Category: Summer.

They say it’ll finally rain a lot tomorrow.

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It has been warm all day, 25 C (77 F) most of the day before noon was sunny and most of the day after has been cloudy. Still warm though and we’ve also had a rather strong warm wind. I slept for much longer last night than I’ve done in years, a cold is spreading here and it might be that it has made me so much more tired, a bit stuffed in the nose but nothing worse for me. My neighbours had it much worse.

The leafs are going yellow but it’s because of the drought and not so much because we’re closing in on autumn.

So since we went up much later we had our morning walk before we had breakfast. I could hear some ravens and small birds were tweeting but besides those it was rather quiet. We walked down to the creek and back because I didn’t want to walk in the high grass in the forest now when it is dry enough for the ticks to stay there.  We walked in the high grass yesterday and I had to pick plants of ticks from the dogs after we had come home, nasty animals!

I’ve also been to a big grocery store in Falköping this morning, a nice change to the supermarket I usually go to. I was going to stop on the way home at the small grocery shop in Gudhem on my way home to buy ice cream, it gives me enough time to come home without the ice cream melting. I of course forgot that so still no ice cream in my home 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do have a can with peach halves and one smaller with pear halves so I might have one of those instead.

I would like to tear up all these vibes with small yellow flowers now. They are annuals and has already spread so many seeds that there’s no risk of them not coming back. However we have loads of bumblebees here and these small flowers are perfect when they need nectar sonce they will continue to flower until the frost kills them.

They say that we will have rain tomorrow. Anything from one centimetre (two fifths of an inch) to 4 cm (one inch and three fifths of an inch) falling down from the sky. I do hope we’ll get the higher amount because I would at least not have to water anything for a couple of days 🙂 🙂 It is so dry here now that we only get very little dew in the morning and when that happens we’re really in a secure drought.

I want to remove the wild plum tree I have but I’m afraid to even go close to it with thorns like these 🙂 🙂 🙂 The sooner I do it the better though, it’s just a young tree and if I with it’ll only get more thorns 🙂 🙂

I was planning on baking a bread after this but it will be done so late that I better start tomorrow since we actually might get that rain 🙂 Time for that last cup of tea for the day and then some tv watching.

Have a great day!

Fog.

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To my surprise I woke up to a slightly foggy world, not a great fog but still foggy enough 🙂 No wind, a few birds tweeting and I could hear cranes flying south west towards the coast and the ravens of course. Alma behaved so well today that it surprised me, yesterday she did anything but that 🙂

Yesterday I also learned that the moose fly season has started over a month to early. I caught one of these nasty insects while it walked up my hoodie towards my neck. I truly hate them, even more than I hate ticks. So I actually texted friends I know are out in the forest a lot so they can make sure the flies can’t get in beneath the clothes in any way. No nasty one today though. Instead we didn’t even have a single annoying fly either despite it being rather warm and that sort of made me happy 🙂 🙂

I was going to get two packages from the post office in the grocery store in Gudhem today. I had ordered a saw that one puts on a long shaft so I can saw off dead branches on my trees higher up and I have bought a “new” lens to my camera. You’ll not notice anything though because it’s the same brand as the one I have but a bigger telephoto lens. The lens works perfect but when I took a look at the saw I noticed I’ve bought one with another coupling than what I have to the rest of the garden tools I have from the same brand. It’ll take longer to ship it back than to actually buy a new shaft 🙂

Anyway now days it’s almost impossible to get the package if You don’t have a mobile phone and just as I drove in to the parking lot I realised I had forgotten the phone at home 🙂 🙂 So I had to drive back home, upset my dogs since I didn’t let them out from the dog house and drive back to the store before going back home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I felt so annoyed about it that I forgot to buy ice cream and I do long for ice cream right now. I do however have custard at home and apples in the trees so perhaps I’ll bake a pie instead 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and a slice or two from my newly baked bread, it’s cooling off down in the kitchen right now 🙂

Have a great day!

