Category: Sowing and growing.

It is at least warmer again.

June 15, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

Misty morning looking up the road before leaving for work. — No the coming photos with morning mist isn’t from today, I had those in my car camera.

It is raining outside, a nice gentle summer rain and the temperature rose up to 18C (64,4F) so it’s quite nice outside. It looks like Malkolm doesn’t mind rain after all, he’s the only one of them that willingly goes out no matter how much it is raining, Nova and Alma just stand by the door opening looking at him 🙂 🙂 I’m still trying to figure out what kind of dog he will be as grown up, when it comes to behavior I men. There are no signs of herding characteristics, not good at fetch but is truly gentle and like rain.

Fur photos taken in the village on my way to work when we had a few misty mornings. — My work friend once said that this isn’t a village but a wasteland 🙂 Big open fields in the middle with a few groups of houses and cottages spread here and there around it 🙂

That sort of fits with both Cockerspaniel and Golden retriever. Border-collie isn’t a retrieving dog so that fits with him, then again no herding 🙂 So it will most likely be something towards the golden and spaniel . All goldens and spaniels I’ve met have loved water 🙂 I tried to see how high he is now and he’s somewhere around (he wouldn’t stand still 🙂 🙂 ) 42cm-44cm (16-18 inches) high. That’s actually higher than what a Golden should be at that age?! He’s still the little guy here, Nova is 52 cm (almost 21 inch high) and Alma is 70 cm (28 inch high).

Malkolm yesterdxay when I had come home from work. The big package behind him is the dog food and toys I had ordered :-) — Malkolm waiting for me to walk in with him and as You can see the dog food and toys I’d ordered had arrived.

Buttercups, in the real those flowers are slightly tinged with green, really hard to get in a photo.

The haunted tree. Still can't remember the name on this one :-)

Our morning however was rather wonderful! Sunshine and cool enough to keep all mosquitoes calm but not cool enough to keep the flies calm. Still it was enough to wear a hoodie to keep them away from bot nostrils and ears 🙂 Later on a strong wind arrived so that kept most of the flies away as well. We walked down to the creek and Nova sort of thought that was a good idea, not great though so she did walk more slowly than usual 🙂 The only animal I could see, besides birds, was a deer. I had hope that we would meet the foxes again but perhaps tomorrow, They’re guessing that we’ll have much the same weather tomorrow, cool and sunny in the morning and warm but rainy in the afternoon. They are guessing much of next week will be much the same 🙂

Down at the creek, lots of flies there but surprisingly few mosquitoes.

I let both Nova and Malkolm walk without a leash on the last part of our walk, turns out Nova had quite a lot of speed in her legs 🙂 🙂 She did stop and look after us every now and again but we were never really close to her until we came back to the gate 🙂 🙂 🙂 Malkolm followed her for a while but decided to run back to Alma and me. He is very slowly accepting the smell from the anti tick spray and I could only find one tick on him when I checked him before I let him go inside. Alma had five and Nova only one.

Quite often we meet a fox here but I guess she has learned when we come by :-) I'm pretty sure that if the deer hadn't moved I wouldn't have seen him at all but they are more cautious now when we have wolves here.

Besides that I haven’t done much today, I did plant the dahlias I’ve sown but I don’t think they’ll last for long. Lots of hungry snails and slugs now when the weather is like it is. We don’t have the feared Spanish forest slug here, it behaves like a forest machine when cutting down trees, it eats anything and everything in its way but our native slugs and snails are enough as it is. One advantage we do have here though is the Panther slug, it eats other small slugs so we take really good care of those 🙂 🙂 So to be honest, it could have been much worse.

Nova and Malkolm walking ahead of us. She did stop every now and again to check where we were :-) Malkolm stopped and waited for us.

Time to go down to the tv and watch the European championship in football (soccer for You Americans). I’m not a huge football fan but I do like to see these big championships 🙂

Malkolm then decided he wanted to walk with me and Alma.

Have a great day!

I had forgotten to bring in the water bowl and (lying inside the bowl) the treat cup yesterday :-) — The water bowl I forgot to bring in yesterday 🙂

The dog yard fence is now slowly covered in Boreal vetch (and stinging nettles) on one side and

One neighbor once threw away hops he had in his garden not knowing how great it is at surviving. Male plants though so nothing to use for either scent or beer making :-) — hops on the other.

