Category: Nikon D7100.

Finally a day without rain.

August 11, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

We’ve had a day without any rain!! It feels amazing but that will change already tomorrow evening. They’re now guessing that we’ll get more than an Inch of rain from tomorrow evening until early Sunday morning. So no matter what, tomorrow I’ll have to mow the lawn before the rain arrives 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have survived the first week after the vacation, yay. The one who decides what I should paint and when was still on vacation so I did things I normally doesn’t, like grind down paint where there were dirt or someone had damaged the paint in some way. We were a bit behind on that job so I could do that the entire week 🙂 On Monday I’ll be back painting things again and I’ll continue to do so until September fourth when I must start to work evenings. Can’t pretend I like that but I will at least have a job.

A storm passed by this week, the Norwegians named it Hans and Hand was a trouble maker. There were floodings all over the southern parts of Sweden and in some places up in the north as well. One train derailed because the embankment was swept away by running water. Loads of water filled cellars everywhere, Roads were closed because they were more like ponds 🙂 🙂 but I didn’t hear anything about boats floating away like they always do during storms 🙂 🙂 It was much worse in Norway though, one house was swept away, mud slide all over the southern parts of the country and one smaller dam broke. They were just about to blow away a safety hatch when the entire wall beside it just broke down. No problems here though and like always I didn’t notice much of the wind because my neighbors cottage and garage takes all the wind 🙂

Nova wanted to take a shorter walk after work today but I managed to persuade her to take a slight longer one down to the creek and in to the forest there. Yesterday we most likely had a wolf following us because all the dogs were suddenly in a hurry to get out to the field on the other side of the forest. No wolf following us today but there were signs that wild hogs were close, especially the smell from them, so I talked loudly to the dogs because one really doesn’t want to surprise wild hogs, I rather have wolves following us than having to meet wild hogs or moose because those two are totally unpredictable when they get scared or surprised.

Two of my Sarracenias have flower buds now 🙂

I’m cooking chicken in the slow cooker for the dogs right now. They’ll get it as treats or in their food if they don’t want to eat (it is Nova I’m talking about 🙂 ). I think it’s ready now and I hope it is because the smell is a bit annoying right now. No spices and no salt make it smell less nice 🙂

Have a great day!

My first harvest :-)

August 5, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The weather has been mostly meh today. We had some sunshine in the early morning and about two minutes in the afternoon but it has at least not been raining. That however will change tomorrow evening if they’re guessing right. From Tomorrow evening till Tuesday night, perhaps early Wednesday, we’ll get around 4 inches of rain. I am happy for the rain we’ve gotten but now we need some sunshine and warmer weather so that the fruits will ripen properly and become sweet.

They’ve removed the warnings about low ground water levels now and I haven’t seen so much water in the creek since the snow melted this spring 🙂 🙂 I think these last heavy rainfalls have killed off a lot of flies because I really don’t need to wear my mosquito hat on our walks now. I can’t say I mind especially much but I guess birds still need them so they can build up energy for the move south. Still lots of mosquitoes though so they can fiest on them instead 🙂 🙂

The ice cream van came by today, I missed it the last time because I was in the bathroom and had no chance of getting outside in time 🙂 🙂 Our ice cream vans doesn’t sell individual ice creams but only sell packages of different varieties or mixed boxes with their most popular varieties. I actually don’t know if they’ve ever sold individual cones or popsicles, they did however sell both frozen fish, ready dinners and hamburgers back in the day. I couldn’t see any of that today though. So now I have one box with gluten free cones with chocolate ice cream and one with vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate and crushed almond on sticks. So if I don’t win the lottery today I can at least have some ice cream to comfort myself 🙂 🙂 🙂

Do You remember that I planted those sprouts that broke off when I planted the potatoes in the potato patch? Today I emptied the bucket with just two stalks. Last year I got enough potatoes in each bucket/ pot to last a week but in this one I got enough potatoes for one dinner 🙂 Well first they almost drowned because I had forgotten to make extra holes in the bucket so one shower was enough to fill up the bucket with water. After that the drought came and I forgot to water every now and again so I think this isn’t too bad after all. I do hope for better results in the coming buckets/ pots. This variety of potato is called Asterix.

