Category: Snow.

Tomorrow we’ll get even more.

I think we now have gotten three dm (12 inches) of snow and more will come tomorrow. at the moment the flakes are tiny and few though. It did still snow a lot when we. went out for our morning walk and it looks like both Alma and Malkolm loves it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The monster however is not a happy cat at the moment, she did go outside but wanted to go in again after just a few minutes. She hates it so much that she even use the cat litter box πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ This is really her first real winter when she can go in and out as she pleases, last winter I stopped her from going out in the snow and I think she liked that πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I saw this generator outside the now empty neighbour cottage (and heard it but it is fairly quiet). I think the owner has been so cheap that he cut off the electricity when the last couple moved away. Apparently the water pipes froze!! Of course they will when there’s no heat in the building!! This time he wanted even more money for the place but no one showed any interest what so ever and now it has been taken away from the biggest web broker. So like always with some people, they rather let it fall apart than sell it for a price someone wants to pay.

We walked down to the creek and I was lucky that hunters had been out during the night because I could walk where the wheels had pressed down the snow. It is a fluffy kind of snow so the shoes, even studded ones like I have, really can’t get a good grip. That only lasted until the creek and after that I had to slid around hoping to get some kind of grip so I wouldn’t slip down in to the creek πŸ™‚ It is all covered in ice and snow but not even the lighter animals have tried to walk on it yet.

It was as worst when walking over the field where the wild hogs had dug up it all. The snow lay nice and smooth disguising where all the pits were, thankfully Malkolm walked first so I I followed him and only stepped down in a few pits the entire way πŸ™‚ The wind has calmed down quite a lot thankfully but only for a few days they’re guessing. Also when looking at the weather sites yesterday the temperature would drop down to nasty cold but today they’re guessing it will just be bitterly cold πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ With some luck it’ll stay more or less like it is now because to hope for even warmer weather seems to be pointless at the moment.

Have You ever heard about Baba Vance? it was a blind Bulgarian woman that predicted the future. I haven’t read about any of them to be honest but her followers said she amongst other things predicted the Covid hitting us and last years economic predicaments. I guess like always in these cases her predictions is just enough vague so it can fit anything and therefore come true πŸ™‚ Anyway for this year her predictions, according to her followers of course, says the third world war will start and involves Russia, The USA and China. Also this is the year we’ll meet aliens from space for the first time.

One touch and all that snow falls down on the passer by πŸ™‚

After the last days events the world war doesn’t seem to be too strange but will the Aliens arrive before or after Trumpty Dumpty starts the world war? I sort of hopes it is after because who would want to be embarrassed by having any of those leaders welcoming visitors from space? Senile Trumpty, insane Putin or Horrible calculating Xi (the man who forbid Winnie the Pooh because they look so much alike πŸ™‚ )? and make them think we all are like that? Well if they come after they’ll know for sure that we weren’t the sharpest knives in the universe πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Perhaps they can restore the planet again but not any kind of ape because the same thing would most likely happen again if any of us were still here. Well the Bonobo could stay, they are anything but violent to be honest.

It is time to make a pot of tea and just relax for the rest of the day doing nothing πŸ™‚ Perhaps I should try the old pencil again, I found the three drawings I’ve for some reason saved from back in the days and remembered how much I liked to draw, then again a good book isn’t bad either πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

I really don’t like winter.

It has been snowing since last night and it will continue to do so for at least two more days. The flakes are smaller though so it only builds up rather slowly. I really don’t like winter! It does look like people are taking it easy in the traffic though, so far I’ve only read about one accident involving two cars and a bus.

I don’t think I would have hated it this much if it wasn’t for the wind, it reaches all the way in to the forest as well and since I wear glasses it only takes five seconds before I can’t see anything πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I wouldn’t have moved outside the garden at all if it wasn’t for the dogs πŸ™‚ They didn’t seem to be bothered at all and they followed tracks not visible because of the new snow that covered them. I must say they did behave really well today and I didn’t hear especially much whining from Alma, perhaps she has finally understood that it isn’t necessary to make sound all the time πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Well I doubt it but I value the times she actually is quiet πŸ™‚