Cooler days and soon long weekend :-)

June 4, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

Old Nova, she's 18 years old now and still going strong :-)

It is finally a bit cooler outside. Not so much when being in the sunshine but a lot when staying in the shadow. I had to water everything when I came home yesterday and suddenly it was evening and time to go to bed, so that’s why I didn’t write anything. Today the ground still was damp so I only watered the trees and bushes I’ve planted in the garden this spring. Well to be honest we haven’t had much of a spring this year, it went from winter to summer in a day or so 🙂 🙂

More and more wild flowers flowers now. Cooler and nicer in the forest but oh so many biting insects. The Swedish name for this flower is Hags' tooth. On our way out on the peninsula out to the bog.

Something is chewing on the new beans, have no idea what it can be but oddly enough only the ones sown in a straight line, I had a few beans left so I just put them down close to the fence and those are untouched. I also had a few peas left so I sowed those in the old broken wheel barrow, they seems to grow even better than all other plants I’ve sown this year 🙂 🙂 Lots of potato plants showing up in the vegetable patch I don’t use this year, I have instead sown seeds (not too successfully I might add) I haven’t had potatoes there for three summers and they still pop up 🙂 🙂 Can I cal them hardy now? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Despite the harw wind this place was packed with mosquitoes, that sort of dampens the joy of having a walk even in plsces where one loves to walk otherwise. The bog is now full with Hare tail cotton grass. They are already releasing their seeds now.

Yesterday we had a strong wind and walked out to the bog, normally that ,means the mosquitoes and flies will stay away from us, now we have so many mosquitoes that we were attacked badly when we arrives at the Birch woodland. So today with less wind we stayed at home, Nova is once again so badly bitten all over her head that I thought it would be cruel to bring her out to even more biting insects, it’s bad enough here at home to be honest. It’s a price we have to pay for having so many trees and bushes in this little garden of mine.

Malkolm grows so fast now.

Alma reacted as if she had injured the ball when it started to squeak, I don't think she'll touch it again until I've removed the squeaker :-) — Alma with the new toy, she loved it until it in, her ears, started to scream 🙂 It’s a squeaky thing in that ball and neither she nor Malkolm liked that 🙂 🙂

I had a little walk in the garden before the mosquitoes chased me indoors. The Black Walnut is flowering, the English is living and now have two branches. The trees I plated this year all look great and the Pawpaw from last year now have green small dots all over the branches, even the ones I thought had frozen. The green dots are tiny, tiny leafs. Also the Persimmon hybrid that dies but where the Persimmon root (Diospyros virginiana) now creates at least eight new branches 🙂 I’ve read that it’s fairly easy to take some of those branches to create new trees from. Well they will. technically all be the same tree but I did also buy a new real persimmon this spring so I hope that at least that I’ll get both male and female trees from this.

This is a favorite in parks and everywhere really, Rose rugosa. It is now seen as invasive and I have no idea how they'll be able to remove them all, especially since it does spread like wildfire :-) — Rosa rugosa, the Swedish name for it would be something like Grumpy rose 🙂

We call this Iris for Swords lily. — Yellow flag.

See all those new branches the Persimmon tree creates now when the hybrid is dead :-) — Lots of new growth from the roots of the Persimmon tree 🙂 The inoculation dies during this winter but the Persimmon root survived and now gives lots of more branches 🙂

I found Morning glories, peas, poppies and Californian poppies growing here now. The poppies refuse to grow in my garden but always grow well in the wheelbarrow for some reason and no summer without Californian poppies at my home :-) — The old wheelbarrow will look good this year 🙂

Tomorrow will be the last working day this week, we have our national day on Thursday and I took Friday off. The weather will be cooler as I’ve already said and they are guessing we’ll get rain as well. I don’t care as long as we at least have sunshine when we’re out on walks, the rest of the time will be good napping times 🙂

Have a great day!

Sunny, warm and unpleasant.

June 2, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

A Roe deer doe half hiding in the high grass, most likely the baby is there too.

Malkolm woke me up at 4 am today, so up we went so that he could go outside to pee. There was some morning mist just above the ground but instead of having our walk then we went indoors again and slept for an hour and a half instead.

The dog rose showed its pink buds for the first time yesterday. — I noticed that the Dog rose now is full of buds.

The deer was at almost the same place this morning. This one is actually closely related to the pink flower I've shown several times this spring.

It was still rather cool in the air when we finally went out but I could feel that it became warmer and warmer for every minute, so we just took a short walk before it went too hot for old Nova. Yesterday just before we went to bed I could see a Roe deer doe just on the other side of the gravel road and she was still there this morning. The grass is high so I think she had her baby there as well. She’s been hanging around for a while now so she knows us well and didn’t bother to even try and hide when we walked out the gate.

The Haunted tree :-) This is a favorite amongst all pollen drinking insects and also a favorite with spiders who there can get an easy meal. This trailer used to be where all the hunters gathered before the hunt started. The little tjärn still have some water visible.