I think it is time to go downstairs and to have one of those ice creams 🙂 I think I’ll have one of that vanilla with chocolate and crushed almond 🙂

I bought a Mahonia yesterday just because I wanted the plastic pot it was growing in, narrow and deep. I’m now using that pot for one of my Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) seedlings, well it’s just a seed with a tiny root so far. I did want the Mahonia as well because it gives quite tasty berries that both look and taste rather much like blueberries.

The harvest 🙂 🙂 To be honest I did find two more as big as the two smallest in this photo 🙂

Have a great day!

Thunder and lightning and bank ID.

August 4, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (28)

We had fog again this morning and I think fog must be my favorite kind of weather, especially when the sun can shine through every now and again. Nova decided that we were going out to the bog again. We didn’t see or hear any animals except for the birds and only one bird still sung its spring songs. There were no wolves around either since the dogs were happy and calm. Alma has calmed down so much that it’s hard to believe she’s the same dog that tore my shoulder apart a couple of time last year 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (32)

My Bank ID, a digital ID that I must have if I want to buy something online now days (I’m sure You have it too but one never know what it can be called), had to be updated, and I asked people and they said I had to do that in the online bank. I tried but the online bank said I had to either have an absolutely new passport or an international ID card where I could scan something to proof that I am who I am. My new drivers license wasn’t ok enough to use. I know we are several people who are quite upset about that because it will cost around $40 US to get an international ID card and why should I have to have that? I’ll never use it.

a (36)

So I drove to the bank today and my bank is in a neighbor county 50km (31 mile) away. I was quite annoyed when I arrived because after all my bank is well known for helping Russian oligarchs laundry their money and I doubt that those people would have to have an international ID card 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it turns out that I really don’t have to have anything new because all I needed to do was to update the app in my phone 🙂 🙂 🙂 The young woman who helped me had gone through this a lot of times 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still have no idea why the online bank said I had to have those things but I think that it had to do with newcomers to this country who aren’t citizens.

a (40)

I came home just before one of the angriest thunderstorms we have had here in years arrived. The Lightning app said that we had well over 800 lightning hits in and around this village during 30 minutes! I can’t remember that heavy showers falling either and the sound from the rain was so loud that I couldn’t hear the thunder at the same time. I loved it, Nova and Alma slept through it and Albin was so angry because I didn’t allow him to go outside to check what it was that made so much noise 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did open the door for him when the thunder had moved away some but the showers still were just as heavy and then suddenly it wasn’t that important to go outside after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (45)

After that we’ve had sunshine for a while but now it’s just as cloudy as before and the lightning app has warned about lightning in the area again. I think the worst is over but perhaps it’s best to close doors and windows again just in case.

a (16)

Have a great day!

The rain has given back what the drought took away :-)

July 30, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (2) — We were caught in a heavy shower this morning and all of us,except for Nova took shelter beneath big trees. I understand why she didn’t want to go there because that was the place most biting flies decided to stay as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

The weather has really been mixed today. Steady rain in the early morning but after that it has been mixed between heavy showers and sunshine. One minute sunshine and one minute showers just to go back to sunshine again. The dogs refused to go outside until rather late for being us so when we finally went out on our morning walk the flies were already there waiting for us. I can happily say that there now are fewer biting ones than there were before we went out on our walk 🙂 🙂

a (4) — I wasn’t expecting to find any mushrooms on our walk since I guessed that Nova would chose to walk down to the creek today. So I could unfortunately not pick this rather delicious mushroom because I had nothing to carry it in.

a (7)

I’m glad I mowed the lawn yesterday because it would have been impossible to do it today. My neighbor however mowed the last parts along their hedge and that mower can’t have been fun to clean up afterwards 🙂 🙂 But I haven’t been lazy despite the weather. I’ve trimmed away lots from the lilacs (and some of a mock-orange) that now made life hard for my Chinese catalpa. I’ve also ripped up some weeds around one of my ginkgos and I realized that I also ripped up a stinging nettle. I now have that burning sensation in my finger on my right hand.

a (11) — Lots of water in the creek now, so I would say that what the drought removed when it comes to water the rain now has given back.