I also found my grass trimmer :-)

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Cool and nice morning today. It had rained some during the night but it didn’t make any difference, the ground is still bone dry. I made a quick trip to the supermarket, just to buy a few things I might need over the weekend. I had a list, followed it but still came home with loads of things, like canned fruit 🙂 🙂 So the trip that would go fast and not cost too much became just the opposite 🙂 🙂

Finally a butterfly eating from the Butterfly bush 🙂
My little meadow is still rather full of flowers.
They started showing late but now I have plenty of them, the California poppy.
The pile is gone, only a few that were too big is left.

My hands have lots of small cuts and they hurt because I forgot how many branches from the wild roses I had put in that other pile of branches 🙂 🙂 🙂 but now I’ve worked through both piles. It was the same with this one, lots of rather old half rotten left and those can easily be handled with the lawn mower. I also found my old grass trimmer in the patio 🙂 🙂 I didn’t have to do anything with it, it just started and worked perfect. The first thing I did with it was to trim away lots of stinging nettles 🙂

Besides this I’ve done very little today, I didn’t even do the laundry I had planned to because the compost grinding too much longer than I thought. I can do that tomorrow if they’re guessing on the weather is right, rain all day as best or very little some of the time as it looks right now. It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll take a look on what’s on tv tonight, I think it’s Death in Paradise tonight 🙂

Have a great day!

That was truly a surprise :-)

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I’m feeling a bit surprised today because facebook tossed me out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was sent a warning that I had behaved inappropriate and something about their ads. So they removed me entirely 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have no idea why though because the only thing I post is the blog and my wordl scores. I have removed lots of the ads they show because I haven’t liked them and they were not about something I needed or wanted. Also I have liked all the anti trump posts I’ve seen 🙂 Someone said I could have been hijacked but since I’m removed totally it doesn’t matter.

Very few acorns here this year.
No matter where I look I look at Yarrow. Perfect since I can rub them on the dogs to try and keep the ticks away.
This flower is called Eye comfort. These flowers however is almost ten times bigger than they usually are. All other plants I saw were normal sized, tiny that is.

I have been thinking of leave anyway so I’ll not try to get back again, not by appeal or getting a new account. Still it would have been nice to say good by before I left. Well I do hope they don’t think I’ve died 🙂 🙂 Nice day once again here, more cloudy and with some rain now and again. I was using the compost grinder and since it is electric and with a cord it stopped me to work twice. Still the first pile is done, what’s left is some branches so old that they broke while I tried to lift them up. So I’ve been walking over them a couple of times and now I’ll leave them to autumn and winter to break them down totally. Tomorrow I’ll start on the second pile if it isn’t raining.

I don’t remember if I’ve told You about my mobile phone, I managed to drop it on a small stone and it hit the button that helps controlling the sound and if I want to take a photo of the site I’m looking at. It hit so good that I know can’t use the button and will until the day I say goodbye to it play everything on the highest volume 🙂 🙂 🙂 It can’t be changed in any way so if I look at something with sound it screams out and I have to block the speaker with a finger 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well it is time for that last cup of tea for the day, the machine is baking a bread and it would have been nice to have a cup of tea when I eat that first slice but the machine is anything but fast so milk is what I’ll have instead some time tonight 🙂

Have a great day!

It worked after all these years.

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+1 C (33,8 F) this morning but since there was no wind what so ever it actually didn’t feel that bad. I’m glad I covered the sensitive plants last evening. I don’t trust those temperatures the weather web sites show though, they say around 10 C (32 F) so I’ll cover them again tonight.

Perfect weather during the morning walk though, the sun was mostly shining, there were a few clouds that managed to hide it a few times, so it was nice in the sunshine but still so cold that the flies didn’t fly around. No cranes in the air this morning but four song swans (like Your trumpet swans) passed on their way to the little lake in the bog. I also saw a Jay fly away but that’s it when it comes to wildlife. All that rain we had last week has already dried up and very little dew as well but I managed to pick the three ticks that were climbing on the dogs. When we have lots of dew the grass is too wet for the ticks to stay there since there’s a risk they actually drown.