I mowed the rest of the lawn and the outside parts as early as I could, then I did the laundry and the temperature dried it up within minutes. It did look like we would get thunder and rain again today but it all passed to the east and west of is. The day has been unpleasant though with the high humidity and temperature plus the fact that we’ve had very little wind, so we have mostly stayed indoors taking long naps instead.

The little creek is almost totally dried out but ferns will soon cover it.

I was outside for a few minutes an hour ago, the wind has started to blow but despite that I sweated like a pig when I planted some of the sowings (Hollyhocks and Morning glories). Also there were so many mosquitoes biting us that we all went in, closed the doors and now only have windows covered with mosquito nets open. They are guessing that tomorrow will be mostly cloudy and perhaps not warmer than 20C (68F) and that fits me fine 🙂

Today the first dog rose opened up.

My tree peony, bought last year, have already given me two flowers and a third is on the way. — My tree peony has two flowers and one bud now, unfortunately these flowers look down to the ground.

I wasn't sure if my lemon tree would survive last winter but it did anjd now it has lots of buds. — Lemon flower.

The second daylile flowers too now.

Have a great day!

I didn’t mind they were wrong about today’s weather :-)

May 25, 2024May 25, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

So today was supposed to be all cloudy and hot but without any wind. It started out that way but then the sun broke through so the hot part was right because we now do have a wind blowing thankfully. Before it started it was like living in a steam bath here. I couldn’t move a meter without sweating like a pig.

The cattle walking in the pasture outside the beekeepers place for the first time this year.

Rowan trees usually don’t grow especially high, this one is at least fifteen meters high (much the same in yards). We had one much bigger but that one was a victim this years thinning. A bit odd because it seems they’ve saved almost all other Rowan trees this time and we do have lots of them here.

We walked down to the creek while it still wasn’t too warm, we couldn’t follow it down stream though because now they let the cattle walk in to the pasture outside the beekeepers so they block the road with those electric wires and I really didn’t want to go through passing them with Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really didn’t want Malkolm to learn from her how to do it 🙂 🙂 🙂 So we walked it up-stream for a while until the grass became too high, damp grass close to a creek is a tick magnet. After that we walked back the same way and suddenly four wild hogs ran out in front of us, perhaps ten meters (much the same in yards) away from us. Alma reacted like always so no photos of them I’m afraid 🙂 🙂

This flowers Swedish name is Hag’s tooth 🙂

We actually woke up at 3:45 this morning because someone needed to go outside to do his business 🙂 Normally we would all just stay up and then take a walk as soon as the sun would start to rise. No sun was supposed to shine today though so we all just went back to bed and slept for two more hours and that is really unusual! The sun was shining when we went up again, went back in to the clouds while we were out walking and then came back and has stayed here all day and by the looks of it it’ll stay until it sinks down beyond the horizon. One good thing with yesterdays heavy showers is that I didn’t have to water anything today 🙂

The Persimmon hybrid that I bought last year and that looked healthy all winter through until that last snow storm is dead. Since it was a variety however it’s always grafted on a root from the actual persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, and I have hoped that the root has survived because it is so much hardier than the rest of the trees in that family. Today I noticed that a new branch is growing up from the root 🙂 🙂 So since I bought a real Persimmon this year I now will have two 🙂 Lets hope that one is female and one is male so I can grow my own fruits in the future 🙂 So now I have two Persimmon trees and with the my own seedlings nine Pawpaw’s 🙂

Can You see the little green dot at the base of the dead tree trunk? That’s new growth from the Persimmon roots 🙂

This is a new variety of White Mulberry tree with tasty berries. Normally the white mulberry tree gives edible fruits but someone said if one likes the taste of dry grass they’r pretty good 🙂 🙂 This one however gives sweet and tasteful berries. It was quite damaged by frost before it arrived here but it is coming back again.

This is on the other hand another Mulberry tree with the name variety name Mulle 🙂 (Morus accidosa). I once had a smaller tree here but one day my two big dogs dug it up and had lost of fun tearing it apart 🙂 🙂

I’ve bought a tea bush as well this year (Camellia sinensis). It’s just as picky as the Camellia we have as pot plants or in the gardens where the climate allows it but it doesn’t flower until late spring I’ve read plus if it gets big enough I can always try to make a cup of tea from its leafs 🙂 🙂 🙂

We’ve had our pancake Saturday, I’ve sown almost all of the flower seeds I still had (but there’s at least two more but I just can’t find the seed bags 🙂 ) and we’ve had a short nap when it was as warmest. I don’t think we slept for especially long but that nap did more for me than the two more hours in the morning did 🙂 So for the rest of the day I’ll just relax. I didn’t win the Euro jackpot yesterday which is strange since so many really hopes that I will win 🙂 I’ve promised that if I win that much money (around 100 million US dollars) no worker at my work place would have to work any more 🙂 (not even the ones I dislikes). With that much money I still would have perhaps 25 million US dollars left to myself and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t miss the other millions 🙂 🙂 🙂

I did sow Salvia pratensis seeds last year and I think this is it 🙂 The Swedish name for it is Meadow sage and it looks like it’s the same in English!