Some of the summer apples are ripe now, I don’t like them especially much unless they are slightly un-ripe because when un-ripe they’re slightly sour. When ripe they are more bland and sort of mealy. I guess they could be great for apple sauce though so perhaps I should pick some for myself, I give away most to my closest neighbors because their oldest daughter really likes apples and especially those. In September I’ll have too many winter apples so I hope they take lots of those as well 🙂

a (14) — Snails are now eating my melon vines. I removed this one before it ate those tiny flower buds 🙂

I sowed some cone flower seeds just a few days ago and they first one has already germinated 🙂

So tomorrow starts the last week of my summer vacation. I can’t say I don’t like my work place but I desperately wants to win the lottery anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just thinking of having to drive to work when the roads are slippery with ice again and most parts of the days will be dark again is depressing 🙂 🙂 Ok I’ll start working evenings in September so I will actually see daylight but still I really don’t look forward to winter again.

The Catalpa doesn’t stand a chance if I don’t do something about those lilacs and the mock-orange.

This is the result. I’ll leave the branches where they are and later on I’ll drive over them with the mower.

Finally buds on my squash plants. They really didn’t like the heat wave we had but grows better now.

The same with the chicory. They do look a lot like dandelions 🙂 🙂

The Catalpa is in bloom but the flowers are hard to find since they all are up at the top of the tree 🙂

Have a great day!

No rain today :-)

July 29, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

Rather nice weather today, mixed cloudy and sunny and I think it reached 20C (68F) when it was as warmest. No rain thankfully, the swedish weather site says lots of rain tomorrow while the Norwegian says almost nothing but both says we’ll have sunshine in the afternoon. I trust the Norwegian more than the Swedish one and I hope it’s right because I am beginning to feel tired of the rain now. Not that I would do anything anyway but it is nice to be able to be outside and enjoy the day.

I’ve been busy in between naps today. I’ve mowed the lawn and the grass was so wet that I had to stop and clean it out from the mower all the time. Also the flies were insane so I wore my mosquito hat all the time. I was sure thunder was on the way but so far nothing. I’ve also done some laundry and baked some french rolls.

This time I used milk and butter and they do taste delicious but they didn’t rise especially well. I think it’s because I melted the butter and then pour in the milk to the melted butter. Sometimes when one does like that the fat can sort of embrace the yeast so it can’t do its job properly. Still they are rather light anyway and with melted cheese on them they are delicious 🙂

Besides that nothing much has happened here and since it has been really quiet in the entire village I doubt that anything happened there either 🙂 The last two peach kernels that finally started to germinate are nos showing above the surface in their pots I’ll place them outdoors as soon as they start to grow properly so they at least know that there is an outside world with varying temperatures and humidity. They, like the apricots will later on stay down in my cool cellar and hopefully I won’t kill them during winter 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The two peaches. They took their time to start their lives 🙂

Lots and lots with rain.

July 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So after this weekend I’ll only have one week of vacation left, well until Christmas time when I’ll use my last week. We have no holidays at all until then so I really hope I’ll like working evenings again. AI’ll at least get fewer hours to work with slightly more in pay but I still don’t look forward to work evenings. Still I’ll have a job so I won’t complain too much.

This week had been rather chilly and we’ve had so much rain that I haven’t had to water anything out in the garden. I really didn’t mind that much but some of those showers were so bad that I thought much of what’s growing in the garden would break. That didn’t happen but I still hope that the coming rain next week will be less heavy 🙂

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning. She went out to the peninsula in the bog and I hoped that there would be lots of fog because we had fairly thick fog everywhere else. I was sort of disappointed because there was almost no fog at all. We hadn’t been out there for especially long when the dogs suddenly wanted to walk home again and they seemed to be in a hurry. We hadn’t walked far when we heard the deer “barking” around the place we had been at so my guess is that a wolf must have arrived.

It was while standing here the dogs suddenly wanted to hurry back home.

