Category: Roe deer.

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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 🙂 🙂 🙂
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My neighbor is mowing their lawn, I haven’t mowed in weeks 🙂 I’ll do it when this tiresome cold has went away. Ill have to wait until the afternoon because we have so much dew here now that the grass is soaking wet in the mornings but just very wet in the afternoon.

     

It was sunny during our morning walk again and I just took a little to long time to go out so a few moose flies were already flying around, only in the sunshine though, it was still below 4C (39,2F) in the shadow. These flies are sort of rubbery so one can’t smash them to death, one needs to sort of roll them between the fingers. They won’t burst open but the wings will fall off (something they do themselves when they have landed on a victim) and they won’t be able to reach any other animal. So now I have at least made sure fewer of them will fly next year.

     

Alma has a really bad stomach, because she eats too many apples and other berries. She woke me up last night and was in a hurry. I did try my best to get downstairs but was a couple of seconds late. I am however very happy that I managed to go down as fast as I could anyway because she ran straight in to the Jerusalem artichokes (these are never eaten but seen as any other flowers in a flower bed) and then I heard sort of three explosions 🙂 🙂 So now the rather difficult job has come to convince her to stop eating all berries and apples still around 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Otherwise we’ve mostly slept today, I in the recliner and all three dogs in the sofa. I had my feet towards Alma’s head so there was no risk my feet would feel cold 🙂 The kitchen door has been open quite a lot too, not much sunshine but almost 20C (68F) anyway, the weather will continue being warm they’re guessing so lets hope they’ve guessed it right 🙂

     

Have a great day!

     

Autumn flowering strawberries?!

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I did see the sun slowly rising above the forest when I woke up so the first thing we did was to have our morning walk. It didn’t take long before clouds covered the sun but the walk was quite nice anyway. WE walked in to the village again and today one of the dogs was outside when we passed.

This was the last we saw of the sun while we were out walking but it did come back for a long time later in the day.

If I as a human would walk on old stone age tombs or move a single stone they would arrest me but cattle can damage it as much as they can and the owner wouldn’t risk being arrested 🙂
We have quite a lot of crab apples in the village, these apples taste horrible 🙂 🙂

I was so glad to see that all my dogs behaved perfectly while the dog we passed barked like crazy, it was especially fun to see how the owner opened the door to try and quiet the dog, didn’t work at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I must say that Alma’s behaviour has become so much better. Ok she pulled the leash a lot after all that excitement but she didn’t make even the tiniest sound and that’s a huge change. Malkolm did sort of bark twice but since Alma and Nova were quiet he stopped as well. Really good for a seven month old puppy 🙂

   

The branch doesn’t look that big but it was and it was quite heavy as well 🙂

The only problem I’ve had today is my back. My immune system attacks my spine (and most of the cartilage in my joints, slowly but steadily, I got my first hip implant when I was 38) and most of the time I can take it but times like today it’s just nasty. The best thing I can do is to move use my back a lot and after a while the pain goes away, so today I picked up things that had flown around in the storm yesterday, I even moves away a big branch that fallen down on the gravel road and also watering the trees and bushes with the big water pitcher. Didn’t that hurt You might ask? Yes like insanely but now in the early evening it feels much better 🙂 Tomorrow and several mornings ahead will be much the same but this will pass. I can’t take any anti inflammatory medicines because I destroyed my stomach with one of those, it was amazing as long as it lasted though 🙂

   

This little oak always have lots of acorns even when other trees haven’t.

I went outside in the storm yesterday just before it went dark. I already knew I had planted my Black walnut way too close to the cottage, I did that just because I never thought it would survive 🙂 🙂 17 years now and it still stands 🙂 🙂 However when we have winter storms it doesn’t move that much but with all leafs still on it it almost reached the roof of the cottage, not good! I really don’t want to remove it but I might have to in a year or two. What worried me more though was the two huge Birches over at my neighbors, if they fall half of my cottage will follow them to the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I have home insurance so I’ll get another one built up if that would happen. The only thing is that my bedroom would be the first thing they hit 🙂 🙂 🙂

My Hardy Hibiscus finally shows the colors of the coming flower.
I seem to have autumn flowering strawberries, didn’t know that excisted, so I’ll pick each ripe berry when they are ready and put them in the freezer. 