I wished that I had something sweet to have with my tea but had nothing at home and no matter how much I wanted something I sure wouldn’t drive anywhere in this weather, so I baked a sponge cake (the Swedish name for it would be sugar cake and thinking about how much sugar there is in a sponge cake I think our name is more appropriate πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ ). I checked online for gluten free ones and as always I didn’t follow the recipe especially much πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Most of those recipes says to use a flour mix and those flour mixes are usually just some kind of starch and usually taste horrible. So I took what I had and I must say that it turned out so well that I wish I could remember what I used πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

There was a tiny forest mouse in the trap this morning and since I thought it shouldn’t sit in that tiny space I moved it to the travel cage I bought. When I came down to fetch it and walk to the forest with it the little bugger had chewed its way through the plastic!! I hadn’t even gone an hour! so from now on they’ll need to stay in the trap and have a much more uncomfortable journey to the forest. I can hear it in the walls and I think it is laughing at me πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll have what’s left of the sponge cake πŸ™‚ I did put half a banana in it but to be honest I couldn’t feel any banana taste. I guess it wasn’t ripe enough and perhaps I should have used the entire banana and not just half of it. I’ll know better the next time this happen πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

I wish You all a good continuing of the new year!

 

 

So it’s a new day and a new year. Back in the days that meant that one needed to remember to not write last years number when signing something, now days we tend to sign everything via apps and they already know what year it is πŸ™‚ If we do need to sign by hand it most likely don’t happen for a while and by then we do remember what year it is πŸ™‚

 

The new year has started with above 0C (32F) temperatures but also with both snow falling and showers of rain. Not a nice combination, especially when the rain mostly falls while being out on a walk with the dogs. Also the monsterkitten has managed to go outside when the snow has fallen just to be hit by showers of rain as soon as the door has been closed behind her, she’s not happy πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

 

The temperature will drop again and more snow will fall and we might get a lot of it, nothing compared to the area around a city called GΓ€vle and further north, that area might get up to a yard of snow so who am I to complain about possibly getting eight inches of that white garbage πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I am however pretty sure I will complain and complain a lot next Time I’ll have to use my car, the first snow will most likely start to melt while freezing towards the windshields. That layer will most likely be really thick before it is cold enough for the snow to just settle without melting. It’ll take forever (well quite some time) when I’ll try and get it all off from my car.

 

The box trap caught the mouse I could hear in the walls the other day, well I hope it’s the one anyway, so I trotted away to all the logs and let it out there. It will be protected from the snow, rain and winds if it decides to stay there. It is after all a wild animal who has lived its life outside my cottage so it should know what’s best for it. Then again I noticed lots of paw prints from a fox around the pile of logs so I might just be feeding it instead. Then again the red fox is a favourite animal of mine so I guess that’s a good excuse to let the mice out at that place.

 

I fell asleep at 10 pm yesterday and to my big surprise slept until eight am! Can’t remember when I slept that much before and the good thing is that I didn’t get an head ache, normally if I sleep for longer than usual my head aches like crazy until I’ve had a cup of coffee. I can’t take any pills since my stomach was destroyed (well destroyed sand really catastrophic but You know what I mean πŸ™‚ So coffee and any soda/drink with lots of caffein is my saving when a head ache comes. Well I had a cup of coffee anyway just in case πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚  I think I’ll skip the tea for once and just have a last cup of coffee for the day instead. New year new traditions perhaps πŸ™‚

I have absolutely no idea why my photos show in this way πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I wish You all a good continuing of the new year!

It was still rather cold when I went out with the nights catch and also a bit foggy but the fog was gone by the time we went on our morning walk. The cold weather was still on though but that is changing now. The snow has already started to melt and my guess is that it will be gone in a few days. After that however it’ll be pretty cold again so in a way it had been better if the snow had stayed for a while. Then again we might get more since winter isn’t especially old yet.

Alma behaves very different each time we’re out on a walk, yesterday she was a pain for a while but today she behaved so good that it surprised me. Almost no whining or pulling the leash!! I always wonder in what way she’ll punish me the next time we’ll be out for a walk πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Since that walk was so amazing I’m almost afraid to go out with her tomorrow morning πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

If yesterday was the big day at christmas here today is the day people to other relatives meeting the same people they met the day before and tomorrow (boxing day is a holiday here) will be much the same but in a different place πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Also the food will also be the same, Ham, pickled herring, beetroot salad, herring salad (truly one of the most horrible things we can eat, I’d rather eat pigs feet again than having herring salad πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ ) and if there is any rice porridge left we’ll make risalamand as dessert, lots of whipped cream is mixed with the porridge plus in my family also lots of berries mixed in to it, some prefer tangerine wedges.