I read an article that most dogs when smelling a wolf nearby reacts just like that, they want to leave unless they are terriers because they want to attack 🙂 🙂 but as the article said since they were so aggressive towards wolves the wolf would most likely run away even though they were so small. Well one terrier didn’t react like that and that was the Amstaff, Albin really doesn’t like other dogs and would love to be able to attack but as soon as he smells wolf he reacts just the opposite 🙂 and I’m glad he does 🙂

I haven’t been able to do much because of the rain but I have weeded (well to be honest that sounds a bit lame because I used spades and secateurs to get rid of what was growing there. I used to have blueberry bushes there but all the sand that I dug up while doing the root zone had to go somewhere and that was the best and closest place to put it. I did find three blueberry bushes still in there amongst the high grass, wildflowers and grapevines though 🙂 I let the blueberries stay and added some peat around them. After that I placed all the pots with the apricot seedlings and some citrus trees there but couldn’t stop myself from planting the seedlings I had this year. I have even sowed some seeds from perennial Hollyhocks and they’ll look good already next year . I also found lots of things I forgot I had placed there before the weeds and grass started to grow in the sand 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is the after photo. The angle of the photo make the place look smaller than it is but it is around 4 square meter (much the same in yards).

a (4) — I also placed the rubber sheet from my old pond over all those shoots from the thorny sloes, roses and the false spirea.

I’ve “pruned” (with big and heavy tools 🙂 🙂 ) the Rowan tree that grows beside the plum tree. It sowed itself and I like it but it was starting to push away the plum tree plus it was so dark and dry on the ground that almost all ferns that grew there had died.

No all the plums will get sunshine and ripe nicely 🙂

It is time to have something to eat and after that I have no idea. Nothing worth watching on tv so perhaps I’ll start reading a book?

Have a great day!

Grapes.

July 23, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

It has been really nice here today, mixed cloudy and sunny weather and around 20C (68F). I was a bit annoyed that the only cloud in the sky would cover the sun for most of our morning walk. It wasn’t that big but it just wouldn’t move up there in the sky 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then again it was so cool so not a single fly were out flying 🙂

The hunters have cleared the path that goes along the creek, but to be honest it is a bit early since the Roe deer buck hunt doesn’t start until August sixteenth. Then again they can hunt wild hogs all year round so they might be planning to do that.

I mowed the last grass outside my garden and it was still so full of morning dew that it clogged up the mower several times. I need to mow more often than I do to be honest but even after the rains it didn’t grow much until it suddenly did 🙂 🙂 The grass collector is broken so I had to have the lid open all the time and it opens up at the back, so I was totally covered in grass when I finished 🙂 🙂

I have finally found a recipe for gluten free french rolls that actually is really good! To be honest, they are almost too light and airy inside but they taste delicious! Since there aren’t any fibers that do the job gluten does one has to buy other things to make the dough something similar and I found one last Friday. The dough is really sticky so I learned that it is best to have flour on the hands when trying to make those rolls 🙂 🙂 🙂 I followed the recipe strictly though so I think I can make them even better by switching the water and cooking oil to milk (or perhaps even better sour milk) and butter.

I’ve also napped a lot today, just as I planned I would do during the vacation but to be honest I’m just as tired as before 🙂 🙂 So I’ll have a cup of tea and perhaps another one of those french rolls 🙂 The recipe said it would be fourteen rolls but I only managed to make eight. Next time I’ll see if I can find a recipe for a loaf of bread instead.

Have a great day!

I haven’t actually looked for any grapes but there can be more beneath all the big green leafs.

Much the same weather all week long.

July 21, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We haven’t had much rain this week, a shower now and again. The weather has been very much the same each day though, lots of clouds, sunshine in between. Rather chilly when cloudy but really nice when the sun shone. One day it did reach above 20C (68F) but mostly it has been lower than that. Sunshine in the early and cool morning so not many flies or mosquitoes annoying us while having our morning walk.

