Category: Phone photos.

A belated birthday present :-)

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I wouldn’t say that a storm passed by today but the wind was hard and it roared when it blew through the forest. My garden was totally wind free because my neighbors cottage took it all and it was surprisingly calm in the forest where we walked, the tree tops swayed but very little reached us on the ground. Warm winds though so it has been rather nice to be outdoors and now there’s only a few walnuts left hanging in the walnut tree.

The last of the bright colors are blowing away, I wonder how much that will be left tomorrow.

   

Even though it is much warmer than usual this month winter is still closing in on us unless we get really lucky and it stays autumn until spring. I know it isn’t a good thing but I admit that I won’t feel sorry if that happens 🙂 Anyway, here in Sweden we have a law that says we must have winter tires if it becomes winter. My cars tires weren’t good so on Wednesday I’ll get new ones and even though I like that we have that law I still don’t want to pay for it, it will cost something around $ 700 US. Ok I drive gentle so the tires will last for long but it still hurts 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Yesterday friends I haven’t seen in well over 24 years came for a visit 🙂 It was so fun to meet them again 🙂 We do keep an eye on us via Facebook but it isn’t the same to be honest. They gave me a present since I now am 60 years old and it was one in a series of  children’s book 🙂 🙂 I love that series of books! It’s  about these characters called Pettson and Findus (another English name for them is Festus and Mercury), an old farmer and his cat Findus. I’ll give You a link to the Wikipedia site: Pettson and Findus . They think that I reminded so much of Pettson 🙂 🙂 and I really wish I was as handy as he is 🙂 I think this might have been the best birthday present ever 🙂

   

The weather will calm down during the day tomorrow but get worse again later in the evening and night so I think I better go to the store tomorrow since I’ll get the new tires on Wednesday. It sounds as if I’m stressed and can’t find the time but that’s far from the truth 🙂 🙂 It’s good to have something to do each day. It is at least easier to remember what day it is 🙂 🙂

     

The dogs are sleeping here on the upper floor and I think the cat sleep in my recliner downstairs. She might be up here as well but she moves so quiet so I never really knows where she is 🙂 The only time I know where she is is when I bring out food, it is amazing what that cat likes to eat, like pickled cucumbers 🙂 not even the dogs like that and if she gets a tiny piece of cheese she bites me till she gets it 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Misty rain.

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Frostbitten tomatoes and I can see the birds have pooped on two as well 🙂

It’s actually a bit difficult to keep track on what week day it is now day 🙂 I had to check my mobile phone because I wasn’t sure of what day it was today 🙂 In a way that gives a nice feeling 🙂 🙂

     

We went down to the creek this morning and it rained, a misty rain. The dogs doesn’t seem to see misty rain as real rain even though I feel it is the worst kind of rain there is, at least on windy days. It eats its way through the clothes in no time at all plus that insects, that we seem to have plenty of now, mostly non biting mosquitoes and small relatives to dragon flies and mayflies, don’t seem to care about it either. I did see a few moose flies but they are actually quite easy to avoid if one see them coming because they are lousy flyers and easy to hit in the air 🙂

   

Looks like it’s a bit hazy but it’s actually misty rain.

I went to the supermarket after that. I needed to buy cat food so I did of course come back home without it 🙂 🙂 It isn’t a big problem right now since Nova refuses to eat anything other than boiled chicken (with rice and some of the other dogs food) so I’ll just give Sara the cat some of that chicken until I go to a store next time. I also went to a store called Jysk, they sell cheap furniture and anything belonging to beds and towels and those sort of things. I wouldn’t call it a furniture store to be honest since they don’t have much and have all those other things as well. I need something to cover my big sofa cushions because the dogs really make them dirty.

   

Can You see the opening in to the forest? It is actually almost impossible to see it in the real as well.

