Category: Phone photos.

Finally the storm has passed, it’s still raining though.

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Just a short one today. The greenhouse still stands, I went out several times to check how the anchors and pegs were holding up and they show no signs of even moving the slightest. The only thing that did was the broken golf club in front of the door, so I pressed it down in the ground in another place and much further down and it is still standing 🙂

The dogs barely went out to do their business because the wind was fierce and I must say I didn’t think a tree could bend that much as my Chinese catalpa, any normal tree bending so much would have broken in two 🙂 🙂

The badger visited us in the late morning, I was surprised it even had went out on a day like this. I was outside just minutes earlier to check the greenhouse and went back to let the dogs out. Took a bit longer than I expected so by the time we came out the badger had left us again 🙂 They dig mall holes searching for snails and larvae to eat and they weren’t there when I was out earlier 🙂 So everything has went well and we’re all sitting in the cottage enjoying not being outside 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that it feels like an early night is the right thing to do 🙂 Well I’ll watch the news first just in case something has happened in the world 🙂

Have a great day!

It will get colder they’re guessing.

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Two nice days in a row, yesterday started out sunny and it wasn’t until pretty late in the afternoon the rain arrived, today started with deep dark clouds and rain but later in the afternoon the sun showed itself. From no on they’re guessing that we’ll have sunshine all day long for a couple of days but the temperature will drop rather a lot.

So today I started to bring down the smaller citrus trees and the hardy hibiscus I have outside plus one little tree called Date-plum (Diospyrus lotus, a Persimmon relative). I bought it late in the season since it was for sale and affordable so I felt it was too late to try and plant it since this is on the border to what it can take climate-wise. I do hope that if any mouse would go down there that it doesn’t like to eat the little tree 🙂 🙂 🙂 I know they don’t like any kind of citrus so those will be safe. Then again the monsterkitten is a great mouse hunter and so far I haven’t heard any mice running inside the walls 🙂

The dogs and I went out to the bog yesterday morning so I could pick the mushrooms I found. It looks like I now days am the only one picking mushrooms so I don’t have to worry about anyone else taking them before me 🙂 I fried them with butter until all water had evaporated from the frying pan and then I tossed them in the freezer. I think we’ll be taking that road again tomorrow 🙂 After we had come home I got the idea that I should preserve apples in sugar syrup. It is easy to be honest if one has the right kind of apple, I didn’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can however tell You that I might have made the best applesauce I’ve ever tasted 🙂 🙂

After I had drained off most of the sugar syrup I poured it down in to jars, so do anyone know what one could do with lots of rather good tasting sugar syrup 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also baked a big loaf of bread with lots of cheese in it (at the same time I did the laundry) and I must say it is really tasty 🙂 Since I did so so much yesterday I’ve done almost nothing today (except for bringing down those trees to the cellar) , not even napped. I did however since the morning was so dull make some rice porridge,. It’s really a winter porridge but it sort of fitted to the mood both I and the dogs had.

Still getting strawberries but they don’t taste especially much now.
I need to clean the table for some cacti I have but otherwise it looks pretty good. I also have a new led-light ramp beside the old plant light ramp.
Soon I’ll also place five bigger citrus trees here (not so big nowadays since that frost we had early in spring) and a tea tree.

The only thing I still need to do today is to go out to the garden before letting the dogs out for the last time today to make sure there’s no badger out there 🙂 🙂 I have to do that until it gets so cold at night so the badgers decides to just sleep until it’s nice outside again 🙂 I’m just about to have my last cup of tea for the day and perhaps I’ll have a sandwich or two as well. I don’t have much in the fridge but I’ll always have cheese and milk, so tomorrow I’ll have a trip to the grocery store again, So many colds going around at the moment so I’ll drive away as early as possible.

Have a great day!

A tad chilly in the morning.

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I always have the bedroom window open during summer, day and night unless it’s hot as h..l outside. I woke up during the night feeling rather cold but didn’t think more about it than pulling the blanket over me and having a dog sleeping closer to me 🙂 I checked the thermometer when we went down to the kitchen and it had been a tad chilly outside. It was 4,9 C (40,82 F) outside and as coldest it had been 3 C (37,4 F).

The sun has been shining all day though and the northern winds we’ve had went from chilly to rather nice during the day. Besides watering plants I really can’t remember what I’ve been doing 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yesterday I did start reading a book again and actually enjoyed it so much that I had to force myself to put it away. That hasn’t happened in a very long time, not since I was hit by covid and the brain refused to work as it should. I have been reading on and off anyway but sort of not enjoyed it.

