so bread baking it is 🙂

Have a great day!

Storm again.

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I could find five House sparrows in the wild rose, can You find them 🙂 I had at least the big original photo to look at 🙂

If You don’t think about the rain that fell or the storm strength winds all day this has been a really nice day 🙂 🙂 🙂 We have actually had a lot of sunshine as well so the laundry dried up really fast 🙂 I had some extra laundry today because Malkolm the little monster decided it would be nicer to stay in bed and pee than to go out to the rainy world 🙂 I really have no good place where thick fleece blankets can dry so I was at that moment and only then quite happy about the strong wind and sunshine 🙂

     

I was a bit hesitant about having a walk today. We did eventually go out and walked to the bog, I really didn’t want to get caught in any eventual shower passing by, then again walking in the forest when the winds were as strong as they were today wasn’t a good idea either. The trees swayed a bit too much and at one place big branches fell off a pine just after we had passed it.

     

After our walk not only did I do the laundry I also baked a bread and tried to make a pizza base. I left some of the dough from the bread, added some more flour (today I added rice flour since it doesn’t taste much in it self) and spread it really thin on the baking sheet. It was ok but rose unevenly and it was over all a bit too thick. I have at least now tried it and will try something else next time.

     

After that we all had a long nap. Alma and Nova in one of the sofas and Malkolm and I in the recliner. One really sleep well in a recliner 🙂 Then I realized that I had forgotten to wash my working t-shirts so I had to do that as well. This time I just put them in a bucket and washed them by hand, they are easy drying, sort of feels like wearing some kind of plastic but always feel dry no matter how much one sweats 🙂 Just as I hung them outside to dry in the wind and sunshine a hail storm passed by followed by some rain, something the weather sites said didn’t happen (they also show what kind of weather we’ve been having) 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

After the willows the Grape elder is always first to flower.

To be honest I would love to have another long nap, I’m just as tired as I was before. It’s pollen time so I guess that’s why. Runny nose,eyes that feels old and always tired, life is wonderful sometimes 🙂

Have a great day!

There’s at least no snow here now.

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The Crane couple that nests not far from the cottage walked around in the cow pasture when we went out on our morning walk. They are used to me and my dogs going out there every day so they didn’t really care about us.

I can’t pretend that we had a wonderful weather here today but the temperature rose above 10C (50F), there was no wind in the early morning when we had our morning walk but it did rain. First mostly drizzle but the closer we got to home the more it rained. It stopped shortly after we were in the cottage again 🙂

 

The ground is saturated with water now, there’s only sand in the ground so when the water stays like this there isn’t any more space for more water.

We went out to the bog even though Nova wanted to go down to the creek. I wasn’t sure about the rain and if it would become worse so I preferred to not walk too far from home. She was a bit grumpy at first but since now both her and Malkolm stops to sniff on the ground every second meter she sort of looked satisfied after a while. Alma went insane like always so I really can’t say what she thought about it 🙂

   

The wild hogs are slowly but steadily destroying the roads here now.

All the birds seemed to love this weather though, they’ve been singing all day but I think that 99% of the House sparrow and Field sparrow population around here stayed beneath the roof on my patio 🙂 The Cranes in the pasture definitely liked the rain, I guess it brought out all the frogs so they could have a big breakfast 🙂

     

Two days ago, after work, I was going to have something to eat in front of the tv, just as I was about to sit down a puppy suddenly stood between my feet so I lost my balance. It all went really slowly so I just leaned towards the table and to my big surprise I continued slowly towards the floor. One of the table legs broke so both the table and I continued down to the floor in a very slow speed 🙂 🙂 🙂 So yesterday I ordered a new table that will arrive most likely on Wednesday or Thursday.

     

I’ve placed the broken table leg so that I still can use it as long as none of the dogs run in to the table 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really should have bought another table at the same time I bought my sofas but even though the old table was pretty ugly it still worked and I thought I just as well could use it until it finally gave up 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Winter decided we shouldn’t think spring was here :-)

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So this week has in many ways been rather terrible when it comes to the weather. On Tuesday we had around 40 cm (16 inches) of snow falling. I really didn’t like it at all, especially since it also went pretty cold. Easter was warm and friendly, it was fun to have a puppy in the house, You already know that a new puppy is living here again and during Easter we could stay outdoors all day. Then winter came back and I really couldn’t leave a puppy in the dog house/yard with that ammount of snow plus cold weather because a puppy wouldn’t understand that he would have to stay in the nice dog house all day long.

     

He would be playing with Alma and even though she would most likely have stayed in the garage it still wouldn’t be especially warm there. I really didn’t want to come home to a puppy with pneumonia. So thankfully they understood at work so I have been at home this week hating the weather because we really couldn’t take any walks while it snowed and was so cold. To make it even more fun it snowed again on Thursday, this time just a little but it was already impossible for a puppy to go anywhere. Well we were out but I had to carry him almost all the time.

     

Today however it’s warmer, tomorrow will be even warmer than today and on Sunday they’re guessing it’ll really warm and that we’ll have warm weather the entire next week. So back to work on Monday it is 🙂 So the new guy is nine weeks old on Monday and his ancestry is Border collie (50%) , English Cockerspaniel and Golden retriever (25% each). He didn’t look like any of his parents to be honest and was the most long haired of them all. My guess is that he most likely will look something like a wrong colored Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever 🙂 At first I guessed that he might look like a smaller wrong colored Golden though.

