Category: Snow.

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I’m so glad that I decided to go to the supermarket yesterday instead of today, arriving a bit late the snowstorm still is bad. Despite that we have lots of snow now I doubt we’ll have much left on Wednesday because we’ll have above freezing temperatures and also lots of rain on the way.

The bird feeder is now even closer to the ground 🙂 It was even hard to fill it when it’s that close to the ground.

North eastern winds so the snow gets stuck in the lilacs and barely reaches the Pawpaws and Camellia.

A couple of hunters did actually come here today but I doubt that they even went out, these gusts and heavy snow on that makes it dangerous to walk around in the forest, so I guess that they sat in the hunting lodge, started a fire and perhaps grilled something over the open fire 🙂 When they finally drove away the weather was so bad that the dogs and I stayed at home, I hope we’ll get a chance tomorrow even though it looks like it’ll rain all day and night.

     

I slept rally bad last night and I did so mostly because the monster kitten now is able to almost jump up on tables and counters. Either she jumps straight in to things and while falling down to the floor she grabs everything in reach so it falls with her or if she’s successful she walks around pushing things down on the floor. We had lots of things going bump in the night here 🙂 🙂 🙂

       

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then I’ll most likely will fall asleep in the recliner 🙂

Have a great day!

After nasty cold comes snowstorm and then rain.

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Since we never came out on any walks today the photos are either from my garden or older ones. This one is from this morning looking out over the cow pasture.

 

I can’t pretend to look forward to the coming snowstorm and the following warmer temperatures with what looks like lots of rain but it’s sure better than the -18 C (-0,4 F) we had this morning. It was so nasty cold that I was afraid the front doors lock had frozen like it did last winter when the temperature dropped to -22 C (-7,6 F) 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve hung drapes in front of the door to make sure all that cold air wouldn’t get indoors and it sure worked 🙂 🙂 🙂  Well it seems that it wasn’t cold enough last night 🙂

Somewhere in there is the bird feeder, I could reach it without drowning in snow 🙂

 

I had decided that it was better to go to the super market today, despite the low temperature instead of tomorrow, they are warning that if one doesn’t need to be driving tomorrow one should stay at home. I can say that my car wasn’t happy 🙂 It started without problems but it sure protested 🙂 The right front door was frozen solid, I tried to open it because I had the combines ice scraper and brush on that side. That gave me a problem when I arrived at the supermarket, the car refused to lock itself when I tried to. Turns out that I actually had managed to move the door just a tiny bit so that it couldn’t lock that door. So first I had to push all my weight towards it and then drag the door from the inside as much as I could until I finally could lock it 🙂 🙂 🙂

I need rainwater to most of my potted plants so I had to crush the ice to reach it 🙂
This is truly the test to see if the Camellias can survive here.

Not that I think it would have been stolen because we were just a few fools being outside at that time 🙂 🙂 🙂  I let the dogs out as soon as I was at home and it was so cold that Alma got foot cramps and wanted to go indoors. Yesterday Malkolm had another problem, tiny snowballs formed between his toes on both sides, over and under, that’s something I’ve never seen before. So I decided it was just too cold for them to have a walk, instead they’ve had the garden to roam in but they weren’t especially happy about being out there either. 

 

My neighbors huge Birches.

It has finally started to be less cold so the snowstorm is closing in, the snowing has already started but it’s a nice snowfall right now. I have a big bag with deer food that I need to get rid of, when an old neighbor lived here he always fed the deer on winters like this but when he moved no one else was interested in continuing that so I did instead, in my garden. I could have up to ten deer at a time eating that food and they never cared if my then dogs were outside at the same time, they knew them well since we often met on our walks. Orvar and Hector were their names and they never behaved like Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wonder if I have any photos in one of the old computers, unfortunately I can’t remember the pass words 🙂 🙂 🙂 

   

So anyway I have this bag just waiting to be used so I’ve started to pour out some food outside my fence on the backside of the garden, there’s a high fence there so the deer never comes in to the garden any more but I can easily toss out food to them. Since the snow have kept on falling and the wind blowing I haven’t been able to see if any deer has been there but I have placed my wildlife camera so if I might have some photos of them. I’ll bring in the camera tomorrow.