When You think all the Greater celandine have died out but then You remove some grass and cut away some branches and suddenly it’s everywhere in the garden 🙂 🙂

This is a rhubarb but not an edible one, this is the Chinese rhubarb. Well it is used in traditional medicine but don’t try it for a pie 🙂 Mine has grown in the shadows and too dry for too long so this year I moved it. It can become really big and is quite beautiful as an ornamental plant.

Well the smaller lottery is today with “only” 7,5 millions US dollars as minimum maximum winning. I think it might be higher at the moment. I’ve said that if I “only” win those millions all they can expect from me is a cup cake 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The Mosquitoes love the rain.

May 24, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

The plastic bag You can see is covering the handle on my old lawn mower, mostly because the birds ten to poop on it.

When I looked at the weather sites yesterday they said really warm all next week with almost only sunshine, today they say almost no sunshine and quite a lot of rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So Your guess to how it will be is as good as mine 🙂 I won’t mind some rain just as long as it doesn’t continue for too long plus the farmers need it so at least they will be really happy when it starts to fall 🙂

The last peat in the yellow plastic bag was so dry that this rain really helped 🙂

It is hard to catch the rain drops when taking photos.

Today they were almost right though, they guessed cloudy all day but no rain. It has been cloudy all day but just before I arrived here at home after work the clouds opened up and the rain started to pour down. My water barrels that were almost empty are now three quarters full. The ground here is still very wet so we here really don’t need the rain but it is nice to see that the barrels are full of water again.

Can’t remember the name on this weed but it does look harmless enough. It isn’t though because it becomes so dense that nothing else can grow up from the ground. Really good to stop water evaporating from the ground though, never dry beneath it.

The rain however stopped us from taking a walk and now there are so many mosquitoes flying around that it’s a bit nasty to have walks. Well they are guessing we’ll have sunshine and hot weather tomorrow again so we’ll just take an extra long morning walk before it gets too hot. This rain has unfortunately brought out both slugs and snails so some of my sowings (in containers) has been eaten. Tomorrow I’ll see if anything can be saved.

Alma hadn’t escaped the dog yard today either 🙂 This morning I took all small plastic bottles I could find here at home and put dog treats in them, I tried it with Malkolm at first and when he saw what I did to get those treats out he understood it. I don’t think Alma has a clue still because some of those bottles were heavily chewed so that the treats could come out 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well at least she has been busy 🙂

This container has not been visited by slug or snails so I moved it temporarily to a table on the other side of the cottage.The biggest leafs to the right are from Morning glories, beside them are Hollyhocks. Then comes False Dragonheads followed by Alpine Aster and Siberian Larkspur.

My little Red oak, it grows so slow here. I need to remove the vegetation around it so that it gets some sunshine.

So far only columbines and Giant Sequoia seeds have germinated in this container. Still no Chinese dogwood, Dawn redwood, Tulip tree or Sea kale. This one did have a small slug in it so that container has also been temporarily moved.

It is time to go out to check where I can place my Pawpaw seedlings so that the slugs and snails at least have a harder time to reach them. I’ll do it quickly because those mosquitoes mean business when they start arriving, Nova is already scratching herself badly, the other two have only been outside when they really needed to.

Have a great day!

If it hadn’t been for the mowing.

May 18, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

If it hadn’t been for having to mow the lawn today would have been a perfect day. Cool but sunny and wind free morning, ok it gave the mosquitoes a good opportunity to drink our blood and we will all probably scratch ourselves a lot tonight 🙂 🙂 I am lucky in a way though because I get immune pretty quickly from the itchy thing we got so after four or five bites I usually don’t feel it any more, I can only hope the dogs are lucky that way too 🙂

We now have pine pollen everywhere, my car is now covered in yellow pollen every morning.