So I bought four fleece bed spreads, two grey and two blue. A bit more expensive than I like but they are needed. I did buy a carpet cleaner this summer, You know the kind one can use in the car as well and looks like a chubby little vacuum cleaner. I started with one of the cushions today. I now know that it isn’t a good idea to have it on the kitchen floor if it isn’t possible to spread it out totally. They are truly heavy and when slightly wet almost impossible to move 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll try the next one while it still is on the sofa. The only thing I really miss from when I lived in an apartment is the laundry rooms, all of them were equipped with carpet washing machines and they were amazing! I wouldn’t even be able to get one of those in to my cottage 🙂 🙂 Back in the apartment I could have carpets even if I had dogs, I gave up that almost as soon as I moved to the countryside 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it is time for a last cup of tea for the day and today I have gluten free Digestives. They doesn’t taste like the real ones at all but still are so tasty that I buy them, it’s a new brand I found and as a sweet cookie they are perfect and they also work really well with a nice Blue cheese, well any cheese I guess but I’ve only tried them with a Blue cheese so far 🙂

 

As You can see the cushion is quite dirty, full of sand and hair 🙂

Have a great day!

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The rain has been pouring down all day and the dogs have refused to go outside unless they really needed to 🙂 It will stop raining some time tomorrow morning and after that we’l at least get one day with sunshine, that’s what they’re guessing anyway 🙂

I’ve now planted all but one Camellia in the garden. This one just beside the cottage on the east side and
this one beside the Pawpaws, I think that place has the best micro climate since nothing in there has been touched by frost. One was already dug down on the south side of the cottage.

So it has been very little activity here today, at least from me, the dogs have been chasing each other all over my little cottage and when Alma was bored by that Sara took over. She and Malkolm works really well together.

 

I have however make meat sauce today, unfortunately I had only bought big pack so I had to do more than I really needed to, around a gallon 🙂 🙂 Well I will at least have dinner for quite some time ahead 🙂 🙂 It did taste good though but I’ll need to put quite a lot of it in the freezer 🙂

 

That was about it today, tomorrow I’ll go to the super market so that I at least gets out from the cottage 🙂

 

Have a great day!

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It looks like this was the last morning with cold temperatures, sunshine and morning mist for at least a week or so. I’ll miss it but then again both days and nights will stay a bit warmer instead. We’ll also get rain next week, still don’t need more water from the sky, especially not now when the trees drop their leafs and also stop drinking so much water. I guess next year will start with full ground water levels. Still compared to have it has been down on the continent and other parts of the world the little water we’ll  get is nothing.

     

After our morning walk I had to go to the super market, I had a few things I needed and came home with nothing of that except for milk 🙂 🙂 So tomorrow morning I’ll have porridge for breakfast 🙂 🙂 I did however suddenly remember that I need window putty. I guess it’s the same all over the world, birds just love to eat window putty so every now and again I need to buy more to put where it is needed 🙂 I think I bought too little though but now at least I know where to find it.  I remember when I was a kid one could find a glaziery in almost every neighborhood, today I think we can be happy if there’s one in any town in the county.

     

Sometimes I miss those good old days that weren’t that good at all to be honest but back in the days we did have grocery stores everywhere. In my neighborhood there was three just around the apartment building where I lived. We also had a vegetable shop, she only sold vegetables and tiny chocolate bars for us kids. We had a candy shop and at least two tobacco shops as well. One butcher and one fishmonger just down the street but that ended the day the butcher found out that the fish monger had an affair with his wife 🙂 Also a haberdashery shop, I still remember the smell from all the different fabrics she had.

     

I do actually know about a haberdashery shop in this region but that’s the only one. I don’t think we have fishmongers here any more and butchers? well they do sell meat from the farms around here but it isn’t the same, for one thing it is hard to find them 🙂 🙂 You really don’t want to get lost on the roads here, the risk of never coming home is too big 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is easier and cheaper now days though, buy everything online, even fish and meat, and it’ll come straight to the door. Even vegetables and fruit straight from the orchard man living down in Spain or Greece or where ever will come straight to the door. The only problem with that is that one need to be at home when it arrives and even though I love mango the quantity of what one need to buy must be quite a lot to not spend a fortune on it.

