Category: Nikon D7100.

Normally or perhaps back in the days we would have winter now, mostly the temperatures would stay way below 0C (32F) at nights and barely reach above it if it even managed to do that. To be honest, I don’t miss it at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 I know the greenhouse effect and climate change is anything but good for us but I must admit that I like these warmer days and nights.

I can’t tell You how warm it has been today because the battery died in the thermometer 🙂 A new battery in today so I’ll know what it is like tomorrow 🙂 They are however guessing that it might reach above 12C (53,6F) and it will stay like that until at least Friday. No sunshine though but cloudy and a bit rainy. With the sun shining it would have been t-shirt weather in my garden 🙂 🙂

I went to the supermarket today and I saw a heard with Red deer not too far from the road and on my way home here in the village a young Fallow deer buck crossed the gravel road just in front of me. I saw it early so there was no risk of me hitting it with the car thankfully. Normally it is suicidal cats that cross the road way too close to the car so it was nice to see something else for once 🙂 🙂 🙂

This time of year is when I normally feel the Christmas feelings just to see them go away some time in the middle of December 🙂 🙂 Not so far though, I guess I was annoyed enough to see a big Yule gnome (or Santa) standing by the entrance to the supermarket already in the middle of October. Personally I can’t understand those people who start with any holiday two months before it happens, I usually get tired of it after a week or two.

I’m not a Christmas present guy at all but I usually buy myself a present this time of year, something I really want but perhaps normally wouldn’t buy, not because it is expensive but because I really don’t need it 🙂 🙂 One year I bought myself a Hasselblad camera for my birthday, I really didn’t need any camera since I do have way too many as it is anyway but I wanted to spoil myself with something 🙂 Today I think I have around 60 cameras, both for film and digital ones 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be fair, most of them pretty cheap, like an over a hundred years old Kodak camera that I bought for less then $ 3 US 🙂 It still works perfectly.

I have an idea about what I would like to buy this year even though I should be careful with money since I still am unemployed. So I will have to think a lot more about it before deciding. I’ll be just as happy at Christmas without it just as long as it doesn’t snow and is cold 🙂 The last cup of tea for the day is standing beside me and after that there’s a science program on tv I want to watch 🙂

Have a great day!

When it’s dark here it really is dark.

So I was at the job interview yesterday and I felt rather good afterwards. I went to another place in another town but he said the other place looked much the same and I really liked this place. Not especially big but it fitted a couple of cars that they were working on. So I think if not all but most cars had dents and plastic details sanded and painted but no bigger vehicles. 

He’ll cal me wether I get the job or not so now I’ll just have to wait. I can’t remember when the job ad will be removed but I guess it will be a week or two before I’ll hear anything. So until then I’ll just keep on enjoying every day as I have so far. Just hoping for sunnier weather because it is hard to be outside doing anything, especially since the dogs hate rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 We do need lots more to be honest since the groundwater levels still are really low and I hope that all the rain that fell yesterday has helped with that 🙂

The water levels are really high now, not because of the rain but by beavers blocking the water 🙂

0C (32F) this morning but I couldn’t see any frost when we went out on our morning walk. We had some sunshine but lots of clouds did their best to stop it. Still warm enough to keep the radiators off for a couple of hours. The neighbours have now moved out and it’s so boring to see how dark it is down there. When it is dark here it’s pitch black and it is impossible to see anything. I made a video or two showing that and I’ll see if I can find it. Many years old and other neighbours but still shows what it is like here during winter. It doesn’t help much with snow on the ground because it needs light to reflect and if we can’t see the moon it will still be just as dark 🙂 🙂 🙂

I passed the big freezer in the supermarket the other day and they had giant (or are they called Jumbo) shrimp. I know one shouldn’t buy those since the “shrimp farms” destroy the mangroves, at least that was what happened years ago but perhaps they’ve managed to change that now days? Anyway I really wanted some Chinese food when I saw them, I really like deep fried shrimps but can’t really have them any more since they tend to have wheat in the dough. So I thought why not do it myself but with corn flour instead? Or should I just fry them even though it wouldn’t be the same.. Most of the time I really don’t think about not being able to eat anything with gluten but sometimes it’s really annoying 🙂 🙂