I also mowed the outside of the garden grass but the mower barely trimmed the tops 🙂 That’s the positive part with a long drought 🙂 🙂 🙂 I then remembered my compost grinder that has been standing beneath the roof of the patio for I don’t know how many years. So I brought it out on the lawn and took a look at it. The grinding parts were covered in rust and it was impossible to see how it looked inside the motor. I plugged it in just too see if it showed any signs of life anyway and to my very big surprise it started!!

So today I have started to work away the two big piles with all the branches I’ve cut away lately from most of my trees and bushes. I managed to grind down a lot even though it doesn’t show to be honest 🙂 🙂 and the mound of grinned branches isn’t especially big either but I thin I’ve actually done half that pile oaf branches today. I’ll continue tomorrow and I hope that I’ll at least worked through the rest by tomorrow evening. After that I’ll start with the second pile.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then I’ll watch a show on tv called Elsbeth, It has gotten good reviews so why not 🙂

Have a great day!

Trellied tree, or at least it will be.

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Once again we woke up to a pretty and cold morning. No frost but I had still covered all the more sensitive plants. I will not do that this evening because from now on nights will be warmer again and therefore we’ll be annoyed by the flies again. They might not be many but oh how good they are in annoying me 🙂 🙂

This morning however was more or less fly free, later in the day when it warmed up though lots of them did their best to irritate me here in the garden. we actually saw two deer on our walk this morning and thankfully Alma only noticed one of them 🙂 Today we walked down to the creek but from the other direction than we usually walk there. The beavers are damming up the creek so almost no water runs away from it. I noticed that they’ve brought lumber there so I guess they’ll try to trap it, don’t think regular hunting is allowed now in summer since they have small ones.

I’ve continued to cut down the big rose in the corner of my garden, it is anything but fun or enjoyable 🙂 🙂 I managed to cut of a branch that went above my head. Do You know what it is like to remove thorns from ones scalp and not being able to see what one does 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also planted that last pear tree seedling (are they called seedling when they are over two and a half years old?) I didn’t know what to do with it but then I started to think about trellised trees! So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve put up the poles to the side of it. It is still to small to do that but all I need to do know besides waiting for it to grow 🙂 is to get some steel wire to be able to trellis it when it is time to start.

It is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and after that I think it will be an early night. I’ve had loads of tea and coffee but still feel pretty tired. Tomorrow I’ll go to the supermarket, I don’t need much but I hope they still have some of the Juniper berry soda I loved as a kid, Hadn’t seen it in years but then suddenly I found it in the super market. If You wonder how it tastes I can say that it is something between cola, dark beer and Dr Pepper 🙂

The big rose. This is what it looked like when I started
and this after twenty minutes work. My hands and head were really in bad shape after that 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll continue slowly and steady 🙂

Have a great day!

The work had begun. To be honest this will be so much easier to manage than a big tree. Perhaps not as much fruit but the quality of the fruit will be better. Plus it doesn’t take up as much space and it will not shadow anything behind it.

Every fifth month.

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Looks like the cold weather scared som cranes to move south, usually they don’t do that until mid or late September.

Another cold night so I’m glad I covered the more sensitive plants. Yesterday we had several thunderstorms passing by and we had hail falling in at least three of them, there was even some hail left when we went out in to the garden when we had woken up.

The rest of the day has been really nice though. It was so cold on our morning walk that not a fly or anything but migrating cranes were moving in the air. Well a couple of Jays flew around screaming, most likely warning about us walking down the gravel road. The sun shone almost the entire walk and has continued to do so with the exception of a few clouds passing by. The clouds weren’t big but manage to pass the sun in a place so the sunshine couldn’t reach us. It has actually been enough warm to have the kitchen door open almost all day.

When there are like two or several individual mist clouds we’re saying that the Elves are dancing. Normally we see this in fields and usually in a ring formation. One doesn’t want to interfere in it because it usually means the end of life is here. These two however let us pass without being punished 🙂 🙂

It should have been open all the time if it hadn’t been because of Alma, she is now in heat. Malkolm is still chemically castrated so no such problems but he still behaves like a bewitched teenager 🙂 🙂 🙂 Almost all female dogs that have been living with me has done that every six months, not Alma though she does it every fifth month 🙂 which is at the time rather good because I was unsure for how much longer the chemicals would work on Malkolm.