Sometimes it’s hard to chose between keeping the orange sky but see the fog a bit less good or see the fog but losing the orange sky 🙂

Well I did dig up some potatoes and raw fried them in the oven and it was just as tasty as I remembered it 🙂 With them I had a few meatballs and sausages 🙂 Nothing fancy but really tasty 🙂 I’ve also been locking for a place for my last pear tree seedling but so far no luck. I have started to cut down the grape elder and the huge rose (it has a couple of English names so I chose Beach rose) living side by side. The wild form is seen as invasive and should be removed and that’s a tough job since those thorns are nasty. This one has been left alone for well over twenty years so it’s really tough to cut down. I’m pretty sure that job will take a year or so but otherwise that would have been a good spot.

I found some rust coloured mums the other day and realised that it’s now days the only colour I like on them 🙂 I’ve planted them in a new flowerbed because they might survive the winter here. They’ll look very different next year though because they’ll grow rather high and if they get the chance to flower it’ll be late in autumn I’ve heard.

I’ve already had my last cup of tea for the day so now I don’t know what to do 🙂 🙂 Well I can always have a bowl with cornflakes, I like to slice a banana in it and dust it with cinnamon plus the dogs will get a piece off banana each 🙂

I have the same problem with my Giant Sequoia seedling as the Pawpaws, mice seems to like eating them so I can’t have them in the cool cellar. This one should have been twice as big if it hadn’t been for the mice. So I’ll try and cover it during winter and hope for the best and I’ll have to do the same with the Pawpaws.

Have a great day!

Another wonderful spring day.

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So any photo with sunshine is from yesterday.

Two days with temperatures above 10C (50F). Yesterday sunshine all day and today we weren’t supposed to have sunshine so it started to shine after we had come back from our morning walk and lasted almost until the sun was about to set. It has been so nice to being outside but colder weather is on the way. Tomorrow will be the last day with spring temperatures and after that it’ll cool down a lot.

However one isn’t getting any wiser by looking at the weather sites  because they show so different temperatures that it’s impossible to even guess 🙂 🙂 So I’ll do my best to enjoy tomorrow and the sunshine we’ll get.

Most of the cold is gone now but I still have the coughing and I know it most likely will stay for quite some time. I’ve either coughed so hard or sneezed, because I do that as well, that a new little muscle most likely is ruptured but now on my right back side. I know it isn’t Alma this time because she has behaved exemplary these last days. The only thing she still does that annoys me is the whining but actually less than normal. We have of course only walked where the risk of meeting anyone is minimal but I’m still impressed!

I drove to the grocery store yesterday and checked if I could see any Crane but no such luck, lots of different geese and what we call song swans (relatives to Trumpet swans). I think however that I heard a crane this morning but the sound was hard to hear because it was from a long distance. Still they will start arriving any day soon now 🙂

The first one I found today. The sun broke through and the croci opened up 🙂

Yesterday I also allowed Sara to be outside with us. The door was open because I was going in and out of it for a while and then she nonchalantly tried to walk outside not knowing I had my eyes on her the entire time 🙂 🙂 So I carried her around in the garden and then let her walk on the biggest branch of my biggest apple tree. I think she liked it but she wasn’t even close to want to go outside today, lots to so through for her I guess 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and then watch some tv I think 🙂

Have a great day!

The vet visit.

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The photos will be a mix taken these last days.

I had set the alarm today because we were going to the vet this morning. Malkolm would get the chemical neutering and Sara the real surgery. We were all up long before the alarm started so we even could go back to bed and just wait for it to start :-)Well I couldn’t leave Alma at home because I like try little cottage and the little I have here in my home. I couldn’t leave her in the dog yard because this is not the time to renovate it, too cold to even try to dig down net in the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 So she came along as well.