It is time to make that last cup of tea for the day. For once they actually show something on tv that I want to see. It is called PÃ¥ SpÃ¥ret (On the tracks) where two two person teams tries to guess where a train (can also be some other kind of transport) will guess what the final destination (always a town) is. this trip can be from all over the world and they get clues all along the way, The earlier they can guess the destination the more points the team will get. Sometimes it’s really tricky but sometimes when it is a town nearby it’s easy of course 🙂 People can also compete via the Swedish Television app if they like to.  We’ve seen parts of the world one never could believe existed 🙂 🙂 🙂 No price money for the winners, only the honour 🙂

There should be two videos below here where You can hear my voice explaining what You are watching 🙂

Have a great day!

Very little has happened these last days and that’s how it should be 🙂 The weather has changed loads of time, lots of just cloudy, a fair amount of sunshine and some rain as well, especially today will be rainy, they’re guessing it will rain all day long.

The dogs just look at me when I open the door for them to go outside 🙂 🙂 The little monster however will not be stopped by some rain, my guess is that she’ll go straight to the woodshed because she’s rarely especially wet when she comes back home again.

We have been lucky with the weather when we’ve had our walks though and yesterday morning was so chilly that I could see frost on the ground here and there. So no moose flies to deal with 🙂 It should be the end of their season anyway so from now on I shouldn’t have to wear the hoodie to avoid getting those nasty flies walking in my hair. It is a horrible feeling to wake up to at night 🙂 🙂

Today I’ll go to a job interview. The job is in a town called Skövde but the interview will happen in another town called Lidköping. Apparently they have two factories (I’m not sure it should be called a factory but I don’t have a better word for it), the job is about sanding objects before it is going to be painted and eventually later on also paint the things. To be honest I have no idea what kind of things we’re talking about but a job is a job and since I don’t tend to win the lottery I hope I’ll get this job 🙂 🙂

I have come to like staying at home all day though 🙂 🙂 but getting payed is better than hoping for that lottery winning after all 🙂 🙂 This time at home have however made me realise that I will love to retire when that day comes 🙂 🙂 🙂

I haven’t had any tea yet so I better make some before it is time to drive to that job interview. Since the weather is like it is I guess I’l spend the time until then in front of the tv or perhaps watch an episode or two of a Town called Eureka 🙂

Have a great day!

There will be photos that were taken today and yesterday.

It has been a couple of calm days here, mostly grey and dull, some rain and even some sunshine, around two minutes of it 🙂 🙂

We were lucky that those minutes happened while we were out walking but we need more of it now when days get shorter and it’s still around two more months of that until it finally turns around again. It does however help that I am unemployed because I never had enough daylight when I had a job so I guess that’s positive 🙂 🙂 It was the same last year and to be honest I really didn’t get sick last year so I’m hoping for the same result this year, as soon as that cold that seems to love me finally leaves 🙂 🙂

The hunters were here today and had brought hunting dogs, I didn’t hear a sound from them so I guess that’s why they left early. There has been unusually few deer , hares and other animals around lately and I guess that can have to do with the wolf/ wolves being here. Well I didn’t think we would have a chance to tale a walk in the forest today so I was pretty happy when I noticed that they all had left.

Because of the rain we haven’t been out in the garden much either so I’ve mostly watched the dvd collection of A Town called Eureka and I’ve also been drinking a lot of coffee so it is time to make that cup of tea instead before I continue with watching dvd’s 🙂

The old rose covered all space behind the chips I made from the branches in my compost grinder, around 4 square meter (I think it’s more or less the same in square yards)

Have a great day!

Grey and dull.