   

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day. Perhaps I’ll have a banana as well. I bought a banana the other day that had deep red peel. I’ve never done that before and it tasted much like a common banana but more like it was a bit old and very sweet, just like I like my bananas but to that price I rather wait until the common bananas just gets old enough 🙂

     

Have a great day!

She doesn’t care if the dogs still are eating, she jumps in their food bowls and helps them eat it all. So now I need to pick her up as soon as the dogs get their food 🙂 🙂 🙂

Chilly mornings.

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Alma isn’t fond of cows and today there was a cow in the pasture just outside our gate when we went out for our walk 🙂 Later on when I had to drive to the store we had another cow but on the gravel road 🙂 They are usually quite easy to get back in the pasture again 🙂

I’m trying to figure out the unemployment insurance site and it isn’t easy 🙂 🙂 🙂 If there’s something I want to comment or check it says where I should look but nowhere in the site I can find that particular place 🙂 🙂 It could have been so easy to just put in a link but I guess they want us to feel that life is hard 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve done what I have been able to today without going insane and I’ll continue to figure out more tomorrow 🙂 🙂

     

Cold mornings with either morning mist or sunshine with a few clouds up in the air is what seems to be what we’re having in the mornings here. The rest of the days can be anything, today we had sunshine mixed with light showers. Really tricky to figure out when the showers would pass since the forest block most of any possible view. It’s only towards the mountain I really can see anything but then again almost only when my own tress are leaf free 🙂

     

I’m getting really tired of this last cold, it never gives up! It is the same for all of us that had the pleasure to get it 🙂 No more fever and not especially runny noses but the coughing just refuses to stop, plus it can be gone for a day but then come back again. Thankfully I only seem to have it during the days and not nights like many other have it.

     

Today when I was in the living room I hear some strange noises in the kitchen. At first I thought it was Sara playing around but the sounds were too loud. So I managed to sneak really quiet out to the kitchen and found Malkolm and Sara going through the trash bag. You should have seen Malkolms guilty face when I cleared my throat 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve realized that Malkolm can move really fast and quiet, I did that when I picked up the trash and he suddenly were nowhere to be found 🙂 🙂 🙂 He had run upstairs and jumped up in the bed 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It is time to go downstairs and make a cup of tea. I’m not really hungry to be honest but the dogs demands cheese so I guess a sandwich or two could be eaten anyway. There’s actually two programs worth watching on tv tonight and they will of course be shown at the exact same time 🙂 I know I can go in and watch the programs on, in this case, SVT.Play but I’ll most likely have forgotten about it tomorrow 🙂

     

Have a great day!

She knows which one of the dogs she has the best naps with 🙂
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Frost last night and this time it hit everywhere. I brought in some unripe tomatoes yesterday so I hope they all will ripen by the window where I’ve hung them. I haven’t actually checked those outdoors today but I doubt they’ll managed to go undamaged.

     

We had a really nice morning walk, it was so cold that not even the moose flies were out flying 🙂 The sun had been up in the sky for a while though so most of the frost had already melted away from the vegetation. I would have liked it to be a bit warmer for the rest of the day though but I guess one can’t have it all 🙂

     

I think Alma look at her self as the mother of all living things and she really is careful when she’s around children, puppies and kittens but for some reason she’s really the opposite when it comes to where she wants to sit or lay down. Today, two times she has either sat down on Sara or laid down over Sara and really haven’t understood why I tore her away or why Sara sounded as if she was fighting for her life, screaming very loud 🙂 🙂 🙂 Sara’s so small that I don’t think she could feel that she was under her 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Besides that Sara is thriving now. She has now gained just as much weight last week that she actually weighed when we found her, almost 800 grams (1,76 pound)! Her eyes are now clear but I do think she might not  have perfect sight, if I drop some food beside her she knows I’ve dropped it but it takes some time before she can find it. That can of course be totally normal since she’s so young. That in itself doesn’t matter to me but I’ll talk to the vet tomorrow afternoon about it.