I didn’t make any porridge plus I’m not a fan of too much whipped cream so I just had leftovers from yesterday and since I bought so much of the christmas food it feel like I’ll have leftovers for at least a week πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I will however make rice porridge tomorrow πŸ™‚ After all it is often called yule porridge over here. I had planned to make an oven omelette and cover it with a mushroom stew but I can do that for new years eve instead, I like that because I don’t feel full for several days after eating that πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I actually have the cup beside me πŸ™‚ No more food today though. I’ll actually watch tv tonight, the Swedish version of Task Master, the Christmas edition πŸ™‚

I wish You all a good continuing of Yule!

I wish You all a Good Yule!

So the important parts of Christmas, or Jul as we call it, is over. I’ve baked gingerbread and failed something spectacular πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Β It’s like eating hard bread and at first they don’t taste much but after a while the mouth is burning, I think there’s just to much ginger in them πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Still they go down with lots of cold milk πŸ™‚ After that I grilled the ham and had the first slices on a couple of vΓΆrtbrΓΆd sandwiches πŸ™‚

After that I went out with the catch of the night and guess who had returned for a fourth time? Yes the mouse with the short tail. This time however it was in a bad shape and it didn’t make the trip to where I now let them out again. I guess it takes just too much energy for a small yellow-necked mouse to do those long trips, especially in snow and cold weather. I went back for the dogs so we could have our morning walk.

More snow had fallen during the night and it continued to do so until at least noon. Small tiny flakes so it didn’t add that much to be honest, just enough to cover our tracks from yesterday. Snowy days makes the world very quiet, especially since no one was out driving tractors or cars. We did hear a few birds tweeting and a couple of ravens as well. So when one suddenly hear three big moose running in the forest it will be a bit stressing πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The best thing is just to stop and hope they don’t run over you πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We didn’t see them this time but running moose in a dense forest do make a lot of sound πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I had a christmas lunch around 1 pm ad it feels like I won’t have to eat anything more this week πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I didn’t think it was that much but christmas food is anything but light πŸ™‚ I napped in my recliner for a while before Donald Duck and his friends celebrates Christmas (The Wonderful World of Disney). We’ve seen this hour long program at 3 pm every year since 1960 and we know most of it by heart now. It is actually one of the most popular reprograms we have here in Sweden and even though they sometimes makes changes in it we don’t care, not as long as they don’t touch Ferdinand the Bull. Last time they tried to do that and show the ugly duckling instead the complaints were so many that they showed him after the original program and is back again since then πŸ™‚ We Swedes can tolerate a lot but not that πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I’ve had a few of my gingerbreads with lots and lots of cold milk and now I’ll skip the tv and read some book instead and I doubt I’ll have anything more to eat. I will however have that last cup of tea but that’s it.

I wish You all a Good Yule!

I guess it’s ok during Christmas :-)

They said the chance/ risk, depending on how one look at it, that we in southern Sweden would get a white christmas was slim to none, so I wasn’t especially surprised when I let the dogs out this morning that we had snow on the ground Β πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Also it continued to snow for quite some time and the temperature has dropped so we will have a white Christmas here this year.

I had a parcel waiting for me at the grocery store in Gudhem so I decided that it was best to pick it up before we went out on our morning walk. I had ordered an aquarium book from 1942 so that I would have something to read this christmas plus the fact it is so old that I would be able to read about cold water fish people since long has forgotten about πŸ™‚ I had hoped to find shredded coconut as well because I had forgotten to buy some when I went to the store yesterday. There’s nothing mice seems to like more than shredded coconut. Unfortunately they didn’t have any but it did remind me of potatoes when I saw the last two bags they had πŸ™‚

A sort of a second flowering πŸ™‚

It is actually quite hard to see these huge animals as long as they stand totally still.

This morning the box had trapped three mice! This time a definitely recognised one of them. Some time in its life it had lost a part of its tail so it was easily recognisable. I went out with them before I drove to the store. We went out on our morning walk as soon as I came home and walked much the same way as when I released the mice. We passed the last little field before entering the forest and something caught my attention. I didn’t see them at first but then I saw them, three moose! One big cow, one calf and the third too small to be an adult moose but still too big to be a calf. I’ve seen them before a couple of times and felt happy that they’ve survived the hunting season so far.