Alma hates car rides but jumped in to the car, Malkolm loves car rides but refused to put his paws in the car at all 🙂 So it was a bit tricky to even lave the village 🙂 🙂 I didn’t have to scrape any ice from the car even though it was well below freezing point so I took that as a good omen 🙂 The ride to the vet was unusually calm, Alma only whined a little and managed to tie her and Malkolm together with the seat belts. She calmed down even more when she could put her nose outside the car on both sides, the inside of the car went a bit chilly but it was worth it 🙂 🙂

We could course not bring Alma when it was time to insert the chemical neutering in Malkolm so she had to stay in the office. The vet said this will hurt and he must be absolutely still so he called the ones working there. The syringe was pretty big so I held  Malkolm firmly and so did two employees as well. That when we all heard Alma shouting her lungs out so I said For heavens sake You didn’t leave her alone there because nothing will remain 🙂 🙂 🙂  but there was one person still there to keep her as calm as she could 🙂 🙂 🙂 Turns out Malkolm didn’t feel a thing and was so happy when three people hugged him so much 🙂 🙂 🙂

I had to go back and pick up Sara before lunch and she was not a happy camper but I doubt that she actually managed to notice that we were going back home again. They checked her ears and it turns out she had ear mange so we went to the pharmacy on our way home. Almost the first thing she did was to tear off the cone of shame but I managed to make it a bit more tight but still let hear breathe so I hope it stays on at least during the night, she’s supposed to have it for ten days but that’ll never happen 🙂 🙂 🙂 The toughest job will be to keep the dogs away so they don’t clean the area where the surgery took place. I won’t argue with her if the cone at least stays for four days 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and hope there will be something interesting on tv. I doubt that though 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

I should have used one more egg.

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So they said the sun would make an appearance in the afternoon today, it didn’t. They are saying we’ll have sunshine all day tomorrow and I’ll believe it if it happens 🙂 🙂 Still we had a really nice walk this morning, yes alma did pull the leash a lot but she didn’t whine! I’ve noticed that I’m much more patient with her when she doesn’t whine, that sound eats its way in to the brain and slices it into pieces and when she doesn’t whine I’m not that hard on her when she pulls the leash 🙂

 

The hunters were supposed to be here both yesterday and today but I don’t think anyone showed up, the weather hasn’t been with them at all. They were supposed to hunt for hares but I have barely seen even one since last summer. The hare plague comes and goes here so I guess it was here this summer and now it’ll take a few years until they’ve grown in numbers again. We humans can actually get the hare plague via mosquito bites and it can end badly as we also can get vole fever and that can also end badly. Vole fever thankfully only if one get rid of their droppings and don’t wear a face mask. Starts like a cold and after that it just goes down hill.

I made a shrimp and vegetable pie today. The pie crust was excellent and didn’t sink a bit but the filling never really got thicker. The taste however was really yummy so I had no problems eating it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think I had an egg too little for the filling. I didn’t want a huge pie, after all it is only for me so I reduced the ingredients with a third, I shouldn’t have done that with the egg I think 🙂 🙂 but the taste is the only thing that matters to be honest, so I could actually say that today I had a soup pie 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve had a little setback with the flu today, I started to boil when we were out on our morning walk and the coughing has been worse. I also have a slight headache but I think that one comes from our walks and Almas’ pulling the leash, she is rather erratic and open never knows when she’ll try and run forward in high speed 🙂 🙂 🙂 

The Monster kitten is attacking poor Malkolm ferociously.

and Alma is so happy that it isn’t her 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that fixing the dishes awaits.

Have a great day!

After that she had a well deserved nap 🙂

More snow to melt away.

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it was just grey and dull when we went out on our morning walk and from that it went downhill. First some lighter snow with tiny snow flies that couldn’t be seen when they landed on the ground, then rather big and lots  of them that really showed on the ground and then it started to rain. Still lots of snow on the ground but hopefully those slightly higher temperatures they’ve been talking about will arrive as they’re guessing.

I can never capture this old tree trunk properly but I still keep on trying 🙂

Canada geese, many of them refuse to leave when the nasty weather comes.

Besides that very little has happened, the most exiting being that the dogs and I had pancakes for lunch 🙂 The dogs are bored but every time they go outside they want to go inside again. So we have most been indoors being inactive watching tv or napping. The monster cat was active for a while though, one could think that if she tries to do a thing on and on again and fail she finally would understand that it won’t work next time either. I don’t know how many times she failed to pass an orchid by the windows and both she and the poor plant have fallen down to the floor 🙂 🙂

I guess it is time for that last cup of tea for the day but today I’ll try and stay awake since it’s a weekly science program I want to watch, they re-run it several time but for some reason I’ll still miss it if I don’t watch it the first time they show it 🙂

Have a great day!

There’s always a way.

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Computers are great to have, computers can be really fun but computers that behaves like they want to is a really big pain in the a..e 🙂 🙂 Well it isn’t the computer but the photo editing program. I really don’t want to do anything but reduce the size both in pixel size and MB size but it refuses to do the latter. I’ve figured out a way to go around this problem but it takes so much longer time.