A few Apples had fallen off as well so I bent down and picked them up, took a bit longer to stand up straight again 🙂 🙂 and went in and made an apple crumb pie, it tasted so yummy 🙂 I did add some coconut to it and that made a big difference.

     

It is raining outside, it isn’t supposed to but what does the rain care about that? It’s a misty rain, You know the kind that looks like mist or fog and that always eat its way through the clothes no matter how You dress. They’re guessing it’ll be like that most parts of tomorrow as well so it’ll be a perfect day to take a long nap 🙂

     

Have a great day!

I took this photo on my way to work one morning, nothing special a Roe deer in a field but take a look behind it.
I never saw the giant Red deer standing in the shadow by the trees just behind it 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Two cranes passed over us on their way to the bigger lake.

Today has been really nice, sunshine all day, 20C (68F) and a rather strong wind that dried up most of the grass, tomorrow I’ll mow the lawn because it will be exactly the same weather, at least that is what they are guessing 🙂 So no blog will be written.

     

WE walked out to the bog early this morning. I could hear both cranes and geese flying by. This time of year they fly between the two lakes, the one in the bog and the one I pass every time I go to work, every morning and every evening. I have no idea why they do that though. I know there are more fish and vegetation in the the I drive by but perhaps it’s safer for them to overnight in the bog lake?

     

We met  Roe deer doe and her kit on our way out and they are now so used to us and Alma slightly insane behavior that they don’t care about us 🙂 They stood in front of us just looking at us, the youngling scratched its leg and then they slowly walked in to the forest. I had hoped that we would see more animals today when we reached the end of the peninsula but I couldn’t see anything. The dogs didn’t mind us walking away from there so I guess there might have been a moose, wild hogs or perhaps even a wolf even though I doubt that last one would be there, the roe deer were just to relaxed. It was most likely a moose, the dogs really don’t like them.

     

I’ve done all my chores, it’s fun I’ve had all week to do them but still wait until the last minute 🙂 I have even harvested some potatoes, You know the ones I planted in two different pots. I found everything from thumb nail small to one really big and these will last for the rest of the week. Next week I’ll check some of those that survived the winter. I forgot to bring in some peas, chard and squash though, I don’t think I’ve ever had this many peas before, still no beans though.

     

I also checked the English walnut. I suspected that it had died and was sort of right 🙂 The variety that once was grafted on the roots of what I guess is a seed sown walnut had died but instead I now have two stems growing up from the root! Just as it is with the Persimmon I bought last year but from those roots I have lots of new stems, they grow slow though. I think I’ll cover those with either grass or leafs when winter is approaching. Now when the warm weather finally came after our vacations things really started to grow, with a bit of luck I might actually have the chance to see the seed sown dahlias flower 🙂 🙂 and I’m sure I’ll see that self sown sunflower open up soon 🙂

This is to be honest an impossible photo because it’s impossible to actually see what it is 🙂 It shows the two new stems on my English walnut. Well You can at least see the leafs, it is the dead trunk that still is standing there. I think I’ll use that as a support during winter and then remove it.
The Wisteria started to grow really well but then it stopped. The canopy above was so dense that almost no rain water reached the ground, it was the same where the Pawpaws grow. So I’ve started to remove branches so that both water and sunshine can reach the ground.
The Hardy Fuchsia likes to get more light. I’ll cover it over winter with lots of leafs and grass.
The Troll grapes has been opened by the birds so now the seeds can be seen.
My seed sown Pawpaws. They are a bit slow because they did start to grow very late in the autumn, then started their winter rest just when spring started here. I hope they have adjust to how it really is already next year.

