Category: Spring.

A really nice afternoon.

He stops at every spot he can find something to sniff on πŸ™‚ Drives Alma insane because she wants to walk and walk and walk πŸ™‚

We’ve had two really nice days here. Yesterday was a bit cooler but after having a long cold winter and a few weeks where the temperature didn’t rise above 5 C (41 F) anything above that feels like summer temperatures πŸ™‚ Even the dogs were panting when we were out walking πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We had frost last night though and that can keep on happening until the first week in June. June sixth is usually the last night we have frost here.

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None of us wanted to get out of bed when the alarm started this morning, it seems that Malkolm loves to stay in bed after we’ve woken up, that I like πŸ™‚ but not even Alma wanted to leave the bed today and that was surprising. No need to hurry up tomorrow morning though, it’s May first, the workers day in big parts of the world. So I guess we’ll all get up at normal time just because we actually can stay in bed πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Today however is ValborgsmΓ€ssoafton, Walpurgis night which is celebrated here. No one actually knows who Valborg or Walpurgis as her English name was, is. She was actually an English princess I’ve read. She became a nun (and a couple of her brothers became monks) and was apparently really good in making pagans christians. She later became a saint and is the patron saint for those being infected with rabies. So as I said no one here knows who she was πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Perhaps she does hold her hand over us because we haven’t had rabies here in this country since 1886.

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So today they’ll start huge bonfires, choirs, usually men only choirs, will sing when the bonfires burn and singing spring songs. Today is a bit unusual because we have nice weather, all too often I’ve been standing is rain and / or snow freezing my b..t off not feeling the warmth from the fire because I had a tendency to always be placed on the other end far away from the fire πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Tulipa tarda, spreads happily in my garden.
White checkered lily buds.
Checkered lily.
Lung worth. I was trying to photograph the Bumble bee that You can almost see at the bottom in the middle.
Leopards bane.
White wood anemone.
Yellow wood anemone and Corydalis.

So this will be a short working week but next week will be even better because next Friday is what we call a squeeze day. Thursday is Ascension Day and a holiday here so no one wants to work on Friday. Unfortunately most must but I applied for being free the right way so I won’t work πŸ™‚ I’ll also stay at home on Friday the seventh of June because our national day is on Thursday. To be honest very few know why we celebrate our national day that day, we just don’t care that much as long as we don’t have to work πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ No it isn’t because of some war or something like that, we haven’t been to war since we helped to beat Napoleon. There’s actually two reasons but I’ll tell You all about it then.

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The dogs are sleeping all over the cottage. Nova because she’s old and tired but Alma and Malkolm because they’ve played wildly in the garden just before clouds covered the sky. I think I’ll join them in a while. The best tomorrow though is that the Ice cream lorry comes, I’m out of Ice cream and it’s stay warm a while they say so I’ll but more than I usually do πŸ™‚

I really like this photo, just look at Alma πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Have a great day!

It finally arrived :-)

The warm and sunny weather sure took its time to arrive today, the morning was chilly and rainy so we didn’t go out for our morning walk until just before noon and it was still really cold. Then suddenly it changed and the temperature has risen to 20 C (68 F), the sun is shining even though there are big clouds in the sky and, of course, there is now a strong wind blowing.

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That has helped the laundry to dry in five seconds so I really can’t complain too much πŸ™‚ I don’t think it took fiver minutes after the sun started to shine through the gaps in the clouds before I heard the first mower πŸ™‚ Yes the grass has grown pretty much but why can’t they just relax at least for one day before they start πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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I didn’t care about mowing the lawn, instead I’ve brought up almost all plants from the cool cellar. I only have four cacti down there still because I need to get more plants outside before I have enough space by the windows πŸ™‚ I even brought the pawpaw seedlings I had down there outside, three of them but decided that the three I have indoors by the kitchen window can wait for a while. One never knows when we’ll get a nasty cold frosty night again.

The Camellias started to flower in the cool cellar.

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I bought a hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) and it too was touched a bit hard by frost, like the trees I also got delivered late this week. So I decided to take a few cuttings that can over winter in the cool cellar neat winter. I took a few photos of how I do that that You can see here below. The Hardy Fuchsia doesn’t survive like a big bush here though but the roots survives and starts all over next year. It’s always best to put dry leafs over it all just in case we do get another cold winter. One can of course also have it as a pot plant and keep it light but cool during the winters.

