Category: Spring.

No sunshine but so nice.

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The first strawberry flower. For some reason these strawberries give very little berries now but will produce lots in autumn, it shouldn’t be like that but I have no idea why they behave like that 🙂

Today was really nice despite no sunshine but it was warm, no wind and a few times we had some rain. Showers of drizzle is perhaps a better name for it though 🙂 Alma woke me up at 5 am , was outside for a minute, came straight back in and went to sleep on the sofa 🙂 I wouldn’t have mind sleeping an hour or so too but I had a cup of coffee and a bowl of corn flakes instead 🙂

We walked down to the creek and it’s so nice to do that this time of year when there are no flies annoying us and what’s even better is that no mosquitoes did either. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about ticks, I picked six of them from the dogs by the time we had come home and I also found two already drinking the blood from Malkolm.

I tried three of a work friends allergy pills this week, the kind one can buy over the counter. First day nothing special happened beside the fact that I didn’t have any nose bleed any more, second day nothing happened at all but after the third pill I suddenly wasn’t that tired any more and now my nose isn’t that stuffed either, so I went online and bought a packet together with eye drops. It’s not a nice feeling when it feels like having sand paper under the eyelids 🙂 🙂 🙂

I also did what I always do on Sundays, the laundry and the dinner for next week ate work. I’ve promised to work overtime on Saturday and I’m already regretting it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then again I’ll have to start saving money again so I can sacrifice one Saturday and still survive it 🙂 I have also sown melon seeds, I always fail with melons but always try it again 🙂 I have actually sown a lot of seeds both yesterday and today but can’t for my life remember what 🙂 🙂 I’ve also replanted tomatoes and some other things and brought out the last plants from the patio, the risk of frost the coming week is minimal.

I have a Fuchsia in my garden, Hardy Fuchsia (F. Magellanic), and it has survived outside this mild winter. All parts above ground will freeze but new shoots comes from the roots.

The fight with the nettles and cleavers is also going on and even if I’m successful at the moment I know both will win over me in the long run 🙂 🙂 I still have lots of vegetable seeds to sow, like beans and peas but I’ll with with those until the ground is a bit warmer. It is time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a sandwich too and after that some snoozing in front of the tv 🙂

Three of my worst garden enemies at the same place. Stinging nettles, cleavers and white bryony. The last one can cover an entire tree during one summer. I have no idea where it came from but it always grows so it’s hard to remove it. Smells bad and is also poisonous 🙂

Have a great day!

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I think this must be one of our most beautiful beetle but it wasn’t until I reduced the size of this photo that I noticed there actually were two beetles.

Yesterday after I had come home from work and the walk with the dogs I started baking a bread, I sat down in the recliner and woke up by the timer alarming that it was time to put the bread in the oven. I was so confused when the alarm started that I had no idea where I were, if it meant I was going to work and why in that case did the sun shine so bright 🙂 🙂 🙂 After that the entire evening was sort of strange 🙂 🙂 🙂 The bread was really good though 🙂 🙂 🙂

Today has been rather nice, mostly cloudy but with some sunshine every now and again and even a few drops of rain have been falling now in the afternoon. Pollen is hitting me hard now but I’ve still mostly been outside. I had to mow the lawn, well have to isn’t right because no one would care since no one can see it through my hedge anyway but the longer the grass is the more ticks will living here. I do like that wildlife likes my garden but I don’t like the ticks.

After that I dug up the last chunk of Kankakee mallows and replanted them in pots until I know where to place them. I already have three of them in the ground but now I have nine bigger or small plants in pots waiting to get a space somewhere. I know that it is endangered since it only grows on an island in the wild and it has struggled to survive for years, so if they ever need some help to save it I have plenty of plants (and perhaps seeds) to share 🙂 🙂

A few of the Kankakee mallows.

I also replanted some of the seedlings I had in the kitchen and also then last of the trees I had in the cool cellar during winter. Two of the four giant Sequoias have survived winter and is now growing again despite the fact that mice tried to eat them during winter. Now I have to find out what kind of soil they like so I can fix that and repot them as well. They will not spend next winter in the cool clear, that’s for sure so I better think about how I can have them outdoors instead. The Pawpaw trees and slowly getting new leafs but it looks like the Persimmon has lost all of the twigs and branches this winter but the stem is good so lets hope it will grow new ones.

It is time to get something to eat, first the dogs and the monster kitten and after that me. Have no idea though what I’ll make to myself but if I can’t figure out something I can always have corn flakes again 🙂

Have a great day!

Warmer nights again.