Today they actually show some tv programs I want to see, on the knowledge channel of course so after this I’ll make myself a cup of tea and most likely doze off in front of the tv 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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Through my kitchen window early this morning.

We didn’t get a morning with cool air and morning mist, instead we had fairly warm morning with a thick layer of clouds above us. So instead of having a really nice and cool walk we had a walk in the forest where flies and mosquitoes reigned.  Still we’ve had worse walks so I’m not complaining too much 🙂

One of the cats living at the farm next door.

   

I think there was just one horsefly flying around and it found my hand so now it itches something nasty. Another one found me when I mowed the outside space but that one will never bother anyone else any more 🙂  To be honest this year has been pretty good when it comes to flies, with that I mean fairly few. If we get in to an area where suddenly lots of flies fly around it means animals are close, most likely wild hogs because there are always many together and therefore draws more of those annoying insects.

     

I had to go to the store in Gudhem today because the package with the Red Mulberry tree had arrived and it was just in time, the soil in the pot was so dry that I had to put it in a bucket of water as soon as I opened the package. As soon as the soil was wet I planted it in a bigger pot and I think I’ll keep it like that until next spring, down in the cool cellar. Now I have three different mulberry trees. This red one, a white mulberry with tasty berries and one called Mulle which is a Morus accidosa. I can’t find any info about M. accidosa so I think it must be some kind of hybrid. It gives black berries, really tasty ones, but they are smaller than the ones the Black Mulberry tree gives. So lets now hope we get a mild winter so that they all survive plus of course the Pawpaws and persimmons 🙂

 

Snails and slugs live in paradise when they find my Root zone.

So this is the last week on my vacation and I’m desperately hoping for that lottery winning 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t hesitate to quit my job immediately even though that is frowned upon (I really don’t hate my job but I’m not crazy in love with it either 🙂 🙂 ). Normally we have one month to work after we’ve given notice but since I wouldn’t plan on going back to work again ever so why bother 🙂 🙂 🙂 However until that happens, most likely five minutes before I leave this earth 🙂 🙂 🙂 I will have to keep on working, at least until I can retire and I think I’ll start with part time retirement when I’m 64, just a few years left 🙂 I think I would be really pi…d if I died before I could retire 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and later on I’ll watch Midsommer Murders, unfortunately they show Death in Paradise at the same time in another channel but since I’ve watched all the murders in Midsommer from the beginning the choice is easy tonight 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A bit too close :-)

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100% humidity, no wind but towards the cool side should still make a rather nice day but both the dogs and I thought the humidity was just too much and that it made it feel much warmer than it actually was. We walked down to the creek in the morning when it still felt a bit cool but the flies were nasty and there were a few horse flies that tried to bite me. Oddly slow so now there are fewer horse flies to worry about 🙂

   

Winter food for the cattle. Lots of beans in it this year, they’ll cut it down and make silage from it.

I think we were close to wild hogs because Alma became a bit excited and looked straight at the point where we met one last week. We didn’t see or hear anyone though, I guess they too thought it felt a it nasty with the humidity and kept as still as they could to avoid the attention of the flies. We did see a Roe deer though but now Alma rarely cares about it. She has become so much better on our walks now and I do hope it continues that way 🙂

Roe deer don’t eat the beans, they only eat the most delicious herbs, that’s why they have problems surviving the old fashioned winters when the ground used to be covered with snow.

   

I got warnings from the lightning app when we had our nap but since the sun shone I really didn’t think much of it. Not even when the rain started to pour down because I really couldn’t hear any thunder. The dogs wanted to go outside so I opened the door so they could see how the rain was pouring down it was even too much for Malkolm. Just as I was about to close the kitchen door the lightning hit. I was close to peeing in my pants if I should be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂 I saw how it came from the mountain and passed my neighbors cottage rather close and hit the ground around 100 meters (much the same in yards) behind out cottages 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so glad that I had almost closed the door because it is amazing how much it sounds 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

No rain tomorrow they’re guessing but the humidity will stay at 100% or close to it. Almost no wind but a bit of sunshine so I guess it will feel like living in a steam bath tomorrow. Well I’ll go to the pet shop tomorrow and will be closer to the big lake so I hope that helps some.