The best soil to have while planting cuttings are usually sowing soil. I didn’t have any so I mixed ordinary soil with some sand from my garden, mix it well.
As You can see the cuttings did look a bit sad after the frost so I don’t know if they’ll work but it’s worth a try. I can take new ones later in summer.
One only need a short stem, just make sure that at the bottom there have been leafs. Take away those because that’s where the new roots will start to grow. This one didn’t have any leafs at all but they usually work anyway.
This one looks better. Two leafs taken away at the bottom and two leafs at the top. Most people think this is too short but it’s actually just enough.
Plant the cuttings along the edge of the pot, more oxygen will reach where the leafs will grow and the risk of them rotting because of too much water is lesser. Normally I don’t put a see through cover,, like plastic, around the pot but since there were hit by frost I thought it might help. Place the pot by a window that doesn’t get any sunshine and wait for them to grow to new plants πŸ™‚

Tomorrow will be a bit cooler than today but still above 10 C (50 F) and then on Tuesday it’ll go back to more what we’ve had this afternoon, I do hope this was the last cold period until autumn arrives again, I’m really tired of the cold weather we’ve had lately. I wonder how Malkolm think about warmer weather, so far all his life has been pretty cold, all three months of it πŸ™‚

Alma and Malkolm have been playing all day long so they are both now snoring loudly πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Now I fear the phone when I’m working :-)

Nicer morning yesterday so I’ll start with some from then.

Now days when the phone rings while I’m working my anxiety levels rise quite high and when I see it’s my neighbors the level hits the roof πŸ™‚ Especially since we are way too few painters at work right now, so I wasn’t especially happy when the phone rang and it was my neighbor πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Yes she had escaped once again and this time the hole was so small that it even looked like it would be impossible for Malkolm to get out through it πŸ™‚ My neighbors said that she sat down by the fence towards the gravel road and looked up the slope. She knows I’ll be coming home not too long after she has done this πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I’m going to check the fence this weekend to make sure there are no weak spots left.

Grape elder. the flowers will soon open up, nothing special to be honest but they are usually the first and yellow so I like them a lot.
This is the place where Alma saw piglets for the first time and she’s always calm and quiet here so we go there quite often πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚
Rowan tree leafs.

I have also noticed that one of the dogs, almost 100% sure it is Alma, has tried to dig her way out of the garage so now I’ve blocked that way with old car tires, with rims, and those are so heavy that it’ll take even her quite a lot of time to remove them before she can try again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Bog Myrtle in bloom. One of my favorite smells!

We’ve had rather nice weather today, lots of sunshine and slightly below 10 C (50 F).Β  The morning was a bit meh though, grey and dull and -2 C (28,4 F) so the car was covered in ice, easy to remove though. Nova wanted to go out to the bog today so out there we went. Lots of small birds singing but not a sound of any other animals, normally we can hear them run away when we come too close but today nothing.

I was going to photograph this when Malkolm jumped up on the tree stump πŸ™‚

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Tomorrow it’ll both rain and snow during the night, great because can one ever get too much water πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Same temperature as today but no sunshine until late in the afternoon, on Sunday it’ll be really warm, too bad it couldn’t be the same tomorrow since I’m at home and would be able to enjoy it. Malkolm took a mud bath in the root zone (where all my dish water, shower water and washing water goes to be cleaned) so today he had his first bath. He now refuses to be close to me, didn’t even follow us up to the computer, he’s really grumpy and sleeps down stairs in the dog igloo πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Have a great day!

Dogs, sometimes I wonder :-)

One of my Camellias has been standing outside when the nights were so horrible cold and it hasn’t looked this healthy in many years.

The day started well but it was well below freezing point outside so I had to scrape the car windows before going to work. We had wonderful morning mist, the kind where one could see the fog roll away like big waves over the ground, so I picked up the camera I had in the car and of course the battery was dead πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚Β  The morning mist was even better down by the lake so I was a bit annoyed by myself for not checking the camera after I used it last week. So lets hope it’ll be much the same tomorrow morning.

All the Apricot trees have been standing outside those cold nights as well and they too look good.
I was sure the Himalayan Cedars were more or less dead after this winter, I forgot to water them, but now one can see that new needles are growing out πŸ™‚

Even the grape vine cuttings look good and they barely have any roots yet.

I came to work a bit early but started to work almost directly because today there was one more that didn’t come to work, high fever this time, so I had to check the huge washing machine that cleans all the things we’re going to paint. None of those being at home yesterday turned up today either. So today we were five short at the painting department but that would be worse later on.