If You wonder why I don’t have any photos of Nova it’s because she tends to prefer staying indoors sleeping 🙂

 

Thankfully my neighbor works in a super market so I have been able to get what I need when it comes to food 🙂 I have a few tins in the cool cellar just in case something would happen so I mostly use them now because their dates are closing in. A couple are too old but can one eat them? they’ve been stored cool all the time so would it be ok to eat them? Two tins with ham are spoiled otherwise and that would be a shame. Well I just remembered that I’m on the internet right now and I micro biologist said no problem to eat but the taste might have become less tasty. Just put the tin in boiling water for a couple of minutes or more and it’s quite edible. Well I’ll do that with one of the ham tins and if it smells ok I’ll take a tiny bit and hope to survive 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Male Chaffinch.

Alma has finally understood that it is ok to tell Malkolm when he goes to far, like chewing on her hamstring with his sharp teeth or chewing on her tail while she’s walking away 🙂 🙂 Nova does what she can to avoid him when he’s too much (which is almost all of the time 🙂 ) I’ll have to make her a raised bed so that he can’t terrorize her while I’m at work, she’s after all almost 18 now. He’s not a cuddly dog at all, he is very much Nova in that way. He usually sleeps on the floor on my slippers beside the bed. he has once or twice wanted to be in the bed but only for a few minutes. He’s very much Alma when it comes to energy though.

     

He did however sleep for hours after our walk this morning, despite him not walking much at all. So much new things to see, hear and smell so that was what tired him out. Many people believe that they need to run around and spend energy all day to be tired in the evening but it is actually using the brain that tires them out. So Alma wouldn’t have become a calm dog if I could have been running with her every day, she would just have become a dog with even more energy but with the same problems and I’m pretty sure that would have killed me 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It is time to have something to eat and when I leave the computer Malkolm will wake up so I better pick him up and take him outside so he doesn’t pee in the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂

Then he decided that he didn’t want to sit on the tree stump

but didn’t realize how deep the snow was 🙂

So I had him in a backpack when we went out and had it hanging on my front side so I could have an eye on him and make sure he wouldn’t try to jump out 🙂

Have a great day!

Back to day shift again.

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This hasn’t been the best of weeks for five people at work. The economy is bad over here and we don’t have as much to do as we used to so on Monday we were told that the evening shift would stop but that we all would start working day shift instead.

We were told that we would get info about it already the same evening. That didn’t happen but we were told we most likely would get the info on Tuesday or more likely on Wednesday but that didn’t happen either so of course we understood that it must be more serious than that. So yesterday we finally got the info and they have to let five people go. I’ve been working there for so long so there was never any risk that I would have to leave. The rules here is that last one in is first one out when people have to leave. They can do some exceptions when it comes to competence and since I’ve been working there for almost 17 years now I do have lots of competence.                                                                                                                 

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I feel so sorry for those who has to leave because this is happening all over the country right now. There is however a light at the end of the tunnel because the inflation is going down and they haven’t risen the the loan interest and will most likely lower it in late spring and when people see at least the interest rate going down they will feel hopeful for the future and start to spend money again, so perhaps they will return to work before summer starts (well it starts quite late here to be honest but it will start even if it doesn’t feel like that right now).


We’ve had lots of snow falling lately, light fluffy snow that is impossible to get a grip in while walking 🙂 🙂 and we’ll get a bit more than three inches next Monday if they’re guessing it right. The fun thing is that it will start to melt away again already on Tuesday 🙂 🙂 Nights will be chilly though so once again we’ll have slippery icy roads that makes it exiting to drive to and from work again. I’ll stop working at five pm Mondays to Thursdays and four pm on Fridays, crappy hours to be honest but way better than the ones I have so I’m not complaining.

Today I woke up to nasty cold but sunny weather and we went out for a walk as soon as we woke up. I couldn’t feel any wind blowing, unusual since we seem to have a constant storm blowing here otherwise. Nova is usually the first one to want to take a walk but today she preferred to stay in my bed, I can fully understand her because she is after all 17.5 years old now. I did worry for a while that something was wrong with her because she slept really heavy and didn’t eat especially much. The afternoon meal however was gulped down so I guess it is the changing of when we sleep and eat once again that disturbed her. Now they’ve been used to eat after noon and around three am and suddenly we’re going back to normal hours again.

The swamp behind my garage is now a little lake instead.

More and more birds have realized that they can get an entire peanut if they go in to the feeder 🙂


So even if I finally get to go up early in the mornings like I’ve always had it still is difficult to change back but perhaps I finally will get a good nights sleep again, haven’t had that since my christmas vacation. Today however have been a day of tiredness. I baked a bread and while waiting for it to be ready I fell asleep in my recliner, with Albin sleeping on my stomach 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had set the timer but didn’t understand what it meant when I woke up 🙂 🙂 Took around five minutes until I remembered that I had the bread in the oven 🙂 Turns out that it was a perfect time for the bread to stay in the oven, I must remember that till next time 🙂

Have a great day!