I have a slight problem with what photos I post because the icons are so small and I can’t find anywhere to make them bigger in this folder so I can only hope I put in the better ones 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well life could be worse and I do have lots of time now days. Still really annoying. The hunters should have been here today but so far no one has arrived, so we had a walk in the forest and down to the creek. I figured that if they would come we still most likely already had come down to the creek and soon out of their way anyway. A bit windy but much calmer than the previous days.

I haven’t been totally idle today though, I did some laundry for instance. Now that doesn’t sound like a lot of work but I have a sort of manual washing machine. My bathroom is so small that I can’t fit in a normal sized one but since I’m not a big fan of washing laundry by hand I bought one that fits in a caravan. That means that I need to fill up water for washing and rinsing the laundry, no big deal, what is a bit annoying is that when the clothes are going to be centrifuged I need to move it to the built in centrifuge and load it by hand so that it is in balance, if I fail it’ll sound as if the centrifuge is on its way to fly out the cottage all by itself 🙂 🙂  I’ve had it like this for rather many years now so I’ve learned how to do it but still 🙂 🙂

I’ve also baked some French rolls, how much can one change the recipe without having to change the name? 🙂 🙂 I almost always use different flour and sometimes I have cheese in it as well. Turned out really well this time. A warm roll with melting cheese on it is hard to beat 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll keep on doing some laundry, I’m a bit behind, and after that the dogs and I will have pancakes for dinner, I’ve just bought a Black berry jam just for that 🙂

The beavers are back 🙂

It is time to get that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll most likely fall asleep in the sofa after that 🙂

Have a great day!

Snow and rain.

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Just a short one today, the weather is not nice and hasn’t been all day. Very windy with both rain and snow. It hasn’t at all been as warm as they  guessed yesterday so most snow is still on the ground and it’s impossible to walk outside without getting soaking wet. WE. have been in the garden though but the dogs have just done what they need and then wanted to go back indoors again 🙂

In any photo editor I know of in a PC the original photos that one has placed in a file they stay there no matter what one does with the copies we make to put in social media, that’s not the case in a Mac 🙂 🙂 If I reduce size in the copy the size will also be reduced on the original and if I delete that copy so will the original be deleted as well 🙂 🙂 🙂 So today I learned that I need to make a special file for the originals and place that file outside photos, a bit complicated to be honest 🙂 I’m learning more and more every day now 🙂

Have a great day!

Even I thought the weather was nice :-)

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So the hunters were supposed to be here at something we call Förmiddag (pree dinner, which is the same as pre noon which means around 9:30-10:00) but they all arrived just after 11 am 🙂 I couldn’t really walk out in to the forest just in case they would come but I still wanted to have a walk with the dogs because we had a rather nice snowfall, I guess You all now became a bit surprised by me saying that since I really don’t like snow 🙂 🙂  but it was 0C (32F) and no wind to talk about so even I fell for the charm of a light snowfall 🙂

But instead of walking in to the forest we walked down on the road we usually comes home on when we’ve been down to the creek, so today Malcolm had the chance of running leash free at the start of our walk 🙂  We did however not follow the road down to the creek but instead turned left, a road we used to walk a lot until two dogs just as bad as Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 moved in to a tiny cottage at the end of the road. Too much struggle to go through every time we would have passed. Now days there’s only one dog left there and so much easier to pass, especially since there now is a huge pile of dirt blocking the view for both the dog in the garden there and my two 🙂

The rest of the day has mostly been spent eating dinner, watching the British Antiques Roadshow and looking for a job on the online employment agency. Unfortunately they are now looking for people to work during the summer months, perhaps jobs lasting two to four months but I did find several interesting of those but also a couple of long lasting jobs as well. The ads will be up for at least two more weeks which is good because when I was about to apply for them I realised that my CV, is it called that in English, where You write down something about Yourself and Your work experience? is in my old computer that I so conveniently picked down today 🙂 🙂 🙂 So either  I’ll have to start up the old computer again or write a new one 🙂 🙂 I’ll see what program there is in this computer, must be something like word I guess 🙂

Only ten more days and then we’ll enter February, the next  to most boring month in the year 🙂 It is at least short and that’s when we finally starts to see the change in daylight here. I have a problem in my cool cellar, yesterday when I walked down there I met a foul metal smell on my way down, one of my plant light had died so now I only have one left. Well there is another I can use but it eat electricity lie an elephant drinks water. It is an older quicksilver lamp that also becomes so warm that anything closer than 50 cm (20 inches) will be burned 🙂 🙂 I remember one winter when it was really cold outside and the cellar suddenly had a few degrees lower temperature than 0C (32F) (not a good thing since my water pipes does there) I just turned on that lamp and suddenly it was well over instead 🙂 🙂 Probably good for the cellar but that was back when electricity was cheap.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I don’t know, I’ll see if there’s anything worth watching on tv, probably not 🙂

Tiny snowflakes on the Cypress.