The Norwegian site says it will be warmer than the Swedish one but then again they say we’ll get more rain. I looked at the weather sites early this morning and none of the sites said rain tomorrow, they do now. So I sort of regrets that I didn’t mow the lawn today while it was quite windy and the grass was dry. Well we know how great they are in predicting the weather over here so it might be sunny and warm all day 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have gotten the carpet/ furniture cleaner but I haven’t tried it yet. So I guess I’ll try it tomorrow if the rain actually arrives. I think I’ll start with something not as thick as the big cushions I have on my sofas, they will after all have to dry up before I can put them back on the sofas. I have a couple of those thin mattresses on my bed, I can easily sleep one night without one of them.

It was quite nice when we were out walking early this morning. No wind but cool enough so that most flies stayed calm, at least until we came closer to home and the sun had warmed up the air. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek again. We have lots of morning dew here right now and there’s a lot of relatively high grass along that way so we were soaked by the time we came home. What surprises me each time we’ve walked there is how few ticks I need to remove from the dogs. It should be tick paradise there and lots of animals full of ticks walks there as well but each time I go through the dogs there are just a few. Well I can’t say I feel sorry about that 🙂

Nothing much is happening in the garden right now. My Persimmon seems to do very well, my Pawpaws grow and look healthy and so so my Ginkgos. The English walnut still grows but it is hard to see it since the plant in front of it is so big that I barely can see it 🙂 🙂 🙂 The last two Nectarine kernels that I’ve had in and out of the fridge finally started to germinate this week. Mostly it’s enough with one round to the fridge to make them start but these two needed several times in and out. I think that means that they come from a tougher area (climatewise) and that their spring can be as treacherous as ours, like really warm and sunny in early March but then full blown winter in April 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Apricots are growing fine and the biggest ones are now over 30cm (one foot) high.

Finally, the Nectarines germinated. They are now planted in two small pots so cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck 🙂

I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea even if it is well after 4pm. I have vacation, it doesn’t matter if I can fall asleep normal time or not 🙂

I’ve planted one of the Cherry plums on the north side of my cottage, close to the gate. I’ve put a bottomless tub around it so that the roots can’t spread and give new Cherryplums. I’ll plant one on the other side of the gate when I can find another tub I can remove the bottom from.

The Hazelnut bush has also found a place not far from the Cherry plum.

The House sparrow fledglings learns how to fly under the roof of my old patio, which I haven’t used in over twent years. Now some are daring enough to fly outside it, a whole meter (a yard) out to my Apricot tree 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

cleaning my sofas will be easier, I hope :-)

July 15, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The day has mostly been gray and dreary. Rather chilly in the beginning but not chilly enough to keep the flies calm though. Later in the day rain passed by and now there are some cracks in the clouds where the sun can peak through and it’s also much warmer. Still it won’t last for long because it’ll start raining tonight and we can either get almost nothing to very little or just as much as we had the last time. It all depends on where the heavy showers will pass.

a (17)

So we’ve done very little today. Alma has been really bored because none of us wanted to go outside to play and the neighbors daughter has been indoors as well. So no one to play with and all that energy has made Alma a very talkative dog 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s normally not a quiet dog but today she’s been worse 🙂 🙂

a (21)

I’ve just ordered a small carpet and furniture washing machine 🙂 I was thinking about how I was supposed to be able to clean the big cushions on my sofas and was thinking of a pressure washer. I’ve seen how good they work on carpets but then again those cushions are quite thick and would become so heavy with all that water that it would take ages for them to dry if at all in this cool and rainy weather 🙂 🙂 🙂 So instead I found this little machine where the only complaints about it is that it is very loud. Does its job really well though. It’s called Bissell SpotClean Pro 1558N. I even looked at international reviews and all said just the same, does its job really well but is very loud. Well I have earplugs at home so I’ll use those.

a (25)

The odd thing was that I couldn’t buy the detergent at the same time as the machine, as soon as I had pressed the button there was no turning back to buy anything more. So annoyed as I was I bought the detergent from another business 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll let You know what I think about it when I’ve tried it and I do hope I’ll say the same thing as the reviews 🙂

My big apple tree will get loads of apples this year, the rain came just in the right time because it had already dropped lots but now it looks like no more small apples have fallen off.