I think this is a Greylag feather (well could be crane as well) I should have brought it with me and made a quill pen 🙂

We walked down to the creek, the birds were singing like crazy and I could also hear lots of geese honking up in the sky. Lots of animals had followed and passed the gravel road so both Nova and Malkolm had to stop everywhere to sniff to get what animals it might have been, Alma ran around like crazy as always 🙂 The dogs had already eaten before the walk but I had my breakfast as soon as we had come home. They said that it would be rather warm today and yes it has been and still is. So I went out and watered the vegetable patch and all the potted plants after that.

I let it be for a while so the water could sink down into the ground and then I went out to sow more flower seeds in the old vegetable patch and after that I sowed split beans, two different peas, carrots and one more thing I at the moment can’t remember what it is 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have lots of different vegetable seeds waiting to be sown in places where what I originally sowed won’t start to grow. A few days ago I also sowed different flower seeds and also some of the seeds I sowed when it still was cold are now germinating as well 🙂

I still plants that needs new spaces in the garden but I still haven’t figured out where 🙂 After the sowing we all had a long nap before I went out to mow that lawn. I didn’t drink enough with water so after a while I was bone dry in my mouth and not even thinking on lemons gave any result 🙂 🙂 I usually aren’t careless about that since I need to drink a lot of water at work because my workplace is close to a big oven so if I don’t drink a lot during the day I will get headaches. Only Alma kept me company while I mowed, Malkolm who now learns what warm weather is slept at the coolest place he could find, north side in the cottage just beside the entrance door and Nova slept in the kitchen close to the open kitchen door.

The vegetable patch. I’ve gone back to more traditional way of growing them. If one co plant with other vegetables if one doesn’t grow all of it will be a mess.

Six photos showing what’s in bloom in my garden right now.

They are all still sleeping but now close to me, I opened the window on the opposite end of the cottage so that the little wind there is now can blow through the upper floor. It is time for them to have something to eat and after that I think I’ll sow some more flower seeds, they are getting old so I’m not sure how well they are but to be honest one can’t have either too many trees or too many flowers 🙂

Aronia. The berries might be super berries as they call them but they taste like shit to be honest. To say they are tart is an understatement 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Even nicer today :-)

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

I think today has been even better than yesterday, we woke up to a blue sunny sky and fairly chilly morning, it had dropped to 0C (32F) during the night. This is not unusual for this area, the last frost usually arrives at June sixth and after that, normal summers, nights regularly have temperatures down to 3C (37,4F). Well if the days are sunny, cloudy days the temperature usually don’t sink especially much, the clouds keep the warmth from escaping upwards.

We went out as soon as we woke up and that was way too early really because I watched the Eurovision last night and I think it stopped just before 1 am and we woke up just after 5 am 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well even after napping I still think I’ll sleep very well tonight 🙂 I, Nova and Alma didn’t see any animals this morning but Malkolm did so he started to growl. That of course made Alma running around looking for what threat we might meet and after that she couldn’t relax at all 🙂 🙂 Malkolm stopped caring about it as soon as we had passed where he saw what ever it was.

I’ve started to move the citrus trees I have from the less sunny north side of the cottage out to the sunny garden, even if we would get frost now and blazing sun during the days they’ll manage it. I’ve also sown iceberg lettuce, squash, chard and some kind of Japanese cabbage today. Iceberg lettuce is hard to fail but both the chard and squash seeds were a bit old so I’ll better start to look for what I can sow in those places nothing germinates. Peas and beans will be sown later when the temperature is more reliable. I’ll sow most of the potatoes in buckets this year so as soon as I buy more soil I’ll start with them.

The rest of this day I’ve mostly just watered the trees I’ve planted and I’ve had a couple of short naps 🙂 The dogs have been rather calm since it has been so warm. The wind can’t reach us down here so when it becomes warm it’s always a couple degrees warmer here and the opposite when it comes to cold weather. It’s almost never cold weather that kills plants here during winter, it’s because we have such a long time when it is dark here. So if we have a warm and sunny summer most of the less hardy plants make it till next year, is it cool and rainy most of those will die. They need that warm and sunny weather to collect so much energy that it lasts all winter through. It’s the same with how good plants flower and how much fruit/ berries they give, it all depends on what last years summer was like.

The big dogs are sleeping beside me but by the sound Malkolm is chewing on a stick in my bed 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve done dinner for next week at work and the laundry so for the rest of the day I’ll do as little as possible 🙂

Have a great day!

The coolest looking beetle.

July 2, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (3) — The Venus Flytrap has also been growing rather slow. I still have two left from last summer and the second one grows even slower.