Have a great day!

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So I picked up the new antenna cable yesterday and after connecting it to the antenna and tv I had better picture than before. I hadn’t seen Malkolm chew on it but since he quickly ran away when I saw what had been done it wasn’t that hard to understand 🙂 So this morning when we were supposed to go out on our morning walk I was putting on my shoes when I looks at him happily chewing on the new cable!!!

 

Two Ravens playing in the strong winds we had yesterday.

I have never really had the need to scold him for doing something he isn’t supposed to do here in the cottage, he has never really done anything wrong or dangerous but chewing on cables, even if the antenna cable is sort of harmless next time it could be an electric cable I really had to do something drastic. I have big lungs so I screamed at him at the same time i picked him up so I could look directly in to his eyes. I feel so sorry for him but that scared the s.t out of him, well pee actually. He is still a bit skittish when he must pass that place. I really hope this helped because I never want to scare him like that again 🙂 🙂

     

Yesterday morning was quite nice, it had been cold during the night with a clear sky and the sky stayed mostly clear all through the walk. There was a thin cloud layer that the sun had to shine through but that didn’t do much to stop the sunlight, Today it was warm all through the night and has stayed that way but the clouds were pretty thick. I can’t really complain about it since it is warm but it would have been nice to see the sunlight again. It’ll be like this for at least ten days, or so they guess at least. Then again I still get daylight and I haven’t had this much daylight at this time of year so that’s a good thing.

     

It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day, I’ve just had dinner so I won’t have anything else today, I have no bananas so I’ll buy more tomorrow 🙂 The roads will be good though, almost no ice left either now, just in a few places where the sun never reach this time of year.

     

Have a great day!

The night crew were still working when we woke up in the morning 🙂

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I went out to throw garbage in the bin and thankfully had my phone with me, the sun was setting and now it’s almost as cold as it was early this morning.

I must admit that when I let the dogs outside early this morning I really didn’t think it felt especially cold at all, I followed them and filled the bird feeders while they did their thing. So the first thing I did when we came back in was to check the thermometer, it was -14 C (6,8 F) 🙂 :-)There was no wind and for once the humidity was rather low and that helped a lot to make it feel warmer of course.

     

We went out for our morning walk as soon as the temperature had risen to -9 C (15,8 F) and since would be walking down to the creek the sun would warm up the air quite fast when walking between the trees on the gravel road. Alma wouldn’t make our walk especially enjoyable today and she showed that as soon as we started to walk but I couldn’t figure out why, not until we came closer to the creek and I saw that the horse guy was working today. It is something with Alma and especially horses and the cattle in the neighbor pasture.

     

So she could smell them long before we even came close and no matter how fun it is to see those horses working I really would have preferred that they had stayed at home today 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess he worked today because the storm is closing in and better be done before it arrives. It’ll be just wind this time and later on warm weather, so they guess at least, so no more snow thankfully 🙂 Perhaps one can hope for lots of snow melting as well so it will be easier to walk in the forest again. I feel however that will be too much to hope for 🙂 🙂

     

My cold is neither better nor worse, I cough sometimes but thankfully not at night, I freeze sometimes but not all the time and every now and again my nose is runny but nothing worse. Sara the monster kitten kept us awake for quite some time yesterday evening with lots of bumps in the night, except for that time when she broke my last tea cup. Lots of sharp pieces spread over the floor. She came running up and annoyed the dogs when she had done that. So now I had to find my thermos and make a big pot so I could use the small coffee cups I almost never use. I must remember to write down I need to buy a new one when I’m writing my shopping list.

     

I think it is time to have that last cup of tea for the day. I can’t remember if this particular thermos keeps the heat well though. I have one I couldn’t find today that keeps it for almost 24 hours, I’ll see if I can find it so I know the tea will be warm tomorrow morning 🙂

       

Have a great day!

I turned around after tossing the garbage in the bin and saw that it most likely is a full moon night.