I have a patio that I haven’t used for well over twenty years, well I put a lot of things there but never sit there any more. It is mostly covered by a big rose, a grape vine and a climbing clematis so now House sparrow fledglings practice their flying in there. Magpies tried to hide there when it was raining but I think I finally managed to scare them away, they are big birds and will have to manage anyway. Every now and again though those little fledglings comes outside very close to my kitchen window and I managed to take a few photos through the rather dirty window 🙂

a (11)

Have a great day!

First week soon to be over.

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

Magpies, funny birds but also bl…y annoying 🙂 🙂 🙂 They can terrorize an entire neighborhood and attack cats and dogs and are really intelligent.

The weather has been rather mixed this first week of my vacation. Everything from sunny and hot to a bit chilly and heavy raining. Today is really nice though, mostly sunshine, a nice breeze and around 20C (68F). It was supposed to be like this yesterday but like always our weather service managed to miss that we would have rain almost half the day 🙂 🙂 🙂

The rain started quite nice on Wednesday

Another one on the back by my kitchen door. It needs to be a lot of rain to create a lake there because it’s only sand and runs down through the sand as soon as it hits, normally that it 🙂 🙂

We’ve gotten well over two inches of rain this week and nature loves it. Well I don’t complain about it either to be honest 🙂 Unfortunately the ticks loves it most of all. After every walk I’ve picked over twenty ticks from Alma while the two others have had perhaps five together. I have no idea why Alma is such a tick magnet but they do seem to love her. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek this morning so I was a bit worried that they all would have lots more walking around on them but to my surprise they had just a few, not even Alma had more than six walking around on her.

Yesterday morning felt quite chilly so not a fly was flying around annoying us.

The weather has made it more or less impossible to do anything outside and it has been perfect 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t remember when I slept this much before. The heavy rain day I must have slept well over six hours during the day (mostly with the window open so I could hear the rain hit the ground and cottage, until it changed direction and it started to rain in through the window 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and I still fell asleep at my usual hour and sleeping all night without any problems. I guess I needed it but have no idea why 🙂 🙂

We could pass this doe without Alma screaming like insane 🙂 🙂

The flies have calmed down because they’ve now cut down all the grass and made silage balls of it. That always happens when they do that so I guess that flies prefer to stay in high grass instead of trees during nights and perhaps even during days and when it’s gone the flies go to? Well there’s plenty still but not near enough to what we had before. I don’t even bring my mosquito hat on our walks, it’s enough with a hoodie. Alma has calmed down even more now, she still pulls the leash but the screaming when seeing anything move is almost gone! So now days we even see the odd deer again, still hares do make her a bit too excited but we’re working on that. The sitting down until she’s calmed down seems to work pretty well 🙂

I’m waiting for the package delivery car to come. I’ve ordered dog food and I have almost no dog food left so these packages will arrive just in time 🙂 🙂 I’ve just recieved a text message that they are on the way. So anytime from now until 5pm I’ll need to stay at home. Just a few weeks back they changed it to that packages below 20Kg ( 44,1 pound) can be delivered without me being at home but above that I need to be at home to recieve it. I’ve just bought a new kind of food for Alma and Nova because they didn’t really like the one I had and they have been a bit wobbly in their stomachs since we started with it. So today I’ll get one package that weighs well over20Kg and one well below. Does that mean they then would deliver the lighter package while bringing back the heavier if I weren’t at home? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nova can be the most stubborn dog in the world 🙂 🙂 I called for her because she went away on her own and to a road we weren’t going to take. She could hear me very weel and she knows the sign for coming back and she just didn’t give a crap 🙂 🙂 🙂

After around five minutes she slowly came towards us.

Then she stopped again and just stood there for another five minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂 She finally started to walk towards us again but refused to go all the way and instead went to where we were going to walk but through bushes and high grass instead 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Not much in bloom in my garden at the moment but the Creeping Bellflower has opened up. It’s voted to be the worst weed one can get in a garden 🙂 🙂 Here it has to fight with other plants almost as bad as itself so it’s no problem here.