   

I took a look outside my bedroom window and realized that almost the entire eastern top half of the apple tree is covered in white bryony (Bryonia alba). It’s a poisonous vine that when it’s older can cover entire trees. It’s something I never would bring to my garden and it isn’t native here but back in the days people thought it was a great vine to cover big areas. It spreads easily with birds since they eat the berries. I did taste one berry when I was a kid and it tastes horrible 🙂 🙂 🙂 So even if one can die from eating the berries one need 40 of them and I’m pretty sure that no one can come even close to do that 🙂 🙂 This one is a young plant and only had three vines growing up from its root, still it managed to cover so much of the tree. They always grow where it is the hardest to get rid of them.

    

So we haven’t done much today, even before the rain the dogs preferred to stay indoors. Sunshine at the moment but still a chance/ risk of more thunder. I don’t mind thunder as long as I’m not caught outside when it arrives. I have had to chose between being the highest point in the fields or hiding beneath tress, a sort of choice between having plague or cholera 🙂 🙂

Ten seconds after I took this photo the lightning struck 🙂

The smell from the Woodland tobacco is wonderful but it only smells in late evenings and nights.

I took a photo from below on the bryonia, we call them dog turnips 🙂

It is time to have a last cup of tea for the day and perhaps I’ll have a couple of oatmeal cookies 🙂

Have a great day!

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The first of my perennial Sunflowers are in bloom now, a bit early but I guess the hot month of May helped with that.

We didn’t have any sunshine in the early morning but it was cool and nice when we went out for our morning walk. I don’t think Nova thought it was necessary to have any walk because today she really waked slowly, it wasn’t until she realized that we were heading homewards that she had speed in her feet 🙂 Fewer birds are singing now, they know they won’t have time for more chicks so they stop singing and I can see in the sky that many now are preparing for the move south. Not that they will move any time soon but they are flying around in big flocks trying to find the best feeding places.

     

I went to the grocery store after our walk, I went to the one I always go to in the village where I work. It’s a longer drive but a more beautiful drive. They have less to chose from but I know what I want and I know where to find it and that’s important to me 🙂 I really dislike when I have to walk around for half an hour in a super market to find just one thing 🙂 🙂 Also I know all who works there, I’ve been buying my food there since I moved up here and that’s almost 27 years now. So instead of walking around trying to find what I want I instead have chats with those working there and it takes about the same time 🙂 🙂

     

I had a small hope that the grass in my lawn would dry up some today but that didn’t happen 🙂 Normally it takes around an hour or so to mow the lawn but today it took twice as long. The mower clogged up so badly that I had to stop mowing, turn the mower up side down and dig out the green goo and I really don’t like that. Lots of flies that for once wasn’t that interested in annoying me and one horse fly that I hit several times while it flew in front of me that I truly hope that it at least got a concussion. It did bite me once though.

     

I also stopped to drink lots of water while I was mowing, today has been warm and the wind I so desperately wanted to blow into my garden while I was mowing finally showed up just a moment ago, not much of a wind to be honest but it would have been better if it had blown earlier today. I still have the parts outside my garden but I’ll mow those tomorrow. It’ll be even warmer tomorrow and on Sunday if they’re guessing it right. On Monday it’ll cool down some and we’ll have rain again. The rest of the week will be warm but not hot and of curse it will rain some as well. June, July and August are the months when we get most Precipitation in the year so I’m not surprised about it raining but I am surprised about how much we’ve gotten. In some places, like here where I live we now have over full ground water deposits, that’s why I still have that lake behind my garage instead of a swamp.

   

Finally, the beans are flowering.

It is time for a last cup of tea before bedtime. The dogs are all sleeping here upstairs but I’m not ready to go to bed yet. I doubt that there’s anything worth watching on tv but I’ll take a look anyway.