Really mixed weather here today, very windy, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy and a lot of the time rainy. Most of the times a nice gentle summer rain but every now and again heavy showers. It’s exciting to stay outdoors because one never knows what will happen 🙂 🙂 The weather was stable when we had our morning walk though. I did bring the mosquito hat but only used it once while we walked along the creek because the wind couldn’t reach us there. Still not so many flies anyway but they still have time to show up before their season is over.

a (19) — but Nova wanted to go this way instead.

Nova is the one who chose where we’ll walk every day and I had preferred if she had chosen only the gravel roads but she wanted to walk along the creek so that’s where we walked. The grass was wet and high so I feared that I would have ti pick ticks until late night but to my surprise I only found two in total!? It should have been perfect for them along the creek but who am I to complain about the lack of ticks 🙂 🙂 While we walked there I checked after dragonflies and damselflies. I did see one dragonfly but long before the creek and only one damselfly along the entire creek. Perhaps I’m too early to lok after either? I have seen both earlier but there are always a couple that show up early.

a (23)

My dinner for work next week is boiling in the slow cooker. I made it easy for me by making meat sauce and I’ll boil the pasta before going to work. I’ve also done the laundry and we’ve had our pancake Sunday as usual. I will however, unlike a neighbor somewhere, not mow the lawn. That persons lawn mower must be a mushy mess when it is over 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t think it is fun to clean the mower on a normal day but it is awful on days when the grass is long and wet.

a (29)

I’ve also planted two of the Chicory seedlings I have, a third is on the way but they can be slow to germinate. It’s a perennial and its leafs look surprisingly much like dandelion leafs so I better remember where I planted them next spring 🙂 🙂 I also had several bell pepper seedlings. It was so hot when I sowed them that nothing happened until it started to cool down and then it went hot again so they barely grew at all. I don’t expect to get any bell peppers from them but since I had the space in the vegetable patch I planted them there anyway. I’m pretty sure they’ll start to grow good now when it will rain until Thursday and stay cool as well. After that they’re guessing the heat will come back again on Friday, my last day before vacation starts 🙂

A golden fly, have no idea what it can be called.

This is one of the coolest beetle I’ve ever seen I think.

Have a great day!

Ticks and mosquitoes.

July 1, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The Beekeeper is trying to make an old fashioned flower meadow. Looking good so far!

The day started with some sunshine before very thin clouds covered the sky but that didn’t really change much since I could see the sun 🙂 I think the first “shower” I use ” because it wasn’t especially much or shower like but it did rain for a while. It has continued like that until now when we have misty rain and it will continue like this for the coming five days. I don’t mind at all and the temperature has dropped down to 16C (60,8F) and that I really like 🙂

Well I wouldn’t want rain and such low temperature for the rest of summer but for now it’s perfect. The ticks think much the same. I stopped counting when I had picked over twenty from Alma after our morning walk and thankfully just a couple on the rest of us. Nasty animals those ticks! Still not many annoying flies but a gazillion mosquitoes instead 🙂 🙂 Nova decides where every walk should go and today she has chosen the forest. She’s not the one that wants to walk the same path every day, the other two prefers that I’ve noticed.

We’ve taken a long nap today and after that I started to weed the vegetable patch. I’ve had big parts of it covered because I sowed an Asian cabbage. Nothing much happened though so I sowed a winter radish I bought seeds to for a couple of years ago. I have no idea what to do with it except using it in salads but I wanted to try it anyway. So now when I pulled away the cover I noticed that I now have both cabbage and winter radish there 🙂 🙂 I’ll bring back the cover when the cabbage butterfly and cabbage moth starts to fly again. Also the lid to one of my mini greenhouses fell down over the Broccolo seedlings I have, so when the sun showed they all boiled away. I think there’s still time to sow the remaining seeds to get at least some to harvest. The entire plant is edible so I will get something from them if they germinate.

Besides this I’ve done very little 🙂 I did catch mosquito larvae to the aquarium fish but that only took a few seconds 🙂 🙂 I think this is just how a weekend should be spent 🙂 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll have to do all those things I didn’t do today, like dinner for work next week, the laundry and baking a bread but since it will rain I will at least not have to mow the lawn 🙂

The potato sprouts that I planted now have flower buds 🙂 Technically I then should be able to harvest my first potatoes when the flowering is over but I think I’ll wait a couple of weeks before I try it.

Have a great day!

They’re guessing we’ll get rain tomorrow.