   

Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The wind did blow pretty hard when I woke up early this morning and it also snowed pretty much and towards my entrance door, so it looked like we had gotten much more snow than it actually was. Still around 20 cm (8 inches of the white garbage) in average I would say.

     

The wind did calm down to almost nothing just before we went out on our morning walk and after a while the sun also showed itself. We were lucky that the horse guy had arrived so we could walk in the tire tracks, light and fluffy snow like that is hard to walk in, one sort of slides back a bit with every step one takes 🙂 We never saw the horses though because they were in the forest working.

     

Thanks to the sun shining and no wind blowing the walk actually was really nice,  despite the deep fluffy snow and Almas’ constant whining. I’m never sure if she likes the horses or dislike them but when ever we see one or she can smell them she’s going rather annoying, lots of whining in a high pitched note that sorts of cuts the brain in to small pieces plus the pulling of the leash gets worse. No horse guy here tomorrow though so I’m pretty sure she’ll stay much calmer.

We all were covered in snow after walking down to the creek 🙂

   

I had planned on going to the super market today but I will not do that in a snow storm and we only had sunshine for a short while, then the clouds came back and with them more snow. Right now they are plowing the road again by the way. So I need to go either tomorrow or on Sunday, the problem is that it might be as cold as -13 C (8,6 F) and I’m not longing to get all snow of the car in those temperatures. I really don’t like winter.

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll continue to read the book I’m reading. I’m slowly but steadily forcing my brain to start working again 🙂

     

Have a great day!

     

I wish You all a good ending of this year and a good new year!

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Looking out over the field towards a neighbor cottage.

So this year is coming to an end and I can’t say I’ll miss it much 🙂 Well finding the little monster kitten Sara was a good thing but the rest has been crappy to be honest 🙂 🙂 and getting Malkolm here was definitely a good thing as well! I forgot that he hasn’t been here a year yet 🙂

     

Early in the year I was told by my optician that I have the beginning of cataract in my right eye, it could develop really fast but it could also stay this way for a really long time, I must admit that I haven’t noticed anything so I guess this is the kind that will move really slowly and I feel that that’s a good thing. Summer was a bit crappy with all that rain and very little sunshine though.

     

Then I had to quit my job because I couldn’t work from 4:25 pm to 3:00 am but just before that I had a Kidney stone. Now I’ve realized that it was most likely not the kidney stone that created all that pain because the spot where the pain came from wasn’t especially close to the kidneys 🙂 🙂 Just as I got that stone I must have entered a period when my rheumatism also hit as hard as it could 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did however have stone because they found it when they x-rayed me. It was when they x-rayed me again when they found a small growth on one of my kidneys and of course that was a tumor.

     

However it was so small yet that they couldn’t take a biopsy from it because they would then likely hit my kidney instead and the doctor said that if we do that it’ll never stop bleeding, so next spring I’ll do another x-ray so they can see if it has grown so that finally can take a biopsy from it. They need to so that know if it is, which they thing, is cancer or something else. She did say that the prognosis is the best one can have because they are aware of it and can start treatment as soon as they know what it is so I guess that pain and following x-rays were sort of good after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

So all I do right now is to hope for very little snow, it is snowing right now but it’ll melt away tomorrow when it will rain all day just to get cold again to get more snow that will melt away and then it will get really cold again 🙂 🙂 I’m so glad I have studded shoes 🙂 I hope we’ll get an early and warm spring and why not a job soon as well. Still I have really nice days now when I can get daylight every day, spend lots of time with the dogs and cats so who am I to complain too much 🙂 🙂 🙂 Plus I’ve baked french rolls again and at the moment I’m making rice porridge and what’s left tomorrow I’ll make Risalamande or as we call it here Ris à la Malta. Rice porridge whipped together with whipped cream, normally one use orange slices to mix in but I’ll use the berries I picked this summer and perhaps slice down some plums in it as well 🙂

       

So now I wish You all a Good Ending of this Year and a Good New Year as well!