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Yesterday I saw the mosnterkitten up the road having a chat with another cat but then I remembered that she never followed us outside. So this cat to the left must be a sibling to her 🙂

We were so close to having frost again last night that we almost could touch it, it must have been those very thin clouds that saved us from it.Mostly grey and dull today but suddenly the sun shone through the clouds at the same time I came home. So the dogs and I had a really nice walk down to the creek.

The birds were singing and it would have been odd if they hadn’t since this is the time of year when they really are supposed to do that. We even saw a roe deer goat, which I’ve learned the females are called, only the bigger deer have doe and the moose is called a cow for some reason. I wonder why the aren’t called the same since they all belong to the deer?

Yesterday I finally forced me to bring out all the cardboard boxes to the car, most of them were already opened up and mad flat but it still took me almost 30 minutes to get them all into the car 🙂 Mostly because I dropped so many on the ground before reaching the car, why not try to bring them all at the same time 🙂 🙂 🙂

The night temperatures will finally be well above frost again, it didn’t feel right to have to remove ice from the car when days have been so warm, it was like we had taken several steps backwards in to winter again and since I didn’t have to remove any ice from my car during winter it really didn’t feel nice at all 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps we’ll hear who the new pope is, I’m not catholic but I’m still curious 🙂

Have a great day!

Biting cold today.

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The cat refused to move but both Alma and Malkolm behaved really well when we passed it 🙂

It could have been a nice day if it wasn’t for the cold winds from north. They are biting their way in to the core of the body no matter how well dressed we are. We’ve had some sunshine but the wind destroyed that nice feeling as well. We’ll have frost during the night and I can only hope it won’t be too bad but I’ll probably have to scrape ice from the car before going to work tomorrow.

A second crabapple tree is in bloom now so perhaps the one in the forest will have a chance to give fruit anyway but then again we’ll have frost tonight.

Strawberries flower in the forest but as You can see the flower is black in the middle, that means it’s destroyed by frost and won’t give any berry.

It wasn’t that bad in the morning though so we had a nice morning walk in the forest and out to the bog. Both Alma and Malkolm behaved really well when the new neighbours cat refused to move from the road when we came 🙂 I am however very glad they didn’t see the hare in the forest because that would have made Alma go nuts 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve done very little today, after the morning walk I did the laundry and the slow cooker took care of the dinner next week and that’s it. WE even had a nap in the sofa but I still feel rather tired to be honest, despite lots of coffee 🙂 Its pollen season and no amount of coffee can remove that tiredness 🙂 🙂 I also had to turn on the radiators because even though we did get rain last night it wasn’t much but it did make the humidity go sky high and the cold arctic winds just made it more cold. Thankfully it will turn towards warmer days again from tomorrow, night might be chilly though.

I think I’ll have that last cup of tea for the day after this and perhaps a sandwich too or I’ll skip the tea and have hot chocolate instead, it’s that kind of day today.

Have a great day!

Surprisingly pleasant day.

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We’ve actually had a really nice day here as long as one wasn’t too long in shadow 🙂 Ok , it wasn’t that bad there either but I preferred to sit in the sunshine and drink tea 🙂 I have moved a perennial that comes from Illinois, the Kankakee mallow (Iliamna remota). It has actually thrived in my garden beneath the Juneberry tree but it was time to move it because the ground is just too dry there during summer.

It actually started last weekend and removed a part of it just to see how well it would adapt to the move and it adapted really well. It sort of divided itself to smaller parts so there’s still one growing where it has been that easily can be four new plants and I’ve already have it in6 other places now 🙂 It has been a favourite of mine since I sowed it well over twenty years ago so I do hope it will thrive at the new places they can call their homes 🙂 Mine spreads via its roots but I’ve read that a fire will start the seeds but I didn’t have a fire when I bought the seeds back then so I think it will work again without it if I try again 🙂

The clouds covered the sun when we went out on our morning walk but as soon as we were almost at home the clouds opened up. We’ve had lots of smaller clouds in the sky all day but now it looks like bigger clouds are coming in again, they say we’ll get rain but they said we would last night as well and as far as I could see the only reason the grass was wet was because of dew. A day or two with cloudy weather and some rain will only be good for my Kankakee willows now when they have moved all over the garden.