Most spiderwebs had been destroyed by the heavy showers of rain and hail.
Some had however managed to build new ones.

I’ve planted most of the sown coneflowers (Echinacea) today. I really like them but for some reason I have never had one, bought or sown, surviving the winter here and that’s not because they aren’t hardy enough and the sand in the ground here should be perfect for them. The only one that I actually had for several years was the pinnate prairie coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) but those were slowly pushed away by some wild roses I used to have 🙂 🙂

This is a rather nice tasting mushroom and it grows in my garden.

My bigger citrus trees, smaller this year due to frost and my four Pawpaw seedlings. Two from last year badly damaged by mice and two from this year.

The coming three days will be much like today they’re guessing but after that we’ll get clouds and rain but at least not as cold as it washes last days. The tea is waiting and perhaps I’ll have a sandwich or two 🙂

Malkolm looking slightly ashamed all the time now 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Thunder and hail.

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We didn’t have any frost yesterday night, clouds arrived just in time so instead we had a rather warm night. Today however the temperature had fallen down to 3 C (37,4 F) and mostly we haven’t higher temperatures that just below 10 C (50 F). It dropped down even more when the first thunder approached.

We did manage to have a rather nice morning walk. It was pretty chilly and cloudy when we started, rather late for being us, and on the way home the sun showed it self and in the forest it became warm enough where the sun reached so that some flies started to annoying us. Just a few though but sometimes those can be even more annoying than if there were a whole bunch of them 🙂 🙂

It didn’t take long before we heard the first thunder lazily rumbling from a distance. It never came especially close but we did get the rain. It was too cold to be outside in the garden and after a while I became bored so I baked bread (turned out great and when it was done I let the heat out from the oven and it filled the cottage together with the smell of newly baked bread :-). I had just tasted the first slice when the second round of thunder arrived and this time we had both rain and lightning and with a bonus gift as well, hail 🙂 No damage from it thankfully.

I’ve gotten a couple of warnings from the lightning app later on but by then the sun finally showed itself again and it did at least feel warmer. I even put on two radiators to keep the cold humid air outside. I’ve already covered the most sensitive plants outside, the web sites doesn’t show that there’s a risk of frost but if it is 6C (42,8 F) here at 10 pm and we don’t have any clouds the temperature most likely will fall down below 0 C (32 F) before the sun rise the day after.

I must admit that this hanging pot hasn’t impressed me this year. It is now finally starting to grow in it.
The butterfly bush is so close to open its flowers, I do hope there are plenty of especially butterflies left to visit it, normally there should be.
I’ve started to cut down the Grape elder and cutting back the rose behind it. So many thorns 🙂 🙂
There’s a hint of orange in the dahlia flowers so I hope that if I save the seeds I’ll get more orange or perhaps even red flowers from them.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and since I don’t think there is any re-run on tv that I want to watch I’ll reed a book instead 🙂

Looking at the cat.

Have a great day!

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We had a rather chilly night and morning here as som of You know, 0 C (32 F) as coldest but no frost, they day itself was rather nice and warm though. if we don’t have clouds covering the sky tonight we’ll most likely have frost. That’s a bit early even for us, normally the first frost night happen around September 6 here.

This one didn’t look as if it would live much longer so I decided to check if there were any potatoes in the bucket.
I poured it out and immediately found a couple potatoes.
and the more I diggged the more I found.
So from just two small sprouts I got enough potatoes for three dinners 🙂 I have two more much bigger pots waiting to be emptied.

We had a really nice morning walk though, not a single fly but the dogs got caught by a few ticks, easily removed though since they were walking around on them to find a nice and cosy spot to bite them at. Alma had that annoying whine again and Malkolm decided he had to pull the leash almost all the way so I was a bit annoyed to be honest. I did see a Roe deer though but the dogs missed it thankfully 🙂

I brought out the two electric chain saws I own, both have been outside all the time but covered so no water has been able to reach them. I wanted to see if they still were working and they do but I did have to remove a lot of rust so the chain could move. So I went online to order new chains and that wasn’t easy 🙂 I can find both models without any problems but no places tells me what kind of chain I should buy. They’re giving lots of examples but only say that this chain works on most models 🙂 even on those that are too short or two long. I did find one that I think will fit on one of my saws and hope it does because I’ve ordered it 🙂 🙂

The first red toadstool for the year.
There she was and we looked at each other for a short while before the dogs and I started to walk back home again.
The Heather is in full bloom now.