     

I haven’t had any nap today so I am a bit tired, how on earth did I manage to stay awake when I worked all day 🙂 🙂 🙂 I haven’t done any chores either, I am already getting lazy 🙂 Well I did bake some bread yesterday but only because I didn’t have any at home and I did go to the store today because I didn’t have either dog or cat food. The dog food will most likely arrive tomorrow but that doesn’t help me today.  The cat is now so important to both Alma and Malkolm that both mostly wants to stay indoors rather than to go outside to the garden or neighbors.  It’ll be nice when this first obsession is over and she is big enough to start pestering them instead, dogs usually comes back to normal when that happens 🙂

       

Have a great day!

 

Busy morning.

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Have no idea where time flew yesterday, suddenly it was time to go to bed and no time left to write a blog 🙂 I went to my old work place to get the employer certificate but it turns out that works automatically now days so it was sent to the unemployment insurance on the last pay day, that’s today 🙂 So instead I walked around talking to everyone and had a really nice morning 🙂

These photos comes from the folder “For a rainy day”.

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Got a text message from a work friend early this morning about a job that would be perfect for me, in the same village where my old job is. The fun thing is that I actually was going to get a job in that factory 17 years ago but for some reason couldn’t find the place and that was odd since I actually lived nearby but just couldn’t find it 🙂 🙂 Instead I drove to my old job and asked if they needed a painter. Started working there the day after 🙂 🙂 Turns out that was a good thing because the place I actually looked for went bankrupt two weeks after. I remembered where the place was as soon as I got hired at my old work place 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It’s always stressful to look for a new job, especially since I’ve almost never have had to search for one. What is important what isn’t? Well since this is a painting job I mentioned that I was educated as a car painter at Volvo cars but that I also had done other things there but for the last 17 years I’ve been both a powder painter and went paint painter. I also have the CEO from my last work place as my reference person and I do hope that helps a lot 🙂

     

Sara is doing really good. I was worried that her stomach wasn’t working properly because lots went in but nothing out but just as I was on the way to be she showed her stomach works really good 🙂 🙂 Her eyes are puss free now and she has a lot of energy and I think it helps her having two big dogs as parents as well 🙂 She must be the cleanest cat in the world by now 🙂 🙂 Especially Malkolm follows her everywhere and she’s not afraid to show when she is tired of him 🙂 Still she has pneumonia so I’m not celebrating yet.

     

It has been raining constantly since I came home yesterday but now the sun shows so perhaps we’ll be able to have a walk before the rain starts again. So we better go out while we can 🙂

Have a great day!

Well I guess I have a cat now :-)

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I had my day planned, I would go to my old work place to get a employer certificate so I can show that I’ve worked there for as long as I have and had no complains and so on. Lots of other things planned to do as well but that didn’t happen, wasn’t even close 🙂 🙂  We had morning mist even though we were quite late going on our walk, it was quite a lot more chilly that it felt when I let the dogs outside after we had woken up. I was quite pleased with that because we were heading for the forest and the eventual moose flies. Nova was a bit slow today so I chose to just have a shorter walk.

We found her far down in to the fog.

     

When we came back out of the forest I could hear something screaming quite loud. Took some time before I realized it was a cat, so we walked down quite far on the road where Malkolm always is allowed to walk of-leash.  I thought that it perhaps was a cat that had gotten stuck in the mud and needed help or perhaps been run over by the four wheeler the ones working with the cattle use, they tend to drive really fast. We had been walking quite far down the path when I finally saw it, it was a kitten.