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We had sunshine most parts of the day yesterday and were supposed to have some today as well so of course we hadn’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead we had my second favorite weather today, fog and at times really thick fog. Tomorrow we’re supposed to have fog all day so perhaps the sun will show itself then instead 🙂

     

But we didn’t just have fog, tiny, tiny snow flakes fell all day as well but since they were so small and few it isn’t noticeable anywhere on the ground, I can accept snowfall like that 🙂 🙂 It was a nice morning walk despite it being below 0C (32 F) because there was no wind what so ever blowing. Also both Malkolm and Alma behaved pretty well after the first couple of hundred meters (much the same in yards) of the walk.

     

I still, to my own surprise, have christmas feeling. I normally have them late October to some time in the middle of November and then they die out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess it can be because I don’t have to go out to scrape the windows of the car, feel well rested and actually just because the snow is falling even though it can’t be seen 🙂 I haven’t felt this well rested in years to be honest but I still can’t promote unemployment unless one is rather wealthy 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not so I better keep on looking for a job or win the lottery 🙂 🙂

They have removed the blockage in the creek so now the water level is much lower again.

 

It is time for a cup of tea but nothing more, the dogs and I have just eaten some pancakes and that’s enough for me but they and the cat will have their dinners just after this, even though they all had pancakes as well 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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I went to the mail box and checked if I had gotten any mail, we only get it every second day and I never remember what days they are 🙂 Anyway I took this photo on my way back. The left one is my neighbors and the right one is mine.

Been to the supermarket in the early morning and followed the note I’d written and instead of buying more things I don’t need I actually removed some since I really don’t need them and probably want to have other things next time I’ll go to the grocery store 🙂

     

We were supposed to have rain today but I don’t think we’ve had any, we did get some sunshine instead and that was a good swap I think 🙂 Above 0 C (32 F) temperatures today so the snow and frost is slowly melting away, very slowly it still stays in places where the sun can’t reach. I don’t think Alma has behaved so well ever before as she did today!! I only wish I knew what was different this time 🙂 🙂

     

Every time my or my neighbors cars aren’t working as they should we borrow each others cars. Last year just before Christmas my old Peugeot broke down totally I could borrow their VW, this time they have their Volvo at the garage so now they borrow my Renault 🙂 I might have a rather shit life in some ways this autumn/ winter but I do have the best neighbors one can have 🙂 Also they like when my dogs jump over the fence and plays with their children and that’s a huge relief 🙂 🙂 🙂 So at the moment it’s a good thing I’m at home most of the time 🙂 🙂

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I baked some french rolls today and they sort of sank and are a bit flat but texture wise they actually are really close to the “real” ones but they taste absolutely nothing at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I’ve been sitting here wondering how all taste just have vanished when I remember that I forgot to put in salt 🙂 🙂 🙂 I tend to bake on a hip as we say here but I think I can remember how much of each product I used so I can do them again and put salt in too 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well if Alma is cleaning her up she of course does the same to her 🙂

I wonder what the Yule Gnome is trying to defend himself from? People who’d rather have Julmust? the biggest of all sodas during this time of year 🙂

Have a great day!

A winter day.

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-10 C (14 F) when we went out for our morning walk, the sun was supposed to shine from early morning until it set so naturally we only had sunshine for an hour. The wind wasn’t strong but had a nasty bite to it so it was a relief when we could walk in to the forest. 

     

We walked down to the creek but the opposite way than usual so that we only had to walk in the cold wind at the beginning of our walk. I could see how the clouds above our head stopped just before the mountain so those living on the other side of it or at the top had sunshine all the time during our walk 🙂 🙂 🙂 I noticed that the water level is really high now and when we reached the little bridge that allows us to continue with our walk along the creek it was almost totally covered in ice. 