A Perennial Sunflower is almost as bad as the bellflower.

The Nepeta sibirica or as its Swedish name is Great Dragon flower can also compete with it.

the Large yellow loosestrife isn’t much weaker.

Hotas are however not a match and would lose the battle fairly quick 🙂

Now I hope I can start what I planned to do during my vacation, lots of napping :-)

July 9, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So yesterday was mowing day and today it was filling the holes, or perhaps ravines is a better word, with gravel. We were four people with shovels and rakes and one with a tractor with a huge scoop. So we worked quite fast and effective to be honest. We might have worked for forty minutes but after we stood and spoke for at least an hour and a half 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was a bit worried about my back because it felt really bad this morning when I woke up but it didn’t bother me especially much at all to be honest. I am however a bit worried about my back right now because it really bothers me and I know this is nothing compared to how it will be tomorrow morning 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway now the job is done and now I hope I can start with how I planned this vacation to be, lots of napping and doing nothing 🙂 🙂

It was cool in the early morning when we went out on our morning walk and not a fly could be seen or heard but as soon as the sun started to heat up the air things changed rapidly. I’m glad I brought my mosquito hat because I think there were a gazillion flies just waiting to annoy us, no biting ones though, they all seems to have moved to my garden and the cows in the pasture beside. Lots of butterflies where we walk but none in my garden. Lots of bees though but to be honest they aren’t as beautiful as butterflies.

Tomorrow will be hot as well but the rain will arrive in the evening and with northern winds it will cool down quite a bit. The guessing about how much rain we’ll get varies quite a bit but at the moment the Norwegian site says almost an inch and the Swedish one four fifths of an inch. This morning they guessed we would barely get anything. One could say that we’ll know for sure about how much rain we’ve gotten afterwards but to be honest they usually says we’ve had a very different weather than we’ve actually have had 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s what happens when they trust computer programs instead och checking the real world 🙂 🙂 🙂

A perennial sunflower. It took ages for it to start spread and when it finally did it spread to a place where I don’t want it 🙂 🙂

This is a rose that has been here in this part of bthe village for well over 70 years. Have no idea what it is called though.

I’ll get ten Sand cherry cherries this year. This one is really drought tolerant but this early summer managed to make them let go of their berries.

I will need to go to the supermarket soon but I think I can wait until Tuesday when the weather won’t be anything else than rain anyway. I have enough to eat, I have enough with milk and I have enough with ice cream so I’m pretty sure my planned napping will happen tomorrow 🙂

Catmint and it loves dry and sandy places and spreads happily but I’m not swarmed with cats 🙂 🙂

The worst parts of the road was upp the slope here but I didn’t want to walk up there to photograph it because of all the biting flies.

Have a great day!

Well that didn’t go as I had planned :-)

July 8, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

a (4)

So my plan was to do nothing today besides taking walks with the dogs. So of course I’ve now mowed the lawn 🙂 🙂 The reason I did that was because we now are going to fill the holes in the gravel road tomorrow. We will thankfully be several people doing it (me and my neighbors, we’re only doing our little gravel road) and we don’t have that many holes but the ones we have are big and deep. It’s a job that needs to be done even though it’s heavy and boring.

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Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning. We were out later than usual because I actually slept an hour and a half longer than normal, so it was warm enough for the flies to become active. No biting ones thankfully, just the annoying forest flies and it looks like the drought has done its job to stop the mosquitoes to become more, there’s not a single puddle anywhere and the water level in the creeks ar low or not at all. There was lots of biting flies in my garden when I mowed though.

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I put all the mowed grass in my vegetable garden in between plants or along them. I might have buried some because the flies, even though I also wore a mosquito hat, were driving me crazy. Plus it has been really hot today and that didn’t help at all. It’s only the weekend that will be hot and sunny, the coming week will be cooler and they’re guessing we’ll get lots of rain as well. I don’t mind the rain, I have vacation and can sleep all day to avoid it 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!

When the rain comes the grass will both stop the water from evaporatiung and at the same time fertilize the ground while it slowly decays.

My new neighbors. They were the ones bringing the biting flies I’m afraid.