Not the happiest weather today, cloudy and boring when we were out on our morning walk but on the way home the rain arrived and it continued to rain half the day or so. Even though the garden is rather muddy (and also my home) we still need more rain so the groundwater level finally rise to more normal levels. I’ve cleaned the bottom floor so much now that it feels that there isn’t much left of it 🙂 🙂

I’ve now made an appointment for when my car will go through the annual vehicle inspection, December 29th. We used to have it every twelve month but we’ve it every fourteen month because that what they have down on the continent. I can’t see the logic in that but since we’re member of the EU we do what they do. I usually have it the last day I can because if there’s something that needs to be fixed I have one more month to drive before it is illegal 🙂  I really don’t like to have to do it when it is winter but next year it can be done as late as late February to early March 🙂 All problems are so much nicer when it is warmer and nicer outdoors 🙂

It is Persimmon season now and it is one of my favourite fruits. This time however they sold Kaki fruits, a relative to the Persimmon, they taste much the same but You can eat the Kaki even though it isn’t fully ripe. These are always seedless but every now in a blue moon some have a seed in them and I’ve been lucky twice already 🙂 Both Persimmon and Kaki fruits are just as cranny as Pawpaw seeds to germinate but I’ve done as I always do, put them in a moist paper towel and inside a plastic bag and placed them in the fridge so I’m hoping for good luck. I doubt these will be especially hardy though but I can have them in pots for several years before they grow too big. The problem I can see is that those pots will be nasty heavy and difficult to bring down to the cool cellar during each winter 🙂 🙂

All the chickens have moved, I’ll miss them.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I’m thinking of perhaps having an ice cream at the same time but I have already had two today 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Wolves, eagles, ravens and a try from someone to scam my mother.

Yesterday mornings sunrise. We didn’t see much of the sun until just before it set.

So my mother just called me because she had gotten a text message from me saying I couldn’t manage any more, meaning needed money. Well the thing is that I haven’t sent her a message because I know she most likely don’t know how to answer 🙂 🙂 🙂 So the one sending it wanted to scam her for money. What that person doesn’t know is that she barely knows how to make a call and wouldn’t be able to send any money until Monday when the banks open and only if she could get a ride 🙂 🙂 🙂

I really don’t know how this works, if they can do the same to other relatives so I’ve been calling around to relatives so if they get the same message they won’t answer to it. This is at the moment a popular way to trick money out go people because who won’t help a child/ relative in need if they can? I’ve told my 89 year old mother to report it to the police even if it actually won’t help because like everywhere they have too little staff and no money to check in to it. Just imagine how much good these people could do if they tried to help people instead!

Yesterdays morning walk was a disaster 🙂 🙂 All of a sudden Malkolm refused to walk in front of me and Alma when we were walking on the very narrow path beside the creek. He did everything to avoid walking and it almost resulted in he almost tied my feet together with his leash. I just couldn’t understand what he was doing but after a long while we managed to continue. Normally he walks with his nose close to the ground but this time he looked straight ahead and pulled the leash unusually hard, then suddenly Alma joined him and they almost made me fall and they didn’t calm down until we were at home.

I can’t figure out what I didn’t understand him until I realised that they behaved like they did the first time we had wolves close to us 🙂 🙂 🙂 This time the reaction was much stronger so I guess that if I had looked around I might have seen it but I was more occupied in not getting tied up and fall 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I think we better avoid the creek for a while, not because I think the wolf still might be there but because it is still too fresh in his memory. So we walked out to the bog instead and today he was like he always is, nose glued to the ground and slightly pulling the leash. It was pretty cold and the temperature was quite low, -6C (21,2F). Thankfully we had sunshine and the sun is still warming up the air quite a lot.

So I have actually had the kitchen door open as long as the sun hit the southern wall. It is sad to see all the leafs falling off but when they are gone the sun hits that wall for a much longer time 🙂 I could even turn off the radiators for several hours. Now it’s dark outside and the temperature will drop quite a lot again tonight.

I’m making rice porridge in the slow cooker and it’s almost time to have some 🙂 So I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day and enjoy the porridge instead with lots of raspberry jam 🙂

Sometimes White tailed eagles flies over the cottage and they always have ravens chasing them.

The Raven is a rather big bird but looks pretty small beside the eagle.

Have a great day!

T-shirt weather.