     

Have a great day!

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

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

     

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

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

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

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

Lots of lingonberries this year.

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

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

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

   

Have a great day!

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It has been a fairly nice day here, not much sunshine but warm. No rain so far but according to radar photography it’s on the way and we’ll get lots more both tomorrow and on Monday. It’ll stay fairly warm though so I won’t complain too much.

     

Lots of people in the village seems to have been busy today, I’ve heard hammering and lawn mowing plus what could have been someone trimming hedges. I haven’t done much at all, besides walks with the dogs the only thing I’ve done is to placed a “pot” (well it is actually an aluminium foil thingy for food 🙂 ) with Quince seedlings that needs to be re-potted. I have several more to re-pot but I need to buy more soil before I can do that. 

Lots of wild raspberries and they are so delicious!
The Shrike really like this area, so easy for them to see their prey.

   

The morning was quite nice, there was a bit of ground mist when we woke up and even some sunshine but as soon as we came out for our morning walk the sun was gone. Didn’t matter really because it was slightly cool and very few flies annoyed us while we were walking along the creek. We saw a hare running in front of us and two roe deer but that was it. In a way a bit boring but in a way quite nice since Alma has been reasonable calm for two mornings in a row and that’s pretty unusual 🙂

 

I think we might have beavers in the creek again. The water level is really high on one side of the road but rather low on the other.

I gave the dogs their first raw hide bones today. Long time since that happened because Albin was allergic to everything so I couldn’t really give them that. Nova have had before but this was the first time for both Alma and Malkolm 🙂 Nova really didn’t want to chew on it so instead she hid it beneath her 🙂 Alma really liked it and so did Malkolm even though he was a bit slow chewing it. So in the end Alma stole all three and wasn’t the least ashamed of what she did 🙂 🙂 There is one piece left and Alma took a look at me and dropped it on the floor 🙂 🙂 Malkolm is now doing his best to hide it and every time Alma comes close he takes it and chews for a while again 🙂

       

It is time to give the dogs their dinner, I haven’t had anything either, well ice cream but I’m not sure that counts 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll start packing all the card board in the car so I can take it to the recycling center. I have so much now that the kitchen will look very different when I’ve removed it all 🙂 I have absolutely no space to have it in this cottage, I have one closet and this winter mice found it so now I need to find where they came in and try to block it, I also need to buy new clothes 🙂 🙂

   

The first time she stole the chewing rawhide.
The second time she made sure that Malkolm didn’t notice her leaving 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new compost.

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This morning was sunny and quite chilly with some morning mist hovering above the ground. It wasn’t supposed to be like that but since the sky was clear blue I thought I had some time before the more cloudy weather would start. It started as soon as we came outside the entrance door 🙂 The sun had evaporated the fog so it rose and then created a evenly grey layer between us and the sun. It had also warmed up the air a lot so the few flies we have here were really annoying.

     

All vegetation was soaking wet, both from the rain yesterday and the morning dew. So we just walked down to the creek, followed it up-stream and turned back homewards again. We did see a Roe deer and when we just had turned around to follow the creek down-stream again a wild hog gave us a friendly warning that it stood hidden on the other side of the creek and that we shouldn’t try to go over to that side 🙂 🙂 I never saw it though but it did sound as if it was big 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I had just done some laundry when a package arrived. It was the new compost I’d ordered, the one that looks like a tombola and that one shall spin every now and again plus it is supposed to stand in direct sunlight so the things inside it sort of get so hot that it in a way boils into compost. I was naive to believe that it would be put together already in the package but oh how wrong I was 🙂 I also believed that it as most would be just to sort of pop it together in to the compost. Turns out nothing of that was remotely close 🙂 The package was rather flat and when I opened it the first thing I noticed was a bag with a zillion screws and Screws and nuts. I have to say that they had packed it really nice and there were even some Screws and nuts extra so it didn’t matter that one of the screws was defect.