We won’t get much rain though, mostly just enough to keep the soil surface slightly damp 🙂 I’ve also heard the Cuckoo bird for the first time this year. According to folklore it means different things from what direction one hear it for the first time. From north and summer will be dry, from east one will be comforted because if it comes from south it means death in the family but it is from the west we want to hear it because that’s the best 🙂 The coming year will be great. We here will have a dry summer this year 🙂

I think this could be a Red Kite or a brown. I’m not that good when it comes to birds 🙂

Besides that I’ve done very little. Mostly I’ve been sitting in the sunshine drinking tea or coffee.  Last year when the warm weather came the entire garden was buzzing because of the beekeepers bees, it is considerable more quiet this year. Yes we do have pollinators like bumblebees flying around but all those hives did make a big difference, so it’ll be interesting to see how it will be next year, to many honey bees can actually make life really tough for the wild bees by being too many for an area. Also everything started so early this year that there wasn’t much for the bumblebees to eat and that could have killed a lot of them. I think we’ll know better when summer starts and all workers starts to fly around.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and today I’m so tired that I most likely will fall asleep in the sofa 🙂

In my woodland right now.

Have a great day!

Not this one though, it grows in full sunlight and dry soil.

I didn’t rest on the workers’ day :-)

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Yesterday was supposed to be the last nice day before wind and rain would arrive. We would get some light rain here in the morning and the rest of the day would be rather dull. So I’m not the least surprised that no rain arrived and we’ve even had a lot of sunshine 🙂 So I don’t trust what they say about the rest of the weekend, we’ll know when it happens 🙂

The cherry trees have started to flower on the mountain. There’s a mountain on the way to a town called Skövde and when one takes the train to go there there’s an entire mountain side that it pure white this time of year, so beautiful.

So instead of taking it easy and enjoying the day I instead started to mow the lawn early in the morning. Mowing the lawn when the grass is wet and one have an electric mower (with a cord) is stupid and also wet grass clogs up the entire mower and I’ll have to stop mowing every five meters dig out that green mess that sticks to the mower, The fun thing is that when one person starts to mow the lawn the rest of the neighbours starts too 🙂

We saw two pairs of geese walking in the field beside the creek, they had this field totally for themselves and still they really disliked each other 🙂

I continued my war against the nettles and the cleavers as well, I dislike those plants even more that the actual work it takes to keep them away 🙂 One thing though is that they are indicator plants, they show that the ground is rich in nutrients and I’m not surprised having dogs and cats in the garden for well over 24, soon 25, years by now 🙂 If the dogs hadn’t been here it would be quite the opposite since all I have is sand in the ground.

I don’t think this crab apple tree will get any apples this year because it’s the only one in bloom.

I found to my very big surprise this Shadbush in bloom in the forest 🙂

I also realised that I hadn’t prepared any food to bring to work. Instead of making something I instead baked a loaf of bread and had a few sandwiches to work instead. After that I was so tried that I fell asleep in the recliner 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now I’ll have to work full work weeks until June sixth when we have our national day and thankfully it’s on a Friday 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I think I’ll doze off again 🙂

Have a great day!

Holiday tomorrow.

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Wonderful weather today, which is quite unusual on Walpurgis eve. Lots of people are out having fun tonight and quite often we have huge bonfires as well but at least here it will be too windy and to dry in the grass to have any. No one knows why we celebrate this day but who cares as long as we have fun 🙂

If I’ve learned it all right Walpurgis (or Aalborg as we swedes say) was an English princes who became a nun in Germany and was quite successful in turning witches to the right way which most likely meant that she was rather unpleasant for those she turned since no matter how much those poor women (mostly anyway because there were a few men as well)turned towards christianity they still had n´been witches and therefore burned by the stake.

I just got the news about the tutor I have on one of my kidneys and it is good news 🙂 It has almost not grown at all since six months back (and therefore too small to take a test from) so now we’ll wait another year before a new x-ray. So perhaps I’m one of the very few that has a benign tumour and not caner? In any way it isn’t an aggressive one 🙂

Tomorrow is May first and in many places on this little globe of ours it’s the workers’ day and a holiday. I will have to work on Friday though since I’m so new that I don’t have any saved hours. I’ll survive one day of work though 🙂 I think it is time for a last cup of tea for the day and then I’ll most likely doze off in front of the tv. Pine pollen is in the air and it makes me so tired 🙂 🙂

The cherry trees are in bloom here so no more frost so we can pick some when walking around in the forest 🙂

The June berry in full bloom, too bad that it gets mildew every year so the berries get destroyed, I really like to eat them.

Have a great day!

Cold when cloudy.