I woke up in the middle of the night because too much tea I guess 🙂 🙂 and naturally I couldn’t fall asleep especially quickly leading to me sleeping unusually long and when I looked out the window I could see the ground was covered in unusually thick fog. The dogs and I rushed to go outside, took perhaps as most ten minutes and by that time almost all of it had vanished. I was a bit annoyed to be honest but then the sun shone and the leafs in the trees looked like they were burning, so I stopped being annoyed 🙂 🙂

I wouldn’t say it was cold but I can say it wasn’t warm so even if we went out to the bog only one moose fly showed any interest in us, meaning me 🙂 Deer were barking so something out there were scaring them but I doubt that it was a wolf, deer have a tendency to think anything is scary as long as it moves. Could have been a fox or perhaps wild hogs passing by. Lots of small birds flying between the trees, Jays arguing further up close to the tree tops and ravens flying towards the bigger roads to see if breakfast was served (meaning something gotten hit by a car or lorry during the night).

the temperature never rose above 12C (53,6F) in the shadow but the sunshine was so warm today that I had to change from a sweater to a t-shirt. It was impossible not to enjoy it so we spent a big part of the day outside in the garden. I really didn’t have anything to do so I decided that those roses I had cut down and would put in the compost grinder next year (mostly because of the thorns) would be better if I did that today 🙂 This rose has millions of small but awfully sharp thorns but they soften a lot if being wet for a longer period of time so the branches can be handled without too much problems. The problem is that not all become soft so now I have lots of tiny thorns in my hands because why would I use gloves 🙂 🙂 🙂

The old vegetable garden looks a bit odd now when the fence is gone. I didn’t remove any weeds after I had harvest all but some leeks and the potatoes so half is green and half brown where the potatoes grew 🙂 There are still some tiny leeks in there though 🙂

Since I now have found my jigsaw I thought why not cut those barrels open so I finally have those extra rainwater barrels I’ve been talking bout to do as soon as I found the jigsaw 🙂 I do like to play with machines but I must admit I’m not good at it 🙂 🙂 So I cut one open at the top and placed it by the entrance door. Then I thought that it is actually impossible to have too many rainwater barrels and I knew I had two more barrels I could use (blue plastic ones, I’m not much for the aesthetics to be honest. Yes a rainwater barrel in oak do look good but costs a fortune especially since we don’t have any distillery where one can get them for free anywhere near 🙂 So blue plastic ones will do great 🙂

So I made one more to the greenhouse and realised I have at least one extra barrel in the old garage (so two more instead of one more) but by then I’d started to look at those thorny branches so I might do another rainwater barrel tomorrow and place it  on the other side of the greenhouse 🙂 🙂  in between I went indoors to have some tea and ice cream 🙂  Now it’s dark outside and I could hear rain hitting my window so tomorrow I’ll check how much water has fallen in to the new barrels 🙂 At the moment however my biggest concern is to try and remove as many tiny thorns I can from my hands, they itch like crazy right now 🙂

I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day, it is much nicer to be able to sleep all night instead 🙂 Also if I go up the dogs go up as well and if they go up they want to go outside and if they go outside I’ll have to go first to check there’s no badger walking around looking for food and since it’s chilly at night I’ll have problems falling asleep again 🙂 🙂

My big apple tree is actually only half a tree, the other half fell one summer because that side grew too big.

Have a great day!

It has been a meh day weather-wise. The sun didn’t show itself until now when it is about to set for the day. Ok it has been around 10C (50F) all from morning to now so at least there was no need for any radiator to be working.

Malkolm is now refusing to eat anything in the morning but after a walk there’s no problem what so ever to give him the exact same food from my hand 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess this has to do with the chemical neutering slowly is giving up, he’s also normally a sensitive dog but at the moment he’s even more so, so if I sound the least annoyed he looks like the world is ending 🙂 poor guy. No problem what so ever to eat his food in the afternoons though.

I’ve removed the fence around the vegetable garden now and it looks quite funny with a circle with no vegetation (well there are my tiny leeks, they never grew to anything really since I mistreated them from the start but I can say they taste really good) and a sort of border with higher grass growing around it 🙂 🙂 I’ll take a photo of it tomorrow. I also moved the chrysanthemums I had planted outside the fence to new and hopefully better places for them climate-wise. They aren’t as hardy as autumn asters are.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. The sun is down and I can see ground fog slowly flowing out in the pasture I can see from my window here by the computer. They say we’ll have fog again tomorrow and I hope it stay for longer than it did this morning.

Have a great day!

It would be a lie to say it was warm today.