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Because I suddenly had a phone call from my neighbor telling me that Alma had escaped the dog yard once again. This time she had managed to rip off the fence from the ground. The gap wasn’t more than 25 cm (10 inches) wide and perhaps 15cm (6 inches) high. I have no idea how she, who is quite big, slightly bigger than a German Shepherd, could squeeze through that hole. My neighbor told me that he had tried to make her go back but when he came too close to Malkolm (they were both rather stressed by this), still in the dog yard, she changed the sound of her voice so he would rather call me πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

He’s going for her stick.
He’s catching up really good.
He loses his balance though.
Well it is nice to lay down in the grass as well πŸ™‚

I have no idea why she keeps on doing this because she doesn’t go anywhere and she never manages to go back which is what she always wants to do πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ So I had to leave work and go home to fix the problem and then go back to work again. I really couldn’t be angry at her but now I think she has learned that if she does like this I’ll come home again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ The only time that dog use her brain for more than fifteen seconds is when she calculates how to get out from the dog yard. She must have worked on this place in the fence for quite some time before she finally could squeeze out from that hole πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Red leafed Elderberry tree.
Leopards bane, seems to survive any condition πŸ™‚

On my way home the Beekeeper also sent me a text message that Alma was outside. She’s the kindest there is but one day she’ll do this when someone comes driving, then again everyone knows she can turn up anytime so everyone drives really slowly on this gravel road πŸ™‚ At least the dogs were happy to see me even if it only was for a few minutes πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

The table has finally arrived.

It wasn’t a lucky day for my work place today. One was at home with migraines, one was at home for back pain, one managed to injure himself so his eyebrow was torn up and he started bleeding like crazy and had to be driven to the hospital and then I went home because I had to sign for a package that they just refused to leave outside my door.

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Gooseberry bush in the wild. Those gooseberries are delicious but very small and the bush is the thorniest one can find. I did the mistake to bring in one to my garden once. As soon as a branch hits the ground it creates roots and spreads insanely quick. Those thorns are horrible to be stung by and they tend to stay inside the foot as well πŸ™‚

The package, my new table for the living room, was going to be delivered some time between 11 am and 3 pm. I was also going to pick up a package at the grocery store in Gudhem today and managed to do that before 11 am. That package was the Tea bush I ordered for quite some time ago. I was really stressed by the time I came home so naturally the table arrived almost exactly at 3 pm πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It is starting to green up πŸ™‚

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Yellow wood anemone.

So I managed to fall asleep in the recliner and the two big dogs in the sofa and Malkolm in the dog igloo πŸ™‚Β  The weather could have been worse today, not especially warm but sunshine every now and again plus almost no wind to speak of. So we had a quite nice walk after the table had arrived. It will be slightly warmer from now on but we’ll also get rain and on Friday even some snow.

Her favorite spot on hot summers days πŸ™‚ Also works when it’s cold in the air but the sun is shining πŸ™‚

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The new table is much smaller but have a shelf under the table top (which is made of glass), so I placed one gardening book there, one crime novel and the book Doctor sleep written by Stephen King if You for some reason didn’t know that πŸ™‚ I love that book but I have no wish what so ever to see the movie, I have a tendency to get in to horror movies a bit too much and that’s not good when living at the outskirts of the world where imagination can carry You away a bit too much πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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We’ve already had our dinners but I feel that I might have the last orange or perhaps an ice cream or why not both πŸ™‚ I’m going to the store tomorrow anyway πŸ™‚

Alma can become a bit jealous if Malkolm spend time with Nova, she just place herself between them until either of the two other leave πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

If it wasn’t for the wind.

The sunrise this morning.

It could have been so nice today if it wasn’t for a biting cold wind blowing. Thankfully it comes from north so I can still have the kitchen door open but just walking a few steps from the door makes the world bitterly cold and nasty.

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There was no wind when we had our morning walk though but then again the temperature had barely rose anything since I watched the thermometer when we got up, -6C (21,2F). We went down to the creek again but continued it up-stream and then in to the older forest. Lots of Ravens in the air and the Jays started to scream as soon as we closed in to the forest. The Swedish name for them is, if directly translated, Nut screamer πŸ™‚ Sort of spot on to be honest, they behave like nuts and scream all the time πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚Β 

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Both Nova and Malkolm wanted to stop every second meter to sniff on something and they did so for a very long time every time, so in the end I had to hurry them up because they were driving Alma crazy πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ She really have no patience to stand still while they sniff around πŸ™‚Β 

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Malkolm really dislikes the collar he has to wear now when the harness is too small, it itches so when ever he can he stops to scratch where the collar is. I’ll try and find the harness I know I have somewhere here in the cottage, I never throw away things that isn’t broken and still can be used so I know it is here somewhere. Otherwise I’ll buy a new one when I order their food the next time. The problem is that I have no idea how big he’ll be πŸ™‚ it can be anything from English Cockerspaniel to Golden Retriever. Thankfully I do have a big one that can be used if I would buy a too small one.