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We had frost again last night but just barely and nothing seems to have been damaged this time. The morning walk was really pleasant, especially since Alma had another good day. We could even pass the new neighbours without her going crazy 🙂 🙂

We had pancakes today and I did the dinner for next week at the same time but in the slow cooker. I really wanted fried potatoes this time so I had already boiled some in the early morning, I know I could have done them raw in the oven but sort of wanted some old time fried potatoes, no one seems to do that any longer. Every time I do I can see my Mormon (mothers mother) in her kitchen frying potatoes and what ever leftovers she had in the fridge 🙂

I’ve continued the war against the stinging nettles but they seem to pop up everywhere, this time I didn’t get stung by them though 🙂 The seed sown peach tree looked rather fine down in the cool cellar but died slowly now when spring arrived. It did get the leaf curl disease at the end of summer last year so I’m guessing that it killed the little tree. I had already planted it but dug it up and now one of the seed sown apricots stand there instead I’ve also planted a seed sown quince tree ( Cydonia oblonga) at the best spot, climatewise that is, just in front of the old patio.

I even managed to fall asleep in front of the tv for a while, clouds covered the sky and when the suns heat didn’t reach us it wasn’t as pleasant outside any more, so I took a break and fell asleep during that time. Now the sun reaches us again so I almost feel guilty by sitting indoors 🙂 It is a short work week again, I really started to work at that factory at the right time 🙂 Unfortunately the holiday is on Thursday so I do need to work on Friday again but then again I’ve always liked it when I have a day off in the middle of week, it sort of feels like having two short work weeks during that one week 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that perhaps have a go at those nettles again 🙂

Have a great day!

Heavy frost last night.

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My blue White wood anemone.

-6C (21,2F) here this morning. One could feel it in the air already late afternoon that it would be cold but I didn’t think it would drop down that much. The morning walk was really nice though because the sun was blasting heat towards us at the same time as the ground still was so cold that it evened itself out in a way. Alma was really bad at yesterdays walks but today she behaved really well again. For some reason she behaves like crazy when we pass our new neighbours even though we’ve met them several times and she likes both the humans and the dog, Can’t say she likes they cats though even though they run away long before we come close 🙂 🙂 🙂

This morning we didn’t walk that way so she was calm all the time, she even managed to stay reasonable calm when a deer ran away from our path and even though she saw a big goose in one of the fields she still didn’t start to scream and pull the leash, I so wish that behaviour could continue from now on but I now that’s just wishful thinking 🙂 🙂 🙂 we went down to the creek and it might have been even colder there because there were ice in some places almost all the way down to the water. The plus side with that cold mornings are no ticks waiting to attack us because they have dug down into the ground so they don’t freeze to death.

Otherwise I’ve mostly done chores today, like mowing the lawn, doing most of the laundry (I still have my working clothes to do, for some reason this company doesn’t provide a laundry service for working clothes and that’s the first time that has happened to me, so I’ll do that tomorrow. I still have to bake some bread if I want a sandwich for breakfast though. I do have hard bread at home but I’ve had that for two days now and is a bit tired of it to be honest. We’re having a short work week next week again 🙂 May first is the workers day here but I’ll need to work on Friday again but that’s ok.

I guess it is time to start baking that bread, it’ll most likely be French rolls and since it is a weekend I’ll most likely will have a cup of tea even though it might keep me up all night 🙂 🙂

Some managed the frost really well.
Others not so.
I’m starting to fill up the blue barrel with stinging nettle roots, I can win the battle but not the war 🙂

Have a great day!

It has been pouring down.

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The Christmas cactus liked to be placed outside again 🙂

Well the rain that didn’t fall during easter did fall yesterday evening, all night and well in to this day 🙂 We need it so I will for once not complain about it. I did forget to check how much it filled up the water barrels though, I want them full before summer starts properly.

I write properly because the meteorological summer has actually arrived here already, that means that the temperature never falls below 0C (32F) five days in a row. They showed a map on tv and it is slowly getting closer to this village. Won’t happen this week though because there’s a risk for night frost during the weekend the weather apps say. Days will be warm though.

I still like to go to work so I think I like this place I’m working at 🙂 It’s hard to think but even though Falköping is a rather small town the traffic is horrible 🙂 🙂 🙂 It goes faster to take a detour when driving home than to go the most logical way. Also there don’t like it when one follows the traffic rules 🙂 🙂 They all want to go home so don’t You dare to follow those because that takes so much longer 🙂 🙂 🙂

We still have a few Elm trees in the forest but one is now dying so I guess the other will follow soon.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then watch some tv, I’ll take the sofa instead of the recliner because then the dogs can join me 🙂 This change from being at home all day to now go to work is worse for them than it is for me so they need that extra time staying close 🙂

I have a Korean spruce where the top once died and it has taken lots of years for the tree to chose another branch as a new top. Now it looks like a n odd chair 🙂 🙂
Ninebark.
Elder leafs.
Lungwort spreads happily here and they don’t seem to care about me mowing them down all summer long 🙂

Have a great day!

She darted in when I opened the door :-)

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Roots from stinging nettles.