Well to say that we had a warm day here would be to lie 🙂 the temperature barely reach above 10C (50F) but the sun was shining almost all day and it did feel really nice when being in it. The long side of my cottage is heading south so I could have the kitchen door open for a big part of the day anyway.

No hunters in the forest but lots of moose flies but since it was as chilly as it was they were easy to remove and kill. Wild hogs had left just before we arrived at the bog so that could be the reason we had so many moose flies. Lots of birds tweeting and we did see a roe deer out in the fields.

I’ve decided to not use the fenced vegetable garden next year, I did fence it because back then old Albin still was around and he loved to dig up and eat vegetables 🙂 🙂 especially garlic and he also tried to eat onions 🙂 🙂 🙂 and since he not is around any longer I might just as well remove that fence and start growing the vegetables around the greenhouse instead. Also since I have two different potato diseases in that soil (nothing deadly for either the potato or me, common scab and powdery scab) I’ll only grow potatoes in buckets or big pots.

I also dug up a lot of Ball thistles, the few Hostas I have and a peony. I wasn’t sure if I would touch the peony but it was much bigger under the surface than I thought it would be so by mistake I managed to cut it in two pieces. All but the ball thistles are now replanted, the thistles I just tossed in a corner of the garden because they tend to survive no matter what one does to them 🙂 🙂 🙂

Every time I’ve been going down the stairs to the cool cellar both Alma and Malkolm has been standing outside the open door whining and refusing to follow me down. Old Love followed me despite that her first year in life was being starved and tortured in a cellar. Alma and Malkolm just continued to refuse 🙂 Malkolm could follow me three steps but then turning back while Alma refused to do even that. That was until Malkolm one day realised that he would get a treat if he came further down 🙂 Still he could walk almost all steps down but never step on the floor. When Alma understood that treats were involved things started to change 🙂 🙂 🙂

Today she ran all the way down to the floor and when she got a treat I could see how proud she was. Malkolm was still a bit anxious but a piece of cheese made him change his mind 🙂 🙂 Now they almost run down the stairs before me and expects me to give them a treat 🙂 Their eyes grow big and tail wagging 🙂 🙂 Perhaps it was better before after all 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea and today I’ll have crackers with blue cheese on 🙂

The flowerbed just beside the vegetable patch, I removed half of it because there were too many wild raspberries growing in it plus that, if I ever come around to that project I’m thinking of I will need that space.

I’ll have the vegetables growing close to the greenhouse instead. I do have two roses though that will be staying where they are. This one on this side

and this one on the other side. This rose have been growing in this garden for very long, perhaps already from the beginning 115 years ago. Has been moved around though so that’s why it is as small as it is.

Have a great day!

I wouldn’t say that they has a sale on blue cheese in the store today but when comparing the price to the smaller packages it still was pretty cheap (well that’s a lie nothing is ever cheap, especially not blue cheese 🙂 🙂 ) so I’m now pretty sure Malkolm will love to eat breakfast again 🙂 🙂  Alma eats any crap but she’ll have some blue cheese as well of course.

We had a chilly morning but since the hunters were out we couldn’t have our usual morning walk. By the time I came home again the hunters already were gone and it must have been less than an hour I was away. Anyway during that short time most of the grass had dried up so it has been a rather warm day even outside the little hollow I live in.  I met another hunter sitting in a hunting tower and it turns out that he had fallen asleep in the warm weather 🙂 🙂 I know him well so we had a little chat before the dogs and I continued our walk. Both he and I had had a rather bad night and we think it’s because we both have that small cold when the nose is stuffed but not much else than the normal tiredness happening.

I want to have a new project. I actually have one that has been waiting for years but I don’t have all the materials I need and I must be careful with my economy since I don’t have a job. One never knows what might happen so it’s always good to have a an emergency fund just in case and not touch that until it is absolutely needed. I’m far from needing that but buying a lot of things not absolutely needed is just stupid even if I would have fun doing it 🙂 🙂 🙂

As usual there’s nothing worth watching on tv so I’ll make myself a pot of tea and most likely snooze in the recliner for the rest of the night 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

This is not the monster but most likely her sibling 🙂 If he/ she ever comes here I guess I’ll just let it stay 🙂

I already have too many seeds for next year :-)

The moon yesterday evening.