     

So we walked up the field to see if there was any place we could pass and then walk down to the creek again. I unfortunately thought I had found such a place but the brink of that ditch broke and my left foot sunk down into it 🙂 🙂 🙂 It looks like I had taken very good care of the boots because I didn’t get wet inside the shoe at all.  Still my boot smells s bit of bog and so does my trousers 🙂 🙂 🙂 On the way back home we passed some working horses, the forest owner almost always hires a guy who works with horses in the forest to make as little damage as possible. Alma wanted to become hysterical but lots of treats made her manage it well 🙂

     

I’ve read in a couple of places that before we started to have christmas trees in our homes people tended to bring in smaller crab apple trees instead. If they planned it right the little apple tree would start to flower at christmas. So today I went outside and started to prune my seed sown apple tree. I’ve shaped it in a fan shape so it doesn’t grow too wide into the cow pasture beside. The cows will chew away those branches growing there anyway. 

     

When You prune fruit trees like apples and pears only take a third of what is needed. If You take more the tree will do anything to get back all those leafs that it has lost and do it in autumn because that’s when the tree prepares to slow down before winter and won’t realize that it has lost all those leafs. Then next year take half of what You want to remove and the third year the rest, after that just check every now and again if something needs to be removed. Anyway I’ll take in some of those branches I cut of and put in a big vase and see if I can manage to make it flower till christmas 🙂

     

The ice cream lorry is on the way so I’ll go outside to buy some to have on christmas eve morning 🙂

Have a great day!

Northern winds today.

 

Winter wonderland.

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We woke up to a village covered in white, well covered is a bit much but it is at least more snow on the ground than last time. It made my neighbor happy because it’s her birthday today and she wanted snow at least today and around Christmas 🙂

     

Even I must admit that it looks beautiful outside now and if the weather sites are somewhat right it might stay like this for a week or longer. I often hear that the snow at least makes it less dark but that’s only true if there is some light reflecting on it, I learned that when I moved to the countryside, if it is cloudy it’s just as dark as it is without snow 🙂 🙂 A clear sky and full moon is the best but since a clear sky usually also means nasty cold I prefer to have it cloudy at nights 🙂 🙂

     

I went to the super market this morning, Tuesday mornings are perfect to go there because there’s so little customers there that one can take time to just walk around looking for what one wants to buy and still not be in the way for others 🙂 That’s a dangerous strategy though because it is too easy to find other things to buy 🙂 I made it through without buying anything that wasn’t on the list though 🙂

     

I’ve started to put seeds in the feeder that is hanging in the huge lilacs and the birds of course loves it and I hope it will stop them from eating all the window putty from my windows. I have no idea what it is that makes them love eating it and it is so annoying! Anyway the small birds are happy and so is the Sparrowhawk. The first thing that happened was a Sparrowhawk catching a house sparrow in front of me. I really can’t be angry because they need food too but I do think it could have been polite enough to wait until I had walked in again 🙂

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I’ve just made a couple of scones and they are good but I don’t like how they smell for some reason. So the faster I eat these the quicker I can make other ones that doesn’t smell like these 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A bit grumpy after having a nap in my sweater 🙂

A bit chilly.

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We had a clear sky when I woke up this morning and I could see that the sun was rising even though it still was a couple of hours before that happened. I opened the door and followed the dogs outside and realized that if we stayed outdoor for more than a few minutes we would all die 🙂 🙂 still standing as the ones the Ice queen in Narnia froze to statues 🙂 🙂

     

-12 C (10,4 F) but thankfully no wind at that moment. we did get a very weak wind when we went out on our walk though but by then the sun was up shining, not that it felt especially much warmer but my imagination is strong so I decided it was 🙂 🙂  We walked down to the bog and out to the island I like so much to walk at.  This time I decided that we should walk on the more beautiful side of it. I think it must have been well over a year since we were there, can’t remember Malkolm ever walking there so it must have been long before he moved here. That side of the island is as it most beautiful when spring hasn’t turned to summer because the sun reach that side and all mosses and lichens shine so beautiful in that light early in the morning.