     

I must say that I was quite disappointed by the way Alma and Malkolm behaved (Nova behaved like the lady she is, she took a sniff at it and walked away 🙂 🙂 🙂 ). I was just going to pick the kitten up when Alma tossed it up in the air as if it was a toy. I scolded her really badly but fell and then Malkolm did the same. I can happily say that it is very different now, they adore her 🙂 Anyway, Her eyes were filled with puss and she couldn’t open them. So I brought her home, cleaned her eyes and called the vet. So now she’s registered to me and chipped. Turns out she has cat flu, pneumonia and some other smaller infections, all treatable. The problem of living alone and having pets is that when You’ve been at the vet You usually need to go to the pharmacy as well. I can’t eave the kitten in the car and I can’t bring her to the pharmacy, so I had to drive home to leave her in the cottage, hoping that the dogs will accept the bribes since I need to go back again to almost the exact place again to get the medicines 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I left her in the bathroom with water and beside the litter box but also had to buy her some food. I had a big bag with cat litter standing in the bathroom, only three or four years since I had a cat her last time 🙂 🙂 I was about to lift it up and then the bottom opened up 🙂 🙂 🙂 The dogs changed their minds as soon as re introduced them and have been more or less obsessed with her 🙂 I’ve blocked the bathroom door so that she can go in and out as she pleases but to narrow for the dogs to follow. The vet had to have a name for her and I really hadn’t had any time to figure out any, so we named her Sara 🙂 She will most likely be called The Cat in the future 🙂

   

She didn’t get her shots today just because she’s too sick but will get them next week. Her eyes have almost turned to green so we figured out that she’s around 7 weeks old and weighs 390 grams (less than a pound). She is a bit tired of me right now because I have given her her medicines, both antibiotics and eye drops. She is now oddly colored around the eyes because the drops are bright yellow 🙂 🙂 I’m pretty sure she’ll be ok soon, she has a temperament that show she’s not going to give up 🙂 🙂 🙂

She will look a bit miserable for some time but she has a lot of energy and have walked around in the cottage a lot, followed by Malkolm and Alma 🙂

Always a dog there to clean her up 🙂  

Have a great day!

It missed us again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm bad at butterfly names but lots are flying around here now, This one was feeding n Lingonberry flowers just when I saw it.
Lots of butterflies here now.
The forest is filled with strwberry plants. Thankfully we have the law called Right to access so we can pick any berries everywhere (unless it is in a garden of course). No land owner has the right to stop us doing that.
Wild strawberry flowers
More Forest star flowers.
Have no idea what these tiny yellow flowers are called but I like them :-)
No idea what these are called.
WE have lots of Veronica's growing in the wild, I think these are called Granny's' goggles.
These veronica’s’ are everywhere now and I think our name for these are Granny’s’ goggles 🙂

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

Chamomile grows along the gravel raod towards the forest.
Chamomile.
The forst star loves living in the forest where it doesn't get too much sunlight that would dry out the ground.
Forest star.
More and more Buttercups are opening up now, soon the fields will shine yellow again nw after all the Dandelions have stopped flowering.
Buttercups.
This is a deep hole in the bog, it looks like it has a bottom rather shallow but it is in facy just roots that covers the water below. Hare tail cotton grass grows well there.
The little tjärn still has water in it and the hare tail cotton grass looks beautiful.

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

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

Salmiak , the beekeepers cat, is sleeping on the patio table. We think he is as old as Nova, 18 years old.
Salmiak sleeping on the patio table.
These grow everywhere except in my garden 🙂
I sowed a Black Walnut almost 16 years ago and last year it gave nuts for the first time and this is the first time I've seen the male flowers :-)
The Black Walnut in bloom.

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

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

   

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

Have a great day!

41 cm (16,4 inches) of frozen mud.

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The morning looked quite beautiful but this only stayed for a few minutes and after that the sky stayed evenly grey. Yesterday morning we went down to the creek, I knew there would be lots of water because they have flood warnings about the creek and where it flows out in to the lake. That however wasn’t the big problem, the big problem was where the road makes a dip before reaching the creek.

There’s almost always water here but now there’s a ditch on the right side that is supposed to lead away that water that instead lets more water in because of the high water level. So I thought why not jump over the smaller ditch to the right and then go through the forest until we can go out on the road again and then follow the ditch. Alma had been unusually annoying and really didn’t walk well. Anyway we reach the ditch and I tell the dogs to jump and both Nova and Albin did, Alma however stood absolutely still for the first time in her entire life. I made a total stop in the air because I held her leash and then went down in to the frozen mud.