 

I think this is the first year that the Beekeeper will get cherries on this little tree.

So I unpacked it all and at that time it was cloudy and not too warm. I started to put the pieces together and I’m really happy that I am ambidextrous (for those of You who don’t know what that is, I am both right and left handed since birth) because I think it would have been pretty tough to reach all the screws from the outside to the bolts on the inside otherwise. So I stood there in a bad posture of course and then the sun broke through warming up the air even more plus trying to fry my back 🙂 I’m glad I remembered to put the middle piece in while I still could (a sort of wall in the middle to make two compartments, when one is filled but not really ready to use one has a second compartment to start to fill up), it would have been impossible otherwise.

They had packed everything really well and I now have more plastic than the world needs this year 🙂

Each segment had to be screwed on individually and overlapping the previous one with eight tiny screws and bolts. I also got a screwdriver and for some reason I just can’t understand a pair of very thin gloves that only would have made me drop anything smaller than a tea cup 🙂 🙂

In this photo I thought I would show the middle wall but forgot to brighten up the photograph 🙂 🙂 🙂

So every time one puts anything in the compost one is supposed to spint it a few times and one must also spin it around every now and again so it composts evenly. This one is supposed to be totally smell free.

The normal flies acted pretty calm while I stood there sweating like a pig and to my surprise only one horse fly tried to bite me! Last winter really thinned out the fly communities and also the ticks seems to have been culled hard thankfully 🙂 Still plenty of them around though but clearly fewer than before. I moved the compost to the sunniest place in the garden, just in front of the vegetable patch and put in the fruit peels and other things in to the first compartment 🙂 So all needed now is that the sun actually makes a try to shine for more than an hour a day 🙂 🙂 I’ll have some twigs as soon as I’ve started to prune the bushes that now have grown too much and removing small plants that has spread too well with their roots. I do have a rather wild garden but even I have a limit to how wild it can become 🙂 🙂

My garden raspberries aren’t especially tasty but the birds love them.

I do however have plenty of wild raspberries, they truly behaves like weed 🙂 The wild one are probably the most delicious berries we have this far south in the country. We have even more delicious berries up far north but they can’t give any berries this far south.

The Elderberry tree suddenly started to flower 🙂

The dogs are sleeping deeply right now. Malkolm on my left side and the other two in my bed. They’ve enjoyed a sunny afternoon being outside playing but quite often come in to drink lots of water. The weather will be mostly rainy this weekend but they’re guessing that our early mornings will be almost cool and sunny, so I better get up and go outside with the dogs as soon as we wake up 🙂

Doesn’t Malkolm look worried here? Two seconds after I took this photo he attacked Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

Have a great day!

The morning was really nice anyway :-)

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The weather has been really mixed today. The morning was cool and nice with the sun warming up the air rather quickly, later on the clouds arrived and with it heavy showers but lots of sunshine in between. Now we have sunshine and rain at the same time 🙂 Thunder was heading towards us but went north on the other side of the mountain.

The cattle have now moved on to the pasture beside the one behind the beekeepers cottage and that means the road still is blocked with electric wires so therefore much more difficult to walk along the creek.

We saw this deer buck on our way to the bog. Well I can see that it is more or less impossible to see it in this photos 🙂 🙂 🙂

Besides the morning walk I’ve spent most of my first day of vacation with having a long nap 🙂 I’ve had a cold for quite some time now, it has spread all over the country it seems, so I’ve been unusually tired this summer. I’m hit much less hard than most who have had it but instead had it for a longer time. I didn’t miss much while I, well we, were asleep. Every time it stops raining I’ve had the kitchen door open but the dogs have refused to go outside, they were caught in a shower early in the morning that not even Malkolm liked 🙂 🙂 and they wouldn’t do that mistake again 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Both the big weather sites are guessing we’ll have a rain free day tomorrow but loads of rain on Wednesday. I’ll have to go to a grocery store as well, I should have done that today but I looked in the fridge and decided I have enough at home to last until tomorrow 🙂 My neighbors did the same but decided to go today so they don’t need to go for the rest of the week instead 🙂 We all started our vacation today and none of us want to do anything unnecessary during these weeks.