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I think I’ll get the new table tomorrow. I know it already is here in my county waiting for being delivered but I haven’t gotten any text or mail that tells me when 😦 I can’t just stay at home (even though it would be nice πŸ™‚ ) and hope that it’ll come πŸ™‚ I’m sure they’ll call just as they enter the village and then it’ll take me around thirty minutes to get home. Last time it was like this, several years ago, the driver just left it inside my gate even though he really should have seen my drivers license. I do hope it can be fixed like this this time as well, if he can’t wait for me that is.

It isn’t easy to keep the balance while scratching because of the collar πŸ™‚Β 

Then some more scratching. Thankfully no scratching at all when collar is removed.

I do know however that some time this week a Tea tree will arrive at the grocery store in Gudhem and on the 25th all the trees and bushes I’ve bought will arrive. I don’t need to stay at home for either of them thankfully so that makes it so much easier. I’ve done the laundry today and yesterday I baked a couple of breads, they turned out quite ok πŸ™‚ I haven’t however made any dinner for work next week, so I guess it’ll be sandwiches for work tomorrow and then I’ll buy something after work that I can have for the rest of the week πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

A sunny and wind free day for a change.

For once we’re having a day when the sun shines, no wind and after the ice cold morning a relatively warm day and I’m not at work πŸ™‚ Also a low pressure with rain and possibly snow is slowly entering the country and it looks like it’ll miss us here πŸ™‚ Something must be wrong and in one way or the other I’m sure I’ll have to pay for it πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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We walked down to the creek early this morning and even saw a few deer. Nova and Malkolm walks really good when leashed but Alma has after all that has happened here gone back to being impossible. She whines and shouts plus pulling the leash all the time. It hasn’t been easy for her losing her best friend like that and now when Malkolm is here being over protective.

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He’s fascinated by the creek and its running water πŸ™‚

Today I wondered where she was because she hadn’t been indoors for quite some time. So I went out through the kitchen door and it wasn’t until I walked over to the other side of the cottage when I heard her barking like insane πŸ™‚ She was down by the now rather big lake behind the garage so the sound couldn’t really reach the cottage. She was probably defending us towards something horrible like deer or pheasants πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Well it could have been wild hogs too and she was smart enough to not trying to reach what ever it was because then she would have become wet and she really doesn’t like that πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Later on we went out to the bog and she was just as impossible then as she had been in the morning. I do hope she calms down when Malkolm gets bigger and doesn’t need her protection but I doubt that πŸ™‚ Otherwise it has been a calm and nice day. I’ll need to bake some bread though but the day is still young and there’s plenty of time to do that. I could also start with the laundry but I really don’t feel like doing that πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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The lake behind the garage is getting bigger and bigger, normally it’s a swamp there πŸ™‚

The dogs are sleeping and I really would like to join them but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all tonight if I did that πŸ™‚ I would have liked to start doing things in the garden but the nights will stay below freezing so no use in doing that, I could mow the lawn though because when nothing else is growing the lawn sure does πŸ™‚ I have to put the new lawn mower together first though so bread baking it is πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Storm again.

I could find five House sparrows in the wild rose, can You find them πŸ™‚ I had at least the big original photo to look at πŸ™‚

If You don’t think about the rain that fell or the storm strength winds all day this has been a really nice day πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ We have actually had a lot of sunshine as well so the laundry dried up really fast πŸ™‚ I had some extra laundry today because Malkolm the little monster decided it would be nicer to stay in bed and pee than to go out to the rainy world πŸ™‚ I really have no good place where thick fleece blankets can dry so I was at that moment and only then quite happy about the strong wind and sunshine πŸ™‚

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I was a bit hesitant about having a walk today. We did eventually go out and walked to the bog, I really didn’t want to get caught in any eventual shower passing by, then again walking in the forest when the winds were as strong as they were today wasn’t a good idea either. The trees swayed a bit too much and at one place big branches fell off a pine just after we had passed it.