It was much deeper than I thought it would be 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yesterday was the day that Alma learned how strong voice I actually have and after that she walked really well and didn’t whine even once 🙂 🙂 🙂  The odd thing was that I never got cold feet but above the boot I froze quite a lot 🙂 🙂  Alma and I are now the best of friends again and we made a deal yesterday evening that if she stopped whining all the time while we’re walking I would be less angry when she pulled the leash. The morning walk today started a bit shaky but after that we both kept to the deal 🙂 🙂

Today Nova wanted to walk to the bog again and it is more and more looking like the shallow lake it once was, there’s water everywhere. Just a little more water and I’m pretty sure ducks soon will swim around there 🙂

I didn’t see any ducks but lots of geese flew above our heads, it looked like Greylags mostly but I’ve already seen lots of Canada geese as well. They always come a couple of weeks before the first Cranes but we do normally have one or two cranes here around this time and when they arrive we’ll get a snowstorm passing by 🙂 🙂

They’re guessing it might stay warmish during days and most nights but a few nights will be freezing cold. Also we’ll most get rain for most of the week and perhaps some snow mixed in it as well. I don’t mind if it rains, then perhaps the bog will become a lake again and who doesn’t want a lake property 🙂 🙂 🙂 but why does it have to be freezing after that rain? I’m really tired of driving on icy roads now.

I’ve heard that the air high up, I think it was the stratosphere, might become really warm next week and that the polar vortex therefore most likely will collapse and that can give us nasty cold weather again. If so I hope it does so over Siberia since they are used to it anyway 🙂 Could perhaps help to keep the permafrost stay a bit longer 🙂 Well with my luck it will happen here so I won’t put away my winter clothes just yet 🙂 🙂

If it is this much water in the creek up here I can only guess how bad it is down at the lake.

I need to fill the peanut feeder every day now and now when I work day time again I’ll have to do it the evening before. That will keep both the night shift and day shift happy. I must say though that the night shift (house mice) are eating way less than the day shift 🙂

Have a great day!

Good Yule!

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They had decorated a tree like this in a small village where I had to change bus to get to my new car. It reminded me of something I’ve read about, that before we started to bring in the christmas trees like spruces and pines here in Sweden, sometimes they brought in young apple trees and decorated them and if the timing was right the young apple tree started to flower just around christmas.

So I’ve done all the important stuff today, I’ve made the christmas ham and at the same time I also put the prince sausages and meatballs in the oven together with the ham 🙂 I’ve eaten some of the Quality Street bonbons, I’ve watched the Donald Ducks christmas show and also fallen asleep a few minutes in to it. I did however just doze off for a few minutes so I watched most of it anyway 🙂 🙂 The birds did get more seeds than usual and we had a rather nice walk in the morning when the temperature was as low as -12C (10,4F). No wind and sunshine made it really nice even though I couldn’t feel any warmth from the sun what so ever.

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It wont look this wintery for long though, it will start raining already tonight and the temperatures are now slowly move above 0C (32F). It’s snowing at the moment, tiny flakes and I guess that if they’re guessing it right we’ll have very little snow tomorrow. It will rain even more tomorrow but it will unfortunately be sunny on Boxing day. I write unfortunately because the hunters will be out and they’ll hunt for hare and fox. I wished them good luck with the hares but they already know that we truly and deeply dislikes them for hunting fox here. We need them to keep the ammount of rodents down, these mild winters have really suited the rodents, so everyone in this part of the village hates when they hunt for fox.