     

I already have three composts but I ordered a new one today, a kind of tumbler. It is black and is supposed to stand in sunshine so it becomes a hot compost. One puts in the material, could be grass or what ever comes from the garden or kitchen, turns it around a couple of times and leave it until next time. This will make compost much faster than the other warm/ hot composts. I bought it mostly because I have a family of mice in one of the old ones and lots of ants in the second old one. I’ve tried to make them move by pouring lots of water through it but they refuse, plus it is hard to open up so I can use what’s in it 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is most likely not a Creeping bluebell because the flower grow out from the stalk n several sides of it.

This is a Creeping bluebell because the flowers all grow out from the same side of the stalk. Almost impossible to see the difference otherwise but my guess is that they both spread just as happily 🙂

I better start writing a list of what I need to buy tomorrow and put it in my wallet already today so I won’t leave it at home as I so often do 🙂 It is so much more expensive to forget that list because I keep guessing what I might need and come home with so much more and most of it is something I really don’t need 🙂 🙂

The peas are in bloom and have started to grow over to their neighbors 🙂 🙂

Malkolm is now almost as high as Nova is 🙂   

Have a great day!

Väettir.

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Today is actually the real midsummer but they’ve made sure that it always is celebrated on the first Friday after summer solstice. Midsummer eve isn’t a holiday (Midsummers day is though) but most people working in factories and offices still have the day off and it’s also a payed free day. This is the last holiday we have before Christmas. I would say that it is as big or perhaps even a bigger holiday here than Christmas. The bad traffic started already today because everyone wants to be where ever they are supposed to be already today.

 

This is an unusual Plantago major since it is variegated. Normally they are seen as somewhat irritating weeds but for some reason they aren't when they look like this :-)
A variegated Plantago is really unusual and if I had liked them I would have brought this one home. Normally they are seen as weeds but for some reason not when they look like this 🙂 🙂

I’ll write more about the celebrations and folklore the coming days. Today I’ll tell You about Vättar (Väettir). They are usually small beings dressed in grey clothes but they can easily change to something else like toads or little mice. Like all beings they can be rather grumpy but we rarely know that we have them around us since they can change what they look like. There are several different kinds of Väettir, it all depends on where they live, like lake väettir, mountain väettir and forest väettir. It isn’t unusual that they live just beneath our cottages and if there are unusually many toads hanging around in our gardens it might be because they actually are Väettirs 🙂

Bumblebee beetle. Some years there are plenty of them here and some years one is lucky to see one.

  The Blue vetch grows everuýwhere here and I like it a lot. 

So if one lives a calm and orderly life and don’t disturb them they might become Your friend and then help you with the animals or perhaps give you and unusual amount of good luck. They really don’t like warm water so if one would toss out some from the home one should always warn them before one does. If one would meet a Väettir that needs help and help with what ever it is they usually give you a gift. It might look like an old pine cone or a stone, always take it and thank for it because they day after it can have turned in to gold or gemstones. If you don’t help them or disturbs them in any way they then instead might give You some terrible disease.

 

I woke up in the middle of the night by an awful screaming of fear (and the barking sound of an older deer), sounded like a small baby deer was attacked by something, probably a fox. I thought it must have been the young one that the doe in the cow patch was the mother too. I found the doe walking in the cow patch when I left for work and thought that she might look for her young one and felt so sorry for her.

She was still in the cow patch when I returned home (almost impossible to see her here) and she was completely calm. So either it was another animal screaming or she managed to scare what ever it was away 🙂

Väettirs are guardians of the area so I wonder if they live where gnomes doesn’t. Normally gnomes lives at farms while Väettirs seems to be more adaptable and live even close to poor people. They are my favorite beings to be honest just because they more often are kind than evil. Have I mentioned that there lives an unusual amount of toads in my garden? 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!