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After our walk not only did I do the laundry I also baked a bread and tried to make a pizza base. I left some of the dough from the bread, added some more flour (today I added rice flour since it doesn’t taste much in it self) and spread it really thin on the baking sheet. It was ok but rose unevenly and it was over all a bit too thick. I have at least now tried it and will try something else next time.

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After that we all had a long nap. Alma and Nova in one of the sofas and Malkolm and I in the recliner. One really sleep well in a recliner πŸ™‚ Then I realized that I had forgotten to wash my working t-shirts so I had to do that as well. This time I just put them in a bucket and washed them by hand, they are easy drying, sort of feels like wearing some kind of plastic but always feel dry no matter how much one sweats πŸ™‚ Just as I hung them outside to dry in the wind and sunshine a hail storm passed by followed by some rain, something the weather sites said didn’t happen (they also show what kind of weather we’ve been having) πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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After the willows the Grape elder is always first to flower.

To be honest I would love to have another long nap, I’m just as tired as I was before. It’s pollen time so I guess that’s why. Runny nose,eyes that feels old and always tired, life is wonderful sometimes πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

There’s at least no snow here now.

The Crane couple that nests not far from the cottage walked around in the cow pasture when we went out on our morning walk. They are used to me and my dogs going out there every day so they didn’t really care about us.

I can’t pretend that we had a wonderful weather here today but the temperature rose above 10C (50F), there was no wind in the early morning when we had our morning walk but it did rain. First mostly drizzle but the closer we got to home the more it rained. It stopped shortly after we were in the cottage again πŸ™‚

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The ground is saturated with water now, there’s only sand in the ground so when the water stays like this there isn’t any more space for more water.

We went out to the bog even though Nova wanted to go down to the creek. I wasn’t sure about the rain and if it would become worse so I preferred to not walk too far from home. She was a bit grumpy at first but since now both her and Malkolm stops to sniff on the ground every second meter she sort of looked satisfied after a while. Alma went insane like always so I really can’t say what she thought about it πŸ™‚

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The wild hogs are slowly but steadily destroying the roads here now.

All the birds seemed to love this weather though, they’ve been singing all day but I think that 99% of the House sparrow and Field sparrow population around here stayed beneath the roof on my patio πŸ™‚ The Cranes in the pasture definitely liked the rain, I guess it brought out all the frogs so they could have a big breakfast πŸ™‚

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Two days ago, after work, I was going to have something to eat in front of the tv, just as I was about to sit down a puppy suddenly stood between my feet so I lost my balance. It all went really slowly so I just leaned towards the table and to my big surprise I continued slowly towards the floor. One of the table legs broke so both the table and I continued down to the floor in a very slow speed πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ So yesterday I ordered a new table that will arrive most likely on Wednesday or Thursday.

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I’ve placed the broken table leg so that I still can use it as long as none of the dogs run in to the table πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I really should have bought another table at the same time I bought my sofas but even though the old table was pretty ugly it still worked and I thought I just as well could use it until it finally gave up πŸ™‚

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Have a great day!

Our weather service is quite useless to be honest.

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!

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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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I thought Nova would go out to the bog again today but she decided that a walk along the creek would be nice.

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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 πŸ™‚ There was so much snow that it even was hard for the rest of us to walk there without sliding down into the creek πŸ™‚ 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.

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It wasn’t though, it was just a badger talking a walk in the snow πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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Thew Starlings wren’t too happy about the weather πŸ™‚

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 πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I noticed how Malkolm behaved because he too noticed that she’s a bit wild πŸ™‚ So when we walked he walked close to Nova but when we stood still he went to Alma πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Here at home it’s almost only Alma he’s with and I think that’s how Nova wants it to be πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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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 πŸ™‚

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Have a great day!

Winter decided we shouldn’t think spring was here :-)

So this week has in many ways been rather terrible when it comes to the weather. On Tuesday we had around 40 cm (16 inches) of snow falling. I really didn’t like it at all, especially since it also went pretty cold. Easter was warm and friendly, it was fun to have a puppy in the house, You already know that a new puppy is living here again and during Easter we could stay outdoors all day. Then winter came back and I really couldn’t leave a puppy in the dog house/yard with that ammount of snow plus cold weather because a puppy wouldn’t understand that he would have to stay in the nice dog house all day long.

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He would be playing with Alma and even though she would most likely have stayed in the garage it still wouldn’t be especially warm there. I really didn’t want to come home to a puppy with pneumonia. So thankfully they understood at work so I have been at home this week hating the weather because we really couldn’t take any walks while it snowed and was so cold. To make it even more fun it snowed again on Thursday, this time just a little but it was already impossible for a puppy to go anywhere. Well we were out but I had to carry him almost all the time.