My neighbours 5 year old daughter wanted to give me fresh eggs today, they had forgotten to check last afternoon so she wanted me to have two warm eggs and two cold ones since the older ones were cold today 🙂 🙂 So today the dogs and I had pancakes for dinner 🙂 Besides this I’ve done very little today. I did water all plants I want to be sure to have next year and I’ve moved a lots of potted plants close to the cottage south heading wall so that if it is a light frost it won’t hit them. Also I have covered that five small Pawpaw seedlings, the big dahlia and all the big citrus plants (and tea bush). Also I have now placed all the Lemonquats inside the cottage until next spring.

Last year when I brought in the orchids I, after a while, realised that small red ants (piss ants as we call them, the sting is truly nasty) had a little nest in one of them. One really doesn’t want those in the house so I had to put pesticides in the pot. I thought it might also kill the plant but it is still alive and well and I think the dead ants must have worked as fertiliser  🙂 I won’t have a last cup of anything this evening, I’ve been drinking so much coffee today that anything more caffein related will keep me up all night 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Last day with hot weather.

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I haven’t done much today to be honest, we had our morning walk and it was just slightly warmer than yesterday morning. That changed during the day though and it became so warm that the dogs preferred to stay indoors.

That will all change tomorrow though when the temperatures will stay below 20C (68F) and after that they’re guessing it only will reach 13 C (55,4 F) for two days but after that the temperatures will slowly, slowly rise again. Arctic winds will reach us for a while. They also guess we’ll have some rain but it’s hard to believe them when they’ve gotten it so wrong all summer long 🙂 🙂 The only rather boring thing is that when the rain finally starts to fall it usually continues for weeks.

Filled in a job application this morning, a staffing company is looking for a painter (well could be more than one but it didn’t say anything about that in the ad). Guess if I was surprised when they called me around noon to ask if I could come to an interview tomorrow afternoon. It did surprise me a lot, usually it takes at least a week before they check if anyone applied for a job 🙂 I don’t know what company it is that will hire a painter and I have no idea if it will be me they hire but it do feel good 🙂

Besides that the only thing I’ve done is to water the garden and done some shopping in the supermarket. I actually never wrote a list but it looks like I’ve got everything I wanted 🙂 That’s unusual even when I have written a list of what I want 🙂 🙂 I’ve only had one cup of tea today because I bought some coffee in the supermarket and I can’t drink coffee after 4 pm so I’ve already had it 🙂 I’m also out of bread so I might have to bake now or just be happy having a bowl with cornflakes 🙂

Most of the horses have already moved to another stable.

Have a great day!

A tad chilly in the morning.

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I always have the bedroom window open during summer, day and night unless it’s hot as h..l outside. I woke up during the night feeling rather cold but didn’t think more about it than pulling the blanket over me and having a dog sleeping closer to me 🙂 I checked the thermometer when we went down to the kitchen and it had been a tad chilly outside. It was 4,9 C (40,82 F) outside and as coldest it had been 3 C (37,4 F).

The sun has been shining all day though and the northern winds we’ve had went from chilly to rather nice during the day. Besides watering plants I really can’t remember what I’ve been doing 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yesterday I did start reading a book again and actually enjoyed it so much that I had to force myself to put it away. That hasn’t happened in a very long time, not since I was hit by covid and the brain refused to work as it should. I have been reading on and off anyway but sort of not enjoyed it.