   

What I didn’t know was that lots of dead trees had fallen during the storms that it was impossible to walk that way. It’s a nature reserve so fallen trees stays where they are. So instead we had to walk through a dense shrubbery containing mostly of young birches, really fun to do that with a dog like Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 We finally managed to walk through it and to the island again. Unfortunately the frozen water in the bog was covered with snow and so was all moss and lichens, not by much but enough to hide what it looks like there. Still a beautiful place though. We did hear a deer jumping away so after that Alma was slightly impossible to walk with.

    This is actually the county border, I live around 200 meters from it.

I did make a macaroni pudding today and I must say it was delicious 🙂 I ate too much of course but there’s still enough left for dinner tomorrow. I also tried one of all the recipes on apple pie made in a micro. Well I wouldn’t call what I did a pie in any way, it was more like oatmeal cookies with apples mixed in 🙂 🙂 Still really nice but not a pie. There seems to be loads of those recipes so I think I’ll try another tomorrow 🙂

     

It’ll have be cold tomorrow as well and sunshine all day long, at least that is what they all are guessing but it will be almost 10 C (50 F)  on Sunday. It will also rain they say but I will not complain, I really don’t like winter 🙂 I really am born in the wrong part of the world when it comes to the cold season 🙂 🙂 Time for a last cup of tea for the day and then some tv watching, for once there’s actually something I want to see 🙂

     

Have a great day!

The water filled puddles are impossible to see when the thin layer of snow covers them.

 

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It was snowing when we woke up and went out to the garden this morning, mostly tiny flakes though so the roads are white but barely no snow can be seen in the fields. Pretty cold outside but it was the wind that made it feeling too cold. Not around here in my garden but when we passed the fields the cold wind blew right through me.

   

There are lots of these old roads in to the forest, they were made so that it would be easier to get timber in and out of the forest.

We walked down to the creek and followed it down stream. The surface has already started to freeze, mostly because the water flows really slow because there’s apparently a log blocking the water flowing. So since this is the first time Malkolm has seen frozen water in the creek he happily took a step out on it 🙂 🙂 🙂  Thankfully it was easy to pull him up since he’s wearing a harness 🙂 🙂 He didn’t go down especially far, only up to his stomach so he had wet legs mostly. I think he enjoyed it though 🙂 🙂

The secret passage. It’s almost impossible to see the opening even when looking at in the real. Could be a way to Narnia, I should try it some day 🙂

   

The day has been calm after that, we’ve been in and out to the garden and I brought in the wildlife camera, just three blurry photos of our fox. It does look really healthy and it has thankfully been a long time since we had Fox scabies in this area. Dogs can get it as well and it’s easy to get rid of, not to the fox though and they usually scratch themselves to death. My old dogs got it fairly often, three of the four scratched themselves like crazy but the fourth showed no signs of having it. Turns out that some dogs can have it but never react to it, the scabies itself isn’t dangerous for the animal but it’s the mites pooping they are allergic to. She was full of it but never reacted.

   

I’ve baked some bread today and since the oven was working I threw in some brined pork after the bread was out. Smelled fantastic 🙂 I think I’ll make macaroni pudding tomorrow and put the pork in it. I think however I’ll make it closer to mac and cheese than the traditional way with eggs and milk and I do hope rice pasta will work. Rice pasta never need to boil for long so I was thinking of perhaps just let it sit in water for a while before mixing it all together and let it soften in the oven.

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have some of the bread I just baked. I think I’ll have perhaps some ham and blue cheese on it 🙂

Malkolm and Sara playing in the living room, a bit blurry but I wanted You all too see how vicious she is 🙂

   

Have a great day!

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Lots of snow falling for about five minutes so not much on the ground.