The dogs didn’t see them but they understood they were somewhere near πŸ™‚ I must say that Alma has come a long way, just a few months earlier and she would have gone berserk πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ For once she actually started to follow the scents on the ground instead of screaming like obsessed and whining like she has gone crazy πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We didn’t see any more big animals but both Alma and Malkolm kept their noses to the ground for the entire walk πŸ™‚

I have actually been rather active today because when we came home again the first thing I saw when I went down in the cool cellar was that the trap had another prisoner. Well if that mouse with the short tail come here again I just as well get a cage and have it as a pet πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It wasn’t the least stressed to see me, rather the opposite to be honest πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It had taken it slightly more than two hours to find its way home again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ So I just took the trap and walked even further away before I released it again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I was worried for a while that I for some reason had all forest mice and yellow necked mice in the entire area but I think I’ve just caught the same ones all the time πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

After that I made the gingerbread dough. The recipe said that I should have agave syrup and coconut fat but since I’m not a millionaire I used normal syrup and butter. The dough will rest until tomorrow morning before I make the cookies. I will however not be without anything nice to eat today because my neighbours daughters (six and three years old I think) wanted me to have something as a christmas gift, so they made me some fudge and butterscotch to have during christmas, well it won’t last that long because it was delicious πŸ™‚

After that I baked two loafs of VΓΆrtbrΓΆd, they came out rather nice, I and the dogs have already tried a couple of slices with a christmas cheese πŸ™‚ So tomorrow I’ll bake the gingerbreads and also grill the christmas ham. I bought a small already cooked one because now days we really don’t use the water it was cooked in as they did back in the days when every calorie one could get was important. They used to heat it up and dip stale bread in it the get up all the fat still in the rather salty water. It has never been a favourite of mine so I buy ready cooked instead.

It is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and of course some of the christmas candy my neighbours gave me πŸ™‚ Tomorrow is our big day of christmas and if I get some time over I’ll write something here πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Still waiting for that snow.

View from my kitchen window.

Still waiting for that snow to arrive. Well to be honest we have actually had some but so little that it’s hard to find πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Β They are threatening us with more later on though so I guess we’ll get it sooner or later. There has been snow chaos in other places though and I’m so glad it never came to us.

We have had fog though, so thick in the early morning that it was hard to see anything and then it slowly started to thin out just to come back again later. I do like fog so I didn’t complain but it did make the day a bit dark to be honest. The eyes didn’t notice it that much but the camera did πŸ™‚

I had prepared for a snowy day so I made lots of rice porridge and learned that it worked just as well on a foggy day πŸ™‚ Rice porridge is not something one make unless it is cold and snowy because it takes a long time to make, easily gets burned and if it is burned one has to toss it away because it tastes awful. Making it on a stove is hot and boring since one must stir it around pretty often. I however make it in the slow cooker so even though it takes almost three hours to make one only have to stir it a few times.

I put on a new collar on the monsterkitten yesterday and she wore it for almost half a day before she lost it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Β This time I wrote my phone number on the collar so I got a call just minutes ago, she had lost it at the farm just up the slope πŸ™‚ So I’ll get it tomorrow when I’ll check if I’ve gotten any mail. I guess that’s the place she mostly walks to because she does tend to smell like a cow Β now days. I’m pretty sure her mother was one of the feral cats living there and that’s where the cat looking almost identical to her lives at as well πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. It is pitch black outside and the temperatures will drop considerable so tomorrow morning might be the coldest morning so far this winter.

Have a great day!

The snow is closing in.

We might get up to two decimeters (eight inches) of snow from tonight and until Friday afternoon so I decided to go to the store already today so I don’t have to drive in that garbage weather on Friday. I know, snow is pretty but I truly dislikes it. The only time I actually liked it was rather many years ago when I spent Christmas in a cottage even more remote than where I live now.

I rented a cottage back then in a region called Dalsland, close to the Norwegian border, and I had the best Christmas ever (I think that I have written about it here in my blog a year or two or perhaps even more years ago πŸ™‚ ). Over half a meter of snow (much the same in yards), -28C (-18,4F), no electricity but a fire stove and my then two dogs and one cat. There’s no light pollution at all there so even if I can see lots of stars here it’s nothing compared to there. I spent an entire week there and as I said it’s the only time I actually have liked snow πŸ™‚

This and the rest of the photos are taken with analog cameras and if I remember it right it’s an Agfa Ambiflex I took these six first ones, then two with a Nikon F90 and the four last ones with an Agfa Colorflex (can be wrong with that last one though).