Sometimes it’s hard to chose between keeping the orange sky but see the fog a bit less good or see the fog but losing the orange sky 🙂

Well I did dig up some potatoes and raw fried them in the oven and it was just as tasty as I remembered it 🙂 With them I had a few meatballs and sausages 🙂 Nothing fancy but really tasty 🙂 I’ve also been locking for a place for my last pear tree seedling but so far no luck. I have started to cut down the grape elder and the huge rose (it has a couple of English names so I chose Beach rose) living side by side. The wild form is seen as invasive and should be removed and that’s a tough job since those thorns are nasty. This one has been left alone for well over twenty years so it’s really tough to cut down. I’m pretty sure that job will take a year or so but otherwise that would have been a good spot.

I found some rust coloured mums the other day and realised that it’s now days the only colour I like on them 🙂 I’ve planted them in a new flowerbed because they might survive the winter here. They’ll look very different next year though because they’ll grow rather high and if they get the chance to flower it’ll be late in autumn I’ve heard.

I’ve already had my last cup of tea for the day so now I don’t know what to do 🙂 🙂 Well I can always have a bowl with cornflakes, I like to slice a banana in it and dust it with cinnamon plus the dogs will get a piece off banana each 🙂

I have the same problem with my Giant Sequoia seedling as the Pawpaws, mice seems to like eating them so I can’t have them in the cool cellar. This one should have been twice as big if it hadn’t been for the mice. So I’ll try and cover it during winter and hope for the best and I’ll have to do the same with the Pawpaws.

Have a great day!

So nice!

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Today has been pretty wonderful because the temperature fell down to 20 C (68 F), the sun has been shining all day and a slightly cool wind has blown all day long and with the exception on Monday when it will be hot again, this is what we’ll have 🙂 No rain though but a ten day prediction isn’t something that most likely will be right.

So every time they’re out hunting they put up this sign at the end of the road. We did have a “conversation” about what if we walk from the other side of the forest, why isn’t there a sign there too. It ended with them texting me every time they’re out (works mostly really good). This time of year they’re hunting wild hogs and for that we’re grateful. The only thing we really hate is when they for some reason hunts our foxes, they can’t sell the skin and they don’t eat it, our foxes eat so many rodents so we don’t have them in our homes instead.

Do You remember when I wrote about why my neighbours down the road moved instead of buying the place? It was because the seller suddenly, after agreeing on a price, rose the price considerable. So the new neighbours will move at the end of this month, because he did it again! Three different businesses have made the same valuation on the place and still he demands almost the double when it’s for sale! Greed of course but it really doesn’t work when people know the real value of the place 🙂 🙂 🙂

Yarrow, yarrow, yarrow. Everywhere I looked I saw yarrow and since they say ticks avoid it I’ll be happy to see it all 🙂

It was 8 C (46,4 F) when we went out on our morning walk. The hunting sign was up so this time we had to walk elsewhere. They had forgotten to text me but as long as the sign is up it’s ok. We still have lots of dew so both the dogs and I were soaked when we returned back home 🙂 🙂 Still no ticks on us so it was worth it 🙂 Also the entire way was covered in Yarrow so that could have helped :-)We went out after most of the morning mist had risen but in the shadowier places I still could see some and today was easy to see spider webs 🙂 There were so many more than what You see in the photos.

I noticed that despite a drought the water level in the creek was unusually high on one side of the road but, as You can see in the next photo, very low on the other side. Suddenly I heard a huge splash and realised the beavers are back again 🙂 Beavers have attacked people , for instance at a bust station in a bigger city, without we knowing why so I didn’t go any closer to check 🙂

I haven’t done much rest of the day, I baked s spongecake and put an apple in tiny bits and put them in the batter plus I also put some cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves in it, I wanted that gingerbread taste. I did one mistake though, I didn’t think of how much liquid the apple would give 🙂 🙂 🙂 So it had to stay in the oven two times longer, I did reduce the heat after 30 minutes otherwise I would have had a charcoal surface on it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Tastes Christmas but to be honest I can’t taste any apple in it 🙂 🙂

It was 28 C (82,4 F) Yesterday so the playing was at a minimum.
Malkolm decided eating all the strawberries were more fun while
Alma decided she wanted an apple instead.
After eating all the strawberries he went for the Sand cherries instead 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have a slice or two of that spongecake as well 🙂

My first tomatillo 🙂

The tomatoes are on the way as well 🙂

Have a great day!