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I was going to bake gingerbreads but didn’t have any energy to do it but over here we say that christmas lasts till easter so I have plenty of time to do that 🙂 🙂 I did however defrost the freezer yesterday. It was cold enough outdoors so it was the time to do it if I ever was going to. I must admit that i didn’t realize how much ice there was in there 🙂 🙂 🙂 It took well over five hours even if I had placed a bowl with boiling water in there and even though there is a shallow sort of gutter at the bottom of the freezer that is supposed to lead the water in one direction out to bowl collecting it, it really doesn’t 🙂 🙂 so now the floor around it is nice and clean as well 🙂 🙂

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This morning when I was about to put everything back in the freezer I also looked if anything in there contained gluten, so now my freezer is quite empty 🙂 🙂 🙂 Only the things I’ve made myself were gluten free. The reason I did that (because I’m pretty sure I would have forgotten normally) is because I bought a Julmust with orange flavor. I was talking with one of the owners of the grocery store I buy my food from because they were offering taste samples of bread with something on and I said I couldn’t eat it. So then they said that at least I could drink the Julmust. Turns out they were pretty wrong about that 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did wonder why my stomach suddenly gave up now when I’ve been so careful with having nothing with gluten. So I checked the internet and voila, the Julmust contains gluten.

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Most other, if not all, Julmust only have the flavoring of malt and not the real thing so it was an honest mistake but I will inform them about it. There’s nothing more I’ll do today than watch the British crime drama “Vera” and perhaps a program about the smaller wild cats we have around the world. I’ve watched it before and to be honest, those small wild cat species are really much more interesting than the bigger ones, perhaps because we always almost only see programs about the big ones. Tomorrow starts the time of leftovers, sandwiches with ham, sausages and meatballs. I’ll make them a bit more fun by adding blue cheese as well 🙂

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Taken through my kitchen window, these birds truly loves peanuts 🙂
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I wish You all a Good Yule!

Snowstorm and new car.

· 4 Comments ·
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Bjurums Castle.

The snowstorm Pia passed by yesterday evening and all night long. I had borrowed my neighbors car and if there’s one thing one doesn’t want to do is to wreck their car because one was driving careless 🙂 🙂 🙂 So even though I went home half an hour earlier I still came home a few minutes later than I normally would have done 🙂 🙂

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As You can see this photo wasn’t taken today but was taken last spring (with my Agfa Flexilette) but it shows the only big building, besides the castle, that still stands in what once was a thriving village.
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This is just beside the previous building.

The car dealer and I had agreed to meet around 1pm and I was going to get there by bus. The bus would leave my bus station at 12:05 and on a sunny and nice day in spring or summer it takes around 45 minutes to walk there,so since the world now once again is filled with that white crap (and the fact that it rained a lot before the snow fell and it went cold) I decided to start early, I’m so glad I have studded boots because the snow didn’t stick well to the ice covered road. Today it took almost exactly one hour.

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This is the creek where it flows out in to the lake.

I think I would have thought the world was beautiful if I hadn’t had to walk in this mess 🙂 🙂 I only brought my phone so only a few photos today. The wind was still blowing pretty hard and it was bitterly cold. Well walking and wearing really good winter clothes did help but standing and waiting for the bus still made me pretty cold inside.

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The road leading to the castle. Big oaks grown on each side of it.

I managed to get there in time and went to the grocery store on my way home. They usually like when I tell them about my car problems 🙂 🙂 So we had a good laugh before I finally drove home again. I haven’t had much sleep to be honest but I think the short nap I had in my recliner will help me to stay awake until at least 9 pm 🙂 🙂

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There once was a big yellow house standing behind those Birches. I guess it was the rectory but now days priests usually don’t live beside the churches they work in.

Only one previous owner and it has a new cam belt, that was the thing that made me want to have it without even seeing it in a photo 🙂 🙂 It has six gears, something I need to get used to. The only things I really made sure to know about before I drove home was to know how to open the fuel filler flap, something I didn’t understand with the borrowed car, I had to phone them to know how 🙂 how to handle the different lights and how to control the heat in the car, it took me over a day before I understood it in the borrowed car 🙂 🙂 🙂 Cruise control and how to manage to radio can be learned later 🙂 🙂 🙂

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This is at the bus stop in a village called Ljung. I like how they decorated the tree like that. Back in the days before they brought in spruces at christmas they often brought in a young crab apple tree, dressed it and if they were lucky it had green leafs and perhaps even small flowers when christmas arrived.

Winter vacation started today so no more work until January 8 🙂

Have a great day!

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My new car and a very happy Alma 🙂