Back then mobile phones just started to become popular so to hope for any kind of signal there was to hope for a miracle πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I would have loved to live there but I think there’s a bigger chance to find a job on the planet Mars than in that region πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Β Well I’ll have to endure the snow here no matter what but I do think that if I ever won the lottery I would buy something small in southern France so I could stay there during winter and move back here when spring arrives πŸ™‚

I didn’t bring any digital camera with me on our walks today but it looks much the same as it did a few days back and I also have some wintery photos taken with film cameras last winter so perhaps I’ll put in a few of those. I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I will not bake a mug cake today no matter how yummy it was so I’ll just have that tea and perhaps watch some tv even if I doubt that there’s anything I want to watch, there rarely is.

Have a great day!

A day outside for the monsterkitten.

We’re having a really nice day here, a bit frosty in the morning but temperatures rose when the sun did. So today we’ve had 11C (51,8F) πŸ™‚ There is a wind blowing but it isn’t that cold and like most days it can’t reach my garden.

We walked down to the creek and I must say that Alma is getting better and better walking well. Malkolm is just the opposite but that could be that I only notice it now when Alma has started to calm down πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We could hear lots of cranes but couldn’t see any, the big migration north has just started and soon I’ll be able to see them flying over us as soon as we’re outside. The doves have arrived too, I do like their sound in the morning when we go outside.

I took a look at my small vegetable garden yesterday and since the weather is so nice I decided I would start removing all the weeds today. This early in spring I can only see the biennals and the perennial weeds and thankfully they grow big enough in autumn that they are easy to see now. It was mostly Aarons’ rod, a few dandelions and also small stinging nettles. The Aarons’rods grow so big that they need to be removed and I did remove most of the dandelions as well, left a couple since I like the leafs in a salad.

Also stinging nettles are nutritious but to be honest, they spread like wild fires and no matter what people say they do sting badly already as tiny plants. Wild raspberries is a bit of a problem here, they too spread fast but then again those berries are probably the tastiest one can find but not in my vegetable patch πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I also found some carrots from last year so the dogs and I shared them πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ All these weeds filled up that small compost I bought last summer, the black one that one can and must spin around to make it work properly.

Where the Pawpaws grow. Doesn’t look much but they have survived the winter, all green beneath the bark πŸ™‚

It was so so full now that I barely could spin it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ It works amazingly good, it’s just made of some kind of plastic that also insulated really well. They say it works down to -11C (12,2F) and I believe them. It’s counted as a warm compost and during summer it gets really warm and I put my hands in it now when it was cold and I could still feel warmth in there. I’ll continue tomorrow with more weeding and thankfully I do have a big compost made from the same material that still has some space it it πŸ™‚

She didn’t look too happy when she looked out the door πŸ™‚

Malkolm never far behind.

The monsterkitten was allowed to walk out from the kitchen door by herself today. Can’t say she was especially enthusiastic in the beginning, lots of going in and out at the beginning πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ She did get more brave after a while but as soon as the dogs thought she had wandered a bit too far (4 meters as most wich is much the same in yards) they started to make sure she walked back to the door πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We’ll have much the same temperatures the coming five days so she’ll have plsnty more times to explore the garden πŸ™‚

Alma was also keeping an eye on her. An exciting day for the monster kitten and she’s been sleeping all afternoon πŸ™‚

Time for dinner I think, have no clue what I’ll make but after that I’ll make a pot of tea πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Northern winds.

The path down to the bog.

Warmer this morning but with an annoying wind from north but warmer, despite northern winds so why complain πŸ™‚ Also today it took some time before the clouds flew away so that the sun could reach us.

Lots of water in the small creeks.

I met our new neighbours today and can happily tell You it’s a younger couple who loves how quiet it is here. Very easy to talk to as well so that’s a relief πŸ™‚ We met them on our morning walk when they were out walking with their tiny white dog and I shouted to them that Alma most likely would scream as obsessed but that she’s harmless πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Yes Alma did shout and pulled the leash but gently greeting their dog and so did Malkolm. I told them that Alma is an escape artist and that they most likely would meet her when they walk out of their home but that she also most likely would run away from them after a sniff or two πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

The path down to the bog.

Lots of water in the small creeks.