June 17, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

It has been so hot this week that we haven’t been on walks at all. Nova is old and Albins fur isn’t good at regulating his temperature. Even Alma has been a bit off because of it. I’ve been working in my old department at work and it’s even hotter in there than standing in the sunshine outside 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nova doesn’t want to walk down this road if we comes from the cottage but she will gladely walk it if we comes from the other direction. Have no idea why but we almost always do as she wants 🙂

So mostly I’ve been watering my potato and vegetable patches after work. It might have been too hot because lots of seeds haven’t germinated and the ones that did have been struggling. The only things that seems to like it are the beans, peas and iceberg lettuce. It does however look like I’ve managed to save the almost dead Pawpaw tree, no Kat not the tropical one You’re thinking of but the north American one 🙂 🙂 I dug it up and noticed that when they once potted it they put a huge chunk of the fertilizer pellets that looks like slug eggs just beneath its roots.

So the tree has never felt the need to spread its roots and by not doing that it sort of doomed itself. I dug it up and put it in a bucket with soil and lots of peat since it likes lower pH. After that I put a see through plastic bag over it to help it with sucking up water. Yesterday I took a look at if and I can see the beginnings of three new stems (well perhaps it’s branches?) 🙂 I’ll let it stay in the cool cellar during winter so it can get a better start next year.

It will be another hot day today but the morning was quite cool and nice. We went down to the creek and even though the mosquitoes were just as annoying as always there were very few annoying forest flies and not a single horse fly. Also I could only find one tick when I went through the fur of the dogs. They really don’t like dry weather. We still have morning dew though so that shows the ground and vegetation isn’t totally dry yet. A cold front will pass here tomorrow so temperatures will drop a lot and they are guessing that we also will get rain. Sometimes they guess we’ll get lots and sometimes they guess we’ll barely get anything 🙂 🙂 🙂 They also guess we’ll get more rain during the week but temperatures will stray high. We all do know however how good they are at guessing the wetaher over here 🙂 🙂 🙂

There’s a little black and white dot at the bump of the road, that’s Sally the beekeepers cat 🙂

So far I haven’t heard a single person complain about the eventual coming rain 🙂 :-)The risk of forest fires are high all over the country and, there are a few going on, it is an especially high risk around here. So panic bag packed just in case we need to leave quickly. I’m not especially worried but it’s always best to be prepared just in case. It is time for a cup of tea and perhaps a little nap, we’ve been up since 4am and it is now 8:30. Better take a nap when it still is fairly cool, later on it’ll be too hot.

Can You see those tiny green dots? The life continues for the Pawpaw after all 🙂

From the root zone, I think You call these irises Yellow flag.

Iceland poppy. Seems they are now placing in lots of different poppies under that name that before had their own names. We used to call this one for Siberian poppy.

I’ve passed this rose several times a day for weeks and still didn’t notice that it was in bloom 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Falling down :-)

June 3, 2023 · 1 Comment ·

My kitchen stairs are just two steps but when a slipper gets caught in a nail that has grown up from the wood it still is pretty high when falling down to the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 Most of me hit a sack of peat and my first thought was that I had broken the lens on my camera, after that I started to check if I was ok 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nothing broken but my strained neck, because of Almas constant pulling of the leash, that was back to almost normal again is now back to being very strained.

It was even colder tonight than the previous one, -2C (28,4F) and this time I was worried that much more would have been damaged. The new walnut tree is badly frozen but I hope it will make a comeback later in summer. One of my ginkgos was touched at its top branch and so was the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) but otherwise everything looks ok. The sun took its time to show as well this morning so we didn’t go out until well after 6am, normally we’re out at the same time the sun rise.

I went to Skara to buy soil and they were selling pitcher plants this year as well, so I bought three new ones to replace those two that didn’t make it through winter. I also went in to the super market and now I’m trying two new cookies. I’ve said it before and I say it again. They also make most of the cookies vegan so no butter or milk and nothing really tastes good because of that. I did however find hobnobs, normally not one of my favorites but these are quite ok, perhaps because the other ones I tried tastes like shit. They would most likely have been great with milk and butter in them. I’m not against veganism in any way but if food or edibles need milk and butter to taste good there really is no use in trying to make them without either of them.

I’ve planted my new Ginkgo today. I planted it close to the rose that stands above Teodors resting place. The rose seems to struggle so I thought Teodor most likely wouldn’t mind if ginkgo took its place 🙂 I also planted my Persimmon hybrid. The big problem was that the only place it really should be planted at was filled with roots of roses, sloe and false spirea. So I chose the only place where only the false spirea had grown. It really is a out of control weed that plant but it is fairly easy to remove because the roots grow just beneath the surface and can be ripped up. Except for the fact that they also grow like they are spiderwebs. So I had to rip up roots for almost half an hour before I could start digging for the tree 🙂 🙂

The Persimmon. You can see some of the roots in front of it.