No rain and slightly warmer today so we’ve spent a lot of time in the garden the dogs and I. The monster kitten has mostly stayed indoors or went out when we’ve gone inside again :-)Yesterday evening she refused to go indoors when the rest of us were on our way to bed, first time alone during night is a big step for a cat. However I had been drinking way too much tea so I had to go up at minding and she darted indoors as soon as I opened the door for the dogs 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have mostly continued the war against the stinging nettles and cleavers and today I realised that there’s too much to rip up without having anywhere to place all roots. They need to dry up properly before one really can. place them in a compost, a tiny bit survives and new plants will start to grow. I then remembered that I have a an old big water barrel with just a tiny hole at the bottom so why not let all roots die away inside it? If it rains the water will fill up slightly but then drop away from the little hole, either the nettles root or with no rain they’ll dry up. In the end I’ll have good soil to use at the end of summer.

Nothing much else has happened here today, the slow cooker made my dinner and I did the little laundry I had yesterday. I did go to the supermarket early in the morning though because I didn’t have much wet Catford left. The monster doesn’t like the other food I bought so now at least she’s having something to eat for a couple of days 🙂 I also brought up the last two plants I had in the cool cellar, the Christmas cactus and the easter cactus. They are now hanging outside my entrance door until I can hang them in my big apple tree, nights are still chilly so the closeness to the cottage will keep them warm enough.

There were quite some drama in the cow pasture outside my cottage when we arrived back home today. Two pair of geese were arguing about the same grass 🙂

By the way! Do You remember that I wrote that I would bring in apple twigs before Christmas so that they would start flowering at Christmas? I did bring some in and absolutely nothing happened 🙂 🙂 They did drink water but nothing happened and after a while I forgot about them down in the cellar 🙂 🙂 Thankfully there still was some water but I filled it up and now I finally see some green and even flower buds 🙂 🙂 🙂 To bad they didn’t start growing last week because then they would have worked for easter instead 🙂 🙂

All citrus trees, big and small, are now standing outside. Even though it is a bit chilly they still feel better outside.
After I trimmed some trees Primroses are now popping up here and there again 🙂
The Himalayan Cedar looks a bit sad to be honest but
Look here, new needles are showing 🙂

I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day so I know I’ll fall asleep tonight, I’m still getting used to get up in time to get to work 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally the apple twigs I brought in early December shows signs of life 🙂 🙂

Sort of meh weather.

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The new neighbour has decorated the bush with coloured feathers. Most people just brings in a lot of twigs, put them in vases or urns and decorate them there. Not only feathers are used though, could be plastic or papier mache eggs, tiny yellow chickens or flying witches 🙂

I don’t mind the little rain we’ve got but it is a bit chilly to be honest. That and a high humidity forces me to turn on the radiators again. Not a much but enough to keep that humidity outside. We haven’t been close to how much rain they predicted, the ground is still bone dry if on scratch the surface.

It seems like nature is a bit out of sync this spring. The vegetation started to flower long before the first Bumblebees started to fly and now when we don’t have any honey bees around very few pollinators visit my garden. Honeybees can be both a blessing and a curse for nature. If there are too many they can actually disturb the wild bees so they don’t get enough nectar to managing to survive the next winter. We used to have lots of wild bees here before the honey bees arrived so it’ll be interesting to see if we have fewer wild bees this spring. Today is so chilly that I haven’t seen or heard a single bee at all.

Badgers makes these shallow holes to get to worms and other juicy larvae.

I’ve now brought up all citrus trees as well from the cool cellar and some were replanted but I had to stop doing that because I suddenly went out of soil again 🙂 I hope that cloudy weather, despite northern and cold winds will keep the frost away.  don’t think it would harm the bigger citrus trees because the cool cellar is quite often pretty cold, 0-1C (32-33,8F) isn’t that unusual down there and that’s why the cellar also works pretty great to be a root cellar and even a huge fridge during winter 🙂 🙂 All that’s left are a Christmas cactus, easter cactus and a few things I think have died 🙂 🙂

It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps a nap after that, I’m really tired so either I have a cold going on or the Birch pollen season has started 🙂

Not long before the Marsh-marigold opens up in the root zone.
Red currants have buds now.

The Sloe is in full bloom as well. You really don’t wants this in Your garden 🙂
The Juneberry will soon be completely white. Unfortunately they don’t like warm sunny days if the nights are cool and damp. That’s how it is here quite often and then they get attacked of mildew and then the berries are inedible and the entire bush looks sad. I’m afraid I’ll have to remove it and plants something else there, too bad because it is a favourite of mine.

Have a great day!