They told me that they have chicken and that the rooster crows all the time. No problem said I. I mean roosters do that and I like the sound so that was nothing to be worried about πŸ™‚ They had also already noticed that the wild hogs comes close to their cottage. I didn’t tell them about our wolves though, better to save the exciting things to when they’ve settled πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚Β 

One really doesn’t want to sink down in that mud πŸ™‚

We walked out to the bog to see if the ground still was frozen enough so that we could walk out to my favourite island but it wasn’t. The ground was frozen all the way to where we’ve just passed the creek and that’s where the sun had reached. If I had had rubber boots I might have been able to go out there but I think it is Alma who chewed through my old ones and I’ve never bothered to buy new ones. The sun slowly started to break through the clouds on our way home but not fully until we’ve had come home, so we’ve spent a lot of time in the garden instead πŸ™‚

I’ve baked some rolls so it is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and then try one of the rolls πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Snow is slowly melting away again.

A cold night followed by a sunny morning today, there was no wind when I let the dogs out after we woke up and no wind when I drove to the supermarket. I prefer to go grocery shopping early in the morning when the place hasn’t that many costumers, very few customers are younger than 60 at that time in the morning πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

The weather seems just right for the spruce cones to open up and start spreading their seeds.

There was no one before me when I reached the cashier and no one followed after me when I was done πŸ™‚ It showed in the traffic as well, I didn’t have a single car behind me when I drove back home. I looked towards the lake but could just see photographers with lenses bigger than I thought was possible I guess You need those big ones if You want to photograph the first cranes of the year, later on one can use any camera because the birds walks just a few steps away πŸ™‚

So our morning walk started a bit late and the wind had started to blow but just a little, that has changed now, it’s not like it’s a storm passing by but I think I can say that the wind was a bit brisk πŸ™‚ We walked mostly in the forest though so the worst thing that happened was that big chunks of snow fell down from the trees and covered us in it instead πŸ™‚

The new neighbours are moving in today, they have a small lorry or perhaps I should call it bigger pickup truck? I’ve just seen the vehicle but not those moving in so we still have no idea what they look like πŸ™‚ Β I guess that if the morning walk is at the right time tomorrow I’ll see them sit in the kitchen having breakfast when we pass πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The beekeeper removed the hedge when he moved in so we can see straight in to the kitchen when we walk by πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea but I ‘ve just had my dinner so I’ll skip anything edible this time, I won’t even have a banana this time πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

It was cold this morning when the dogs, monster kitten and I woke up. -14C (6,8F) but there was no wind at all so when I walked out in to the shine from the rising sun it actually felt rather nice even though I only wore a sweatshirt and sweatpants. It didn’t take long before I could hear drops dripping from the roof.

Still I can’t say that the snow did a lot of melting during the day even though it did become rather warm. Today the birds started to sing again and I could hear cranes from fields not too far away. I could also hear Alma the entire walk because today she decided that whining in a high pitched tone would make us all happy πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ She did behave very well otherwise. Instead I had to scold Malkolm because he decided that if Alma was supposed to walk without pulling the leash someone else had to πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

I haven’t done much today though, applied for some jobs and been outside in the garden every now and again. The snow is slowly melting around the early spring bulbs but that’s it. This is the time of year when newly plants die, the ones planted last autumn that is. Their roots haven’t spread down properly Β in to the ground so if the ground still is frozen they’ll dry out pretty quickly when the warmer weather comes, that little soil that they brought with them from the pot will dry out really quickly and since the ground is frozen it can’t get any moisture from it. So just before the cold weather would arrive I was outside watering everything I planted last autumn and those plants that live on the border to what they can manage. All I can do now is to wish that I watered enough.

Everything down in the cool cellar are now getting tiny leafs, rather annoying since I can’t bring anything of it outside and since one of the plant lights I had broke so it is a bit too dark down there now. Can’t do much about it though, not until the nights a get warmer. As soon as they’ve gotten used to be outside they usually can take a night or two in a row without getting damaged. Doesn’t look like that will happen in the closest seven day πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I think I have one peach tree, five apricots, two red mulberries and lots of quince seedlings and even though mice? (could also be a monster kitten πŸ™‚ ) have chewed on all the giant sequoias it still looks like four of them have survived, cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck πŸ™‚

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I hope that it will warm up quickly tomorrow morning (after a pretty cold night again) so I don’t have to scrape ice from the car before I’ll go to the supermarket πŸ™‚

Have a great day!