Old Broccolo (a variety of broccoli) germinates much better than I thought 🙂

I cut out the bottom of a bigger pot,m placed it in the hole and planted the tree inside it. The put is deep enough so no roots will grow in to it from the false spirea. Next year when the tree is established (if it survives the winter) I’ll remove the pot bu just pulling it up from the ground and over the tree. I think it is time for a cup of tea and perhaps a couple of hobnobs. The other ones I bought would have been great as dog treats if they hadn’t contained chocolate. I hate tossing away anything edible so I guess that I’ll have to eat them but I will drink lots of milk while doing it 🙂

Photo taken while falling down the stairs 🙂

I think almost all potatoes have leafs now 🙂

Columbine. Looks like almost all mine are either pink or dark purple. I think I have one white and one blue.

Have a great day!

The nettles slid down my arm.

May 27, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

a (1) — I went up the my mailbox to see if I’d gotten any mail yesterday and took this photo on my way up the slope.

I have a thorn in one of my fingers and it hurts every time I press down a key with it so now I’m trying to not use it at all. I can see the thorn so I’ll get it out after this. I have the thorn there just because I cleared out another area in my garden. This one was filled with mostly False spirea, an old gooseberry bush (hence the thorn), a few wild raspberry bushes and lots of stinging nettles. I did manage to get a few stalks from the stinging nettles to slowly slide down my arm. The pain is gone but now it’s itchy and warm 🙂 🙂 So now it’s a new place where I’ll have to mow no matter what weather we’re having otherwise it’ll all come back again.

a (2) — And I took these on my way down again.

a (4) — Guess where I live 🙂 My cottage is barely visible behind the lilacs and that Rowan tree in bloom.

a (5)

I really need to stop drinking lots of water before going to bed, today we were up before the sun rose (and it rose at 4:19 today) and it sort of felt wrong to go back to bed because I know I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again anyway. So we went out just as the sun rose and it did feel quite chilly, I think it might have been around 5C (41F) but no wind and sunshine from the start. To be honest a walk with Alma will make anyone sweat like crazy anyway so I didn’t use the fleece sweater that I thought would be needed if we had been able to walk like normal humans and dogs 🙂 🙂

a (11)

I watered the vegetable patch and potato patch as soon as we came home , sowed some seeds and when the clock reached 10 am I started to mow the lawn. Before that I cleared that space of course.I really would like to plant my Persimmon tree there but all those roots makes it hard so I would have to rip them up (both the false spirea and raspberry roots are relatively easy to remove since they lay just beneath the surface but there’s a net made of those roots now so it wouldn’t be that easy because of that). I’ve also done some laundry so now I’m really tired, aren’t weekends supposed to be the time when we relax 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (16)

Suddenly most of the wildlife is gone again so I guess that the wolves are elsewhere at the moment. Today we only saw one young roe deer buck and he was sleeping in a field just beside the forest. I wish I could see any of them but I only hear from other people that they have seen at least one. The wolves are in trouble right now though, don’t think it is our pack but one in the neighbor county, because they killed a lot of sheep the other day. People here aren’t used to wolves so fences are way too low and not electrified in most places and to be honest the fences needed will cost a fortune. I think the government should pay most of that cost but the government we have right now instead wants to eradicate the wolves completely. Well the EU Court of Justice will not allow that thankfully 🙂

a (19) — I hate it when they put up those electric wires even when there are no cattle walking in the field. It is anything but easy to get those wires down so the dogs can pass, especially when I need to keep Alma calm. They do like that because they’re too lazy to have to do it when the cattle actually arrives.

Swedish forest authorities, experts and the swedish forest industry always complain about how other countries manages their forest, especially if we’re talking about those with rain forest but when we get complaints about how we take care of our forests we then always hear them say that we know better and that we have other conditions in this country than other countries 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Eu says we don’t have a sustainable forestry by only planting either spruce or pine and that when we cut down all trees at once we let too much carbon dioxide out into the atmosphere. Instead we should have a mixed forest and just thin out the biggest trees every now and again. Also we Swedes are complaining about how we treat the forests as well so now the authorities, experts and industry tries to tell us all how wrong we are 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest we’ve cut down so many trees now (yes we plant new ones as soon as possible) that we now have almost no older forest left. So when they cut down new trees they are either too young or they’ve cut down forest that should have been protected. I really hope the EU Court of Justice sues the shit out of them all 🙂

I had forgotten how much space there actually was behind that wooden box 🙂

There is this one really big root system that I think belongs to the old gooseberry bush. If new shoots grow up from it I’ll move it to a better place. The gooseberries were red and really tasty.

It is time for a last cup of tea and also to get that thorn out of my fingertip 🙂

Have a great day!