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Today however it’s warmer, tomorrow will be even warmer than today and on Sunday they’re guessing it’ll really warm and that we’ll have warm weather the entire next week. So back to work on Monday it is πŸ™‚ So the new guy is nine weeks old on Monday and his ancestry is Border collie (50%) , English Cockerspaniel and Golden retriever (25% each). He didn’t look like any of his parents to be honest and was the most long haired of them all. My guess is that he most likely will look something like a wrong colored Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever πŸ™‚ At first I guessed that he might look like a smaller wrong colored Golden though.

If You wonder why I don’t have any photos of Nova it’s because she tends to prefer staying indoors sleeping πŸ™‚

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Thankfully my neighbor works in a super market so I have been able to get what I need when it comes to food πŸ™‚ I have a few tins in the cool cellar just in case something would happen so I mostly use them now because their dates are closing in. A couple are too old but can one eat them? they’ve been stored cool all the time so would it be ok to eat them? Two tins with ham are spoiled otherwise and that would be a shame. Well I just remembered that I’m on the internet right now and I micro biologist said no problem to eat but the taste might have become less tasty. Just put the tin in boiling water for a couple of minutes or more and it’s quite edible. Well I’ll do that with one of the ham tins and if it smells ok I’ll take a tiny bit and hope to survive πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Β  Β  Male Chaffinch.

Alma has finally understood that it is ok to tell Malkolm when he goes to far, like chewing on her hamstring with his sharp teeth or chewing on her tail while she’s walking away πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Nova does what she can to avoid him when he’s too much (which is almost all of the time πŸ™‚ ) I’ll have to make her a raised bed so that he can’t terrorize her while I’m at work, she’s after all almost 18 now. He’s not a cuddly dog at all, he is very much Nova in that way. He usually sleeps on the floor on my slippers beside the bed. he has once or twice wanted to be in the bed but only for a few minutes. He’s very much Alma when it comes to energy though.

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He did however sleep for hours after our walk this morning, despite him not walking much at all. So much new things to see, hear and smell so that was what tired him out. Many people believe that they need to run around and spend energy all day to be tired in the evening but it is actually using the brain that tires them out. So Alma wouldn’t have become a calm dog if I could have been running with her every day, she would just have become a dog with even more energy but with the same problems and I’m pretty sure that would have killed me πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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It is time to have something to eat and when I leave the computer Malkolm will wake up so I better pick him up and take him outside so he doesn’t pee in the cottage πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Then he decided that he didn’t want to sit on the tree stump

but didn’t realize how deep the snow was πŸ™‚

So I had him in a backpack when we went out and had it hanging on my front side so I could have an eye on him and make sure he wouldn’t try to jump out πŸ™‚

Have a great day!

Chaffinches have arrived at the feeder with sunflower seeds in it. Some stay here over winter but most fly south. Now when they return the forest has changed and they need easy to get food until the insects starts to hatch. I’ve seen the second butterfly for this year today by the way.

Winter has come back but it won’t stay for long. Snow fell yesterday but not more than a centimeter (two fifths of an inch) so most of it melted away since we have had sunshine all day long πŸ™‚ Now there’s snow in places where the sun couldn’t reach it.

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The night was a cold and so will the coming nights so I guess that we’ll have snow on the ground until Wednesday comes with warmer weather. Now the Cranes are so many by the lake that I can hear them when I go out in the early morning. It’s the sound of spring πŸ™‚

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I have so little laundry that I skip to do it today but I have made dinner for next week and I’ve baked a bread. I could only find frozen gluten free bread in the german grocery store and it wasn’t a yummy kind but it worked really good when toasted. So I tried a new recipe today but had to have it in the oven for much longer time because it had a hard time to be baked all the way through, so I guess I won’t try that one again πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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I was told I should talk with the optician with an referral to an eye specialist about the cataract, so I’ll have a talk with them when I get my new glasses on Maundy Thursday.Β  Better to be early than late.Β  Not much else has happened this weekend beside me sowing some seeds that I have had in the fridge in damp paper towels in plastic bags. I filled up an old balcony flower box and placed another broken one over it so no birds or mice can reach them. Also I bought another Ginkgo tree that I planted in an big old clay pot but that one I need to have indoors until it’s farther between rather cold nights than it is now.

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It is time to watch Biathlon on tv, the season is ending and the last competitions is held in Canada so for once I’ve had all mornings free to do other things πŸ™‚

Have a great day!