It is raining, sort of a nice spring rain. Ok I know it’s autumn but that’s the feeling I get when being outside and not even the dogs seems to dislike it. We walked down to the creek this morning unlike yesterday when we walked out to the bog. It is strange but those moose flies survives lots of night with frost and they love it out by the bog so I didn’t want that to do that mistake again 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve noticed that there are lots fewer moose flies if we walk on the wider gravel roads even though they do sometimes even turn up here in my garden. Also it is seldom that any of them stays close to the creek, I have no idea to why though and it could just be coincidence but it’s like that every year. I think the moose passed just outside the garden yesterday evening because Alma was in guarding mood the entire time we were outside when it started to go dark. I could see some big tracks in the grass just outside my fence. If it had been a wolf she wouldn’t go outside at all 🙂 and the wild hogs walks closer to the forest on the other side of my home.

Our squirrels are quite shy so it’s always a joy when one can see them.

I always go out on seed sites this time of year and to be honest I already have many more seeds than I can sow next year 🙂 🙂 Then however, a couple of days ago I found seeds to something called Litchie tomato. It isn’t a tomato but a relative in the Nightshade family and even though I could see in photos that it must have been made in hell because it has zillions with really sharp small thorns I thought I have to test it 🙂 🙂 I’ve now been out on Youtube and watched a few videos and it is clear that it can’t grow in a place I have to pass at all because those spikes will hit me 🙂 🙂

Also I’ve learned that it is quite hardy, not that it will survive a winter here but night frost isn’t a problem at all. So it is either growing in the back of the greenhouse or it’ll just grow up there and later planted outside. Anyway it will be fun to try it 🙂 An odd thing happened when I tried to order it via my phone, for some reason I couldn’t get the seeds I bought by mail? Really strange since those packages I ordered hardly would even be noticed in an ordinary envelope. I could however go and pick it up at the seed firm not too far from where I live. That annoyed me so much that I cancelled the order 🙂 🙂 However I regretted it and did the order via my computer and then I didn’t even get a choice to pick it it, I could only get the seeds by mail 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thos are the problems we have in the village at the outskirts of the world 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well it is a long time until spring so I’ll place these seeds together with all the other seeds I already have in a plastic lunch box until it is time to start thinking about it again. It is time to feed the dogs and the monster and I already have a cup of tea by my side. I have caught a small cold, nothing serious just stuffed nose, freezing a little and sneezing a lot 🙂 🙂 I still have honey that my old neighbours gave me so I’ll have some of that and hope this will pass quickly even though it isn’t that bad 🙂

Have a great day!

They are slowly ripening 🙂 I had to take this photo with a flash so the colours aren’t quite right. They are turning towards a very dark red colour.

For a while in the early morning it looked like we were going to have sunshine while we were out walking and we did for around twenty seconds 🙂 Then the rain arrived, no heavy showers but either a steady but calm rainfall or misty rain. It wasn’t until just after noon the sun made a come back and now three hours later I can see that the rain is falling again.

The rain on the mountain missed us but another one came a short moment after.

So I haven’t done a lot today, mostly drinking tea and watching tv, well I wouldn’t be able to tell You what it was I looked at because mostly it was pretty boring and nothing I really wanted to see. When the sunshine finally arrived I’ve mostly been throwing away what I’ve had in pots and poured it all out close to where the plum tree stood. I dug up all the dahlias and for the first time in my life only one can be saved till next year, I have no idea why they didn’t create root lumps like dahlias always do. Could be that I’ve watered them too little.

No signs of any wolf still staying around, they rarely do to be honest. I did see some tracks from moose though and they looked really fresh, if they had been old the rain would have wiped them out. To my very big surprise I finally found my jigsaw!! and it was pure luck because I can’t really understand why I had placed it there, beneath the entrance stairs??!! It must have been that a shower passed by and that was the closest place I could find, otherwise I have absolutely no idea 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully it is in a sort of plastic suitcase so no water from the latest rains had managed to get to it. So it still works and soon I’ll be able to have that third rainwater barrel 🙂

Well the weather doesn’t seem to become any nicer again so I guess I better make a pot of tea and perhaps doze off in front of the tv 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!