So we’ve missed almost all snow but I heard it was a bit chaotic on th e northern parts of our west coast during the morning and now they expect up to 50 cm (20 inches) of snow at the east coast just north of our Capital Stockholm. Down here where I live we even had some nice sunshine during the day but also some snowfall but it looked worse than it actually was.

Much nicer weather yesterday so most photos comes from then.

   

I hadn’t planed on leaving my cottage until as earliest on Friday but I got a message that I could go to the vet to bring old Nova back home. So to the vet I went and just as I was about to leave the vet came and asked how Sara the cat was 🙂 He truly likes that little kitten of ours 🙂 🙂 I told him that I didn’t plan on letting her outside for quite some time yet because she’s tiny and he said yes maybe when summer arrives 🙂 I was planning some time after Christmas, for a short moment depending on the weather 🙂 I guess it depends on how much she wants it and she will be in a leash the first times 🙂

     

My neighbors kids had chickenpox last week, I didn’t know that when I walked in to their home 🙂 🙂 I have a tendency to get it even though I’ve already had it several times, I’ve heard that it is because my immune system is, as a nurse said to me, quite fucked up because of my rheumatism which is an autoimmune disease. So now I’m just waiting for that itching again, it isn’t that long ago I had it 🙂 🙂 to be honest it was more or less over by the time I was there so I’ll most likely not get it but now of course I do feel that it itches everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just like finding one tick walking on an arm and after that one feel they walk everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps some hard bread with christmas ham on. They’ve already started to sell slices of it in the stores so I bought a little package, goes really well with some brie 🙂

     

Have a great day!

     

Our weather service is quite useless to be honest.

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We still have quite a lot of snow left and since our quite useless weather sites now say it won’t be that warm tomorrow as they’ve said for five days the white crap may stay longer than I had hoped for. Ok it is still going to be above 10C (50F) but nowhere near to what they said before. Honestly I have no idea why they even get paid when they do such a lousy job!

     

Still the slightly warmer air that has arrived hit the cold air from the snow and gave us a rather nice and thick fog instead. We went out quite early in the morning for our walk because since I thought it would be warmer the fog might vanish quite fast. It didn’t because it stayed until way after noon 🙂 🙂 I thought Nova would go out to the bog again today but she decided that a walk along the creek would be nice.

     

Much of the snow had melted on the gravel roads so Malkolm wanted to walk most if it himself. It wasn’t until we reached the path along the creek when I had to start carry him even though he did protest a lot 🙂 There was so much snow that it even was hard for the rest of us to walk there without sliding down into the creek 🙂 birds were singing even though I think the fog dampened their will to. I did hear something walking around and since fog brings out my imagination I thought it might be a troll.

     

It wasn’t though, it was just a badger talking a walk in the snow 🙂 🙂 Could have been wild hogs because they’ve done a great job digging up the road from the creek. They had done a great job digging up the field as well to be honest. I don’t know how many of them we have now but by the look of what they do to the roads and fields they are way too many. I’ll protest to the wolves because it is after all their job to remove as many of them as they can 🙂 🙂

   

Thew Starlings wren’t too happy about the weather 🙂

Always when a new puppy comes to live with me I always start by letting them go off leash when they’ve been here a week, so today I did the same with Malkolm. To be honest I never did that with Alma because she was all over the place all the time when she arrived here and even though she’s much calmer now I still never would let her off the leash 🙂 🙂 I noticed how Malkolm behaved because he too noticed that she’s a bit wild 🙂 So when we walked he walked close to Nova but when we stood still he went to Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 Here at home it’s almost only Alma he’s with and I think that’s how Nova wants it to be 🙂 🙂

     

Tomorrow I’ll leave them in the doghouse/ yard/ garage for an hour because I have to go to the grocery store. He has already been there for fifteen minutes once and I doubt he realized I was gone. So I’ll check with my neighbors if they can see or hear him while I’m at the grocery store, I doubt it though because I’m pretty sure Alma will play with him the entire time 🙂

   

Have a great day!